Chapter Text
“No, ” Danny replied, scowling.
“Why not?” his mom asked, leaning forward on the table and continuing to hound him in lieu of eating her breakfast.
“Well, my arm for one, thing,” Danny reminded bitingly. “I can’t play football one-handed.”
“You needn’t do any catching while you recover,” Vlad said helpfully as he cut a symmetrical bite from his omelet. “There are plenty of things you can practice in the meantime.”
Danny could hardly believe his bad luck. Just when he thought things might be turning in his favor, of course, Vlad had to pull something like this. Sure, his mom had suggested it, but it had Vlad written all over it.
Even with this unexpected setback, he was still feeling somewhat optimistic.
He had once again been up extremely late, waiting to ensure everyone was asleep so that he could venture into Vlad's study again and retrieve his phone. It had, of course, died over the course of recording, and while he was still waiting for it to charge enough to look at the video, he was feeling pretty confident about it.
He had also felt much more confident wandering around the mansion thanks to his mom. She had no idea what a huge gift she had given him last night. He nearly broke down in laughter, hardly able to believe his luck, when he finally figured out what scanners she had been talking about and why she thought she'd seen him.
She hadn't. She had seen Vlad.
Wandering the halls after everyone had gone to bed, Danny spotted them; little discs placed at the corners of the ceilings in the hallways that he knew to be his mother's. They used to be scattered all over the house in Amity, but she had apparently brought them with her. They were effective and he'd nearly gotten into trouble by them on a few occasions a few months ago, at least until Tucker had gotten his hands on them. To these scanners, Phantom was invisible. He had no idea how, but Tucker--the absolute genius--had worked his tech magic to make the scanners ignore him. He didn't even register on them anymore.
But Vlad did.
No wonder Vlad didn't have anything monitoring him! He couldn't. If he wanted to hide any kind of surveillance equipment discreetly, like in a wall or something, he would need to be intangible to retrieve it. And he couldn't just leave cameras up in the bedrooms or other private places; that would also draw suspicion. His mom had, unknowingly, cornered Vlad into leaving Danny an opening.
So that night, he had confidently snuck into Vlad's study, relishing in the knowledge that if Vlad wanted to see what he was doing and didn't want Maddie to know about it, it would have to be in human form.
It was a massive advantage and Danny had woken up almost giddy with the revelation, despite the long night with virtually no sleep. The only thing that would make the day better was if his phone had managed to capture Vlad's password. He might have been able to check it this morning if Vlad hadn’t stopped by way too early to grade his homework for the third time. Vlad had complimented him on his progress before locking him back in the closet for another hour and half, only retrieving him for breakfast.
If he had known it was going to be an ambush, he would’ve stayed in the closet.
“I think it would be good for you to get out and be active,” Maddie encouraged. “And like we talked about, it would look good for resumes or scholarships.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to,” Danny said adamantly.
“That’s exactly why I think you should,” Maddie replied, gently but firmly.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Danny complained, throwing up a hand exasperatedly. “Is that your way of saying I don’t get a choice?”
“Danny, sometimes I have to make decisions that I think are going to be better for you in the long run that might not be what you want in the short term,” she explained carefully, but Danny saw her glance Vlad's way.
Vlad's approving, encouraging look was all Danny needed for confirmation.
“So... no,” Danny groused, flopping back into his chair sulkily.
“I think it will be good for you,” she reiterated, smiling sympathetically at him.
Danny scowled, wanting to at least ask for it to be anyone but Vlad, but he knew better than to make that kind of request. At best, she wouldn’t wonder why Danny would ask that and Vlad only punished him a little bit; at worst, she questioned him about it and Vlad still punished him but much worse.
He inhaled sharply, reminding himself to be patient. He did not want to spend the day with Vlad, but Danny Fenton couldn’t risk making his mom suspicious.
That had to be left to Danny Phantom.
“Fine,” he snapped.
Maddie smiled at him sunnily, finally taking a bite of her breakfast. “I really do think you’ll have more fun than you think you will.”
