Wendy High School, Amity Park: Valerie's POV

Vlad Masters is half-ghost. Dani Phantom is half-human.

How many other half-ghost, half-human beings are there? Is Danny Phantom half-human?

I didn't know what to think, or who to trust.

"Valerie?"

My dad brought me back to reality. I could barely discern his shape in the dimly lit auditorium we were in. If only we could've exchanged the sweltering heat for more light.

"You okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind."

"You know, the Fentons are up next."

We were at a ghost-hunting convention, at Wendy High School: Casper High's biggest football rival and twin high school to Casper High. The current speaker looked like an older version of Kwan. I was going to point it out to my dad, but I didn't want to sound racist, just in case I was wrong.

Anyway, he had just showed off his upgraded Ghost Positioning System, which could detect ghosts anywhere in the world right down to the street they were on. Come to think of it, two operatives from the Guys in White were standing behind him, so maybe this Asian guy was their boss, or a new recruit.

The Guys in White operatives moved back to their seats in the front row of the auditorium, while the new presenter that looked like Kwan had rushed out of the room on a phone call.

I glanced at my watch; 6:17 PM.

By the time I looked back, the Fentons had taken the stage. Well, the Fentons minus one.

"Good evening, everyone," Mr. Fenton started. Mrs. Fenton and Jazz were standing on either side of him. Danny was nowhere to be seen. "Today I present to you the Fenton Watch!"

"It's a portable Ghost Portal in the form of a touch screen watch," Maddie Fenton elaborated.

Jazz didn't say a word through the entire presentation. At least, the part of the presentation that they were able to get through. After that, Danny Phantom attacked.

He let out a scream as he materialized in the air above the Fentons and crashed into the stage and into the four-armed jetpack the Extreme Ghostbreakers had been about to present.

It was hard to see him through all the dust and smoke clouding the air, but I could see his scrawny silhouette getting back up off the ground. It made me remember how strong Phantom really was.

I noticed Phantom seemed to be eyeing the ceiling, so I followed his gaze. There was a green-skinned ghost in a long black coat and grayish-white cape that extended over his shoulders.

I remembered him, he was the ghost Phantom was fighting a while ago at the mall; around the time Danny and I dated. My cheeks flushed red as I remembered that.

"Geez, no one told me this was gonna be an armed reception," Phantom said as he threw the four-armed jetpack back to the Ghostbreakers, flying back up towards the technology ghost.

"Valerie," my dad started. "Don't even think about it."

I pretended I didn't hear him and clenched my fists. A blueish-white wall of electricity enveloped me as my ghost hunting armor formed around me. I jumped in the air, my red and black hoverboard materializing underneath my feet. Then, I was off. I fired my wrist laser at the other ghost who crashed into Phantom before hitting the ground, effectively taking out both ghosts.

"Eat cytoplasm, ghosts," Maddie Fenton snarled as she swiped her index finger across the Fenton Watch's screen.

The screen elevated a couple of centimeters and a hole the size of a headphone jack opened on the side. A green beam started charging inside it. When the beam was about to fire, Jazz ran up to Mrs. Fenton and bumped into her. "Oops!"

The green laser fired and missed the ghosts.

"A cytoplasmic ghost watch? Interesting." The technology ghost turned into a stream of ectoplasmic energy and flew towards the watch Mr. Fenton was wearing.

I wasn't about to let Danny's parents face danger all by themselves, so I enabled the ghost stinger, through which vivid pink energy sparked between the two prongs protruding from the front of my hoverboard until they collided at the tip and fired an energy ball at the tech ghost, shocking him and giving me an opportunity to fly closer.

"Red and black," Mrs. Fenton called out, addressing my suit. "I like!"

I smiled at her, appreciating the fact that my crush's mom approved of my side job.

Mrs. Fenton and I shifted our expressions from joking to serious and from each other to the only ghost left standing. Or so we thought.

The technology ghost solidified and got back up.

"Oh, please" he boasted, "As if your technology can affect me, Technus, master of technology! Who do you think it is that gave you that suit in the first place?"

I didn't know what he was talking about at first. I got this suit when I was zapped by a security camera, I figured the interaction between the ghost energy and the armor I already had had somehow given me this new suit. Then I realized Technus' face had been on the screen of the hub at Axion Labs the night I got my suit.

Could he really be the one who gave me this suit? Why would a ghost give me something to could help me destroy ghosts?

I didn't have the time to question the tech ghost's motives because my suit started operating on its own.

"Hey, what-." The magnetic blades on my feet stopped working, and I fell off of the hoverboard. The board went and attacked Mrs. Fenton, wrapping its twin prongs on either hip and shocking her into unconsciousness.

I scanned my surroundings for any more potential enemies. Phantom was nowhere to be seen and Mr. Fenton was also lying unconscious, his Fenton Watch missing.

It was then that I experienced what Technus and Mrs. Fenton must've experienced not too long ago; the thin, almost transparent micro hairs on my arms and back goosebumped up, feeling like they were being painfully ripped out. I felt like the suit I was wearing was the only thing keeping my body from literally not falling apart. Not long after, I felt my heartbeat slow down drastically and the willpower keeping my suit active diminished. I was dying.

My ears faintly registered a loud beep and the words "One ghost eliminated," meaning someone must've taken care of Technus in all the confusion.

I barely heard Danny yelling my name, and just as loosely felt him wrap his arms around me. The shock that was coursing through me seemed to pass into him.

I mustered up all my strength to not pass out: to sustain my eyes as they fed me blurred snapshots of the transformation that was happening before me. The cyan static that surrounded me extended onto Danny and dispersed as the red circle on his shirt made way for a familiar stylized "D", bread-crumbing into a black hazmat jumpsuit, slightly darker skin, a single glowing green eye, and silver-white hair. That's the last thing I remember before I phased completely into unconsciousness.