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vgckwb · 5 years ago

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ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 18: Below the Surface!/Rocket

In the morning, Kim was getting ready to run. Max and Markov were monitoring him. “And go” Max said. Kim started doing laps.

Vlad noticed this and walked up to Max. “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Kim is training for a 5K this afternoon,” Markov said.

“Oh. Hi Markov” Vlad said.

“Hi Vlad” Markov replied.

“I hope this isn’t his first training session” Vlad said.

“Of course not” Max said. “We’re just doing some last minute prep. Kim wants to be on top of his game.”

“I hear that” Vlad said. Kim continued to run.

“And that’s 10!” Markov said. Kim stopped and started to catch his breath. Max came over and gave him some water. “By my calculations, you were going 3.5% faster than yesterday!”

“Thanks Markov” Kim said.

“So, what’s this 5K for, anyway?” Vlad asked.

“Have you not been paying attention?” Kim asked.

“Actually, he’s been more focused on the art exhibition and Marinette, as well as his upcoming interview with Nadja Chamack” Markov said.

Vlad glared at Markov. “Thanks Markov.”

“I get the feeling that you don’t trust me Vlad” Markov said.

“Well, it’s true” Vlad said. “I don’t trust people easily.”

“Max told me as much,” Markov said.

“I’m just not comfortable with people knowing too much about me before meeting me,” Vlad said.

“I can relate, actually!” Markov said.

“You can?” Vlad asked.

“Yes. See, when I was first shown to Max’s class, Ms. Mendeleiev just thought I was some toy” Markov recounted. “That I didn’t have emotions or I didn’t understand anything outside of what Max told me.”

“So, what happened?” Vlad asked.

Max grew nervous. “Well, um, you see-”

“It’s OK Max” Markov said. “I got Akumatized.”

Vlad was stunned. “Huh. I’m actually impressed. I’m sorry.”

“Impressed? Sorry? For what?” Markov asked.

“Well, I was just worried that you were just a cold, calculating machine who just gathers information” Vlad admitted. “But seeing that you have more volatile emotions, I realized I was wrong. You’re actually kind of cool. Just like Adrien said.”

“Huh. Apology accepted” Markov said. “But, if you don’t like people knowing too much about you, why are you OK with you knowing about people?”

Vlad smiled. “I only knew what Adrien told me. I’m fine with people knowing some stuff about me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do interviews or be a model.”

“Speaking of,” Max interjected, “are you prepared for your upcoming interview? I can help you, if you want.”

“I’d like that. Thanks Max” Vlad said.

“Can it wait until after the 5K?” Kim said.

“Of course” Vlad said. “You still haven’t answered my question, by the way.”

“Which was…..?” Kim said.

“What’s this 5K about?” Vlad asked again.

“Oh. Right” Kim said. “It’s a charity 5K. To help rebuild populations affected by severe weather. People can donate at the event. It’s really great actually. Ondine gave me the idea. We’re running together.”

“Well, you can count on me to be cheering you on” Vlad said.

“Thanks. I just hope that Jeremy isn’t too smug” Kim said.

“Jeremy?” Vlad asked.

“A frequent runner for charity 5Ks, and especially this one” Max explained. “He’s always obsessed with getting a good time.”

“At a charity 5K? That seems pretentious” Vlad said.

“Well, a little competition never hurt anyone,” Kim said. “It’s just he gets rude sometimes.”

“I see” Vlad said. “Well, we should get to class then.”

“Right” Kim said. The three teens headed to class, while Markov went to Max’s locker.

During break, Vlad came up to Marinette. He noticed she was really tired. “Hey Marinette. Did something happen last night?”

“No” Marinette said , yawning. “I just stayed up a bit too late working on ideas for the art exhibition.”

“Can I see them?” Vlad asked.

“NO!” Marinette, suddenly awake. “I mean, they aren’t ready yet.”

“Marinette, you need to relax” Alya said.

“I’ve been telling her that as well,” Vlad said. “I know. Kim is doing a charity 5K today. Come and watch that with me. It’ll put your mind at ease.”

Marinette yawned again. “I guess I could use a break. This all happened so suddenly.”

“Then it’s settled” Vlad said. “Meet you after school?”

“Sure” Marinette said.

“I’m in too” Alya said. “I’m pretty sure Nino would want to come as well.”

“The more the merrier” Vlad said.

After school, Vlad, Max, and Markov were waiting by the door. Marinette, Alya, and Nino joined them “Alright, let’s go” Vlad said.

“Where’s Kim?” Marinette asked.

“He left already. He’s getting ready at the starting line” Max said.

“Oh. Makes sense” Marinette said. “Let’s get to our spot then.” The six of them left.

At the 5K, Kim and Ondine were doing some stretches to warm up. “Thanks for doing this with me Kim.”

“Are you kidding? This is great. Thanks for inviting me” Kim said. The two of them giggled.

“Hey” said a man.

The couple turned to look at him. He was wearing the same white tank top and red shorts that all participants in the 5K were wearing, as well as blue sweatbands. He had medium length brown hair, hazel eyes a medium build, and serious look on his face. “Hello Jeremy” Kim said.

“If you’ve got time to giggle, you’ve got time to run” Jeremy said.

“We can do both” Ondine said.

“Yeah, we’re all here for the same reason,” Kim said.

Jeremy went back to stretching. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The group took their seats. “Hey guys” Adrien said, standing over them.

“ADRIEN?!” Marinette said.

“Oh, cool. What are you doing here?” Vlad said.

“My father helped plan and finance the 5K” Adrien said. “He’s also donating a lot of money for relief efforts. Unfortunately, he’s not here, but I wanted to show a public presence in his place.”

“Cool” Vlad said.

“What are you doing?” Adrien said.

“Kim is running in the race with Ondine” Alya said. “We’re here to support them.”

“Cool” Adrien said, taking a seat next to Marinette.

“So much for relaxation”Alya said, rolling her eyes. She, Nino, and Vlad giggled.

“It’s starting” Max said.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer said. “The 5K is just about to begin. Remember, you can donate all throughout the even at any of our tents.”

Kim was at the starting line next to Ondine and Jeremy. “Hey Jeremy” he said. “Good luck out there.”

“I don’t need your pity” Jeremy said. Kim was surprised and then frustrated. The race began.

“And they’re off” the announcer said. “This is the 5th charity 5K in as many weeks for Jeremy Gobel. All eyes are on him, as he attempts to set yet another record.”

“Well, not all eyes” Max said. “YOU CAN DO IT KIM!”

The 5K went on. Kim’s friends were all cheering for him. However, Marinette’s focus was divided between Adrien and the event. When the 5K reached the point where they were sitting, it was at a fever pitch. Kim and Jeremy were leading the pack, neck and neck. However, Kim tripped and fell onto of Jeremy, planting them both on the ground. The entire crowd went silent.

Ondine, who was not too far behind, caught up and picked Kim up. “Are you OK Kim?” Ondine said.

“Yeah” Kim said. He then gasped. Jeremy started getting up. Kim offered his hand to him. “Want some help?”

Jeremy was shocked, but then got angry again. He slapped Kim’s hand away. “I don’t need help. I need to win.” he said He got back up and started running. Kim and Ondine were surprised.

“I hope he’s OK” Alya said.

“Yeah, but that Jeremy guy was rather rude” Vlad said.

“Totally” Nino said.

“Kim was just trying to help” Max said. “But it is odd.”

Marinette was thinking intently. “I wonder why he did that?”

The 5K continued on. The crowd was speculating on the fall and Jeremy’s behavior afterward. Jeremy felt resentment from the crowd. “I don’t care. I need to keep going” he said. He sped up. “Gotta break that record.”

Jeremy reached the finish line. He checked his time. “14:37?!” he said. He was upset because his previous time was 14:34. He didn’t break his record.

Kim finished soon after. “Alright! 14:44. Not bad for falling down at one point.”

“YOU!” Jeremy said, angrily and walking up to him. “You cost me my record!”

Kim was surprised by this sudden vitriol. “I’m sorry” he said. “I didn’t mean it. But hey, you still did well.”

“That’s NOT the point!” Jeremy said. A camera was filming him now. “Because of you, my streak is ruined. Do you know my numbers have been attracting more attention to this charity?!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but we are working towards the same thing,” Kim said.

“You keep saying that, but you don’t know how untrue that is!” Jeremy screamed. He then noticed the camera.

“Uh, Jeremy,” Nadja said. “What do you have to say about your performance? Or your sudden outburst?”

“Get that camera out of my face!” Jeremy said, pushing the camera out of the way.

“How rude!” Markov said. “He should apologize to Kim and Nadja. They didn’t mean any harm.”

“I guess that’s what you get when all you care about is a high score” Nino said.

“I don’t know. He seemed upset about something more” Max said.

“I agree” Marinette said. “I’m going to go talk to him. I’ll meet you by Kim and Ondine.” Marinette ran off.

“Someone should go check on her” Vlad said. “I guess I’ll do it.” Vlad followed Marinette.

Jeremy found a place to sit down. He took out a picture, and was looking at it, frustrated.

Hawk Moth could sense the flurry of negativity within him. “A rising star with a short fuse who feels like he just lost everything” Hawk Moth monologued. “What perfect prey for my Akuma. Fly away little one, and evilize him.”

The Akuma flew to Jeremy and fused with the picture he was holding. “Hello, Rocket. I am Hawk Moth. Embarrassed? Ashamed? Frustrated? You should have beaten your time. With the powers I’m giving you, you can win any race. All I ask for in return is Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculous.”

“I’m going to run circles around them,” Jeremy said. He put the picture in one of his sweatbands, and a purple-black aura surrounded him.

Marinette caught up with Jeremy to catch him transforming. “Oh no!” She said. She ran away to find someplace to hide. She bumped into Vlad. “Vlad?”

“I came to check on you. Is everything alright?” Vlad asked. A strong gust of wind flowed as a blur moved quickly. “What was that?”

“An Akuma!” MArinete said. “Jeremy’s been Akumatized!” Vlad nodded. The two of them hid. “Tikki! Spots on!” Marinette transformed into Ladybug.

Vlad called out “Beyyo! Fangs Sharpen!” Vlad transformed into Judgement Wolf.

At the finish line, everyone one else was meeting Kim. Suddenly, Kim was pushed really hard to the ground by something fast. Kim sat up and turned to look at who pushed him. He looked like Jeremy, but he had red skin, his tank top, shorts, and shoes were white, and his sweatbands and hair were blue. “So, how does it feel to be pushed down? Humiliated in front of everyone?”

“Jeremy?” Kim asked.

“Jeremy’s not here. The name’s Rocket. And I want a rematch” Rocket said.

Kim stood up. “Well, you’re not getting one!” he said.

“That’s fine” Rocket said. He zipped to where Kim was. “I know I’d win anyway.” He then picked up Kim and ran off. A few seconds later he returned.

“WHAT DID YOU DO WITH KIM?!” Ondine screamed.

“Wanna find out?” Rocket asked. He picked her up and ran off with her, returning shortly after. “Anyone else?” Rocket asked.

“You have to return them!” Max called out.

“Max” Markov said, concerned.

“Not until I have my revenge!” Rocket said. “Perhaps you would like to join your friend.”

“Perhaps you would stop harassing people” Ladybug called out with Judgement Wolf.

“Heh” Rocket said. “Guess I found myself a new target.” Rocket rushed over. Ladybug jumped out of the way, while Judgement Wolf swung his sword to hit Rocket.

