Marisa's note: see if you can count the references! There are only a couple, but hey, if you watch Xiaolin Showdown or know my other fandom you might give a chuckle...

Remember to review, and next chapter's out June 2nd!

And on a side note: research for this chapter was a blast. When you get to go to an arcade and play games for a couple hours in the name of accuracy the world is good...

— — — — — —

Chapter Ten

"You need to get out more often."

- - -

The next day Danny sat curled on the living room couch, paying strict attention to the book he was reading while Valerie and her father ate breakfast.

"It's Saturday," Valerie called from the kitchen. "What do you want to do, Danny?"

Danny didn't look up. "Probably read my book unless a ghost shows up."

"What're you reading, anyway?"

" 'Ghost Hunting for Dimwits.' "

Valerie groaned. Her father got up from the table and walked into the living room.

"You'll do no such thing, young man," he said firmly. "Today you're going to do something that doesn't involve ghost hunting."

Danny blinked. "Well, I could play Doomed, I guess…"

"No way!" Valerie yelled from the kitchen. "We're going to do something interesting."

"Hey, Doomed is interesting!"

Valerie shook her head and ate the last of her cereal. "Danny, there's no way you're gonna keep playing that game," she said, wiping her mouth with her napkin as she walked into the living room. "We'll go to a theme park instead."

"A theme park?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Valerie, I can fly. Why would I want to ride roller coasters?"

"Well, you're not going to spend all day playing Doomed," Valerie's father chided. Danny shrugged.

"It's not like I've got homework to do. Uh, ghost here?" He pointed at himself. "Fear me?" He wiggled his fingers in the air. Neither of them looked impressed.

"As Valerie said, today's Saturday," her father said, ignoring Danny completely and reaching for his wallet. "Go out and have some fun."

Danny blinked when the man handed him some money as well as to Valerie.

"I'm getting an allowance? Not even my dad did that."

Valerie snickered.

While she finished the last of her breakfast her father pawed around in his closet, looking for some clothes for Danny to wear. After about fifteen minutes he came down the stairs, carrying an armful of gray sweatshirt, jeans, belt, and red hat.

"This is the best I can do," he said, and Danny stared at him for a minute before realizing that the man actually wanted him to put them on. Sighing, Danny carefully placed a bookmark on his page before he stood up and yanked the clothing on. Valerie walked in and burst out laughing.

"What?" Danny said self-consciously. Valerie tried to stifle her laughter, but it was hopeless. The jeans were way too baggy, even with the belt valiantly trying to keep them around Danny's waist, and the sweatshirt was so long it hung down to his thighs. The red hat didn't help either, though it did manage to make him look like a sort of stoplight with his glowing green eyes.

"Nothing, nothing," Valerie giggled. "At least no one will recognize you in that getup."

Danny made a face, but sighed and followed Valerie out.

"People might notice I'm glowing through the clothes, though," he pointed out as they walked down the street.

Valerie looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "I doubt it."

He muttered something under his breath, but she ignored him in favor of deciding what to do. She supposed it was a good thing that he was still exhausted and guilt-tripping from that witch Spectra, because he couldn't really get up the energy to object to anything she asked. She could nag him to do anything right now…but what would he want to do? She wanted him to see that she had good ideas so he would listen to her in future instead of being an idiot.

Then she gave a very evil grin. She knew exactly what to do.

- - -

"Give it up, ghost!" Valerie cried, landing a vicious flying kick, smashing them both to the ground. "I'm a ninth degree black belt! There's no way you can beat me!"

"Ha!" Danny smirked, blocking her second attack and firing back, sending her flying into the air. "I've got way more experience than you. There's no way you'll win!" He continued firing, but Valerie managed to dodge his attacks and landed a fierce punch right to his head. Danny growled and fired a super charged shot, but Valerie managed to jump out of the way in time.

"Bet you never expected this!" she smirked, and quickly pressed a button to instantly transform into a giant robot, her antennae blasting rays of death and various deadly creatures everywhere. "HA! 16 hit combo! Beat that, ghost kid!"

