I wanted to wait for Lightning Streak to post her Christmas one-shot before I posted this up. Luckily her story wasn't too much like mine! ~ Zone
Truce
Valerie Gray was always on-edge lately, especially after losing one of the people she called 'friend', Paulina Sanchez. Phantom had gone completely off the deep end in the recent years, and it seemed she was the only one that could actually face him in battle.
It was the day of Christmas Eve, and she was patrolling the city for any ghost activity. To her surprise, she couldn't find any ghosts – not a one – in the damaged city. The shields they'd put up so far hadn't been strong enough to withstand Phantom's power, so it wasn't that they were being kept out. They were just…gone.
Even him.
She landed in the park and looked around, scanning the snow-covered landscape. There were a few humans, but otherwise it was silent. Confused, Valerie kicked off again, turning on her scanner to try to locate Phantom. To her surprise, it didn't show anything in town. Anywhere. She finally gave up and headed back, landing at the old FentonWorks building and walking in, pulling off her helmet.
"Valerie, how did it go?" Damien Gray asked. "Any trouble?"
"None. All the ghosts are just gone, daddy. Even him." She sighed and set down her helmet, pushing the button to change back into her civilian clothes. "He's just gone, not even a word."
"Well, maybe he's staying the Ghost Zone for once." Damien suggested. "Why don't you help me with making dinner, then? It is Christmas, after all. Let's try to enjoy it."
She nodded, walking into the kitchen. "Alright, I'll help you out."
A few hours of preparation later and then she was in her room, looking at the few presents she'd managed to buy. Some of them she'd gotten the year before and never given. Paulina would never get that make-up kit she wanted…
Her hand paused on a wrapped box and she pulled it out, looking at the name on it.
Danny Fenton
She'd made him a present herself, before Vlad Masters had come to them with the terrible news. Danny had been killed and Vlad had been injured during a fight between two ghosts, Phantom and Plasmius. Thinking of that blue-eyed boy made her think of Phantom and how they were always in the same area, and how Danny always spoke up for Phantom.
It was painful to think of how he'd died during a fight between Phantom and another ghost. She pushed the box away, not wanting to look at it any longer, but she couldn't exactly just leave it there!
"Valerie?" Damien called.
"Coming, Daddy!" She replied, picking up her gift for her father, leaving all the others in her room. She took one last look at the present for Danny and then walked out of the room.
They ate their food and opened presents, trying to talk only about happier times. When it got to ten o'clock, she heard a beeping sound and pulled out her scanner.
Phantom was back in town. She changed into her suit and grabbed her helmet, securely putting her hair in. She was about to head up, but paused and looked up towards her room. Maybe she could just leave it at his grave; some homeless person could pick it up. Might be easier to donate it, but it was the thought that counted, right?
For whatever reason, she grabbed the wrapped present for Danny and then headed out with weapon in hand; flying off to where she'd detected his presence.
Her flight took her to the Amity Park Cemetery. Why would a ghost be hanging around there? She landed outside it and stepped inside, her weapon in one hand and the package in the other. As she got closer, she realized to her dismay that his signature was right next to the Fentons' graves. "…Phantom?"
There was only silence. She stepped closer, looking around. "Where are you, Phantom?"
"Go away, Valerie. I'm not fighting you today." Phantom's voice echoed around her.
"Where have you been all day?" She asked. "Come to think of it, you always disappear on Christmas Eve, don't you?"
"Stop bothering me." He said. He almost sounded…lonely. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
"Why don't you turn visible and talk to me?" She asked, frowning.
"What's the point? We can't fight today." He replied.
Valerie shifted her weapon. "Why?"
"The Truce." He replied.
"Huh?" She blinked.
"For three days, Christmas Eve and two days after it, ghosts can't attack anyone. It's called the 'Christmas Truce', and it started back in World War I, in 1914." He turned visible, and she found he was sitting on top of Danny's gravestone. "So, I can't fight you."
"1914…" She looked thoughtful. "I think I remember that from History class. The British and German soldiers suddenly stopped fighting for Christmas Eve to celebrate together. Their short truce last for two days before they were ordered back to battle."
"The ghosts never stopped." Phantom said calmly. She looked at him, seeing the snow falling around him and resting on his bodysuit and cape. "It's not my style, but rules are rules." He looked to the side.
"So, why come here? Why not celebrate with them?" Valerie asked.
"I've never cared for Christmas to begin with, and spending time at a party with people who hate my guts isn't going to make my night any better." He shrugged. "I guess I figured that no one would bother me here."
Valerie sighed and put her gun in its holster on her belt, walking over and kneeling at Danny's grave. He watched her silently as she set the package on the ground in front of the silent grave. "Well, I sensed you and had to come check things out. I'll leave you to your solitude." She stood up and turned to go.
"Wait." He held up a hand. "What's that?" He pointed at the wrapped package. "A weird place to leave something, don't you think?"
"I made something for Danny before I found out he died." She said, still facing away from him.
He was silent for a bit, and then she heard snow crunching and paper ripping. She sighed and turned to him. "What are you doing?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"Looking at what you made for him." He said, opening the box.