“I really, really doubt it,” Danny grumbled.
Vlad looked overjoyed as he escorted Danny outside, leaving Maddie alone in the mansion to handle some legal work she had waiting for her. Danny sulkily let Vlad steer him to a garage tucked away on the side of the manor. He drove out a second later with a golf cart and patted the seat next to him.
“She’s not watching. We can fly, you know,” Danny pointed out bitterly.
“One can never be too careful,” Vlad replied dismissively, again patting the seat.
Danny turned away, masking the tiny smirk that threatened to break through his sulky demeanor. He couldn't help but briefly bask in the idea that Vlad felt paranoid about his mom.
“Besides, a little drive can be quite refreshing.”
“Not if you’re there,” Danny bit, plopping into the seat and slouching and cradling his left arm.
Vlad elbowed him gently.
“Oh, come on, Little Badger. Lighten up a little. This can be a nice day if you choose for it to be.”
“Glad to know I get to choose my mood at least.”
Vlad simply shrugged him off, driving the golf cart down the gravel path towards the back end of the estate. It looked different in the daytime and even bigger from ground level.
He hated driving.
It took them almost ten excruciating minutes before they finally drove up to the edge of the football field. Danny was a little surprised that Vlad actually meant football. To be honest, he had been trying not to worry he would be spending the day in Vlad’s lab. The last thing he had expected was to actually play.
Vlad parked the cart next to a big building that sat just on the edge of the field and beckoned Danny to follow him inside.
Vlad didn’t just have a football field. He had a fully stocked locker room, too. With plenty of lockers, showers, benches, and gear to supply a full team.
Danny explored a little bit, opening a locker and finding a full set of padding and apparel. He pulled at one of the shirts to look at it and barked out a laugh so loud and sudden that Vlad whirled to look at him.
“Were you going to tell the Packers where you hid all their stuff?” Danny jabbed, laughing a little more.
Vlad glared at him from under impatient eyelids.
He opened up another locker and found the same setup. The padding even had the names of players on them.
“Wait, is this actually their stuff? Oh my god, are you holding the Packers hostage?!” Danny exclaimed, sandwiching his cheek between his unconstrained palm in feigned alarm.
“Go outside,” Vlad demanded, eyes narrowing on him severely.
Danny rolled his eyes, but didn’t press it anymore, heading outside and waiting for Vlad on one of the benches. He removed his left arm from his sling and did a few of the exercises the doctor suggested while he waited, noting that, while it still hurt to move it, it did feel like it was getting better. He was a little surprised by that; he didn't really think Vlad would honor his word.
He wondered how long it would be before he didn’t have to wear the sling anymore. The doctor had said it would be about a month, but Vlad probably shortened that time thanks to… whatever it was he had done. Or rather, had undone.
Or maybe he was just getting better naturally and didn't remember how long or short that was supposed to take.
Danny decided he'd rather give the credit to nature either way.
Vlad came out a short time later, but only brought a football and a handful of black material. He thought it might be a girdle.
“You worried you’re going to throw out your back?” Danny asked him snarkily.
Vlad stopped in front him, handing over the material. “This is for you. It’s an immobilizer for your arm. You’re going to want to have that on if you don’t want to exacerbate your injury,” Vlad told him.
“I could just transform,” Danny suggested as he took the material and unfolded it.
Vlad shook his head. “No transforming. We have two options for games to play today, Daniel, and since you’re wanting to make some decisions, I shall leave the choice to you.”
“Okay…” Danny replied warily, carefully maneuvering his arm into the immobilizer. The biggest strap wrapped around his chest, the other over his shoulder, and then a third strap locked his wrist in place at the chest, preventing much movement at all.
“We can play full contact or no contact. Which would you prefer?”
“Oh,” Danny said in surprise, having expected the options to be more heinous.