“Next time, watch where you’re going” Judgement Wolf said.

The crowd dispersed. Adrien found somewhere to hide. “Plagg! Claws out!” he called, transforming into Cat Noir. He jumped into the mix. “Sorry I’m late, but I don’t have this guy’s apparent speed.”

“Cat Noir! Good to see you” Ladybug said.

“I agree” Rocket said. “It makes it easier to get both of your miraculous for Hawk Moth.” He ran up to Cat Noir.

Cat Noir defended himself. “Sorry, but I’m not letting you close the distance. You’re just too fast, too furious for me.” Rocket backed up and rammed him, sending Cat Noir flying. Judgement Wolf slammed his sword down, but Rocket dodged it. Ladybug got back into the fight, and Cat Noir soon joined them.

Max and Markov were hiding close by. “Alright Max! I think it’s time to deploy my latest program!” Markov said.

“Are you sure?” Max said. “It’s dangerous out there.”

“I’ll be in and out. I promise I’ll be safe” Markov said, flying off. While the three heroes were battling Rocket, Markov snuck by and began his program. “Scanning Akuma Energy.” Markov scanned Rocket’s body at moments when he was standing still. Markov found that the most energy as concentrated in Rocket’s sweatband. “LADYBUG!” Markov called out. “I think his Akuma is tucked in his left sweatband!”

“Thanks, but you have to leave!” Ladybug said.

“Too late!” Rocket said. He ran to Markov, grabbed him, and took off.

“NO!” Ladybug said.

“MARKOV!” Max screamed.

“That guy has taken three people” Cat Noir said. “We need a Lucky Charm, and now!”

“Right. Lucky Charm!” Ladybug called out. She received a blanket. “This seems familiar. Got it. We need some help. I’ll be right back.”

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Rocket asked.

Cat Noir and Judgement Wolf stood in Rocket’s way. “Go Ladybug!” Cat Noir said.

“We can handle this guy!” Judgement Wolf said. Ladybug nodded and left.

Rocket charged at Ladybug, but Cat Noir got in his way and was flung back once more. Rocket was determined to get to Ladybug, but Judgement Wolf struck him with his sword. “You’ve still gotta deal with me, you know” he said.

“Wanna bet?” Rocket said. He rushed over to Judgement Wolf and then knocked him into the air. “That’ll buy me some time.” He then rushed in Ladybug’s direction. After he got far enough away, he stopped to look around. No sign of Ladybug in sight.

“We just missed her” Hawk Moth told Rocket. “No matter. She’ll come back soon enough. In the meantime, work on Cat Noir!”

“Yes Hawk Moth” Rocket said. He returned to the fight.

Marinette was hiding behind a building. “That was too close” Marinette said.

“We’ve gotta hurry” TIkki said.

“Right” Marinette said. Marinette ran to Master Fu’s parlor. “Master! I think I’ve been called here.”

“Very well. Although, we do need to talk about how this has been happening often recently” Master Fu said.

“We can talk about this later. We have to act quickly” Marinette said.

Master Fu nodded. He opened the Miracle Box. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, pick an ally you can trust to fight alongside you on this mission. Choose wisely; such powers are meant to serve the greater good. Once the mission is over you will retrieve the Miraculous from them.”

I’m going to need someone who can trip this guy up. “That’s it. I’m going to need the horse miraculous” Marinette said. Master Fu nodded.

Rocket returned to the scene. “Cat Noir! I’m not done playing with you yet!”

Cat Noir was woozy. He got up and saw Rocket. He wasn’t sure what to do. He then got a call. “Hello?”

“Hey Cat Noir” Judgement Wolf said from the other end.

“Where are you?” Cat Noir asked.

“About half a mile in the sky” Judgement Wolf said. Cat Noir looked up and confirmed it. “Listen, I have a plan. Can you lead him to where I’m going to land?”

“Sure. What are friends for?” Cat Noir said. They hung up. Cat Noir went to where Rocket was. “Hey buddy. Think you can catch me?” Cat Noir antagonized.

“Think? I know I can!” Rocket said. He started running towards him, but Cat Noir dodged.

“I’m guessing you don’t take turns well” Cat Noir said. Rocket tried again. “You know, you could upgrade to a V8 engine if you want.” Rocket kept trying to catch Cat Noir, but Cat Noir kept dodging right before Rocket started running every time, spewing out jokes all the while. “This is the point you take off your weighted clothing, right? I’ve seen snails move faster than that. I wonder how many steps have you taken to try and get me? You know you would make an excellent waiter with that speed.”

Max was hiding out, watching the events unfold. “Max” said a voice from behind him.

“AH! Oh, Ladybug” Max said. “You startled me.”

“Sorry” Ladybug said. “You want to help your friends right?”

Max nodded. “They’re in danger. I don’t want to sit by and do nothing. I’ve done some calculating. Rocket moves at 200 kilometers per second-”

“Max” Ladybug said. “Thanks for the information, but you can help more directly.” Max was confused. “Max Kante. Here is the miraculous of the horse, which grants you the power of space. You will use it for the greater good. Once the job is complete, you will return the miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”

“Yes Ladybug” Max said.

He opened the box to find a pair of glasses. Kaalki popped out. “Hello again Max,” she said.

“Hello again Kaalki” Max said.

“Do you remember what to do?” Kaalki said.

“Yes. Are you ready?” Max replied.

“Yes” Kaalki said.

“Then let’s go” Max said. “Kaalki! Shoes on!” He transformed into Pegasus.

Meanwhile, Judgement Wolf was just about to land. He called out “Reveal Claw! Where are you hiding your prisoners?!”

Cat Noir dodged once again. He noticed that Judgement Wold was just above him, so he decided to take his time. “Oh I get it! You’re called ‘Rocket’ because you’re supposed to be fast!”

Rocket rammed into Cat Noir, smashing him into a building. “Finally” Rocket said. He was then struck from above by Judgement Wolf’s Reveal Claw. He couldn’t help what he said next. “The Eiffel Tower, In Gustave Eiffel’s office.” Judgement Wolf smirked and then landed. “Why did I do that?” Rocket said.

“No lie can escape my Reveal Claw” Judgement Wolf said. “His victims are in the Eiffel Tower.”

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t catch me anyway! I’ll take all of Paris!” Rocket said, running off.

“How are we going to keep up with this guy?” Judgement Wolf said.

“Please tell me I don’t need to get hit anymore” Cat Noir said, trying to recover.

“We’ve got help” Ladybug said, standing next to Pegasus.

“Pegasus!” Cat Noir said.

“Pegasus?” Judgement Wolf said.

“Yes, it is I. Pegasus” Pegasus said. “And based on that information, I‘ve got a plan on how to get him to play by our rules. You three meet him at the Eiffel Tower, while I free everyone. The Ladybug can use her Lucky Charm to figure out phase two.”

“Great idea” Ladybug said.

“Let's go” Judgement Wolf said.

“So long as it doesn’t involve me being in a collision course” Cat Noir said. The three of them left.

Pegasus stayed behind. “Gallop!” he called out, opening a portal to Gustave Eiffel’s office. He walked through, keeping one foot on the other side.

“Pegasus!” Kim said.

“We’re so glad you’re here!” Markov said.

“Quickly! Step through!” Pegasus instructed. The three of them walked through. Rocket kept bringing people to the office, but Pegasus kept letting them out.

Rocket then saw the three heroes outside of the office. “You think I’ll let you save them?”

“Uh, you kind of already are” Ladybug said, pointing to Pegasus and his efforts.

Rocket looked and screamed “NO!” he then ran off.

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug called out quickly. “Fly paper?”

“We’re already in a sticky situation” Cat Noir said.

Ladybug looked down and saw the tower, then she looked at Pegasus. “Got it.”

Back at the other side of the portal, Kim was thanking Pegasus. However, Rocket showed up and grabbed Kim. “KIM!” Pegasus called out. Markov got question marks in his eyes.

Ladybug pulled Pegasus through to the office. “Pegasus! I have an idea, but we need to lure Rocket here.”

“Well let’s see if we can find where he’s taken Kim” Pegasus said.

Ladybug took out her yo-yo and scrambled to find footage. They found footage from the many different places where Rocket was taking Kim. Rocket was taking Kim to all sorts of locations and terrorizing him. At each point, Rocket would give parts of a speech. “So how does it feel to be helpless? To know that no matter what you do, nothing will come of it? No one can help you. Because that’s how I felt. When you pushed me down.”

“There! They’re at the Seine!” Pegasus said.

“You think you got a few more in you?” Ladybug said.

“Yes” Pegasus said. “Gallop!” A portal opened.

Rocket was throwing Kim across the Seine, and then ran to the other side to catch him. However, Pegasus’s portal opened between them, and he took Kim back to the office. Rocket was furious.

In the office, Ladybug exclaimed “Great! Now we just need to wait for him to return and then strike. You ready?”

“Yes” Pegasus said.

“Uh, I don’t think we’re going to be doing much waiting,” Kim said. He pointed to a blur heading toward the tower.

“Let’s get you to a better vantage point” Ladybug said, taking Pegasus outside to face the tower. She then went back to the tower to begin her plan.

Rocket started running up the tower. Pegasus studied this, and then knew where to strike. “Gallop!” he called. A portal opened to the side of the tower and Pegasus threw his horseshoe through it, knocking Rocket off. “That’s a ringer!”

Rocket started to fall. He then through to grab onto the tower. He reached for it, but just as he was about to slap his hand down, Ladybug swooped in and placed the flypaper down. Rocket was now stuck on the Eiffel Tower. “That oughta slow you down” Ladybug said.

“May I do the honors, M’Lady?” Cat Noir said, joining her.

“Of course” Ladybug said. Cat Noir fished around the left sweatband and pulled out the picture he tore it up, revealing the Akuma. “No more evildoing for you, little Akuma. Time to de-evilize!” Ladybug caught the Akuma. “Gotcha!”

Rocket transformed back into Jeremy and he slipped off of the flypaper. Judgement Wolf caught him. “It’s OK, I got you,” he said.

Ladybug picked up the flypaper and threw it up. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she called out. The magic ladybugs fixed all of the damage and returned Kim back to the finish line.

“Pound it!” said the heroes, after meeting up.

“I might not have been victorious today, Ladybug. But I’m racing toward my ultimate goal, and NOTHING CAN STOP ME!” Hawk Math called out.

Ladybug’s earrings, Judgement Wolf’s ring, and Pegasus’s glasses started beeping. “We’ve got to head out!” Ladybug said. “Cat Noir, can you make sure that this guy gets back to the 5K?”

“Sure thing Ladybug” Cat Noir aid. The three heroes about to transform left. Cat Noir picked up Jeremy and said. “I know you might be used to faster speeds at this point, but I get the job done.”

Once the other three were hidden, Pegasus asked “So, why does he get to know my secret?”

“I’ll explain” Judgement Wolf said. “It is the job of the wielder of the wolf miraculous to judge other miraculous user to see if they are worthy enough to wield them. Do you understand?”

Pegasus nodded and called “Kaalki! Shoes off!” and transformed back into Max.

Kaalki was floating around again and spotted Judgement Wolf. “I see” Kaalki said. “You want to be tested as well.”

“Well, yes. It’s intimidating, but if I pass, I know it’ll be worth it” Max said.

“So you don’t believe you’ll pass?” Judgement Wolf said.

“Well, this isn’t the kind of test I can study for” Max said. “I can’t guarantee the results.”

