*Chapter edited September 6, 2010.
Okay, here's the next chapter! Consider yourselves lucky, because I was having half a mind to not post this until Friday the Thirteenth. But, I decided not to, so here you go!
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Naruto, or Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Chapter Thirteen: Valerie
"I have to what?" Danny shouted, horrified.
Maddie put her hands on her hips. "You heard me. You have to go back to school on Monday, which is tomorrow."
"B-but, why?" He shot up from his seat, fists balled.
Maddie remained adamant. "Because you have to go to school." She poked him in the chest with her index finger. "You've missed enough as it is."
"But why tomorrow?" He countered.
Meanwhile, as mother and son argued, Haku stood against the wall, his face like stone. Only his eyes moved as they followed the two other figures in the room, debating whether or not to step in. As he did four months ago, he decided not to. It's not my argument. He reasoned.
Since yesterday, he had managed to swap out his prisoner's uniform with some of Danny's old clothes and—after an all-night trip into the Ghost Zone—he had "acquired" another pouch full of needles and a new cloak. This one was a deep shade of blood red, and made of cheap cloth. Although it wasn't as good as his old one, he felt it would suffice for the time being.
"Okay! Fine! I'll go!" Danny snapped, turning away from his ghost-hunting mother, pouting with his arms crossed. But, after standing in silence for a few seconds, his frustration dwindled and his shoulders slumped. The halfa turned back to her, his face softened. "Just-just leave me alone right now. I...I need to think." He plumped himself back down on the couch, while Maddie just sighed and stalked off down into the lab, deflated.
Once she disappeared down the stairs, the halfa put his face in his hands. "What is wrong with me?" He whispered softly to himself.
However, Haku heard him. "Perhaps it's a result of—"
"That was rhetorical!" Danny snapped, rising to his feet, fists clenched. He relaxed his grip soon after, returning to his place on the sofa. He sighed. "Sorry I yelled. I just...need to be alone right now, okay? Why don't you...go help mom and dad out in the lab?" He suggested. "I just...need to be alone."
The ghost bowed slightly and walked off, cloak twisting as he went. "As you wish, Master." He called over his shoulder when he was at the top of the stairs.
"And don't call me 'master'!" Danny shouted back, but he had already disappeared.
He lay back, staring up at the ceiling. I wonder what happened here while I was gone... The halfa pondered, wondering why the town hadn't been over run by ghosts in his absence. Hmm...Now that I think of it, the only ghost I've seen since I got back here yesterday was that gryphon...What did Joey say his name was? Girfle... Giles... Gleel... Ah... Gyl! That was his name! Hmm...Weird name for a boy, now that I think about it... He suddenly got a strange suspicion that he had heard the name before Joey told him his story, but he quickly dismissed it.
Danny soon grew tired of staring up at the ceiling and situated himself in order to look out the window. Just in time, he was able to spot the baldheads of Operative K and O as they strolled past the window. Seconds later, there was a knock on the door.
As Danny rose from his spot to answer it, he was praying that it was just a coincidence, and that the Guys in White weren't at his doorstep the day after he had been released. Unfortunately, his hopes were crushed when he glanced through the door's peephole. Hesitantly, the halfa twisted the doorknob and opened the door, glaring at the two agents all the while.
"What do you want?" Venom dripped from his voice.
"Oh, nothing much..." Op. K began, glancing from side to side and pretending to twiddle his thumbs innocently.
"We just thought you might want to know a little something." Op. O finished, smiling like a village idiot.
The halfa continued to glare at them. "Whatever it is, I don't care! Now leave." Danny's arm muscles clenched, prepared to to slam the door in their faces.
He only reached about halfway before Op. O spoke up again. "We caught her."
Danny's arm halted. His eyes widened in horror. "Wh-what did you just say?" He stuttered.
"You heard us. We finally tracked down your little 'cousin.'" Op. K clarified, forming air quotes on 'cousin'.
"It sure took us long enough." His co-worker snorted, arms now crossed. "Four months of a bunch of wild goose chases leading all over the country." The agent balled his fist. "That little wretch knew all the right places to hide."