"Oh, I will! I rock with Rockman!" Danny quickly pressed some buttons and moved the joystick and Rockman transformed into a different giant death robot, pulverizing Valerie's character.

"Bah!" she growled. "You just need to Roll with the punches." She smashed a button and Roll took to the air, squishing Rockman to the right side of the screen with a cry.

Valerie sneaked a glance to the side and saw Danny grinning widely. Good. She'd thought he'd like playing Marvelous vs. Gabcom 2 against her.

She quickly turned back to the screen before Danny could smash her character into little pieces, and went to the offensive.

"Ha!" she yelled as Roll scored another combo hit. "Take that!"

"That was luck!" Danny answered, and switched to Roll too, laughing.

"Hey, Valerie!" called someone behind her. "What're you doing at the arcade?"

"Playing Marvelous vs. Gabcom 2," Valerie said, not bothering to turn around. "Darn it!"

"You just can't get with the Beat, can you?" Danny grinned as he summoned the blue bird, making his Roll combine with it to make another vehicle of death, though this was a plane. Valerie growled and tried to defend herself.

"Who're you playing with?" asked Star inquisitively, leaning over the machine to glance at Danny's face. Then she froze.

"Hey, could you get out the way?" Danny asked, distracted. "I can't see the screen."

Star darted back to Kwan's side. "It's Danny Phantom!" she hissed.

"No way!" Kwan whispered. "Valerie's playing a fighter game with Danny Phantom?"

"Yeah!" Star dug into her purse. "Paulina will kill me if I don't tell her about this!" She ran to the door, pressing a number on her speed dial as she went.

"Uh, maybe we should leave," Danny whispered to Valerie, finally noticing the growing crowd of kids gathering around them.

"Not until we're out of quarters, ghost boy," Valerie said firmly. Then, while he was distracted, she hit another set of buttons, dealing more damage and another combo to Danny's character. "Take that, you rock'n'roll wannabe!"

Danny glared at her. "Hey, the only wannabe around here's Ember!" So saying he focused back on the game, but he couldn't help but eyeball each kid as a growing crowd gathered in a semicircle around the machine.

"Hey, ghost boy, pay attention!" Valerie growled, pausing the fight just long enough to snap her fingers in front of his face. "I'm kicking your butt!"

"Er, sorry." Then he grinned. "You're pretty good!"

"What, you thought I'd be bad 'cause I'm a girl?"

"No, a friend of mine was really good at videogames." Danny fell silent a moment, then shook his head and smiled. "But I've got a secret weapon!"

Smirking, he went intangible and flew into the videogame, baggy clothes dropping to the floor in the process.

"What the—oh, you didn't!" she yelled, shaking her fist as she saw Roll's eyes now glow green.

"Hey, all's fair in love, war, and videogames!" Danny called cheerfully, his voice magnified with the machine's speakers.

Valerie growled. "That's a cheap move, Danny Fe—Phantom!" Danny only laughed in reply.

"Hey, where's the ghost boy?" Paulina cried, pushing forward until she took up Danny's space at the console.

"In there," Valerie snorted. She managed to hit another giant death robot combo, but Danny-possessed Roll only went intangible and the attack fell though. She glared at the screen. "And that's cheating and you know it!"

"Go Danny Phantom!" Star yelled, leading an impromptu cheer. "We love Phantom yes we do, we love Phantom how 'bout you!" She finished with a cute pose and the rest of the crowd cheered. However, the cheers only distracted Danny, and Valerie was able to pummel him once again.

"So how come you're playing videogames with Danny Phantom, Valerie?" Kwan asked.

"It's for my dad's new job at Fenton Works," she replied easily. "I'm supposed to be the liaison with Danny Phantom since we're both protecting Amity Park." That was Mr. Master's clever cover story, and she would stick to it!

"You get to spend time with Danny Phantom?" Paulina sighed dreamily. Then she turned to Valerie. "Can I hang out with you too, Valerie? Please?" The popular girl looked longingly at the screen.

