Okay. The moment of truth. Will Valerie prove to her father that she isn't crazy? Or will Phantom be an ass and make her look insane? Let's find out!

Disclaimer: Do not own any Danny Phantom or random references.

Here the Chapter Starts

As luck would have it, their security system went on the fritz and the cameras were shut down until they could be repaired tomorrow morning. Meaning she did not have to try and convince Nathan to shut them down. She and her father could just waltz right up to the pool and she could prove that she's telling the truth.

Of course her first sign that this wouldn't be as easy as she thought should have been the tank without the shark.

"Where is the shark?" he asked, looking around with furrowed brows. Was the beast moved and no one said anything?

"Cameras are down," she sighed once she realized what happened. "He got out."

"He got out?" Damon repeated skeptically, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, he changes into this sorta human body and walks around," she explained. "I think he's inside. He's after Vlad!" Gasping, she ran into the building, looking down the halls in hopes of spotting him.

"Valerie!" her father called to her.

"Stay close and stay quiet!" she hissed, running between the inside pools and into the entrance part of the building. The large aquarium took up most of the space, but she thought she could see something through it. A hand grabbed her arm, her father trying to stop her, but she grabbed his wrist and put a finger to her lips. Waving her hand, she motioned him to follow.

As silently as possible, they circled around the aquarium, a pair of voices reaching their ears. One she knew, the other was new. Once at the edge, the two looked around to see two figures in front of the aquarium, the more muscular one pacing as he growled under his breath. The other was slimmer, his skin a slimy-looking green and hair a stark white color that was fluffy, almost like he shocked himself.

"I don't know why you're so angry!" the slimmer one proclaimed, throwing his flimsy arms in the air. "I did what you wanted, my liege!"

"You did it when he isn't even here!" Phantom snarled angrily. "Hasn't been here for a week! Nikolai, so help me, I will bite you in half!"

"What the hell is this?" Damon whispered, eyes wide as he stared at the two strange men. Valerie shushed him.

"How am I supposed to know whenever one human is here or not?" the other that Phantom called Nikolai sneered. "I don't watch all day and all night. You're the only one that can identify that human anyway! None of us have ever encountered him before."

"Trust me, this one stands out among the rest of the humans here," the shark merman scoffed. "If you waited and watched, like you should before infiltrating anything, you would know."

"Your orders were to crash their systems so that you can kill one human," Nikolai pointed out. "So I, Technus, Master of Human Technology, crashed their entire security system!"

"Nikolai, I am about to kill you and feed you to a school of pups," Phantom growled. "Piece by piece!"

"Wait here," Valerie whispered to her dad, stepping out of cover before he could grab her. She ignored his desperate calls that he kept at a harsh whisper as she approached the two. "Phantom!" Her voice echoed in the empty room.

The muscular merman turned to her with wide eyes. "Valerie," he returned with a grin. "I wasn't expecting you tonight. Though given the circumstances, I should have. You didn't have to bribe that pathetic human again."

"Forget that! What are you doing in here and who is that?" she demanded, waving her hand to the green-skinned man.

"I am Technus, Master of Human Technology!" the slim male declared.

Blandly, she looked to Phantom. "Is he the octopus?"

"Yes, he's the octopus," the merman replied with a roll of his eyes. "Nikolai was supposed to do this when Masters is around. But he hasn't been here for a few days. From what I have heard, most of his orders come through that machine you call a… phone? Is that it?"

"Yes, sire!"

"Shut up, Nikolai! I am already annoyed with you!"

"You mean that you were planning on killing Vlad Masters if he was here? Tonight?! Phantom, I thought we talked about this," Valerie groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"You talked about it, I ignored the discussion," Phantom clarified. "Besides, this has been a waste of my time. If anything, I am being given free reign to explore my surroundings and learn the layout. So when this idiot does his job correctly, then I will not get lost in this place during my hunt." He let out a small hum of thought. "Well, perhaps it is not a complete waste of my time. Nikolai, you're still losing a couple of limbs."

"Hold it right there!" Damon shouted, jumping out from behind his cover with a pistol in his hands.