Still, he considered each carefully. It didn't seem to make much of a difference other than that one option involved tackling, but he wasn't sure how Vlad planned to pull that off without hurting him on accident. It was possible that was Vlad's intent, but that didn't make a lot of sense to him. Danny reasoned Vlad getting permission to spend one on one time with Danny like this, alone, was ideal for him. He couldn't really see what the angle was in offering the option at all.
Even so, the idea of getting to tackle or hit Vlad at all was enticing.
Maybe too enticing...
“No contact,” Danny decided.
Vlad smiled and Danny tried to shake the unease that maybe he'd made the wrong decision. Vlad started towards the center of the field, beckoning over his shoulder, “Up, up!”
Danny begrudgingly followed him to the center of the field. Once there, Vlad positioned him so that they were facing each other.
“The rules are very simple,” Vlad said, flipping the ball in his hands again. “You chose no contact, so if you don’t have the ball, all you have to do is steal it without touching me. If you can get it, I’ll lose ten yards and will have to try to steal it back. If I’m holding the ball and touch you while you’re trying to steal it, you lose ten yards, and vice versa. Whoever pushes the other past the goal line wins. Sound simple enough?”
“It doesn't sound like football,” Danny pointed out.
“I never said we would be playing football,” Vlad countered with a wry grin.
Danny rolled his eyes. “Okay. What happens if one of us wins? We just win?”
Vlad pursed his lips thoughtfully. “What would you like to win?”
“How about if I win, you let my dad go and disappear forever?”
Vlad tsked at him, flipped the football expertly in his hand as he considered the question before offering, “I tell you what, Little Badger, if you win, I'll fly your friends out here to see you for your birthday.”
He straightened, wide eyes searching Vlad's expression for deception or some kind of verbal loophole he'd missed in what the older hybrid had offered. "Seriously...?"
"Cross my heart," Vlad promised, placing his hand to his chest demonstratively.
Danny hesitated as he tried to think about all of the excitement and hope that went with that offer. Sure, Vlad would probably be monitoring them the whole time, but Vlad had already made a mistake with his mom. His plan wasn't completely foolproof. There could be an opening to get some info to Sam and Tucker. They could get his dad free of Vlad's influence if they knew it him. He wasn't sure how yet, but it was a start.
"Bare in mind, Daniel, that this is a one-time offer."
Danny looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that this is your only chance to see your friends again for the foreseeable future."
An angry tingling started up in the tips of Danny's fingers and up into his arms and chest and he clenched his teeth, resisting the urge to swing his fist into Vlad's pompous face. He wasn't even sure why it made him as angry as it did; he knew that was Vlad's end goal. It wasn't necessarily news to him, per say, but hearing it aloud felt like it had been brought into reality. It wasn't just some fuzzy, vague concept; it was a certainty.
He discreetly cleared his throat, fists clenched stiffly at his sides as he raised his gaze to Vlad again and said through a tight jaw, “And if you win?”
“You'll be happy to know, Daniel, that you actually have a choice in this,” Vlad replied, indifferent or oblivious to the obvious rage he had set in Danny.
"You can either encourage your mother to go out with--"
“No,” Danny snapped.
Vlad chuckled. “Not feeling so confident that your mother will refuse me, then, Little Badger?”
“No, I just don’t think it's fair to subject her to that much time with you,” Danny replied.
"Not even for a chance to see your friends?"
Danny swallowed, trying to remind himself that Vlad could never stop him from seeing his friends. He'd find a way.
"It's not worth it," Danny said.
Vlad shrugged and Danny hated how unconcerned the man seemed with Danny's refusals and resistance. "Hmm, then I doubt you'd like the second option. Tell you what, Little Badger, I'll leave it to you. What would you trade for the chance to see your friends?"
Danny bit his lip while he thought about it, mind blanking on any options he felt comfortable giving.
“I don’t know, Vlad. You’ve kind of got everything but my enthusiasm,” he admitted.
Vlad smiled. “Then I’ll take your enthusiasm.”
Danny paused, shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he blinked quizzically at the older hybrid. “I don’t think I can give that. You already know I can't," he added. Neither of them needed to be reminded of Danny's last deal with him.
