Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are not mine.

Chapter 4: Kid's Club

If you ever found yourself in a situation similar to Danny's (which you probably haven't), you'd know that things can get really awkward when captured by one of your enemies and then taken to their base.

Turns out, there were no adults in the building. At least, Phantom didn't see any.

The moment Dash had seen him he immediately lighted up with a storm of questions. Valerie shooed them away, however, and told Dash to go to the kitchen, where everyone was supposedly already there for dinner and where she would explain. Dash had shot Danny a truly perplexed look, then scampered away while Valerie lugged Phantom through the door and into the bid rectangular room where he was now: Dingy, like the building's outside, but clearly some sort of foyer or lobby. There was an administrative desk in the far corner, next to an elevator and another door (which must've lead to the kitchen, because that's the one Dash went into). Several of the walls were lined with ugly abstract mustard yellow paintings, which didn't go very well with the plain dark grey and chipped walls or the fuzzy brown rug. There were also mismatched chairs scattered in the corner opposite to the desk, one of which she slammed Danny into before extracting more rope from her backpack and securing Phantom tightly without any consent for his comfort. She then cut the previous bonds that were soaked in ectoplasmic blood and looked at them like they were dog shit. Danny didn't know whether or not to be offended by that.

So he was now tied to a rickety chair, in a messy old lobby with crappy lighting, trying his hardest to listen and make sense of the muffled voices coming from the kitchen. There were more than 10, that much he could tell, but none of them struck him as really familiar, as, for the most part, they were all mangled and garbled together as everyone apparently asked Valerie millions of questions.

Phantom let out a long sigh, preparing himself for the worst. There were so many ways this could go to the dogs in just a matter of seconds. His parents and/or crazed scientists walking in were way up there with an axe-murderer and The Shade Master himself.

A few more minutes passed. The pack of voices had fallen silent, and now there was just one voice, talking and talking, that seemed to be telling some sort of story. 'That must be Valerie…' Danny thought as he listened even harder. There were gasps at times, at one point a particularly high-pitched shriek rang out, and once, even some nervous laughter. It was very unnerving to listen to incoherent voices of people who you knew were speaking about you, and at the same time you're wondering when they'll actually talk to you in person, and you suspect that pain will accompany them. It's not a very nice feeling.

About half an hour later, just when Phantom was figuring out that it was indeed possible to nod off in a chair, the kitchen door swung open.

Through the doorway marched Valerie, hands on her hips, hood pulled back so he could see her long black hair and grey-green eyes. She was looking very serious and stern, not at all like the 20 or so kids who followed her out.

Danny only gaped as the bunch of kids finally revealed themselves. Most were shorter than Valerie, some of them couldn't have been older than 10! They were all wearing ratty and dirty clothes; some of the taller and older kids had even found extra uniforms for the apartment building somewhere and were sporting nametags that clearly weren't theirs. Most had their hair uncombed and faces smudged with grime, and they regarded Danny with unsurprised (thanks to Valerie's explanation) but tense expressions. It was really very sad.

Danny actually wasn't paying that much attention to the crowd anymore,though. He was barely over the initial shock of seeing a group of kids roughly the size of a small class waltz into the lobby when Valerie had took a standing position in front of him, wearing a slightly smug smile now, and blocking most of his view. All he could do now was glare at the red-and-black-clad huntress as she grinned all-knowingly at him, hands still on her hips in a superior fashion.

He realized he must've looked kinda pathetic. He knew of some small scratches on his face from the fall, he was certain it was covered in dust and dirt as well, and, cleanliness aside, it is awfully difficult to appear strong and defiant while tied to a chair with blood still oozing from your wrists after previous bonds, black hoodie slung around your body in an awkward way.

Yep, things were looking pretty bad.