Valerie's eyes widened before she put herself in front of Phantom and held out her hand. "Daddy, I really need you to listen to me," she started.

"Get away from them, Valerie!" her father ordered. "They could be dangerous!"

"More so than you think, human!" Nikolai mocked, flexing clawed fingers, under each digit was a line of suction cups leading from each tip down to gather at the palm.

Phantom placed a hand on Valerie's elbow and gently pushed her to the side. "Pull that trigger and see what happens," he warned.

"Dad, no!" Valerie protested, trying to get back between the gun and the merman but Phantom's grip on her elbow wasn't letting her. "Listen to me, Daddy. This is Phantom! This is the shark! The one I said is a merman! Here's the proof! He's right here!"

"Let go of my daughter!" Damon demanded, his gun not wavering.

"I don't think so," Phantom rejected, shaking his head. "She'll put herself in danger to keep you from hurting me, which in turn would make me angry enough to hurt you back. Let her go, she could get hurt protecting both of us. But I am a curious one, so I want to know how far you are willing to go. Take the shot, not knowing if I will put Valerie in the way and get away unscathed, or put that thing down. Your choice."

"You hurt my father and any hope you have of making me your queen are nixed!" Valerie warned sharply.

"You? Our queen?" Nikolai repeated in disbelief. "You're just a human!"

"Nikolai, shut the hell up!" Phantom snarled. "I have decided that Valerie shall be my queen. End of discussion. Protest and lose your life."

The octopus merman swallowed thickly, but bowed. "Of course, sire…"

"As for you, my dear, you drive a hard bargain," Phantom directed to Valerie, releasing his grip on her. "But I will accept your terms. Your sire will come to no harm from me. So long as he does not harm me in return."

"Valerie," Damon called to her. "Come over here right now."

"Dad, just put the gun down and let me explain," she pleaded, holding a hand out to signal her father to lower the weapon. "Please. This is still my one chance. Remember? You promised me that."

Teeth clenched, Damon nodded and lowered the gun, but kept it in a position where he could easily lift it back up and shoot quickly if he needs to. "Only chance," he reminded.

"Nice to see we can all play along nicely," Phantom taunted. "Though the less humans that know about us would be preferable, I can see Valerie's decision was important to her. So I won't protest or make you think this is all an elaborate dream. As for you, Nikolai-"

"Technus!"

"Shut up. You sabotaged the system too soon! It will be repaired tomorrow. So like me, you shall remain here until this matter with Masters is dealt with. You will get in that tank right there and you will watch for him. When you know he is here for a night, then you can trash their systems again and we can get this done."

Nikolai muttered under his breath and crossed his arms as his legs started to split into six long and wriggling tentacles, much to Valerie and Damon's shock. "As you wish, my liege," the octopus merman accepted as he started crawling up the wall of the aquarium in order to get inside.

"Liege?" Damon repeated in a whisper, still wary of the man that was an obvious threat to his daughter.

"I earned the title," Phantom shot back with a smug grin. "I did kill the last king, after all."

"You know, you promised me that story," Valerie pointed out, crossing her arms and looking up at him.

Phantom shook his head, rolling his eyes to the sky with a huff. "I suppose I could brag about my battle," he conceded. "Especially since you seem so eager to hear of my accomplishments. His name was Pariah Dark and he was one of the last ancients that still roamed the sea. He was a old, old Leviathan, at least that is what you humans dubbed them as."

"Are you serious?!" Valerie exclaimed. "Leviathans are extinct!"

"I said he was old," Phantom reminded. "Of course he was also frozen for a few thousand years in the ice up north. Anyway, the battle lasted days. He threw several of his soldiers at me to tire me out. But I defeated each and every one of them, including his best."

"I'm going to interrupt here," Damon cut in, still tense and grip on his weapon still tight. "Explain what you are and what you are doing here."

Phantom growled under his breath and scoffed. "You were already told what I am," he stated. "As for why I am still here, I aim to kill Vlad Masters before he hunts my kind to extinction. Or worse, turns them into his new experiments."