“Mm, yes, I've been very disappointed in your behavior recently. However, you did manage at least a day of behaving before you relapsed," he said the word with a sneer, but it was a hint that almost passed Danny by unnoticed as he continued, "It seems perhaps it's not that you can't do it, it's that your stamina for it is low. So, with that in mind, all I'm asking of you is to give me a full twenty-four hours."
"You want my enthusiasm for twenty-four hours..." Danny asked skeptically.
Vlad nodded. "In that time, you will be respectful, polite, and make every effort to put your mother in a good mood. After the twenty-four hours, we can renegotiate. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?"
Eyes pinched with wariness, Danny worried his lip, debating with himself. Vlad's offer wasn't completely unbelievable, so Danny thought he probably would keep his word if he won, but that wasn't really the issue. He really didn't think he'd offer it at all if he wasn't sure he would win.
Danny eyed the forty-year old man. He wasn't exactly great at sports, but he could definitely run, and he was much younger than Vlad. Without their powers, Danny had a much better chance to actually win.
Vlad watched him, smiling patiently, occasionally spinning the ball absently in his hand.
“I’ve only got one problem,” Danny finally said, deciding to test Vlad's sincerity. He waved his immobilized arm as best he could. “I’m kind of at a disadvantage here.”
Vlad nodded in agreement, transferring the ball to his right hand and tucking his left behind his back. “Fair?”
Danny considered again cautiously. He didn't think Vlad would outright cheat, but he was still acting confident and assured, which was worrying on its own.
He shouldn't agree to anything. He knew that, but...
"If I win, I want to use your theater, just me and my friends," Danny bargained. He figured if he was going to gamble, he should really make it worth his while and make sure he had a chance to talk with Sam and Tucker somewhere Vlad couldn't snoop on them, not at least without some significant risk.
“Agreed,” Vlad said with a smile, placing the ball down on the fifty yard line and backing away to the opposite forty yard line. “Game on.”
Vlad raised a finger and shot a small pink beam into the air to signal the start.
Danny rushed forward, counting on his youth to get him to the ball first. When he looked up to see where Vlad was, he was a little confused to see Vlad merely walking towards it.
He must have known as well as Danny did that he couldn't outrun him, so he would probably wait right up until Danny was grabbing for it. He must have miscalculated how fast Danny was going to be though, at the rate Danny was running, he would be able to get to it, snatch it up, and back off before Vlad was within arms' reach.
He sprinted right up to it and reached, then watched his fingers phase right through it, sending the rest of him stumbling forward unsteadily. He staggered, managing not to face-plant on the grass. Once he was steady, he whipped around in outrage to complain just in time for Vlad to tap the ball against his chest.
“That’s ten yards,” Vlad said with a beaming grin.
“What the hell was that?!” Danny demanded, swatting the ball and Vlad's arm away from him.
“I said no transforming,” Vlad explained, smile growing even wider. “I never said you couldn’t use your powers.”
"That's--!" Danny started, but stopped himself. There was no use in pointing out how unfair that was; Vlad already knew that and had obviously been counting on it.
Simmering with frustration, Danny huffed a breath and headed back to his side of the field.
He went to the thirty yard line and re-positioned, eyes narrowing with focus and determination. He knew the rules now, he just needed to match shenanigans with mischief.
Vlad signaled the start, but this time, Danny didn’t rush forward. With the ten yard difference, there was no way he would make it there first, so he was better off trying to steal it for this round.
Vlad didn’t exactly rush forward either, but he did get there first, picking up the ball and then stopping altogether. He held the ball out towards Danny and gave him a taunting smirk.
Danny suppressed his irritation as he closed the distance, watching Vlad closely. They had less than ten yards between them now, but he wasn’t confident that was going to be close enough for what he had planned.