“Well, I’ve got your back” Kaalki said. She teleported behind his back and held it. “Literally.”

“Thanks Kaalki” Max said. He put the glasses back in the box and ran off. “Thanks Ladybug!”

Ladybug and Judgement Wolf de-transformed. “Aren’t you going to return that?” Vlad asked.

“That may take a while. I’ll do it later. C’mon, let’s check on Kim” Marinette said, running. Vlad followed.

Back at the finish line, everyone came up to Kim, Ondine, and Markov. “Are you guys alright?” Alya asked.

“Yeah, he didn’t mess you up too bad, did he?” Nino said.

“Relax. We’re fine. Ladybug, Cat Noir, Judgement Wolf, and Pegasus fixed everything.

“I was so worried when he took you” Ondine said.

“Same goes for you Markov” Max said.

“Right…” Markov said.

“Is something the matter?” Max asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Markov said.

“Hey” Jeremy said. Everyone turned to face him. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” Everyone was surprised. He pulled out the picture he had. “See, my brother lives in the Caribbean with his wife.” He showed the picture of everyone of his brother and his sister-in-law. “They were right in the path of one of the hurricanes. I haven’t been able to contact them since. I didn’t know what to do. I’m a good runner, so when I saw a charity 5K, I thought maybe I could try to draw attention to this by breaking records each time. Maybe I could help in my own way. But I acted like a jerk. I’m sorry.”

Kim approached him, put his hands on his shoulders and said “It’s OK. I get it. You wanted to help your brother. But that doesn’t make any of what I said a lie. I do want to help everyone affected. Including your brother.”

Max interjected “You know, Adrien’s father has ties to the charity. Maybe he could pull a few strings to see if your brother’s alright.”

“Sure” Adrien said. “We can go right now.”

Jeremy started crying. “You guys are helping after I treated you all poorly. I don’t deserve this kindness.”

Sure you do” Kim said. “Everyone does.” Jeremy looked up and smiled through the tears.

“Is everyone coming?” Adrien said.

“Uhh, I can’t. I’ve got an errand I need to run” Marinette said.

“And Max promised to help me with my upcoming interview” Vlad said.

Adrien was surprised. “Max, you know Vlad is just using that as an excuse to test you? He doesn’t need help on that front.”

“Oh, I know” Max said. “Why do you think I invited him? I plan on testing him as well.”

Vlad was impressed. “Oh. You ARE clever! I’m starting to like you already.”

“Well, we should get going” Max said. “Come along Markov.”

“Right” Markov said.

“We’ll come with you, dude” Nino said.

“Marinette, we’ll meet up later” Alya said.

“OK” Marinette said. Everyone left in different directions. Adrien, Nino, Alya, and Jeremy to see if Gabriel could help find Jeremy’s brother. Vlad, Max, and Markov to Max’s place to test each other. And Marinette to Master Fu’s to return the horse miraculous and discuss what to do, now that she’s starting to rely on more and more miraculous users.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #Marinette #Tikki #adrien #Vlad #Max #Kim #Ondine #Markov #Hawk Moth #Kaalki #Alya #Nino #Master Fu

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freshwater--mermaid · 6 years ago

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Ersatz Ch 23: They Don’t Know They’re Dead To Me

Danny woke suddenly to the sound of screaming. He barely had time to process this before his body hit the bed with a dull thud.

He grimaced, rubbing at his eyes as he rolled out of bed. Another bout of yelling woke him up fully, and he quickly unlocked his door, flinging it open.

He looked out into the hallways and instantly spotted his mother, standing in the doorway to Jazz's room. She held up a small ecto gun, pointing it inside.

"Get down, Jazz!" she yelled as she took aim.

She fired a single shot, causing Jazz to cry out.

"Mom, you're going to set my room on fire!" the teen protested from within.

Danny wanted to approach and see what his mother was shooting at, but the sight of the active ecto gun kept him rooted.

Jack came bounding up the stairs, holding a mostly-finished ecto rifle in his hands, its wires still exposed.

Maddie glanced toward him and frowned.

"Jack, you're not firing that in the house." she said. "It's far too strong; it'll singe through the walls!"

Jazz squealed out, and all attention was turned once more inside the room.

"Just get these things out of here!" Jazz shouted unhappily.

Danny guessed correctly that it had to be ghosts, and his thoughts turned briefly to Vlad's warning about increased activity.

Maddie dove into her daughter's room, firing off several times despite Jazz's protests.

Two small ghosts suddenly burst through the wall and sailed in random directions. They looked like animals of some kind, but their rapidly darting forms were hard to distinguish.

Maddie ran into the hallway and fired her gun repeatedly at the fleeing spectres, green beams arcing across the walls, fizzling out harmlessly against anything non-ghost they hit.

The two spirits streaked past Danny and Maddie's gun crossed over him as well, still firing.

With an unintended shout, Danny fell back from the doorway, barely dodging one of the stray blasts.

He could hear Maddie and Jacks' footsteps beat down the hall as they pursued their prey. He continued to lay upon the floor, unable to get back up.

That single, small beam of charged energy had conjured up far too-clear memories of pain and peeling skin. The bloom of sharp light, the burning and the sensation of falling. All of it crashed over Danny, and the teen could only lay there and hope his parents didn't come back.

Thankfully, as the minutes passed it seemed that the ghosts had tried to flee outside. Jack, of course, had preemptively set the shield, trapping the little spirits.

As he finally began to calm down, Danny sat up, pulling his knees up and resting his arms upon them. He raked a hand through his hair, frustrated and confused by his own actions. What had come over him?

Sure, the ecto gun would've stung, but it wasn't as powerful as the one that had blasted him out of the sky weeks ago. So why had he been so petrified moments ago?

Danny groaned in annoyance at himself. He couldn't afford to get jumpy around his parents; Maddie would undoubtedly pick up on it, and the last thing he needed was her attention.

Danny stood up, silence ringing out as the shooting ceased. Then Jack's boastful voice could be heard downstairs. They had definitely been successful in capturing the ghosts.

A lumbering gait thundered excitedly downstairs, while a second set of steps padded lightly back up to the second floor.

Danny turned and walked away from his open door as Maddie passed by, heading to Jazz's room.

Danny listened to the muffled conversation between mother and daughter as he looked out his window. The shield blinked out of existence as Jack shut it off, and it took Danny's eyes a moment to adjust to the black night sky.

A quiet knocking from behind beckoned Danny to turn, and he wasn't surprised to find his mom's concerned face looking at him.

"Danny, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, Mom." Danny answered casually.

Maddie paused for a moment, looking caught between thoughts before speaking again.

"I'm sorry I scared you, honey." she said, her voice almost as quiet as the silent house. "I guess I just wasn't thinking, and…the ecto gun can't hurt you, sweetie. You know that, right? I know that, but I suppose I…"

Maddie was at a loss for words, obviously trying very hard to assure Danny that she had meant him no harm. This at first alarmed Danny, as he wondered why she'd be so stressed over this unless she knew his secret.

And then it hit him, like a bolt from the sky.

More images from the past flickered across his mind. His mother. Not his mother anymore. Possessed by some unknown entity. The feel of her sharp nails as she dug her fingers into his hair, striking his head against the ground.

Stars danced across his vision briefly as he came back to the present. With a start, he stepped forward, coming to stand before Maddie.

"I wasn't scared," he insisted. "I was just caught off guard. Still half-asleep, and all…sorry for worrying you, Mom."

Maddie smiled at her son, moving forward, arms reaching out in the beginnings of a hug. Alarm bells sounded in Danny's head, and he quickly took two steps back, arms half-raised. He couldn't let her feel how cold he knew he was.

And like that, his words were undone. The smile was gone, and Maddie's face had drawn back up into a look of sadness and worry.

"Okay, honey…" Maddie said, her voice somehow even quieter. "Sorry this whole thing woke you up. Get back to sleep, sweetie."

With those parting words, she turned and went to join her husband in the lab, no doubt to observe their newly captured subjects.

Danny closed his door quietly and locked it. But instead of going back to sleep, he lifted off the ground cautiously and slowly flew out of his window, careful to remain invisible.

The freedom and solitude of roaming the dark skies of Amity Park helped ease the unwanted memories and thoughts from Danny's mind.

~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~*

Laughter echoed down the empty halls of Casper High, as the group of teenagers stood around a large table in the cafeteria. Various craft supplies littered the table's surface.

Nearly everyone present was engaged in conversation as they cut, glued, and folded paper into different Halloween themed decorations.

Two individuals, however, were completely silent, and Tucker's gaze swept between them both.

Danny looked completely absorbed in his own thoughts. The only reason he was attempting to cut out little ghosts from white paper is because Tucker had given him the task, hoping the inside joke would bring a smile to his friend's face.

No such luck. Danny had taken the supplies and got to work without comment.

Tucker looked to the opposite end of the table, where his other best friend stood. Unlike Danny, Sam wasn't absorbed in thought. She was instead absorbed in her own sour mood, brooding as she created a glitter-coated skeleton out of black paper.

Tucker sighed quietly at Sam's childish attitude. He supposed she was still stung over Dash's comments from the day before, and the fact that the very jock in question was now joking with Star as he made paper pumpkins was apparently salt in the wound for Sam.

Paulina had heard of Dash's mistreatment of Sam, and had very angrily talked the boy into helping out with decorations for the haunted house. She had invited Star along as well, and managed to convince the principal to let them borrow the cafeteria after school hours.

Tucker guessed that also contributed to Sam's mood. Paulina had managed to organise this entire get-together, while Sam had still been mulling over a theme to go with.

Tucker just hoped that she stopped sulking and lightened up, or Dash would soon give in and call her out on her attitude. That would not go well.

The teen looked down at his own little project, a vampire made from several glued-together pieces of paper. Tucker knew he wasn't that great an artist, but he was actually proud of how it was coming along.

"Wow, nice job, Tucker." Paulina commented from across him. She held up her own work; a cut out banner depicting little orange pumpkins.

"What do you think?" she asked with a beaming smile.

"Dang." Tucker replied. "That's really good! How'd you learn to do that?"

Paulina gave a flattered laugh at the obvious awe in Tucker's voice.

Tucker could feel Sam's glare burning into the side of his face as he listened to Paulina go on about her art class at her old school.

Tucker continued to ignore her stare as he got back to his own work. Just because she was angry over Dash and Star being there didn't meant that he was going to ignore everyone too.

Another hour flew by as the group, save two, continued to chat and show off their crafts. Dash was surprisingly amiable, but Tucker suspected it was mostly a front to impress Paulina, since the blond didn't talk directly to him, Sam or Danny.

Still, Tucker sure wasn't going to rock the boat. As long as the ol' Bone-Cruncher stayed docile, there'd be no issues.

Soon enough it was time to head home. Everyone gathered the finished decorations and piled them in front of Sam, like some kind of Halloween offering to their goth queen.

Tucker was happily surprised when Sam looked up and thanked everyone for helping out. Paulina grinned and hugged Sam before bouncing off with Dash and Star in tow.

Tucker walked over to his friend, who was looking down at the pile with a blank expression.

"Don't set it on fire." he smiled. "We worked hard on those."

"I'm not gonna torch them." Sam huffed, hands at her hips.

She gave Tucker the same odd look as the crafts, and Tucker was about to question it when Sam's eyes widened and she looked around the room.

"Hey, where's Danny?" she asked, already worried.

Tucker hadn't even noticed Danny's absence, and joined Sam in walking around the large room. As Sam moved toward the entrance, calling Danny's name, Tucker stepped over to the large windows.