"Wait a second, you want to kill Vlad Masters?!"

"Yes."

"Don't even try to talk him out of it because, apparently, he ignores it," Valerie told her father with a glare being directed at the merman.

"Valerie, honey, could you come here and talk to me for a second," Damon suggested, though it sounded more like an order.

Silently signaling to Phantom to stay where he is, Valerie went over to her father, who was still casting glances to the shark merman that was entertaining himself by watching the fish in the aquarium. "What is going on here?" he asked in a harsh whisper.

"I don't really know," she replied with a shrug. "Danny, Sam, and Tucker just suggested that I try and see if Phantom was going to show me something with the cameras off. That was a few nights ago. And I still haven't gotten him to tell me what his problem with Mister Masters is, but he's pretty stubborn about killing him." She stole a glance to Phantom, watching him focus solely on the new resident, the green octopus.

"And this 'queen' business?" Damon demanded. It did not settle well with him, some strange man thinking he has some kind of claim over his daughter. Over his dead body, first!

She sighed, her body seeming to sag. "He thinks he has a way that can turn me into a mermaid because I am the perfect one to be his queen. I think he's just a little nuts there, but let him live his delusion."

"It's not a delusion," Phantom called out.

"Stop eavesdropping," she hissed, pointing to the smirking merman. "And put something on!"

He shook his head with a grin. "And deny you such a view? Perish the thought, my dear."

Damon inhaled deeply, placing a hand on his forehead and rubbing his eyes. Either both he and his daughter are insane, or there are actually two supposed mermen right in front of them. All signs are pointing to the latter. "You do realize that this can't be kept a secret," he informed his daughter.

"Daddy, no one else can know," she pleaded.

"This is too big for the two of us! Besides, if we study them better, maybe we can find out-"

"Masters already knows," Phantom reminded calmly, approaching the two. "Hence why he refuses to let me go. If I wanted, I could escape quite easily. But now that I know he's here, I can end him."

"Wait, he knows you're a…" The man waved his hand up and down to gesture what he meant without saying it.

"Yes, he's encountered my kind before," the merman replied with a sharp nod. "Most he gets his hands on either die or escape from him, and do their best to stay out of his hands."

"What about you?" Valerie asked, crossing her arms. He turned away. "Phantom, the MRI on you showed that you have a chip in your back under a layer of muscle. That didn't get there because you put it there. And I saw a scar on the back of your neck."

He huffed. "I was lucky to escape," he answered, his voice somber. "My mother was lucky enough to die before he could do anything more to her."

Valerie's eyes widen in surprise, not expecting such news. Her hand covered her mouth as her breaths shuddered. No wonder Phantom hates Vlad so much if the man is responsible for the death of the merman's mother.

"That chip in me," Phantom directed to her. "You need to get it out. And when you do, make sure Masters does not get his hands on it."

"What could be on it that is so valuable?" Damon inquired.

"Everything," Phantom growled. "More than likely, everywhere I had been since I escaped, including the place where all merfolk gather, the closest we have to a city. If he finds out where that is, my people are doomed."

"What if we just leave it where it is?" Valerie suggested. "He can't touch you, no one but I can."

"Because I let you," he pointed out. "Masters has access to things that can knock a blue whale unconscious. He's testing which one would work best on me so that he can get to the chip. But he can't get it if you get it first and destroy it."

"Can't believe I'm going along with this," Damon groaned, holstering the pistol. "We don't know where it is exactly when you're like this. But if we get you to the lab and you… change back… we can find it and remove it."

"And destroy it," Phantom added firmly.

Damon nodded in acceptance. "Let's get you to the lab and get to work before someone can catch us."

Here is a line!

Damon was the one that was volunteered to surgically remove the chip since Valerie did not have enough experience medical wise. She didn't want to risk severing a tendon or slicing through something that would cause the shark to become weak. So, dressed in a swimsuit she packed away, she was in the water with the shark while Damon brought over a tray with tools, the shark against the side of the pool.