Even with Valerie's menacing shadow looming over him, he could still partially make out what going on with the kids. He could see some of the older kids, about 15 or 16, leading the younger ones into the elevator with a distinctive ding. Some of the other kids (about his age, Danny was sure) stayed behind, and Phantom could see them in his peripherals as they either leaned against one of the walls or sat down with more chairs that they had brought in from the kitchen. Danny didn't catch most of their details, however, as he still had his cautious yet irked gaze on Valerie.

Once the gentle hum of the elevator taking kids up to higher floor had faded, Valerie crossed her arms in front of her and said "So."

"So what?" Phantom shot back before he could stop himself.

This earned him a deathly look from Valerie. "Why you little-!" She seethed. Leaning in way past the boundaries of personal space, Valerie's hand shot of and seized the front of Danny's hoodie. This only really pulled him a few inches closer to her, though, as he was fettered to the chair so tightly. Still, he tried in vain to resist as her face came uncomfortably close to his. "Give me a reason to shoot you, Phantom, because I swear I will."

"Valerie," a kid against the wall kid warned. Danny's eyes immediately snapped towards him.

He was relatively tall, maybe the same age as Danny or a year younger, with narrowed Hazel eyes that bored right into both Phantom and the huntress that appeared to be uninterested yet willing to intervene. He too adorned the ragged, faded clothing that so many of the youths donned and his light brown hair was spiky and unkempt, but in a cool sort of way, if that was possible. He looked like one of those easy-going mellow kids who never did their homework at school.

Phantom took a second to recuperate from shock before asking sheepishly "And… you are?"

The kid shrugged and said "It's Anthony, man. But I think it's lame, so people call me Tony."

Danny was kind of weirded out by Tony's calmness. Seriously, they were in the middle of a war, and here this kid was, looking and acting as if he were just at a boring party. Phantom wondered if it was just an act, but Tony looked sincere…

"Great," (Danny's eyes flicked back to Valerie when she spoke) "now that you two are acquainted, can we get on with this, please?" Her tone was exasperated and irked.

Tony put his hands up like he was surrendering, but the tired and tranquil look in his eyes never left, and neither did his uninterested expression. "Sorry, Val. He asked, I answered."

"How come I've never seen you before?" Phantom blurted.

Valerie looked ready to gouge out his eyeballs out from speaking without permission, but this went unnoticed by Danny, whose sole attention was on Tony as he leaned back against the wall and said "Dude, I'm not from Amity Town, I live in Sereneton."

"It's Amity Park," Danny corrected. Turning to the other kids accompanying Valerie (well, almost all of them, since one had inconveniently decided to stand a little ways behind Phantom's chair), he asked "Do all come from Sereneton?"
He got a mixture of shy, quiet responses ('Yeah', 'Uh-huh', 'Mmm') before Valerie just went and answered for all of them. "Of course, spook. Well, except for Dash and a couple others. Wait…" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You didn't hear about Casper High?"

Danny's eyes widened. He hadn't hadheard. What was she talking about? Danny had been off chasing a couple rouge ghosts around midday when the first wave of Shade's minions attacked… it had never occurred to him to consider what all the kids at Casper High had done…

Phantom swallowed quickly and said "No, no, mind telling me?" He tried for a friendly smile.

Valerie remained cold. "I thought you knew, scum. Isn't that school one of your hang-out spots?"

Danny was about to point out that he only went there (as Phantom, anyway) when he fighting some sort of spiritual apparition, and that that didn't exactly qualify as 'hanging out', but he held his tongue when he saw that Valerie was about to launch into an explanation.

"When those creepy skeleton things attacked, I took charge, of course. I was doing fine on my own," (Phantom raised an eyebrow at this, but thankfully, Valerie didn't see) "until I heard that other kids needed help. Those… things attacked absolutely everywhere. I got some kids- like Dash- to safety, and we all made tracks to get as far away from Amity as possible. It turned out that surrounding towns had been attacked as well, but not as badly as Amity. But Sereneton was in a pretty crappy situation, being so close to Amity and all, and the city had been evacuated by the time we got there. However, we found some kids had been abandoned, or their families had been killed (we even rescued a couple ones who said they were orphans) so we took them in, as well. Soon, our group got too big to survive without a base, so we all hunkered down here. The kitchen had a full stock of canned food, and there's even a supermarket a couple blocks away. Plenty of rooms here, too."