"Sam," he immediately called. "He's over here."

The girl jogged to him as he walked toward the back door. Opening it, the two stepped out into the evening air and walked over to their lone friend, who was staring silently off toward the distant buildings that neighbored the school grounds.

"Hey, space cadet." Sam greeted, standing beside Danny. "What're you looking at?"

Danny didn't answer for a moment, but then raised a hand and pointed out toward where he was looking.

"There's ghosts flying around over there." he said. "They came close to the school earlier, bit I think they felt me here, because they left fast. They're still in the area, though."

"Really?" Sam asked, tense and on alert as her eyes swept the vicinity.

Tucker felt the same apprehension. They really didn't need another ghost attack. But one part of Danny's explanation grabbed Tucker's focus.

"What do you mean by 'they felt you here'?" he asked.

"Ghosts can sense-" both Danny and Sam began at the same time, only to stop short and blink at each other.

Sam shrugged sheepishly.

"Hey, I've been reading through tons of books on ghosts, remember?" she said.

"Yeah," Danny replied, looking surprised. "But who knew they'd actually get some of their information right."

"Not all of them are written by hacks." Sam countered with a frown. "Some of them have been very helpful, in fact."

Danny raised an eyebrow at her, and Tucker worried that he might insist on seeing the very book that Sam was obviously talking about. Tucker himself had only skimmed through the first chapter, but even that was full of enough theories that he doubted Danny would appreciate.

But Danny only turned his gaze back out, quiet once more.

"Okay guys, we should be heading home now." Tucker spoke up after several seconds of silence.

He turned back toward the door, only to groan at his own mistake. He'd forgotten to prop the door open, and thus had locked the three of them out of the building.

"What?" Sam asked, before realisation hit her as well.

"Great." she muttered. "Now how are we gonna get our stuff?"

"We can always come over early-" Tucker began to suggest.

Danny stepped between them, interrupting Tucker with a raised hand. Smiling, the teen then proceeded to stretch his arm out toward the door. As soon as his hand collided with the metal surface, it fell through, making it appear is if Danny's hand had been taken at the wrist.

His smile grew as Tucker smacked himself over the forehead.

"We're such idiots." Sam groaned.

"Yeah, kinda." Danny replied.

The others gave him annoyed looks, but couldn't help but share in the lifted mood, smiling as well. Despite Danny's increased weirdness, it was still easy to forget that he was actually a ghost, Tucker mused.

His thoughts and smile both froze as he saw Danny take Sam's hand before holding out his second for Tucker to take.

"Uh uh, no way." the boy protested, stepping back. "I said never again."

Danny gave Tucker an amused look before shrugging.

"Have it your way." he said, looking at Sam. "You ready?"

Sam nodded, doing her best not to look nervous.

Tucker watched as the two became translucent before Danny stepped through the school wall, pulling Sam in behind him. Tucker shivered at the memory of becoming intangible. The cold numbness and the inability to breathe greatly disturbed him. He wondered if that was how Danny felt all the time now. No wonder the kid was in a bad mood so often.

Standing alone at the back of the school was also not ideal, and Tucker cast his gaze around the empty area. Tiny dots of color caught his attention, and he squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look.

As Danny had said, small spirits could be seen flitting about around the distant buildings. Tucker was glad that most of said buildings were closed down old shops, otherwise people would surely be running around in a panic by now.

Danny appeared with Sam, fazing back through the building. Sam's arms were full of decorations while Danny held both his and Tuckers' bags. His attention focused immediately on the distant figures, and he held out Tucker's bag wordlessly.

Shrugging his own on, Danny began walking out across the grass toward the road. Sam called uselessly after him as she quickly folded up the papers and placed them within her backpack.

Tucker waited with her, watching Danny as he reached the sidewalk. Danny's posture didn't change much, and neither did his stride, but something had become off about him. It raised the hairs on the back of Tucker's neck, reminding him of that documentary Sam had made him watch once. A lioness had walked out toward a gathered group of zebra in much the same way. Like she was already calculating which angle was best to move in from, and which zebra looked like the optimal target.

Sam and Tucker jogged to catch up to their friend, and the little spots of color could be seen again further away, before once more turning invisible. Tucker wondered if they lacked the strength to go unseen for more than a few moments at a time. Sam's book had said something about smaller ghosts typically being weak.

As Danny neared them, they swirled rapidly through the air, shooting off and going invisible again. Danny responded by moving to stand behind a building, allowing his friends to catch up to him. He leaned against the brick wall, looking around for any potential pedestrians nearby.

"One of you look out there and tell me what you see." he said.

Both teens gave him matching odd looks, to which he shrugged.

"What? I don't want them to spot me." he reasoned.

"But they already sense you." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, but they don't know exactly where I am, or they'd have run by now."

Sam moved to the corner of the building, stepping out into the open and casually looking around. She could see a couple walking into a store farther down, but no ghosts.

"I think they might already be running." she said, turning back to the boys.

Danny frowned, looking down at the ground in concentration.

"They are moving." he said, "Come on."

He stood away from the wall and proceeded to walk at a normal pace down the pavement, friends in tow. And then suddenly he turned a sharp right, heading down a long, narrow alley.

"This way." he called over his shoulder, breaking into a light jog.

The small passageway seemed to go on forever, the light dim, and Tucker fought off claustrophobia as he followed after Danny. The boy was obviously sensing that the ghosts were getting closer, his steps picking up speed more and more.

Tucker really hoped that Danny would remember that they were in public, and wouldn't automatically leap onto the first ghost he saw.

Danny burst out into the daylight, halting so abruptly that Sam and Tucker ran right into him. They lay on the ground in a stunned pile before Sam began righting herself.

Tucker shot up as soon as she was off him. Laying over Danny was like being on top of an ice sculpture, and he quickly began rubbing the warmth back into his arms.

Danny picked himself up without comment, his eyes turned toward the road.

Two figures walked down the sidewalk in their direction, not noticing the looks they got from passerbys as they searched about.

"Just great." Danny muttered lowly, frowning heavily toward his parents.

They hadn't spotted the group yet, too focused on tracking down their quarry.

'Probably the same ones Danny's after.' Tucker thought.

For a moment he wondered if Danny would duck back into the alley to avoid them, but instead the pale boy just shoved his hands into his pockets and walked toward them.

Maddie spotted him quickly, her determined expression lifting into a bright smile.

"Hi, sweetheart." she greeted, propping her ecto rifle against her hip so she could wave at them.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Danny asked, an accusatory undertone lacing through his words.

Thankfully Maddie didn't pick up on it, and Jack wasn't listening to the conversation as he continued down the road.

"We found another cluster of ghosts near the house." Maddie answered. "We've been following them since, but they keep managing to slip away. By the way, you should be heading home; it's getting late."

"Actually, I was gonna stay over at Sam's." Danny replied. "We still have her haunted house thing to work on."

The quick lie appeased his mother somewhat, but Maddie still gave the three a disapproving frown.

"Then you should be heading to Sam's home. It's going to be dark soon and I don't want you out on the streets."

"Got it, Mom." Danny said.

He quickly stepped around her, keeping out of arm's reach, and continued down the sidewalk.

Tucker and Sam gave quick goodbyes to the Fenton parents as they followed Danny, who was looking toward another alley.

Upon reaching it, he ducked into the shadows, glancing back at the adults before turning to his friends.

"There right here somewhere." he whispered.

Tucker really wanted to suggest that they just leave and go to Sam's place, but he knew he wouldn't be able to convince Danny to drop the pursuit. And Sam was too busy being supportive to side with Tucker, despite how much she didn't like the whole ghost-eat-ghost thing.

The concept itself didn't scare Tucker. Heck, he ate meat all the time, and figured it was kinda the same thing.

But the way Danny had changed when he'd eaten that ghost in Sam's room. Not just his eyes but his expression as well. Now that had scared Tucker, as much as he hated to admit it.

Pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Danny quietly cheering. Tucker spotted the boy, Sam close behind, near the end of the alleyway.

Danny suddenly went invisible, causing Sam to jump back slightly. She stood completely still, eyes looking around for any sign of movement.

Both teens startled when a group of little ghosts flew up from behind a discarded pile of boxes and began flying around. They obviously wanted to stick close, and spun together in random directions.

Now that he could view them up close, Tucker realised that they looked like little rats, in shades of dim green and sickly yellow.

A bright stream erupted from nowhere, and the tiny spirits gave warped squeaks as they flew past Sam and Tucker, back toward the street.

One, however, became caught in the beam, and was quickly pulled into the thermos. A now visible Danny capped the device and shoved it down into his backpack.

An ecto gun firing sounded not a moment after, and the three ran out into the open to watch Jack and Maddie. The former was firing off his weapon at the fleeing ghosts, while Maddie had lowered her rifle to the ground and was taking aim with her own thermos.

She managed to capture the remaining ghosts in two shots as they fled about in a panicked circle.

She capped the thermos with a satisfied smile, Jack grinning as he ran up to her.

"That's my gal!" he exclaimed. "Did you kids see that?"

"Sure did, Mr F." Tucker smiled back.

"Danny, did you use your thermos?" Maddie asked her son, who stood at the back of the trio.

"Yeah, but I missed." Danny shrugged. "We should head to Sam's now. It's getting dark out, after all. Bye!"

Danny gave a short wave to his mom before turning on the spot and walking quickly down the street.

Tucker internally winced as he followed. The Fenton adults were certainly distracted by their catch, but Danny should've tried to not be so obvious. Then again, Danny had been pretty obvious about his ghost status since the beginning, in Tucker's opinion, and no one had found out yet.

'This city is full of morons, I guess.' he thought.

Danny practically ran the entire way to Sam's house, casting impatient glances over his shoulder occasionally at Sam and Tucker, who lagged a few paces behind.

He didn't wait for them to catch up before entering the large house, fishing out the thermos as he climbed the stairs.

"Man, Danny, are you starving or something?" Tucker asked as he and Sam entered her room, locking the door behind.

The question made Danny look up sharply at them from his spot in the middle of the room.

"What? No, it's just…these opportunities don't exactly come around that often." he said, throwing his bag into a corner.

"Maybe that's going to change." Sam suggested, staring at the thermos. "There seems to be more and more ghosts popping up."

Tucker silently agreed, but was surprised when Sam's words only seemed to make Danny nervous.

He quickly turned his attention back to the thermos in his hands, and the mood in the room became tense. Most of it was coming from Sam, who stood half-turned toward the door, frozen in mid-decision.

"Sam, you get grossed out just from watching Tucker eat a burger." Danny said, rolling his eyes at her. "You don't have to stay in here. I won't cry over it."

The last bit was said with a teasing smile, easing Sam into a more relaxed stance. She still looked unsure, but then took a deep breath and turned, leaving the room quietly.

Tucker bottled up the urge to follow her as he locked the door once more, walking across the room and sitting down on her bed.

Danny looked at him briefly before uncapping the thermos, letting the lid drop to the floor with a bounce. He was turned away from Tucker, so that the other boy couldn't see his face.

Tucker could see, however, that he held his shoulders tensely, still nervous like he'd been the first time. Maybe he too was aware of the change that overcame him? The manic way that he had moved and the look he had worn on his face?

Tucker had subconsciously been bracing himself, hands digging into the blankets beneath him, and he jumped when Danny spoke up.

"You know you don't have to stick around, either." Danny's voice came quiet and steady, offering no hint as to what he might be thinking. "It's not like you could do much if it got away."