"You don't mention your father a lot," Valerie pointed out, earning a quirked brow from her father. "Telepathic, Daddy. Remember?"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Damon returned before he started to sterilize the area he was about to cut into. He could see a faint scar about a foot in front of the dorsal fin, probably where he was cut into in order to place the chip.

'He is dead,' Phantom replied with a low snarl.

"What happened? You sound like you don't even like him," she commented, scooping up some water to pour over his head when his skin started to feel a bit dry.

'My sire was a coward that abandoned my mother and I when we were captured,' the shark stated, his lips twitching up to bare his sharp teeth. 'When I encountered him again, I killed him.'

"Do you just enjoying killing or something? Wait, probably a shark thing."

'I enjoy killing certain individuals.' Phantom suddenly growled and tensed, but did not thrash as a scalpel dug into his skin.

She hummed, thinking of a subject change that they could take but wasn't sure how the shark would react to it. "Can you tell me about your mother? You seem like you were really close to her."

Phantom chuckled, lips somehow twisting into a smirk. 'My mother was strong and stubborn when my sire wasn't restricting her. I was young when we were caught, and she did everything in her power to keep them focused on her so that I would be left alone. I don't know how long we were stuck there, but I watched her starve herself, giving her food to me so that I could keep going. If I refused to eat until she ate something, she scolded me and would nag me until I ate half the meal. I gave the rest back to her.'

"She obviously loved you," Valerie mused, glancing over to see her father pulling back a thick layer of skin. "What did she look like?"

Instead of answering, an image flashed in her mind. A red hourglass dolphin with bright teal markings guiding her through the water, leaping out for a breath then diving back in. They went deeper until light barely penetrated the depths before she changed into her halfa form, her skin light teal and hair deep red. Her eyes were like blue crystals, gleaming in the darkness. Her smile was bright, framed by red lips as she reached out for her hand. No, for Phantom's hand. Another memory.

Blinking, the image was gone and Valerie smiled gently. "She was beautiful."

'She was.'

Another glanced to Damon showed that he was starting to spread the shark's muscles to create a space large enough for him to grab the chip.

'Where is your mother, if I may ask?'

"That's… well, let's just say we have something in common," she confessed. "Mom got sick and one day, she just… went to sleep." She could see from her peripherals that Damon froze for a moment, eyes starting to shine with liquid before he took a deep breath and went back to work. "She didn't wake up. I was just a little kid when it happened."

The shark let out a sharp but low snarl as Damon's hand suddenly jerked back, a pair of curved hemostats in his hand. "Got it," he announced, holding the tool in the air. Pinched between the tips of the hemostats, a bloody chip with a small light on a corner. He placed it on the tray, grabbed a pair of needle drivers and thick sutures, then went back to the surgical site. "I just need to stitch him up and we're good."

"Hopefully no one will notice anything," Valerie said lowly. With a small smile on her lips, she looked back to Phantom, leaning over to look into his red eye. "You going to finish that story now?"

'Ah, yes! Well, as I was saying, he threw multiple nothings at me, including his best fighter, the King's Guard, the Fright Knight, a merman of the swordfish species. He was the one to leave that injury on me. Seeing me wounded and tiring, Pariah Dark struck and swallowed me whole.'

"No way!" she protested. "How the hell did you survive being swallowed by a leviathan?"

"He did what?" Damon piped up in disbelief.

'Simple. I tore my way out of his throat. Then I made sure to tear his heart to pieces first, then his lungs for good measure, and swam right out of his mouth as he choked to death. You would be surprised how much extra space there was in his body for something my size to move through. Regardless, I had succeeded in slaying the former king, thus became the new king myself.'

"Okay, that's a bit disgusting," she groaned with a fake gag, shaking her head. "I was not expecting that!"

'Ordinaries ate well that day.'

"Please stop now."

Here the Chapter Ends

I bet everyone was expecting a big story of a valiant battle like 'David and Goliath'. But no. Phantom got swallowed then ate his way out.

But now we have a little bit of a history between Vlad and Phantom. Was trying to figure out how to work it in there, but there it is! ^^ Hope you guys enjoyed it! ^^ Let me know what you think!