He slowly started stepping closer, trying to keep his face neutral as he focused and concentrated on his core. Most of the time, when he used his ghost powers in human form, it was an accident. He had practiced some with Sam and Tucker, but he hadn't been able to accomplish much. When he used his powers accidentally, it felt like his core was kind of bubbling over like boiling water. He didn't need boiling water.
He just needed to focus. If Vlad could do it, he could, too.
Vlad smiled calmly, waiting and watching as Danny got closer.
He felt a cold sensation as he tried to will his powers forth, but it was only a mild chill, the same thing he always felt when he tried to get his powers to do what he wanted and he tried not to get frustrated when they once again didn't cooperate.
Vlad could just stand there and turn the ground intangible; just casually calling on his powers whenever he felt like it, mocking him with how easy he made it seem.
The chill got colder and Danny suddenly felt it building. He stopped his wandering thoughts, tried to will the feeling into his hands.
It went to his feet instead, intangibility spilling out from each step and pooling into the ground around him in a wobbly kind of circle. Already feeling it becoming unstable, he rushed suddenly forward trying to tack advantage of it before he lost what little control he had over the sensation.
Vlad’s legs fell through the ground as he approached and Danny lunged after him, fingers nearly brushing the ball, but not before he felt the intangibility start to effect him instead. Suddenly he was falling as well, but he noted with some confusion that Vlad still was as well, letting his whole body dive backwards through the ground and vanishing somewhere beneath.
Danny pitched forward, a foot slipping into the grass as the intangibility fully backfired on him. He didn't react fast enough and his foot became tangible in the dirt, snaring him in place and making him lurch. He had barely caught himself on his hand and other knee and was about to start yanking at his foot when he felt the ball press at his back, holding him in place.
“Don’t be baited, Little Badger. If I’m not moving, then I’ve already anticipated you,” Vlad said from behind him.
Danny's head hung and he sighed in frustration, squeezed his eyes shut again to try to get intangibility back into his leg. His core warbled unsteadily, faintly aching like a bruise and he winced a little at the sensation, but it passed nearly as soon as he'd felt it, but it had been distracting enough to break his concentration.
Vlad quirked a brow at him tauntingly. "Need help, Little Badger?"
"I don't want help from you," Danny bit, trying again to get his core to respond to him. Using his powers as Danny Phantom was hard enough, but in human form it felt like trying to catch bubbles in a butterfly net. He snarled in frustration as he finally got some powers to bubble over, but all it did was make him invisible.
Vlad chuckled, gripping Danny by the upper arm and phasing him up through the ground. "I could see you thinking, Daniel. You'll just tire yourself out that way."
"I said I didn't want your help," Danny snapped, yanking his arm out of Vlad's grip. Danny felt no resistance from him, so he stomped off to the twenty yard line, pretending he had thought of the advice himself.
Once he’d reached his mark, he turned around and continued pretending that the distance wasn’t discouraging.
Vlad set the ball down again and returned to his mark not far away.
He winced to himself at the worsening odds. He wouldn't stand a chance if he couldn't use his powers reliably, but apparently he couldn't think about using his powers? How did that work? Was Vlad just messing with him?
He fired into the air again.
Danny rushed forward, wanting to close the distance as quickly as possible, in case his powers failed him again.
Vlad retrieved the ball when Danny was about halfway towards him and once again flaunted the fact by holding it out as though offering it to him.
Danny ignored the taunt, his mind occupied with thinking about not thinking about his powers and the way his core ignored him when he wanted it. Or, he supposed, when he was thinking about it. He tried to recall a time when it came easy, but the only times he could think of were when Sam or Tucker were in trouble. Those times, he just kind of did it.
His mind was still on Sam and Tucker when he got close to Vlad and, to both of their surprise, white rings flashed at his abdomen and then vanished nearly at the same time in an even brighter streak of white.
It surprised and briefly blinded both of them and Danny felt a little pang of panic that he had been about to transform. Vlad would definitely hold that against him and he unintentionally slowed his approach as he paused to make sure the transformation hadn't happened.
Vlad didn't waste the opening, sidestepping Danny deftly to avoid him.