"So… wait a minute." Phantom shook has head, trying in vain to successfully grasp what Valerie had just told him. "Lemme get this straight. You," he pointed at Valerie, fingers by his hips, since his arms were pinned to his sides by the rope, "are leading a group of unlucky and possibly orphaned kids in the midst of a war," he looked around, as if the sense he was searching for was flying around the room, "without any adult supervision whatsoever?"

"Yep." was Tony's curt response.

Danny couldn't help but breathe a slight sigh of relief. His parents weren't here. On the other hand, he also felt a little depressed and panicky. His parents weren't here. Then where were they? His relief was all too soon becoming hopelessness as the worst set in. They could be dead. No. No, he couldn't take that… It wasn't possible…

"Hey..." Tony spoke again, this time sounding a little concerned and confused. "Hey, dude, are you alright?"

Phantom head snapped up. Without actually realizing it, he had been staring at the floor, totally spacing out in depressed-mode.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine." Turning back to Valerie, he asked "Are you… are you guys the Human Rebellion?"

Their reaction was enough of an answer to Phantom: puzzlement. Valerie frowned and said "Well… I guess you could call us a rebellion of humans. Wait…" Her eyes narrowed. "You said that like it was title. What do you mean, 'Human Rebellion'?"

Danny would've smacked his forehead if his arms weren't confined in bonds. Of course, these kids would have no idea what was going on, being isolated for this entire time. Whenever a ghost reported an attack from the Human Rebellion, they were always from adults, not kids. In fact, thinking about it now, Danny considered that idea to be absurd. Yes, it did seem cool, and elite force of children would probably be really kick-ass, but this was a war. What's more, not just any war, but one with ghosts hex-bent on killing/enslaving all the humans and generally world domination on the opposing side. A group of twenty-or-so kids didn't exactly have a hope in hell.

But then again… This wasn't the Human Rebellion. Keyword= wasn't. That meant his parents could still be alive. Cue sigh of relief, take 2.

Valerie's eyes widened. "So there are more human survivors?" She put on another venomous look and said in a low growl "Are you holding them captive?"

"N- wait, what?" Danny blinked at Valerie, genuinely perplexed. She just rolled her eyes, like he was clearly lying.

"See here, spook, you're probably wondering why I haven't just destroyed you yet. If I remember correctly, we've been in a situation like this before. Same thing, different circumstances, really. I want information. About the war, who's in it, and who's trying to stop it, such as this 'Human Rebellion'," (She brought up two hands and did a couple air-quotes for emphasis) "and then maybe I'll let you go."

Danny focused on Valerie for a second. Then, with the confirmation that she was dead serious, he glanced around the room once more. All the kids were either looking nervous or heavily interested, with the lone exception of Tony, who was now cleaning his dirty nails with a pocket knife.

Phantom swallowed as his gaze found Valerie again. This wasn't gonna be fun.

A/N: ENTER MY LITTLE GROUP OF BASICALLY SCREWED KIDS! MWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA!

*ahem* Okay, fun chapter. And I just HAD to have at least one character that I could work with and not worry if i was getting their persona right, so, heeeerrreeeeeeeeeeee's TONY! Aha. He'll be fun, pretty important character as well, if things go as planned.

Speaking of that, I have several possible ideas of where this could go. I know what'll happen in the next chapter, but for the story in general, anything's possible. Well, Vald's coming in at one point for sure. And Dani will probablky play a bigger part in this.

In case any of you are scared for Danny, don't worry, he won't be staying in Val's sllightly evil clutches for long ;)

REVIEW PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASE!

Bye!~