Chapter Four

Ten minutes after Valerie had fired her first shot at him, Danny was still trying to lose her so he could make it to his early morning detention. The only good thing about the chase so far was that he'd caught the ghost that had set off his ghost sense in the Thermos without having to fight it. Unfortunately, they'd both been running from Valerie so that really wasn't saying much.

In fact, Danny was paying so much attention to Valerie that he crashed into someone midair around a corner.

They both fell several feet before catching themselves. When they did, Danny looked over his shoulder, paled and looked at the woman floating in front of him. "I'm not here, okay?" he said to her before turning invisible and intangible, phasing through the wall and looking around before hiding between some large crates and turning human.

He leaned back, panting quietly, and listened to the conversation happening outside.

"Hello," the woman he'd crashed into said. "Are you looking for something?"

"Yeah," Valerie answered, "Have you seen a white haired ghost?"

"Why are you after a ghost?" the woman sounded confused.

"He's Public Ghost Enemy Number One!" Valerie answered hotly. "He kidnapped the mayor, stole money and jewelry!" Danny heard the unsaid, and he ruined my life!

"Well, it seems like you have a good heart," the woman said.

"Yeah?"

"I would like to offer you a chance to go to a school-"

Valerie cut her off there. "I already go to school. I don't need to go to yours."

Danny could hear the smile in the woman's voice as she replied. "I'm sorry, I don't think I introduced myself. I'm Jetstream."

Danny's jaw dropped and he resisted the suddenly nearly overpowering urge to bang his head against the wall. Vlad had superheroes after him now?

Valerie had a similar response to Danny's, only she started stuttering instead of banging her head against a wall. "Jetstream? Wha-what are you doing here? Not that I'm, uh. It's just, um."

The superwoman laughed. "It's fine. I'm here recruiting, actually."

"Recruiting?" Danny and Valerie said at the same time.

"Yes. You see, it seems we've missed a couple of kids. We typically get them into our school for high school, but we had a bit of a hectic year this last year. Our equipment was not reliable."

"Equipment? For what?" Valerie sounded suspicious.

"For identifying teens with powers. We use that to find first generation supers and then go out to invite them to our school."

They were quiet for several moments. Danny was tempted to peek out the window to see if they were still there, but refrained.

"What's so special about this school of yours?" Valerie finally asked. "Why should I even think about going there when I already go to one here?"

"We offer a chance to teens with special abilities to learn with others like them. We teach them how to use their powers for good. Many of them choose to simply live their life like normal people once they graduate, while others choose to be heroes."

Danny waited a few more moments, to be sure that Valerie was too busy listening to Jetstream to notice a slight blip on her radar for a moment before he went ghost and set her alarm to turn back on after five minutes. Then he took off at top speed and prayed he'd make it to the school before her alarm turned back on and she came after him again.

But Fate seemed against him as once again he neared the school only for his ghost sense to go off again. He sighed as he screeched to a halt midair and looked around for the ghost that had set it off this time. Danny was debating whether or not it would be worth it to look for the ghost when something rammed into his side, sending him crashing to the ground. He hadn't even gotten his breath back when something wet made its way across his face.

"Cujo," he groaned as the puppy ghost barked and wagged his tail. "Why do you keep getting out of the Ghost Zone and finding me?"

The ghost dog just continued to bark playfully and lick the halfa's face, while the boy tried to cover his face and halfheartedly scolded the dog.

A chuckle brought him back to the present, and he stiffened as he grabbed the ghost dog and sat up.

A woman stood a few feet away with an amused expression as she looked at the ghost boy and 'his' dog.