"Maybe," Valerie said, concentrating harder on the game. She realized she wasn't sure if she wanted to share, and anyway, she'd found out when she was poor that Paulina really wasn't a very nice person. Sure, the girl had a crush on Danny Phantom (and how wrong was that? A human and a ghost together, impossible!), but she might say something wrong and hurt him. Danny was still very delicate.

Valerie wished she was better at people stuff. Still, she'd follow the plan. Spectra had been a major setback, but maybe she hadn't been as harmful as Valerie had thought. After all, now Danny was out in public not fighting ghosts, and he was even having fun doing it. Valerie was very glad about that—just because he was dead didn't mean he had to be all morbid about it.

"Hey, Val, you falling asleep or something?" yelled Danny through the speakers, and Valerie realized Danny had fully taken advantage of her momentary musings to drop her hitpoints to the grave.

"You wish, ghost!" she growled back, and began to do some serious damage, though she knew that she'd still lose. Like heck she'd admit it, though!

"Hey, cool! Danny Phantom's here?" asked a boy behind her—Dash. It felt like half the school was here.

Perfect.

And that was when the image of a strange green-skinned, white-haired ghost filled the screen.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he howled through the speakers. "Hello, ghost child! I, Technus, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping, will defeat you in this videogame now you no longer have the help of your allies!"

"Technus?" Danny growled, jumping out of his character angrily. "How'd you get out of Doomed?"

"Once the harddrive was cleaned I, Technus, was able to escape Level Zero!"

Danny glanced at Valerie. "You guys gave away my computer, didn't you?"

Valerie glared at him. "Well, how were we supposed to know you trapped a ghost in it?"

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Paulina. "Is that another bad ghost?"

"Crudely put, but correct!" Technus yelled triumphantly. "Now I, Technus, will—"

"—Shut up and get pounded!" Danny interrupted, and fired several ghost rays at the ghost's direction. Valerie quickly slipped in another quarter and attempted to use her character to help Danny fight, but Technus merely went intangible and escaped her attacks.

"Darn it, this isn't fair!" Valerie growled. If only she could equip an ecto-launcher, or at least a ghost gun—!

Danny, however, didn't seem hampered at all. "You're not the only one who can use his ghost powers, remember?" he catcalled, and continued firing at Technus, forcing him off the edge of the screen. Danny looked confused for a moment, then followed.

"Where are you?" Valerie called angrily, spinning around, trying to find the sound of Danny's ghost rays. "Get visible already!"

"Whoa!" yelped one of the players from the other side of the arcade. Valerie raced over to see Danny and Technus fighting on the huge screen of Dance Armageddon, Danny using the arrows as cover as Technus jumped around, trying to not get hit by the scrolling arrows on his own side.

"Try squishing him!" she yelled impulsively, stepping on a panel herself, smacking Technus on the head.

"Ow!" the ghost yelped.

"You've got two left feet, Technus!" Danny called almost cheerfully, and blasted Technus into another row of arrows as the players began to play again, now trying to squish Technus instead of scoring points.

"My body has both a left foot and a right!" Technus retorted, dodging an arrow. "But there are other games, whelp!"

He jumped to the left and Danny followed again, both fading away as the exhausted players wiped their brows. Valerie looked around again—

"They're in Condo of the Dead!" someone yelled, but Valerie managed to get to the machine before anyone could interfere. It was a first-person shooter!

"Finally, a game I can really fight in!" she grinned, and shoved more quarters into the slots.

"Danny! Danny! Danny!" the crowd cheered behind her, led by Paulina. Valerie hoped he heard as she armed her gun and started to fire at the quickly fading technophile.

"Not so tough without someone to show you the ropes, huh, Technus?" Danny taunted.

"We'll see who laughs last, ghost child!" Technus retorted, and jumped out of the game, apparently deciding that running away was a better option than staying to get blasted to bits by both Valerie and Danny.

Danny jumped out as well, and both flew through the roof as the crowd rushed outside to see the end of the fight. Valerie ran to her bag and yanked out a thermos, then joined the group.

"Danny, here!" she yelled, and tossed the container up. Danny caught it smoothly and smirked as Technus turned to fly away.