Tucker cast about for a joking comeback to explain why he was remaining in the room. His mind drew a blank, with not even a serious reply available to him. Tucker honestly had no clue why he didn't just join Sam in whatever room she was surely pacing around in.

The silence stretched out awkwardly, hovering over them both until Danny finally accepted the non-answer.

Pressing his thumb over the release button, light streamed out momentarily, before vanishing as a small green shape manifested on the floor.

Without hesitation, Danny took advantage of its confusion, reaching down and grabbing the creature around its middle. It squeaked and struggled as Danny held it up to eye level. He watched it for a moment, eyebrows drawing together.

"Stop whining." Danny said, frowning in agitation at the rat's increasingly loud shrieks. "You could be on your way to my parents' lab right now. You're the lucky one."

#be honest does anyone actually read these? i post them here in case ppl dont go to ffnet or ao3 but maybe its a waste #not to mention im wayyyyy behind cause i hate tumblrs text boxes #danny phantom #ghost hunger #ersatz au #danny swinging in and out of being cold and cruel and then 'normal' again is fun to write #sorry for any mistakes i barely proofread this stuff cause i just hate tumblrs text sooo much

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andrewuttaro · 5 years ago

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New Look Sabres: GM 1 - PIT - Lies?

Do you feel lied to? I got to say I don’t feel lied to. I know we had a coach and GM who both sold us on the idea there would be competition for roster spots and here we are looking at an opening night roster that looks awfully similar to last season. Were we lied to? This is hazardous territory for an optimist. I risk coming across like I just defend the organization at every turn. Perhaps I am less prone to join the pity aboard the latest hashtag fire this guy bandwagon. At that point, I minus well just apply for an PR position. Admittedly I was late to the Fire Housley Party and history shows the earlier you hopped on that one the smarter you appear. I was proposing ways the Sabres could make the playoffs well into February last season. You could’ve argued the season was over in December or January even with the win streak. Life is just too full of truly awful shit for me to then turn to my favorite sports team and say: “You lied to me! You Suck!” Marco Scandella is a bad player but he’s also a douchebag in real life. I would love for him not to be on my favorite hockey team, but do I feel like dragging myself along the hot, sharp rocks of pessimism after spending my day trying to figure out why Congress has decided party over country is the new norm? No. You see, no matter how bad this Sabres team gets I am going to look at them optimistically. Yeah, I’ll sprinkle in both the realism and the pessimism a lot of days, but the base ingredient will always be optimism because why would I watch sports to be more miserable? You take sports too seriously and it just becomes another source of misery which is bad for the stuff that actually matters in your life.

That was a rant, but it was also a long way of saying I think we’re underestimating this roster. They can be 100% the same players as last year and still be good. There are too many variables in this game to insist results will be the same; especially with a new coach. That’s leaving out the fact that although the win streak was a statistical anomaly on par with the first of the Meg, it doesn’t happen unless you got the horses to do it in the first place. Spoiler Alert: The Meg gets skewered by Jason Statham at the end. The same happened to the first half beast of the Buffalo Sabres last season. Even as the skewering was occurring last year we beat a Penguins team, which by the way also looks strikingly similar to last year’s club minus Phil Kessel, wait for it… twice! The Sabres beat the Pens twice last year including once when Pittsburgh was gunning for a playoff spot. Tonight was the first night of what I think will be a surprisingly good Sabres season. Here is a fact: the Buffalo Sabres had not won a season opener since the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season. Tonight they hung a 3-1 multi-goal loss on the Pittsburgh Penguins not only winning their season opener; but taking advantage of an opposing team very much not having a good night. That alone is a beautiful if it is a sign of things to come.

There is so much I could say about just being thankful for a great Sabres broadcast crew, new 50th Anniversary promos and throwback highlights but I said I don’t want to look like a Kool-aid drinker. The only big lie tonight was me casting dispersions that I’m anything other than a big old sucker for this club. They were fun from the word go in this first game! Five minutes in the Pens gave up a defensive zone turnover and Casey Mittelstadt turned the play around. He maneuvered the puck to Conor Sheary who sniped one past Matt Murray to put the visitors up 1-0! I thought I was seeing things that first period as Buffalo skated circles around the home team. There were more chances too. The yet untitled Olofsson-Eichel-Reinhart line looked dangerous. They looked dangerous and repeatedly connected on passes you can’t imagine will not lead to goals much longer. This game was also breakaway after breakaway. Apparently Kris Letang and the Pens defense has not been the same brick wall of old; it seemed like every time you turned around a fourth liner was taking a one-on-one shot with the goalie. Of course the first couple times it was Girgensons and Okposo so of course no conversion. In the third Olofsson got a similar opportunity and almost sunk it but we’ll get there.

Something happened in the second period that was very on narrative for Sabres twitter of the last several days since Training Camp ended: a Sobotka flub. Our old pal Vlad put his glove on the puck and gave Pittsburgh their first powerplay opportunity of the game. I would tell you this was evidence of the lie of the coaching staff we talked about earlier, but Jason Botterill backed up his guy in a pregame interview making it very clear the philosophy of this team is veterans first. To call the roster competition promise a lie is misleading, it was always about the veterans whether we knew it or not. I’m not pleased about it either but hopefully these incidents on the ice teach them a lesson. Evgeni Malkin did that task scoring an equalizer on the resulting powerplay. When you concede a goal to the Pens, especially an equalizer you have to be careful not to let the game get away from you. Luckily tonight the Sabres did just that and although the counterattack surely came, the defense held up. Namely Henri Jokiharju’s regular season Sabres debut showed his potential. He can get pucks out of the zone... AND he wins puck battles. This defensive depth was effective and fun tonight but geez the time on ice still reeked of a decade of futility. I would say I don’t know who will take all these defensive minutes once Ristolainen is inevitably traded but that’d be stupid: there’s at least 4 guys just on that side of the defense who can take those minutes. The Sabres survived the Pens and even started to dominate. Casey and Conor connected on the powerplay this time with a little over five minutes left in the second. I nearly dropped my Hard Cider: Sheary got a rebound and redirected it around Murray like he was doing some kind of Jeff Skinner impression. Retaking the lead was fun but what happened in the last minute of that middle frame was downright arousing.

Rasmus Dahlin scored a dangle goal that will surely be in this season’s highlight pack next Spring. Sam Reinhart and our Swedish wonder-boy skated into the zone on another surprising breakaway and passed it. Dahlin deked, dangled and put it top shelf. Samson was still going in hard thinking he’d have a rebound to tap in. No sir, this was just a grade-A certified beauty. Going into the second intermission I fought off the feelings this could be a rout. You figure the Stanley Cup caliber counterattack the Pens were known for would show up. It just never came. The breakaways just kept coming and now the big names were starting to get them. Victor Olofsson bounced one off the post! Albeit no Sabre scored on a breakaway in one of the most breakaway heavy games I’ve seen in a while. As the minutes dragged on it became more and more real. Then one soft penalty gave the Pens one last shot. Fans had booed them and were filing out of the building and… they didn’t capitalize. The Sabres took care of business and won this game 3-1 in regulation. I’m sure we’re in for several games this team loses against inferior competition this season but it’s nice to hope this could be the standard for the coming months. Let’s jut enjoy this. Conor Sheary scored his fifth goal against his former club and his second multi-goal game against them! Real Penguin killer, eh? This was the first Sabre season-opening win since the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season when Brian Flynn and Steve Ott were on this team. It was the first win in a coaching debut since 1997! That last stat is a little irrelevant, but I thought Krueger deserved some love after the hell we’ve been given him. When the Sabres lost in a shutout in the season opener last year I said I never take first games of the season too seriously. I’ll hold any declarative statements for another day but gee, this game gave me hope!

All of the 50th anniversary stuff on the broadcast got me thinking: I ought to do something special for this season. So here’s my idea: every divisional game this season, the first being next Wednesday against Montreal, I ask all you guys what was the most significant game the Sabres played against them. I think it could be fun to look back on some history. I’ll be at the home opener on Saturday and the Fan Fest starting at 5 beforehand. Shoot me a DM, drop a comment here or send a carrier pigeon to me if you want to meet up. If you are even remotely inclined to do such a thing you should also drop a like and share this blog around. This postgame stuff happens after every single Sabres game if you’re new here. Sometimes I can’t get it done same night but always before the next game. I hope you enjoyed what you got tonight. I can’t wait to see where this goes! Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. For the record, that Season Preview I did for Southtowns Tickets was submitted before the final roster and paper moves. The collective angst of Sabres twitter hadn’t blown up to DEFCON 4 at that point; it was more of a dull roar when I wrote that article.

#buffalo sabres #nhl #hockey #blog #pittsburgh penguins

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balshumetsbaragouin · 8 years ago

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Beloved: Chapter Four

Summary:

Music, transformations, and attachments...

His Name is Daniel

Vlad finished up the last of his business calls and glanced at the clock on his study desk. Barely after 8am, and it already feels like it’s time for bed. He stretched in muted fatigue before standing from behind the furniture piece and heading for the door. He’d promised to only be a few minutes, and more importantly after the melting scare a couple hours back, he didn’t want to leave the clone alone for too long. So even though he could find more work to do, the CEO of Dalvco headed back towards the colorfully decorated room the clone was likely still bouncing off the walls in. He passed a few painting on the way, and it reminded him of the amazing improvements the young child had made in barely a three day period. It gave him a few ideas. If I can expose him to some more of the arts, I wonder if he’d pick up on them as easily and quickly as he has drawing? He mused while walking back to the clone’s room. It was only a few doors down from his own set of rooms, for ease of access. He paused in front of his bedroom door, thinking about a collection of books and music he could test his theories about the clone with. Vlad frowned thoughtfully before plunging into the bedroom after the needed items.

This is great! Everything is so bright and soft, and it’s so quiet I can hear…what is that? D27 thought while wandering over to the set of bay windows overlooking the western side of the mansion.

Outside was a large Elm tree. Its strong interwoven branches were bursting with the golden wreaths of dying leaves. On the branches closest to the balcony, in a small blue jays’ nest still intact from the summer nesting season, was a chubby bird calling into the mild fall air.

D27 gasped as he caught sight of the lapis creature set against the bright yellow background of the elm leaves. He backed away slowly, not wanting to spook the bird when it was making such an inviting picture. The remainder of his sketch supplies were just on the table in the middle of the room, and the image the bird was presenting was too good to miss. He tip-toed back to the window, determined to memorize every detail so that he could re-make it on the paper in his hands. He pressed himself as close to the glass as he would dare, breath frosting the cooler windows as he absorbed every detail of the scene with his mind’s eye. There was no way the bird wouldn’t fly off before he could draw it, so it was best to memorize now.

Vlad leaned against the door frame of the room, amused beyond reason at the clone’s antics. Between his exaggerated attempts at stealth, and his childish wonder, silently watching D27 reminded him of all the reasons he’d wanted children in the first place. He wavered between interrupting the clone, he did want to test a few theories, and just watching him work, it was rather entertaining after all. In the end, his greater curiosity about the learning ability of the clone won over the entertainment value of watching him sneak around the room. “D27?” the older man called.

He turned away from the chirping creature just outside the window when he heard his Daddy call. D27 smiled over from his position at the window before glancing back towards the bird’s nest. “Shush Daddy, you’ll scare it.” He replied from his perch by the balcony doors.