"I didn't make it for you." She raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if I don't then someone who didn't even know him would take it." He pulled out the contents, a red and white scarf. He looked at it silently, then wrapped it around his neck. "It's nice."
She sighed, shaking her head. 'Well, Phantom is as 'homeless bum' as they come. Why not let him have it.' She thought. "Fine, you can keep it."
"I was going to if you said I could or not." He stuck out his forked tongue at her. She responded with grabbing a fistful of snow and tossing it at his face. "Hey!"
"Well, since we're here anyway, why not have a little 'battle'?" She said, grinning as she grabbed another fistful of snow.
"Well, as long as I don't hurt you, it doesn't count…" He picked up a fistful of snow and threw it at her. She ducked behind a grave and threw another at him, Phantom ducking to avoid it. "I'm not going easy on you, though!"
"Who said you had to?" Valerie grinned. "What do you say to going to where we have more room for this?"
"Our usual battleground?" He suggested.
"Race you there!" She ran back to her jetski and hopped on, flying off. He flew after her, the red on the scarf standing out among all the white and black he wore.
When she arrived at the city outskirts, she hopped off and looked around. "Phantom?"
"Here." He waved from a damaged tree. "You're so slow, Valerie."
"I'll show you 'slow'." She threw a snowball at him, knocking him out of the tree. He fell to the ground with a loud PLOP and then looked up at her with an annoyed expression, shaking a snow-beard off his face.
Despite herself, she found herself giggling and laughing. A snowball hit her and she fell back, cutting off her laughing. "Oh, really?"
"You did it first." He said, whistling casually as he sat on a stump.
"Well, gather up your ammo." She started to build a wall. "And put up your defenses, Phantom."
"Aren't we getting a little too old for this?" He asked as he gathered up snow to build a wall.
"Well, you're the one who said that this peace wasn't your style. And since we can't fight for real, I'm giving you a fight in a non-lethal way." She said, patting snow onto her wall. As it was still snowing, the ground was being covered as quickly as she exposed it.
"How thoughtful of you. Ready to be beaten once again?" Phantom asked from behind his wall.
"Psh. We all know that you're the one taking off at the end, so I'm obviously the winner so far." She said as she gathered snow together and built up a pile of snowballs.
"That's a matter of opinion. I let you live." Phantom replied, poking his head up behind the wall at her. "Ready yet?"
"Almost, don't be impatient." She said, putting together more snowballs.
"Time's up!" He threw a couple snowballs at her. She ducked to avoid them, grabbed one in each hand and threw them at him. "See? You were ready!"
"Ready enough!" She grinned, throwing another one at him.
They threw the snowballs back and forth, making more when they ran out. Time passed by without them noticing, and they noticed even less that they'd attracted an audience. Well, one person at least. A purple-cloaked figure watched their battle silently from a distance, smiling in an amused way.
It was good to see Dan Phantom embracing his childish side; he had grown up far too soon for Clockwork's liking. He had been horribly restless all day, so he'd come to make sure he didn't break the Christmas Truce by attacking anyone out of sheer boredom, but it seemed that Valerie Gray had already given the young Phantom something to do.
"I'll leave them to this, then." He said to himself, disappearing in a clock image.
Back at the "battle", both Valerie and Phantom were covered in snow and laughing at how silly and childish this was. Valerie held up a hand. "Hold on, I need a short break. The snow's stopped and I gathered all the snow around me, I have to go looking for snow."
"Me too, actually." Phantom admitted. "Want to just take apart our walls and just throw pieces of that at each other?" He suggested.
"Okay." She shrugged, taking a piece off her wall. They darted out to throw the pieces and ducked behind their increasingly smaller walls to grab the next attack. They darted around their usual battleground, throwing pieces of snow wall at each other, until finally they both ran out of ammo and collapsed on the ground laughing.
"Okay, that was interesting." Valerie said, looking at her wrist. "Whoa, it's been four hours? You kept me at this for four hours?" She tossed a fistful of snow at him.
"Is it? That means it's 2am." He mused. "Merry Christmas, Valerie. More of this tomorrow, you think?"
She sat up on her side. "Are you challenging me, Dan Phantom?"
He grinned up at her. "Unless you'd like to do something else for the next two days of the Christmas Truce."
"We'll discuss it tomorrow." She pushed herself up and to her feet. "Need help up?"
"Nope, I'm just enjoying the stars." He said simply. "He really liked stars, y'know."
Valerie looked up at the sky. "Yeah…I guess he did." She sat down again lay back, looking up at the sky. "I miss him."
He was silent, and she looked over at him to see he was lying with his eyes closed. Did ghosts sleep, or was he just relaxing? She got up and went to her jetski. "I should get back. See you tomorrow night, Phantom."
"Maybe we'll catch a movie. I can shape-shift, y'know." He said, proving he was awake after all.
"We'll see." She raised an eyebrow. "Good night, Phantom." She hopped onto her jetski and sped off.
He reached up and touched the scarf. "Yeah. See you tomorrow." He smiled. For once, he wouldn't be alone on Christmas.
Both of them are so used to fighting by now, that I thought it'd be cute to have them deal with their restlessness with a different kind of "battle".
Merry Christmas, guys! ~ Zone