Hi guys! This is my first story, I hope you like it! This was originally just a one-shot based on Valerie's musings on what Danny Phantom's obsession is, but due to the uplifting response I got to it I decided to continue it! Oh, and please favorite and review! Anyways, I will stop babbling now. Enjoy!

Obsessions

The Phantom was an anomaly. That was one thing that Valerie Grey knew. For some unknown reason, it was not like the other ghosts; a fact which irked her to no end. For one thing, it's physical appearance differed from any ghost she had ever seen. Its skin was not a shade of grey, white, green, or even blue; which were standard ghost colors. No, The Phantom's skin was tan, like a human's skin. If it wasn't for the fact that The Phantom emitted the glowing aura that all ghosts gave out, you could mistake it for a human.

In addition to this, The Phantom seemed to be a lot stronger than any other ghost Valerie had come across. For one thing, she had not caught The Phantom yet. This perplexed her. Valerie considered herself to be a proficient ghost hunter, but still she could not manage to capture The Phantom. She knew she was very much capable of catching ghosts, she had brought many ghosts whom she had caught mid-rampage in her ghost containment device to Mr. Masters, who had some way of disposing of them. No, Valerie was very adept at catching ghosts; which just made the whole situation more puzzling.

Even if it was stronger than most ghosts, surely with her expertise and her dedication she should have caught The Phantom by now. Valerie knew this for certain, but somehow –for some unknown reason- she hadn't. She also knew the ghost boy fought off other ghosts regularly, and usually won; so it must be stronger than them. Why the ghost boy fought the other ghosts, she had no idea. But a small part of her wondered why it did this. Was The Phantom territorial, and greedily defending what it considered to be its territory from other ghosts? Were the ghosts its enemies? Was it possible for ghosts to be enemies with other ghosts? Or do is it just a part of ghostly nature to attack and destroy, even if it is attacking a member its own species? Valerie did not know and for the most part didn't care. A ghost was a ghost, it's reasons didn't matter. All that mattered was making sure that it did not get away with whatever evil plot it had.

Valerie had always assumed that the ghosts worked together to terrorize Amity Park, but maybe she was giving the ghosts to much credit. After all, ghosts are not intelligent creatures; they are not alive and do not feel pain. Since they are not able to live together in a town or city, why should the ghosts be capable of teaming up? Or maybe The Phantom was just pretending to fight off the ghosts and was really in cahoots with the other ghosts. Maybe it was biding it's time, gaining the trust of the town so that when it finally betrayed them all their defeat would be even more crushing. Valerie knew that one day it would strike. They would all be unable to defend themselves.

Not if I can help it! Valerie silently vowed. When Valerie destroyed The Phantom, the town would be safe. The Phantom was the strongest ghost that had ever been spotted. She knew that it had proved to be capable of causing chaos, and that she had to stop it before it did it again. Next time, it may be more than just robbery and attempted murder. Next time she may be in that suit. She winced at the memory.

Back when Valerie was a bit younger and more naïve, she had started to doubt that it was all bad. She had fallen for it's tricks. Well, she had learned the hard way that the ghost boy was not to be trusted after he had destroyed her original armor. She had watched in horror as The Phantom had decimated it, unaware that she was not currently inside it. She knew that if given the chance it might do it again, only this time she might not escape its wrath.

That day was very enlightening for Valerie. She now knew better than to trust a ghost, no matter how good it may be at faking emotions. No matter how different, how real it may seem. No; to trust a ghost was suicide. Valerie knew this now. Though he had seemed real, he was not. He was just a shadow of a person who was no longer living. He may have died thousands of years ago, though Valerie thought it unlikely due to his outfit.

Valerie immediately reprimanded herself for referring to Phantom as "he". The Phantom was just a memory given form. In fact, the boy whose image was stolen by the monster would probably be glad when she destroyed it. Valerie did not believe all of the nonsense about ghosts being "souls". They were just imprints that were created in times of great distress, which were given forms by the ectoplasm in the air. Though Valerie did not belong to a particular religion, she did believe that we go somewhere after we die. And she knew that if she died she would not want her image stolen by an evil fiend like The Phantom.