“Oh?” Vlad asked while crossing the room to stand next to the engrossed child. The blue jay called louder through the window; drawing his attention. He couldn’t stop the small smile working its way across his face at the sight of the bird’s nest. He glanced down at the boy practically pressing his face against the glass in excitement. A warm tingle Vlad recognized as affection spread through his chest. Just then, an idea hit him and the older halfa reached forward and turned the handle for the balcony windows. “Come on. Why don’t we get a closer look?” He offered while stepping onto the balcony proper.

“Buh, Daddy, it’ll fly away.” D27 grabbed onto the cuff of his jacket and tugged gently, not wanting frighten the bird.

“Oh no he won’t, this bird is very friendly.” Vlad replied, walking closer to the edge of the balcony. He remembered the animal living in the nest very well. It was practically hand feed by his staff, all of them thinking it was adorable since it was a chick. The result was, the blue jay was very people friendly, so he was sure it wouldn’t so much as budge. Well it would if we offered it food. He sauntered up to the edge, right next to the molded white railing and guided the clone out from behind him. Just as he supposed, the bird hadn’t done much but chirp and look in their direction, too convinced another large feeding was on the way.

Eyes wide and breath short, D27 stood on the tips of his toes, just a few feet from the little blue bird he’d been watching from the other side of the window. He felt a wide smile split his face from ear to ear, growing more excited every second the bird didn’t fly away. Suddenly, he remembered the sketch pad in his hands, and the reason for walking this close flashed into the front of his mind. Gingerly, he retreated from his spot right next to the railing, just far enough away to be able to use his black sketch maker. After getting the paper into the proper position, he tiptoed back to the railing, placing his paper on top of it for stability. D27 held his breath as started the first strokes for the rough drawing of the bird. As he leaned against the railing, he didn’t notice his hands phasing out of tangibility…

Leaning against the railing a few feet from the clone, Vlad was enjoying the fast warming autumn air. While he had wanted to see how fast the clone could absorb entirely new types of information, just watching him draw was suddenly more appealing. He passed D27 a side-long glance when he felt a small amount of ghost energy coming from his direction. The clone’s core still turned on at seemingly random times, so sensing even a small amount of energy was always surprising. The elder hybrid caught the sight of his hands disappearing through the railing at the last moment. “D27!” He cried. Vlad watched as the clone looked towards him, startled by his call just before his hands slipped through the rails and he flipped over the edge of the balcony.

Vlad only had a few tenths of a second to respond and catch him before he slammed into ground below. His reaction was instantaneous. Transforming, and teleporting only a wire thin moment afterwards, he reappeared just inches under D27, with just a split second to grasp him before crashing into the deck below himself.

The majority of the energy had been absorbed by Vlad’s body or turned into sound. The hardwood floor of the deck dented and cracked slightly with the impact, depressing a few inches lower, the wood otherwise intact.

He wasn’t sure what had happened. One minute he’d been standing on the edge of the balcony sketching the pretty blue bird and the next, he was looking up at the sky, strong arms holding him tightly. D27 heard a sigh from behind him, and he wriggled around to see who was holding him. “Daddy?”

That had been too close for comfort. While a fall from this height wouldn’t have killed the clone, he would have definitely been hurt. That would have pushed his core to make more energy to replace the amount being used to heal him, and that would have likely resulted in another melting episode, and Vlad had dealt with enough of those for one day. Never mind the thought that D27 could get hurt was sending tendrils of terror streaking through his core, he wasn’t ready to confront his growing affection as of yet. Vlad shifted the clone away from his chest when he heard him say his name. “D27, are you alright?”

“I think so.” He responded head swiveling around to take in his new surroundings. “What happen?”

“What happened is you fell off of the balcony.” Vlad explained while standing from the dent in his deck. “Your hands turned intangible, and you flipped right over the edge. Luckily, I caught you, and are you sure you’re fine?” He held the D27 out at arm length giving him a once over. He doesn’t even appear to be bruised…which is more than what I can say for my back.

“I’m sure Daddy.” D27 answered while attempting to wiggle his way back to the ground below. He smiled and bounced off a few feet when his feet touched the decks’ surface, trying to get a good look at where he had fallen. He leaned back, just getting sight of the railing where the balcony was when he heard his Daddy groan. “Are you ok?” He piped up worriedly, watching his Daddy rubbing circles along the lower part of his back.

“Just fine D27,” Vlad started suppressing another groan, “but maybe we should go back inside?” Where there are chairs I can rest my sore back in for one…He transformed back into human form before stalking over to the foyer doors leading to the deck. The billionaire passed an expectant glance over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold, beckoning the young clone back inside.

With only a small look spared for the colorful inviting view outside, D27 rushed back inside after his Daddy. He felt a little squiggle of butterflies in his tummy. He hadn’t been to this part of the house before; in fact he rarely left the upstairs section or the lab, other than that one time he’d wandered off. Little D walked up to his Daddy and reached up and grasped his larger hand. “Where are we?” he asked eyes darting to and fro; taking in the new décor of every space.

“The western part of the mansion. I don’t think you’ve been down here before…” and now that I think about it, the nearest drawing room with comfortable chairs is way too far away for my taste. Vlad realized as a tug drew him to a stop. “What is it?” And can’t it wait until after we find a chair?

“What’s in there?” He carefully pointed to the only room they’d passed so far that was closed. It wasn’t an uncommon sight, most of the rooms upstairs had closed doors if he remembered correctly, but since they hadn’t passed any closed doors before, this one had piqued his interest.

“Oh? I believe that’s my video-audio repository; it’s where- hold on a moment!”

Too excited to really wait for an answer, what’s a video-audio repository anyway? , D27 rushed over to the door and turned the handle. He was rewarded with a soft squeak as the well oiled hinges of the door worked to open it. He nearly raced inside; he didn’t get to explore much of anything often, and stopped dead in the center of the room. On one wall facing directly ahead was an enormous bookcase, or it seemed similar to one in his opinion. Instead of books, like there were in his Daddy’s study, it was covered in a combination of thick and slim black rectangles. It also was much larger than any bookcase he’d ever seen, reaching from ceiling, way taller than even his Daddy, to the floor. Intrigued, D27 stalked forward to peer at the items sitting on the shelf. He reached forward and grabbed one of the shiny black things on the bookcase. “What’s it?”

“Articulate,” Vlad noted with a slight roll of his eyes. “That is a case for a DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes and the like.”

“Yeah, but what’s it?” D27 repeated. I know what a bookshelf is Daddy…Sometimes his Daddy acted like he was still a baby.

“I-Oh, they hold recordings, you do know what recordings are right,” Vlad paused until after the clone nodded, “of music and movies, pictures and sound. You know it would be much easier to explain things to you if you were more specific.” He gazed down at the very inattentive looking boy rummaging through the cases in front of him.

“So if they have moosac and stuff inside them, how do you get it out?” He picked up a slim black container and shook it up and down, hoping it would do something.

“Music, D27, and you have to place the item inside something that can read the disk.” The older halfa reached down and plucked the case from the clone’s hands. He opened the CD case with a click and placed the shiny golden disk into the boy’s hand. “Now this is a recording of music, Vivaldi to be precise. You can play CDs in a multitude of devices, but in this case, if you’d like to listen to it, you can put it inside the multimedia player over there.” Vlad turned and pointed to a series of speakers to the left of the large shelf. “Now there’s more th-wait a second!” Before he could even finish his sentence, the easily excitable child had rushed across the room, CD in hand. Oh why did I even bother asking him to slow down? He caught up with the rambunctious clone just as he was trying to shove the CD unceremoniously into the player in the wrong slot. “Stop that.” He commanded in a moderately stern tone. The last thing he needed the boy to do was break an expensive piece of equipment.

D27 did as he was asked before turning to look up in his Daddy’s direction. “I thought you said it went in the player thingy.” He really wanted to hear some music, whatever that is, and the player wouldn’t work.

“It does,” Vlad held up his hand before the boy could make more protests, “but just not in that section. It plays more than one type of disk, and you are currently trying to shove it in the section for DVDs, which is why it keeps spitting it back out. Now,” he quickly grabbed the CD out of the younger halfa’s hand before he could get anymore half-formed ideas, “this goes in here, and then it’ll play the first recorded song.”

The CD disappeared into the proper slot and came to life only moments after it was placed inside. The first singing notes of Spring filled the room as the violin strings played through the opening stanzas.

It had to be the prettiest thing he’d ever heard in his entire life. Prettier than the sunset last night looked, prettier than the sound of the bird I was going to sketch a little bit ago, prettier than…than…um anything ever. He concluded after the first phrase repeated itself softer than the start of the song. “That’s bootiful!” D27 muttered in an awe filled voice.

“Beautiful,” Vlad corrected gently before starting to hum along, “and yes I agree. However,” Vlad watched as D27’s playful attempts at dancing on beat paused as the CD changed songs, “there are more than just CDs here. In fact, I think you’d enjoy movies much more.”

“What’s a movie?” D27 asked face scrunched up in confusion.

Vlad smiled as he guided the younger halfa to another shelf of media. “I think it would be much easier to show you.” He leaned over to the boy’s level before saying, “why don’t you pick one out?”

“But there are so many!” D27’s wide eyes swept over the section of the case with the movies in indecision. He wanted his first movie to be a good one.

“Just pick one from the children’s section and come along. We aren’t even supposed to be doing this; I wanted to go over some things with you before lunch.” Vlad glanced down at his watch, noting that it was nearly 10am. We’ve wasted over an hour between this and the balcony antics earlier. If we don’t hurry, I’ll end up having to take some business calls.

D27 stuck out his tongue as he pondered over his selection. He couldn’t tell what they were about just by reading the titles, but he didn’t have time to read the backs! With another moment spared for wavering between two titles, he scoped up the case with the picture of a dog and cat on the front and rushed for the door.

“Well hold on a minute; we don’t have to go that quickly.” The older halfa protested after the clone made for the exit at lightning speed. And now I know why parents have small children on leashes in public. He thought with wry amusement.

A few minutes and much chasing later, the two of them were back to Little D’s new bedroom; Vlad vowing to invent a halfa proof leash or some other kind of restraint, running through walls indeed, and D27 continuing to excitedly bounce around the still novel area.

“Alright! Sugar cookies child; would you please sit still for just a moment?”

He immediately stopped bouncing on the bed and flopped to the floor in front of it, the picture of serious attentiveness. His sudden demeanor change from hyperactive to the hallmark of staid almost inspired laughter from his father.

Well if I had known it was that easy…Vlad shook his head and finally took a look at the video the clone had chosen. “Ah Disney, an excellent choice.” Or so everyone under 12 who visits seems to think. He couldn’t suppress the warm smile working its way across his face at the boy’s delighted grin and added effort at sitting still. He looked over the case once more and found that other than the prominent Disney label, there was nothing remotely familiar about the contents. Though I suppose that’s not too surprising. He concluded after a moment before looking back up at D27.

His formerly controlled wiggles were becoming full-fledged bounces once again. Come on Daddy…I want to watch the movie…

The older halfa decided to spare the child any more waiting. “Now I’m going to put this in, so you might want to sit over there…” Vlad trailed off as Little D shot up like a rocket from his spot in front of the bed in favor the one he suggested closer to the television coming from behind a panel in the wall. “Yes well,” he quickly recovered, “just watch the screen.” Without further ado, he placed the DVD into the player and walked over to a nice spot behind D27 where he could watch both the movie and the clone in peace.