Sure that it had just been a flash, Danny tried to recover and follow him, but fell forward instead when he was suddenly pushed from behind. The shock of it had him stumbling again, but before he could catch himself, something else had caught him as he tapped his own chest against the outstretched ball.
Danny's eyes shot up at Vlad with shocked disbelief. He spun around, mouth agape at the original Vlad standing behind him, then turned back to the clone Vlad and pointed an accusatory finger at him.
“There is no way you did that without transforming!”
The duplicate looked down his nose at him and sneered. “You could do this, too, if you let me train you.”
Danny’s arm dropped. “Are you kidding me? Is that what this was about? To wow me into letting you teach me?”
“Partly,” the copy admitted, evaporating into a mist of pink and reabsorbing into the original. “I can’t train you if you won’t participate, so I thought a demonstration might help coax you. But even if you refuse, I’ll still get a better attitude out of you.”
“That’s assuming you win,” Danny reminded.
“Yes, you’re right. You still have ten yards. I’ll get a better attitude from you in…” he looked at his watch. “Oh, call it five minutes?”
Danny tried not to let the jab or the walk get to him as he went out to the ten yard line. He turned around and evaluated the distance between them. He wasn’t the most athletic in his human form and the back and forth was starting to wear him down.
He needed his powers to do what he needed them to do.
At Vlad’s signal, Danny got out of his ready stance and decided to walk to the fifty yard line.
Vlad chuckled as he watched him, picking up the ball and tossing it a few times.
“Feeling tired already?” he asked, having to raise his voice to account for the distance between them.
Danny blew off the comment, watching the man flip the ball in his hands, thinking about the advice. His powers had reacted better when he was thinking about Sam and Tucker, but most of the time it was an instinctive thing. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to make himself react on instinct.
Vlad remained where he stood, watching him smugly.
Danny focused on Sam and Tucker, bringing to mind times they had been in trouble and his powers had lucked out for him. His core got colder, burying that faint bruised feeling as icy tendrils worked their way up his arms. Danny kept thinking about his friends as he picked up speed, reaching out for the ball without really thinking about how he'd get it. To his surprise and relief, an ectoblast had formed in his hand and he urgently fired it off before he could lose it.
Vlad’s grin widened as he twisted slightly to skirt the shot.
Danny felt the cold build at the back of his eyes. It was a sensation he hadn't felt very often and usually only when he was angry, and right now he was pretty ticked off. He felt it build and then burst in a flash right as his focus landed on the football in Vlad's arm.
Vlad looked stunned when it flew out of his hand.
Danny’s green eyes returned to their usual color as he looked at Vlad, a swell of satisfaction at the surprised expression on the older hybrid's face. The cold stayed with him, spilling into his arms and Danny fired another blast out of his palm into the billionaire’s chest. It wasn't as big or powerful as Danny would have hoped, but it did make Vlad stumble backwards. Danny was happy with anything he could get.
Danny rushed past him and snatched up the ball from where it had tumbled away, cradling it to his chest for a moment just to make sure it didn't phase away from him before he raised in victoriously. "Ha!" He turned to Vlad with his own smirk and pointed it at him. “That’s ten yards, Fruitloop!”
To his disappointment, Vlad brushed at his shirt--which had a small, but satisfying little hole in it--and clapped approvingly.
“That was a very clever deception, Daniel,” the man commended, smugness returning in all its vanity.
“Glad you liked it,” Danny grumbled in annoyance, tucking the football under his arm.
“Seems like the practice was valuable to you,” Vlad commented.
“It helped knowing the rules,” Danny retorted.
“You knew the rules,” Vlad pointed out. "You just needed to expand your mind a little."
Danny rolled his eyes and brushed past him, placing the football down on the fifty yard line. He then took his place at the end of the field and Vlad took his spot on the thirty.
He frowned at the distance. He really needed to get there first this time and force Vlad to the offensive, but with the twenty yard difference, he really doubted it.