So, Valerie pondered. Something is different about The Phantom, something I've had overlooked. What would be different? Why is The Phantom seemingly unhindered by the laws that seemed to apply to the other ghosts? Suddenly, an idea struck her like lightning, sudden and sharp. Valerie nearly face palmed, it was so obvious now! All ghosts have an obsession, something that was largely impacting the human they resemble at the time of death. For; um what did the ghost boy call it again? Oh yeah, Skulker. Well, for the Skulker it was hunting, for that tech. ghost it was technology, and for- The Box Ghost.

Now that was a name that there was no danger of forgetting. The menace had a habit of turning up at the worst time possible, and no matter how many times Valerie caught it would somehow reappear, sometimes not a minute later. She was nearly certain that it either had a way to escape her G.C.D. (Ghost Containment Device) or it could duplicate itself and she was just catching the copies. Though the ghost itself was not very threatening, it's constant reappearance was driving Valerie up a wall! The other day it had made an appearance as she was just about finished with her nightly patrol, forcing her to persue it all over town. This made her even later for curfew than normal, a fact that her father had noticed and certainly did not appreciate.

Someday I have to figure out how Mr. Masters gets rid of the other ghosts and why this does not seem to work on- as The Phantom has "affectionately" dubbed the ghost- "Boxy.

Snap out of it Val! she chastised herself. Back on topic! So, where was she? Oh yeah. Valerie recalled. Obsessions. Every ghost had an obsession, so Valerie was certain that The Phantom must have one too. Now that Valerie realized this, she knew she had to figure it out. Obsessions gave the ghost's power, which meant that they were also the ghosts weaknesses. If a ghost is unable to fulfill their obsession, they fade out of existence. Poof! No more ghost. Thus, discovering The Phantom's obsession would mean discovering its weakness. If she knew the Phantom's weakness, she would finally be able to defeat it; or at least get it to show her some respect. The Phantom seemed to take everything she said to it as a joke; it was making "witty" retorts back at her. But then again, what more should I expect out of a ghost. Valerie reasoned

She then paused, could The Phantom's obsession be humor? She quickly dismissed this though. Though The Phantom had no shortage of jokes and witty comebacks at his disposal, it just didn't fit. It could be a part of the larger obsession. That was another unusual thing about Phantom, it had an uncanny resemblance to a personality. It was part of what had caught Valerie off guard before she had wised up. Though most ghosts had very one track "minds", the Phantom seemed almost human sometimes. He didn't seem to fixate on a particular thing, except maybe "protecting" people.

Could protecting be Phantom's obsession? It would explain why he "protected" Amity Park. Maybe the he had died protecting somebody?

Valerie face-palmed. She had started to refer to Phantom as a "him" again. The Phantom did not deserve to be personified, not after everything it had done. And besides, though protection did seem likely, it did not explain the banter or why it had attacked her and kidnapped the mayor and stolen all of that stuff. Actually, scratch that. The kidnapping and the attacking and the stealing could all be written off as ghostly nature, but it still did not explain why Phantom was so- prone to joking. And besides, if its obsession was protection then it would constantly create danger just so it could protect people from it. As far as she knew it did not do this, at least not constantly like it would if it was its obsession.

It was almost like it had multiple obsessions. Could this be it? Was it possible for a ghost to have multiple obsessions? That would explain why The Phantom could be so humanlike. Valerie suspected that having multiple obsessions could create something that loosely resembles a personality. If it did have multiple obsessions then it may be much harder than anticipated to get it to fade out, thus making it much harder to eliminate The Phantom through that course of action.

Valerie was snapped out of her thoughts by the beeping of her ghost detection device. She hung her head and sighed, knowing she was not going to be getting much – if any- sleep that night. Thoughts still racing through her head, she softly inched her window open, powered up her new suit, and slipped into the darkness.

Yeah, well, I really hope you liked it! Remember, please review and favorite! It only takes like 10 seconds and it means the world to me!