All of the little boy’s impatient movement ceased as soon as the screen came to life. He’d never seen light and sound like the stuff flowing across the television, and between the colorful moving pictures and the delightful music he was totally hooked.

The opening credits had an entirely different effect on the person standing behind D27. From the first cloying notes of the movie, Vlad suddenly recalled why he hated Disney movies. Terrible music set to childish cartoons. He rolled his eyes as the “unfortunate” main character cat was rained on in his abandoned box to the point of being washed away. Just then, he felt his cell phone vibrate. Cynthia…suppose she would be in by now.” He pressed his lips into a hard line in indecision before glancing over at the room’s other occupant. Utterly engrossed. He concluded after only a moment. I’m sure he won’t miss me one bit. Vlad justified already half-way to the door.

He really couldn’t believe it. This was way better than CDs. Daddy was right. Of course his is, because he knows everything. The orange cat on the screen, Oliver he remembered, ran into a white dog that sang. Best thing ever. He thought as the song concluded and the colorful assortment of moving pictures changed to a building by the water.

D27 jumped up excitedly from the floor when the movie ended. He just had to watch it again. He stood in front of the television for a few moments before realizing he had no idea how to work it. The little clone felt a frown come across his face as he pondered the puzzle of getting the movie to play again before turning around to just ask Daddy to do it for him. He’s probably just waiting for me to ask anyway. D27 blinked as he took in the empty room.

He hadn’t been expecting that. Sure his Daddy was busy, but he had promised to…Well not exactly. He promised to be right back, and he was. He never said he would stay. All the same, sometimes he wished he was the most important thing on his Daddy’s busy list of things to do. D27 frowned as he took one last look at the empty room before coming to a decision. He’d just go find his Daddy and ask him how to fix the movie thing himself. With his plan of attack in mind, he stomped away from his new bedroom determined to find his father and make him pay attention long enough to answer his question. From his experience, holding his attention was a challenge in and of itself.

Half way to where he was sure his Daddy’s study had to be, he’d searched three different directions already, he spotted something interesting. D27 had passed by more than one open door on the way to his destination, and he’d seen rooms like this before, honestly they all looked the same to him, but this time what it held was actually more intriguing than his personal mission to track down his father. Is that, the um, music making thing from the movie? D27 walked into the room staring at the large black object on the far wall. He skipped up to the bench in front of it and peered over the top at the keys. After a few moments of inspection, a large grin split his face from ear to ear. He started to clamber to the top of the bench when he suddenly stopped and nervously glanced back at the open door. Well, I know I’m not supposed to touch stuff without asking, but it won’t hurt it just to play with it a little. He banished the worries of getting in trouble from his mind, and finished climbing to the top of the bench.

D27 took a moment to steady himself on the large cool bench, before reaching out as far as he could and resting his hands on the white and black keys. He gingerly pressed down on a white key, only to jump back with a sound came from the instrument in front of him. Now even more excited, he began trying random keys all over the place wherever he could reach. He giggled when he hit two keys that created some dissonance. “This is so fun! Hm, I wonder if I…”

“So you’re telling me, that once you actually got into the nuts and bolts of the acquisition they completely made an about face? Just what did they think we were agreeing to? Being best friends forever?” Vlad paused as Cynthia on the other side responded. “Well I hope you told them we’d be going through with the buy out whether their board liked it or not. We already have a controlling interest in the company, this was just a formality. Mmm, yes! Of course I know this won’t be the best for the new, less overtly aggressive, image we were trying to cultivate, but I don’t care! I’ve played nice with Axiom as long as I care to, now do-Jumping Juniper Berry Muffins! - Oh not you Cynthia, it’s just, could I call you back? I need to take care of something,” Vlad said while standing up stiffly from his chair behind his study desk. Another loud cacophonous clang came from somewhere in the house, as he pushed in the chair and walked briskly towards the door. “What? No, I promise I’ll call you, it should only take a minute or two, but it needs my full attention. Thanks.” He frowned as the sounds only picked up in regularity.

Shutting the door behind him, Vlad stalked out of his study and towards the increasingly loud and unbearably dissonant sounds. His mouth quirked into a thin line as he stood, finally, in front of the room where the noise was originating. The clamor was nearly deafening to his sensitive ghost hearing, and he had one guess who was the cause of it. “D27,” Vlad said before he’d even set foot inside the room, “stop that this instant!”

D27 gasped from his spot on the bench in front of the piano. “Daddy?” He’d been having so much fun; he’d forgotten all about finding him in the first place.

“That piano is rather expensive, and you banging on it like that is going to throw it out of tune.” He responded, an angry glower having settled upon his features. He watched as the clone shrunk on the bench in front of the grand piano, the boy’s face a mixture of sadness and frustration. Just as quickly as his anger had come, it left. It wasn’t the clone’s fault he got easily distracted and wandered off, nor that he didn’t know how to actually treat an expensive piece like that Steinway B. With a sigh, he released the last of his anger and asked, “What were you trying to play?”

“Um…” He hadn’t been trying to play anything! Well nothing specific anyway, he’d just been hitting keys. He fidgeted under his Daddy’s expectant gaze before shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, would you like to learn how to play something?” Vlad offered with a small smile on his face. He slipped besides the antsy clone and breezily settled his hands onto the keys. It had been a while since he’d played anything, but rusty or not, he was still good enough to give the boy a quick lesson. And finally test that theory about how fast he learns…

“I’d lo-oh you know how to play Daddy?” D27 switched words mid-sentence, from accepting the offer to asking a question.

“I do. I learned when I was a child, as many children do, and played for several years before I left for college.” Vlad experimentally played a few chords, warming up his hands. “I stopped playing after that though, after I got fully settled into my major of choice, there wasn’t much time for more artistic pursuits. Though, I suppose I didn’t make time for it.” By the time he’d finished his little spiel he had the clone’s full attention.

“Good. Now, I really should give you an explanation of the notes and their names, along with keys and scales.” Vlad rolled his eyes as the young boy sitting next to him made a face. “We could do without, but then you could run the risk of making more noise than music, like that banging from before.”

“You didn’t like my music?” D27 managed a doe eyed pout before switching to a particularly grumpy frown. He had liked it after all.

“Ah, no, what I meant was, wouldn’t you like to learn to play one of the songs you’ve heard before instead of making something up?”

D27 thought it over, before nodding once and sending a calm attentive look in his Daddy’s direction.

“How about something simple then? Row, row, row your boat is easy enough, and it’ll allow me to explain some very basic concepts. Take this key for example, “Vlad paused to gesture to a white key near the very center of the piano. “This note is called “middle ‘c’ ”. It’s near the middle of most keyboards and all pianos, as the name would suggest. To the right of it is the note ‘d’ and next to that ‘e’. The octave, from one ‘c’ to another in this case, though necessarily eight notes by design, is ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’.” Vlad looked down at an increasingly squirming D27. So impatient. I hope he grows out of that, if not I’ll have to get rid of that trait myself. Vlad mentally grumbled before continuing with the lesson. “Now that that basic lesson is through, I can teach you to pay a simple tune.”

“What are the black keys for?”

“Oh well, we’ll get to those later-”

“But I wanna know now!”

“Alright, don’t start whining. So, those keys are called accidentals. They are half steps, half-tones, between the parts of the piano, the notes, a full tone apart.” Well that’s not exactly right, but close enough. “If you notice, between ‘e’ and ‘f’ and ‘b’ and ‘c’ there are no black keys. That’s because they are already only a half-tone apart. Now, that is all we are going to talk about those keys for the moment.” When D27 looked ready to protest, Vlad interrupted, “wouldn’t you rather learn to play something instead? In fact, right before this you were complaining about learning anything at all, other than a song that is.”

At the prospect of actually learning a song, the young clone decided against saying anything else. Well, I guess I can always ask more questions later. He rationalized.

When he was sure D27 wouldn’t say more, the older halfa guided the boy’s right hand and placed it over his own. “So I’m going to play the first part of the song and say the notes’ names as I go along. Pay attention, because I don’t want you to learn just from the muscle memory alone, and it’ll help your sight reading in the future to know the names of the notes.”

A few minutes later, the clone had mastered a hand full of beginner songs. He had begun to work in his left hand, when they had predictably run into a problem. The boy was having trouble using both hands at once, since it required moving them at different times.

“This is impossible!” D27 slid his hands from the keys and pouted. He hadn’t expected it to be so hard. It’s even harder than trying to turn into a ghost… At least then he was sure he was doing the right thing; now he was sure it was all wrong. He turned to look up at his impromptu teacher, sure that he’d be sporting a look of disapproval similar to the one from yesterday.

In fact, Vlad was only entertained by the boy’s melodramatics. “Is it? Well how about we test that theory?” He asked with a slowly growing smile. He easily combined with the melody with the simple chords played by his left hand, and sent a look in D27’s direction. “You know, very little worth doing is easy to do. I know most things come quickly and with little effort for you, but I can promise that the best things in your life will take effort to achieve.” He moved his hands from the keys and gestured to his student. “Why don’t you try again?” Vlad watched as the clone reluctantly set his little fingers back to the task of playing, a look of pure focus on his face.

D27’s nose scrunched up every timed he hit a wrong note, or missed the proper timing, but he continued to try. After a couple more minutes the song was nearly flawless. “I think I almost get it.”

“Indeed.” His teacher responded with a nod of encouragement.

“Hey Daddy?” the younger halfa stopped playing the song and looked back up at Vlad. “How many songs do you know?”

“Quite a few, off hand, I’d estimate-”

“Do you know this one?” D27 interrupted to hum the starting stanzas to one of the songs he’d heard in the movie. It was his favorite, and even better, it was played on the piano.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that one.” It sounds like some ghastly pop monstrosity. Where in the world would he have-”

“It was in the movie I picked. I was hoping…” D27 trailed off, getting discouraged by the look on his Daddy’s face.

“Well…” Vlad stopped his objections cold after seeing the child’s crestfallen facial expression. “I might not know it yet, but like you I’m a fast learner. Why don’t you sing it for me, and I’ll play the melody? You remember what the ‘melody’ is right?” It can’t be too difficult, and if it would make the boy stop that Danish-filled pouting…

“Yes!” D27 replied with enthusiasm snapping back into his voice and demeanor.

You and me together we'll be Forever you'll see We two can be good company You and me Yes, together we two Together, that's you Forever with me We'll always be good company You and me…

Vlad picked up the melody with ease and a few seconds after that began to improvise the left hand.

“No! That’s not right, it goes like this.” The clone interrupted and started humming the rest of the song.

“Ah, my mistake.” He chuckled and changed his left hand to the new set of repeating notes the clone was humming. D27’s face lit up, now much more satisfied with how it sounded.

“That’s almost perfect, um, but I think I did the melody wrong though.”

“That’s quite alright. This is more than enough to work with.” Vlad stated with a sly smile.

“Work with?” the confused child asked.

“Yes, listen.” After finishing the last refrain, he began to add notes to the melody, creating a twirling counter melody to the piece. At the same time he intensified the complexity of the chords and the depth. Before long, the room was ringing with a more symphonic version of the song. Without evening meaning to, Vlad got drawn into the music and the art of improved composition.

D27 happily sung along with what he still recognized of the melody until he lost track and got swept away into the music. Finally, his Daddy began to re-simplify the music until it was back to the original tones of the song.

You and me together we'll be, forever you'll see, we'll always be good company the clone started again. You and me , Vlad joined, just wait and see they finished together with the last twinkling notes of the song.