If he lost this one, he didn't know when he'd get a chance to see Sam and Tucker. He had his backup plan and he was feeling confident about it, but this could be a sure thing. He just needed to get there first. He had to get there first.
Vlad raised his hand and fired another pink blast into the air.
Danny felt a jolt of desperation and he started running forward without a plan; just that he needed to get there first. He was sprinting, despite how exhausted he already was, his focus solely on his friends, on keeping Vlad from getting another thing he wanted.
Then he felt it; his feet, ever so steadily, rising off the grass.
Eyes going wide, he looked down as his toes started brushing the ground, making him bounce and bound with semi-weightlessness, until one finally step had him surging forward much faster and he finally wasn't touching the ground at all.
His hand spun wildly in the air as he tried to balance himself amidst the sudden burst in speed, but…
He was flying! In human form!
Vlad paused, brows raised in surprise as Danny flew right up to the ball and clumsily scooped it up, juggling it clumsily several times as his momentum carried him right past the older hybrid.
Danny whooped in triumph when he cradled the ball to his chest, but now he had a new problem. How did he stop? In ghost form it was easy, but he had gained some finesse in that form. As a human, it felt more like he was a passenger, being carried off by a gust of wind.
He just needed to ease out of it. Just like Phantom did. Just decrease the energy slowly and smoothly.
He leaned left to keep from flying out of the field, but the alteration in his trajectory destabilized him and his flight suddenly got very bumpy, making little lurching drops as the ability started to fail him.
Crap.
He focused on smoothing out the decline, but the harder he concentrated, the more the energy either kept bursting out in little waves that propelled him forward sharply. Eventually, his movement altogether stopped and he dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground beneath him.
He skidded on his shoulder and of course it had to be the bad shoulder. He tilted to land on his back, sliding a little ways, a small part of him feeling a little petty satisfaction that he was probably damaging the grass. He left behind a little trail of dirt and grass that crumpled up in front of him and eventually cushioned his eventual stop.
His back and arms aching, the ball still cradled firmly against his chest, he carefully righted himself and looked around to see where he had ended up. He was still on the field, but…
He was alone on the field.
Eyes widening in alarm, he scanned the area, but Vlad was nowhere to be seen.
That meant he could be coming from anywhere.
It turned out “anywhere” was right in front of him.
Vlad appeared in a flash of pink, hand striking out to grab the ball. It started Danny so badly that he jolted back, tripping over himself and falling back to the ground with a little oof as his hands fumbled and lost the ball. Vlad vanished snatched it and vanished again, reappearing just as quickly behind the boy and tapping him on the top of the head with the football.
“Game over,” the hybrid said.
Danny’s shoulders slumped and he heaved a breath as both exhaustion and the sudden fright settled heavily into his bones.
Vlad walked around in front of Danny and extended a hand to help him back up.
Danny looked at it and then tossed himself backward to lay in the grass, letting the football roll away, panting heavily.
Vlad chuckled. “That was something. Was that your first time flying in human form?”
“Yes, it was. Now do you mind?” Danny said exhaustedly, closing his eyes in an attempt to block him out of his senses. “I’m trying to be a sore loser over here.”
“I'm impressed,” Vlad continued, ignoring him entirely. “And that was only after forty minutes of playing a little game. Imagine what you could learn with an hour of proper practice.”
Danny sighed sharply and picked himself off the ground, swiping at the dirt and grass on his clothes. The grass stains stubbornly remained. “I’m not going to train with you.”
Vlad’s smile was patient and he simply shrugged. “We’ll revisit the discussion another time, then. Now!” he said, clapping his hands together. “How about an early lunch?”
Danny scowled at him.
Vlad tutted. "Ah, ah, ah, remember our bargain, Daniel. Don't test me this time. You will regret it."
Danny slumped, the exhaustion seeping deeper, but he tried not to dwell too hard on the loss. He had the backup plan, he reminded himself, but more importantly... he just flew as a human.
Maybe some serious practice wasn't a bad idea.