"Get your ectoplasmic ass back here, you mangy mutt!"

The Red Huntress zoomed through the sky on her hoverboard, in wild pursuit of an unfortunately familiar bundle of glowing green fur. Hey guns were drawn and her teeth were bared in righteous fury against the vermin that had been the cause of everything. It was about time for her to exact her revenge on the dog, just like she had been trying to with the owner.

But the little scrap of ectoplasmic energy just wouldn't stay still!

"Ugh, stop running around!" Valerie roared, firing at the green dog. She missed again, searing through a street sign. "Sit! Stay! Play dead!"

The ghost did not stop. It continued scampering down the street as if it was a normal puppy in all but coloration, driving the Huntress' rage to new heights.

Eyes narrowed in concentration, the Huntress called up her biggest guns and fired. She grinned victoriously as the blasts bore down on the dog, sure to run him down-

"Cujo!"

The pint-sized ghost abruptly changed direction and the blasts collided violently with the street, cratering it. Valerie pulled her hoverboard to a screeching halt (which was impressive since it still managed to shriek while in midair) and stomped her foot, before turning to see where the scum had run off to. Much to her unpleasant shock, the dog was being cradled in the arms of a human, and a familiar one at that.

"Hey, buddy, it's okay. It's alright, Cujo." Danny Fenton cooed at the thing in his arms, tickling it behind the ears before looking up at her. His blue eyes were alight with something Valerie didn't recognize, especially not on his face. She didn't like it, whatever it was.

She brushed it off, though, in light of the danger Danny was putting himself in. "Hey, kid. You know that's a ghost you're holding, right?"

"He's a dog," Danny responded shortly, clutching the fuzzball closer, "And he wasn't doing anything wrong, as far as I can see. In fact, Huntress, you seem to be more dangerous than him at the moment."

Valerie felt her face heat up as her temper rose. "I was trying to catch the stupid ghost! That thing has ruined lives, and if you let it near you-"

"Cujo is just a puppy! He came to play fetch."

"Look, Fenton," Valerie snapped, almost physically restraining herself from calling out her guns again, "I don't care. I wouldn't care if that ghost was the cutest damn thing to exit the Ghost Zone. The mutt is a menace, like all other ghosts!"

Danny's face twisted into something less detached and more upset. If his eyes were any brighter, she might say they were glowing. "You don't know anything. Do you even know where he came from, or why he's a ghost? Do you know why he came back the first time!?"

"No, and I already said that it doesn't matter! Why do you care so much about that damned dog anyway-?"

"Because he's mine!"

Valerie fell silent, freezing in place. That couldn't be right, the mutt was Phantom's! "No, it isn't. Your parents are ghost hunters, and you're terrified of ghosts!"

"Sure, I am. But Cujo is still my dog. He has been my dog since I found him in the dumpster where he and the other guard pups from Axion were thrown when they became obsolete. He was the only one alive when I found them, did you know that? The poor thing was left to starve and freeze! Yet he survived long enough for me to find him."

Valerie's arms had gone limp at her sides as her hoverboard drifted closer to the ground. Danny had her complete attention, and she couldn't help but think that his words had some truth in them. The tears beginning to squeeze their way onto his flushed cheeks might have been a factor in that.

"I was horrified when I found him. He still had the Axion tag on his collar - it's still there now - so I knew he wasn't there by accident. I was gonna take him home to warm him up, to feed him, to do something, anything to help him… But he was already so cold and weak by the time I found him. He didn't make it halfway there."

With a start, Valerie realized she had never actually considered the fact that ghosts used to be normal living beings before they were ghosts. The ghost dog was once a normal puppy. The pesky ectopi that liked to wander the town at night might have once been normal sea creatures. And even the ghost boy… What did that change, though?

"I think I'm the reason he became a ghost in the first place," Danny continued with a sniffle and a half-hearted chuckle, "Since I was probably the first human to try to take care of him. At first, he seemed like he was searching for something, but after the trouble at Axion, he just sort of started showing up to play."

Danny wiped his face awkwardly on the shoulder of his shirt, trying not to jostle the green pup dozing off in his arms. After a long, shaky breath, his watery blue eyes meeting Valerie's green through her mask.

"Huntress, can you understand what I'm trying to say? Cujo never did anything wrong to deserve to be tossed into that dumpster. He never did anything to deserve death or hatred. He is just a dog who wanted to find his precious thing from life and share it with someone who showed him that not all humans are the bad guys."

Valerie looked away from his steady, resolute gaze. She heard him sigh heavily before footsteps sounded.

"Nothing is as simple as you think it is, Huntress. I've been wanting to say that for a while, and I hope that it makes a difference."

The Red Huntress had a lot to think about.