“Play it again!” D27 insisted with an eager grin.

“I-” before he could finish responding, the clock in the hall chimed out the hour. “Good heavens, how did it get so late?” He wondered worriedly. He was supposed to call Cynthia back over an hour ago. Well there goes the claim of calling my secretary ‘right back’. Vlad sighed and stood from in front of the Steinway. “I’m afraid we’ve wasted enough time here. At this point it would be better to wait until after lunch to call my office back, but until then, there’s something I wanted to show you.” If we can ever get around to it.

“But, I wanted to learn more music…” the young child grumbled while sending a dissatisfied frown in his father’s direction.

“Some other time D27, as at the moment, we have something better to do.”

“But-”

“No ‘buts’. The piano will be here later, and there are several more in the house other than this one. We can continue this at another time.”

D27 slid from the bench in front of the piano, and rushed over to his Daddy to tug at the hem of his shirt. “Daddy-”

“Blast it D27-”

“Please…” he practically begged with extra large eyes.

“Listen, I promised we’ll play more after lunch, but now-”

“Cross your heart, super promise right?”

Vlad let out a frustrated sigh. And sometimes I wish he was still too small to talk. At least then he didn’t complain and whine, even if I had to change diapers. “Cross my heart,” he said with an ‘x’ gesture over his chest. “We will play more later; I’ll even find you a real instructor. Now,” the elder halfa started while picking up and placing the clone onto his hip so he couldn’t either drag his feet or run away. “We’re going back to your room. I have some books I want you to read before it gets any later in the day.”

“Ok, but Daddy?” D27 wiggled so he could look back up at his father.

The weary businessman resisted the urge to snap at the small child. “Yes?” So many fudging questions…

“If you aren’t going to teach me, could I learn something else?”

“Something else…could you clarify?”

“Yeah, like a different music maker.” The piano was very pretty, at least when his Daddy played it, but he just didn’t feel like he was going to get it. Maybe there was another type of music thing he could play better.

“Instrument you mean,” Vlad absently corrected. He turned over the idea in his head a moment before responding, “I don’t see why not, but I didn’t think you were interested in anything else.” Not to mention you haven’t seen or heard any other type of instrument.

“I wanna learn to play the spring.”

“What?” Even though the clone was highly developed in some respects, he was still reminded of his lack of real life experience at seemingly random times. “D27, spring isn’t an instrument it’s a season.” Vlad stopped in front of the boy’s new bedroom and shifted the ever wiggling child into a more comfortable position.

“But you said that it was!” Honestly, sometimes I think Daddy just likes to confuse me. He mentally griped. “That’s what you said made the music on the shiny circle.”

“D27 that was the name of the song. It was played on string instruments, the violin actually.”

“Oh…well I want to play that.” He wiggled, finally, out of his Daddy’s hold and promptly ran over to the bed. He remembered how bouncy they were.

“I’m sure that can be arranged. Now stop bouncing on the mattress,” before I need to replace it, “and come over here.” Vlad chided, trying to decide between going over to stop him and organizing the variety of materials he’d grabbed from his personal library before their trip over the balcony railing.

He stopped jumping on the bed, using the final bounce to hop to the floor, before rushing over to the table, curious over its contents. “What’s it?”

Vlad mentally rolled his eyes over the choice of phrase before responding. “This is a volume of British poetry; though I’d rather you start with some American history. This particular book is about the revolutionary war against the British Empire. Here,” Vlad said while handing him a book that was closer to a door-stop than light reading. “Start with this; we’ll move on after you get some background done.”

It was more than an hour after lunch before he’d finally gotten back into contact with his secretary. She had worked through lunch and solidified the acquisition, much to the increasingly verbalized displeasure of the former board of directors. Morons. As if they could actually do anything about it. I have a controlling interest in the company’s stocks. If they had been paying any attention this would have never happened. Still I’m glad this is out of the way. Now I can focus more energy into my ghostly pursuits, and D27. He stretched and stood from behind his desk in his study. He’d set the clone down for a nap after lunch, and despite the fact he’d like more peace and quiet after the hectic morning; he had a feeling the boy would be awake again soon. Would it kill him to keep more normal sleeping hours?

Vlad winced as soon as the thought had crossed his mind. The clone’s abnormal sleep schedule was mostly his fault. He’d never even tried to get it on a schedule. The growth acceleration, the needed monitoring, and interventions made the idea initially seem like a waste of effort. Now though, he was wishing he’d at least attempted it, because was really was ready for a nap after all the work and worry over the last day or so especially. Well maybe they’ll be some luck, and he’ll still be asleep. The older halfa severely doubted it, but positive thinking wouldn’t hurt anything. Happy thoughts of peacefully napping clones in mind, the man started back to D27’s bedroom from his study. He arrived to find the boy already awake, and reading a tome of a book on Middle Ages art. “You’re awake?” Vlad noted blearily. So much for those happy thoughts…

D27 smiled up from his position in the middle of the room. “I told you I wasn’t sleepy Daddy…” He looked back into the book sitting on his lap, and flipped the page.

“You did,” his father started with a touch of confusion in his tone. Children his age sleep much more than this, and with how fast he’s growing; he should be exhausted. I’ll have to look into it… He was nearly sure it was some minor quirk, but he wanted to be absolutely certain. At the moment though, it could wait. “What are you reading?” Vlad asked while taking a peek at the contents of the book.

“Learning about the changes in subject matter in Middle Age art as it turned into the Renaissance.” He replied distracted by the pictures used as examples inside the book.

“Oh, and do you know when the Middle Ages supposedly turned into the Renaissance?”

“Um, they haven’t said yet, not a single date or anything, but I like the realism movement more than the impressionist movement that started after.” He suddenly commented.

“I thought you were reading about the Middle Ages?” The older halfa questioned the seeming non-sequitur.

“Well, I am now, but I read about the impressionists and the formation of cubism before this. I think I’m going backwards.” D27 set down his current book and pointed out two others. “I did like the mil-terry history of the United States though, but the Crusades and um ‘Age of Colonialism’ was more interesting because there were more places to read about.”

His father raised an eyebrow at the number of books he had supposedly consumed. “You read all this in the last 3 hours?”

“It gets faster to read the longer I do it.” the boy wiggled the art book in his lap into a more comfortable position, and continued reading.

Vlad was content to silently watch for several minutes as the scientist in him was fascinated by the clone’s extraordinary pace. His ordinary reading speed rivals mine when I’m speed reading. That’s incredible considering yesterday he was toddling through children’s chapter books. The boy’s results far exceeded his expectations, and if his retention was as high as the conversation suggested…I might need to start actively planning his learning schedule to make sure he’s being consistently challenged. Vlad was just starting a preliminary outline of a learning plan when he once again sensed the clone’s core activate.

This time was different, stronger. It was enough to snap him out of his thoughts and make him eye the boy cautiously. The last time it had activated, trip off the balcony notwithstanding, when he’d been around; the clone had tried to melt. “D27, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah…” he answered absently, distracted by an especially beautiful fresco rendering in some place called “The Sistine Chapel.”

“Are you sure?” Vlad asked again when he felt the energy coming from the boy increase sharply. He was about to tell the Maddie AI to bring up D27’s vitals when the boy’s energy hit a new high and less than a second later there was a flash of bright light. He froze in anticipation as familiar white rings began to travel the length of the younger halfa’s body. The elder halfa held his breath as they made it to shoulder and knee level, but then petered out.

D27 blinked several times as the light finally cleared from his vision. He looked up, startled and watery eyed, at his Daddy. It hadn’t hurt, but it had been very unexpected. Most of all, he’d felt different and he’d had no control over the change.

Vlad rushed over to the clone, having already called up the input from the Nanites. “Maddie, are you certain these readings are accurate?” He asked while holding an ever more upset D27.

“Affirmative lovekins, the clone is still fully stable. The outpouring of energy hasn’t harmed him, and the readings indicate the build-up of more.”

“Shush, D27, you’re fine.” The elder halfa soothed while paging through the floating windows of holographic data hovering in front of him. From what he could tell, the boy’s core had just spontaneously triggered. In fact, it was similar to how his own had just suddenly fully turn on after a few months in the hospital, at least if he was reading the data correctly. And that was rather surprising, since not even a full day before the boy had been incapable of transforming, even while consciously working at it. He flipped back to the first screen and watched with apprehension as his spectral energy levels rose further. Finally, he concluded it was a normal, and more importantly safe, occurrence before eventually looking down at the calmer clone in his lap. “D27, how would you like to try to transform again?”

“I don’t know…” he remembered how demanding and hard it had been. Specifically, he remembered his Daddy had said he wasn’t able to do it yet. “You sure I can really do it this time?” He didn’t want to tire himself out. The green eating stuff, that Daddy said wasn’t actually eating him, came back when he did that. He definitely was sure he didn’t want that to ever happen again.

“Absolutely positive. How about this? I’ll transform too, at the same time.” Vlad offered as he watched the boy’s energy begin to spike once more. He was sure it wouldn’t obscure his readings, since he’d long ago calibrated the majority of his instruments to filter out his spectral signature.

“Um…” he thought about it for a few seconds as a weird feeling he hadn’t noticed before started up inside him.

“It’ll be fine I promise. Now, you remember how to transform?”

“Yes Daddy.” D27 responded, unsure now that the feeling had gotten impossible to ignore. It was like something cold pushing inside him.

“Ok, so I want you to give it a try on the count of three.” The older halfa eyed the screen as the energies reached the levels it had the last time he’d almost spontaneously transformed. “One…two…three!” Vlad counted off, and hoped he was right about the spike being harmless.

D27 closed his eyes and reached for the cool part inside him once more. This time, it was much easier, and all of a sudden there was a rush of cool energy all over. It felt like it lasted forever, but like it ended all too soon. He opened his eyes, just as the flashes of black and white light were fading. Something’s wrong! The young child thought with gradually growing panic. Everything felt different and weird, and just plain new. “Daddy…” he called tentatively.

Vlad for his part had been joyously taking in the clone’s ghost form. It was a perfect match for Daniel, except for being much younger.

When his Daddy didn’t respond, D27 really started to get distressed. Before he knew it, panicky tears were spilling down his cheeks.

“D27, it’s ok!” Vlad gasped when he caught the scared look on the boy’s face. “You’re fine; you did it!” He stood up with the clone in his arms and spun them both once. “You transformed D27; you did it!” He repeated with an ever-growing grin on his face. His own excitement seemed to calm the boy down, and after another happy spin, the young child began to smile. Then he laughed, and before Vlad knew it, so was he. He wasn’t just happy because of what it meant for his own accomplishments; he was overjoyed almost for the sake of being so. It was like he could feel D27’s own exhilaration as well.

“I really did it Daddy?” D27 questioned with another giggle.

“See for yourself…” Vlad responded while floating over to the mirror on the dresser. He watched with warm affection as the boy took in his new appearance with growing pride. Suddenly, Skulker’s words came back to him. D27 really is an awful name. “So my boy, I was thinking…” Vlad waited until he had the c- my son’s- excited, but full attention. “D27 is a rather unusual name, and I was thinking you’d perhaps like another.” When the boy didn’t respond, Vlad continued, “how’s Daniel sound?”

D27 blinked a few times as he thought it over, and then smiled and nodded.

“Well then, Daniel it is.”

#Danny Phantom #Danny Phantom Fanfiction #Phandom #Beloved #Balshumet's Baragouin #Balshumet's Fanfiction #Chapter Four

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