"I, Technus, will escape to fight another—"

"Time to pull the plug, Technus!" Danny yelled as he unscrewed the lid and sucked the ghost in.

"Noooo! I'll be back, ghost child!" Technus wailed just before disappearing into the container. Danny capped the lid and shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"Where exactly does he expect to go?" he asked Valerie as he landed. Valerie shrugged.

"That was so cool!" said someone behind them. Danny turned to see Dash grinning wildly and Paulina staring at him with goo-goo eyes. He grinned and blushed slightly as the crowd cheers grew louder and louder.

"Uh, think we should head back to Fenton Works and drop Technus off?" he asked Valerie, trying to remain focused. Valerie checked her pockets and shrugged.

"We don't really have a choice," she answered. "I'm out of quarters."

"Here, use mine!" Dash said, dumping a handful into Danny's hands. "We can play Condo of the Dead!"

"Use mine too!"

"And me!"

"I wanna play against Danny Phantom!"

"No fair! I wanna play!"

"I-I think we have enough quarters," Danny stuttered as his hands filled with silver. He sent a questioning glance at Valerie, and she grinned.

"Let's go play, then," she said with a smirk. "After all, I said we'd play until we're out of quarters…"

The crowd cheered and dragged Danny back inside, Valerie snatching the thermos before anything could nudge the cap open. She grinned triumphantly and followed.

- - -

Finally it was time for both of them to head home. With much groaning from the crowd and promises to return tomorrow, she dragged the boy away, grinning.

"What?" he asked when he saw her face.

She hid her smile. "Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?"

She smirked, frustrating Danny even more.

"What?"

"Nothing!" she repeated, but she still couldn't stop smiling.

Mission Get Danny to Have a Life was a success!

"Wait, ghost boy!" someone called, running after them. Valerie and Danny turned and saw Paulina carrying a pile of clothing Danny realized was his own.

"I think these are yours," Paulina said, her eyes suddenly shining allure. Then she ruined the picture by wrinkling her nose. "Ugh, I can't believe you wore this, though! These clothes are so uncool."

Danny looked taken aback and shot a glance at Valerie. The ghost hunter only shrugged and took the clothing away from Paulina.

"It's the most we have right now," she said airily. "Danny doesn't really need clothes."

"Well, I refuse to let you go around like that," Paulina said firmly, keeping eye contact with Danny. "Tomorrow morning meet me at the mall. You need a makeover!"

"A makeover? But…" Danny shot Valerie another helpless look.

Well, it'll get him out of the house again, Valerie thought, and it'll get him to socialize…

"Tomorrow at ten," Paulina said firmly, pressing against Danny's side. Danny backed away a half step, a strange expression on his face.

"All…all right, Paulina," Valerie said finally, wondering why she hesitated. "We'll meet you there."

Paulina smiled and looked like she'd say more, but Danny grabbed Valerie and took off before anything else could be said.

"See you tomorrow, Danny!" Paulina called, waving. Danny gave a half wave back and was quiet the whole flight home.

- - -

Technus floated through the Ghost Zone, arms crossed.

"Once again I, Technus, have been defeated by the ghost child!" he grumbled huffily. "However, I, Technus, will soon get my reven—"

"Oh, be silent!" snapped a deep voice behind him, and a missile knocked him down from behind. Technus pushed himself back up angrily and whirled around.

"Who dares attack Technus, Master of Technology?"

"Me, Skulker, Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!" Skulker growled.

Technus grimanced. "I, Technus, already know who you are!"

Skulker smirked. "So the ghost child has defeated you?"

Technus glared at him. "Hasn't he defeated you as well?"

"One of his friends tampered with my operating system!" the hunting ghost growled. "I hate gorillas!"

Technus paused. "Your operating system? Maybe I can help you."

Skulker gave Technus a calculating look.

"We will meet in my lair after I buy a magazine with an article about purpleback gorillas," he said after a moment. "But if you fail, I will use your head as a trophy for my wall!" With that Skulker's jets activated and he shot into the air, leaving Technus to muse about this new potential partnership alone.