Meanwhile, as the agents rubbed their victory in his face, Danny stood behind the partly shut door, seething. His willpower to not attack them was quickly diminishing. Finally, Op. K's last comment sent him over the edge.
"Yeah, but it was worth it. She has a very high-pitched scream, don't you think, O?"
Next thing the two agents knew, they were both pinned to the pavement, Danny having one of his hands around each of their necks.
"What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?" He growled through grit teeth, tightening his grip. His sightless yellow eye flared red with hatred, seeming to bore a hole through the two GIW agents. "Answer me!"
Unfortunately, Op. K easily ripped the halfa's fingers off of his throat and pushed him off, mentally noting how light he was.
Danny stumbled back through the partially closed door, nearly taking it off its hinges in the process. Op. O charged forward into the house, ecto-gun blazing. His partner followed behind, ready to tackle the young halfa. He soon had him pinned to the ground, despite his weak struggling.
Staring straight into Danny's rage-filled eyes, he said, "Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Fenton, but I'm afraid that's classified information. If we were to tell you, then that would be a security breach. We could lose our jobs." The GIW agent explained, as if talking to a four-year-old child.
Danny's eyes grew wilder from rage, while his nose crinkled in revulsion. "I have two things to say to that. One—" The palms of his hands began to glow. Seconds later, Op. K was lying against the wall, two ectoplasmic burns marring the arms of his otherwise perfect white suit. Danny pushed himself up off the ground, hands still smoking. "And two, you need to seriously try some mouthwash!"
Op. O lunged forward, his ecto-gun ready to fire. "Why you little—"
He never got a chance to finish his sentence, because the next thing he knew, Haku was behind him, holding him in a tight headlock. The ghost ninja glanced up toward Danny. "I heard a crash and thought you might've needed some help."
"I..." The halfa stared, dumbfounded. "I...you..." He weakly held up a finger and pointed from the GIW agent to Haku. "...you...just..." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "LOOK OUT!" He pointed behind the ghost. Op. K had risen from the wall and was about to club Haku from behind.
Haku merely reached out with his free hand and smacked the agent upside the head. Op. K collapsed onto the floor, groaning. Meanwhile, Op. O was struggling in his grasp, clawing for air. "Can't...Breathe..." He gasped.
By this time, Danny had regained his composure. "Haku! Let him go."
The ghost released his hold on the agent, eyeing the other sternly as he rose to his feet. Op. O fell to the floor and took in a few deep breaths, clutching his throat.
Soon, both the GIW workers had stumbled out the door, fear written all over their expressions. At the last second, Op. O turned back inside the doorframe and, panting, tried to regain some composure. "You—haven't—seen—the—last—of—us!" With that, he slammed the door in the two teens' faces.
Once the coast was clear, Jack and Maddie came bounding up the stairs, worry evident in their expressions.
"Wh-what was that all about?" Maddie asked shakily.
Haku said nothing. Danny lowered his eyes to the ground. "The Guys in White were just here to gloat. They didn't want anything." The halfa's voice choked, tears forming in his eyes.
Before his parents could ask what they could have possibly been bragging about to them, Danny turned on his heel and stalked up the stairs. The sound of a door slamming shut resounded through the upstairs hallway, followed by soft, muffled crying.
'Connecting Computer Webcam. Please Wait.' Flashed across Sam's computer screen, declaring it was connecting itself to Jazz's server.
Suddenly, the screen flickered to life, displaying the view of an unnaturally tidy dorm room. Blocking the middle of it was Jazz's face, appearing worried and depressed, given the current situation. "Uh, hey Sam." She said.
"Hey." The goth answered back.
"So...How is he?"
Sam took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. "Danny...He's...He looked horrible. I...I don't know how to describe what they did to him."
"It was that bad?"
"...Yeah. His back...It was covered in blood...I think...they tortured him. I'm not really surprised by that, but...It was too much." She began to choke over the next few words. "He...he refused to say anything about what they did to him." Sam shook her head. "I'm sorry."
"I understand. I—" Jazz was interrupted by her wristwatch, which had just started to beep incessantly. "Ah! I have to go, Sam. I'm late for my morning classes!"
The last thing heard on the other end of the connection was frantic shuffling, followed by the door slamming shut. Sam's computer screen went black for a moment, then flicked back to it's normal desktop.
The goth teen sighed, placing her head in her hands. "What did they do to you...?" She asked to no one in particular. Suddenly, her head shot back up, eyebrows creased in frustration and confusion. "Wait a minute...Who has morning classes on a Sunday?"
Valerie was trapped. Again.
She had spent the money. Her father didn't know, of course, but him finding out that those three and a half million dollars went into ghost hunting equipment instead of going to charity wasn't her biggest concern. Her biggest concern was about Danny. The huntress knew all about the deal made between the Guys in White and the Fentons. She knew that he had arrived back yesterday, and was probably looking for revenge right about now. What she didn't know was that, in actuality, Danny was collapsed on his bed, crying his eyes out over the pain and suffering he had invariably caused his half-ghost clone.
The ghost-hunting teen continued to pace around the lab she had built beneath an abandoned warehouse, muttering softly to herself. "Why do I still feel guilty? I saved that stupid ghost, just like that other weird time ghost told me to. What am I doing wrong?" She glanced over to a large ghost-proof cage in the corner.
The form of a young ghost was hunched over in the very back of his enclosure, appearing to be sleeping soundly. Although his hands and feet were still bound in the chains the Guys in White had given him, he appeared to be quite comfortable. The remnants of his black prisoner's uniform hung on his thin frame, still bearing smudges of dirt and stains of his own ectoplasm. His metal collar was, lucky for him, lain casually on top of a nearby table, not wrapped around his neck.
Valerie knew better than to trust that he really was asleep, but she didn't necessarily need to worry.
"What am I doing?" She screeched suddenly. "I mean, here I am, down here, in a lab that I built using money I got as a result of betraying a friend, staring at a ghost that I don't even know, and had gone out of my way to save the life of, as a favor for another ghost I didn't even remotely trust in the first place!"
Valerie's ranting soon woke the young ghost in the corner, his turquoise eyes beginning to stare at the huntress. As she continued to rant, the young ghost slowly crept over from his spot by the wall up to the bars of his cage.
"I mean, he doesn't even say anything! Every day, that ghost just sits there at the back of that cage and never makes a sound! Really, I—" She had finally turned her head over to the cage and saw, for the first time, her ghostly captive looking her directly in the eye.
"If you hate me so much, why don't you just let me go?" He asked abruptly, his voice hoarse from lack of use. "Why do you insist on keeping me here, even though you feel guilty about it?"
Valerie didn't know how to respond to that. She decided to change the subject. She made a hmph sound before continuing. "So, you're not a mute like I thought you were?"
"Um...No...?" He answered, suddenly fearful. He edged away from the bars, retreating back into his corner, chains rattling softly.
Valerie walked up to the cage and put her hands on the bars. "Wait, I—I just want to ask you a question."
The ghost glanced around hesitantly at all the potential torture devices in the room. "I have a choice?" He asked sardonically, his eyes narrowing.
Valerie sighed. "Look. I...Just answer me, alright?"
"Okay." He carefully nudged himself as far away from the door as possible. In case this question did lead to torture, he could at least make it harder for Valerie to get at him.
The Red Huntress took a deep breath. "While you...While you were with the Guys in White, did you know of anyone there by the name of...Danny Phantom?"
She saw the ghost's eyes grow wide. His surprise quickly wore off, however, as he began to chuckle softly, it slowly growing louder and louder until it rose into full-blown laughter. "Know of him?" He paused to laugh some more.
Valerie's eye's narrowed in irritation. "What's so funny?" She was beginning to grow impatient with the ghost, and was wondering why the heck she had saved him in the first place. She started to reach for the remote to his chains, which had been set down next to his collar and forgotten about until then.
Seeing her motion, the young ghost quickly quieted. Valerie relaxed her arm. "There, now that you're quiet, would you mind telling me what was so funny?"
He took a deep breath. "Well, it's just that..." He smiled and chuckled lightly. "...he was my cellmate."
Yeah...I think I'll cut the chapter off right there...
Well, now that the school year's almost over, I should be updating much faster once summer arrives!
Also, now two people know the true identity of Operative N! Keep guessing, 'cuz I'm still giving out previews of the next chapters if you get it right!
Please review!