Pithy Summary: Valerie needed a wild card against the scum of Amity Park, a 'power up'. What better power up than a ghost?
Warning: Language, mild torture
Word Count: 1,339
Valerie Gray was not one to believe in the supernatural. That is, until the ghosts started attacking Amity Park and Phantom had came along. Defending the citizens, sucking his enemies into a thermos(Seriously, who carries those? And how does something as small as a soup can contain that many ghosts?) The teenager remained neutral on Phantom's alliancing himself as a good or evil ghost.
Until her father lost his job, because of Phantom and that damn dog, running around Axion labs, destroying practically everything within it. Without her father's hefty salary to pay for their costly house, they had to...downgrade. The mere thought of their forced moved made the anti-hero grit her teeth and growl in a heated rage. She hated Elmerton, hated how underdeveloped it was, the rickety buildings-Amity Park was no better with several of their own dilapidated buildings, but in no way could Amity compete with Elmerton- and most of all, she hated how it reminded her of her downfall.
She hated Phantom and she wanted him to pay, pay for her and her father's decadence in life. Both father and daughter had already lost so much before this blow. This blow was much more fatal than the other ones life had dealt them, but none of them had caused such humiliation and shame she felt before this blow. Now, this was the only blow she wanted to fight back and relay the same damage it brought upon her life.
Then came that mysterious package from Wicsion, filled with expensive gadgets and weaponry her father would never let her touch, let alone lay her eyes on it. She tried on the suit and gadgets, hope swelling inside her as it fit her body perfectly. Someone knew what she wanted, and they heard her unspoken prayers; she could finally get her revenge.
Valerie's mission was simple: make Danny Phantom pay. As she found out, her mission was not entirely that simple. There were other ghosts that roamed Amity, fighting Phantom, destroying buildings, bringing harm to the people. It made her mission harder, but she was a Gray and Grays needed to adapt to whatever wrenches were thrown at them.
So she simply changed her creed: get rid of the ghosts and protect the people she loved from harm. At first, it was relatively easy, she wasn't going to say easy peasy lemon squeezy, but she could fight them off with relative ease. However, as her abilities grew, allowing her to inflict more damage, so did her enemies, doling out more power behind their attacks and her injuries becoming worse by the day.
No matter what she did, they always seemed to catch up to her. Valerie grew tired of it, tired of the constant bruises littering her body, sleep deprivation plaguing her like a, excuse the pun, ghost. She needed to do something about it.
She needed an advantage, which lead her to her current state right now. The teen stared at the chalky white circle with its two pentagrams drawn inside and frowned. Everything needed for the summoning was here: dirt, water, candle, a light source(though it said no artificial light, but what else was she supposed to use? The sun?), rope…
Everything except the poppet(or picture, both were interchangeable). Do they honestly expect her to have a poppet of a ghost? She doesn't give a damn what they look like, all she cares about is the boost the scum can offer her. Raising a hand in thought, Valerie remembers she has a sample of ectoplasm stashed in her suit. If she used the sample, will it work?
'Moving on,' she thought to herself. 'It'll have to do.'
Kneeling inside the circle, the Red Huntress grabbed the container from her suit, and carefully poured the ectoplasm in the center of the circle. Next, she lit the candle standing in front of the ectoplasm, mixing the dirt and water together in her hands. After several moments of mixing, Valerie blew the dirt/water mixture through the candle, effectively blowing it out and mingling with the ectoplasm she chanted.
"By the elements I slow you," Reaching outward in the circle, she turned on her light source and turned the light towards the ectoplasm.
"By the light I blind you," The ectoplasm fidgeted before slowly rising upwards, yet still remaining bound by the ground. Turning the light source off, Valerie struggled a bit before managing to tie the rope around the ectoplasm.
"By the darkness I bid you, I call you, binding yourself to my being. I order you to help protect me and the ones I love."
A bright flash blinded her, drowning her in its power. Soon it died down, her eyes widening in glee.
Inside the circle stood a ghost. Its red eyes widened in confusion at the inscribed circle, looking upward, it looked around her darkened room before landing on her.
"From the pentagrams on the floor, I'm assuming you were the one who summoned me." it said. "Why?"
She looked at the ghost in question. "You don't get to ask questions, scum."
The ghost twirled its staff in its hands. "First of all, you don't get to summon a ghost and call them scum. If I were you, Ms. Gray, it would behoove you to treat a ghost with some respect." snapped the ghost.
"How'd you know my name? I hadn't told you that."
The ghost stopped twirling its staff. "I'm Clockwork, Ghost of Time."
"So you know everything?" she questioned. It nodded its head slowly. "You knew that my dad was going to lose its job?"
"Unfortunately, I did know."
'It knew and it didn't do anything about it?' thought Valerie angrily. "And you didn't do anything, do you? You just sat there and watched." It's not a question, because that's exactly what happened. "You're just like Phantom. Both of you ruined my life! Phantom brought that stupid dog in the labs and you just let it happened. Watching my father got fired, us having to move out of Amity to Elmerton, all of it!" she shouted, her hands subconsciously fingering one of her guns.
Clockwork was silent. "I'm sorry that you're suffering." they said finally.
"Sorry?" barked Valerie bitterly. "You're sorry? If you really were sorry, then you would change it so that it would have never happened!" Hastily she pulled out her gun and shot it at Clockwork. "So why didn't you stop it?" Another shot. "Did you enjoy watching my father and I suffer? How about when he walked in at eight forty-five in the morning after staying up all night working as a security guard? What about when my 'friends' dropped me afterwards, leaving me to fend for myself?" As she continued her wrathful diatribe, she fired more shots, growing more infuriated when Clockwork skillfully evaded all her shots.
"Ms. Gray, please stop! You're wrong! I don't take pleasure from your suffering!" Clockwork objected.
Her dark forest green eyes narrowed hatefully. "Well if you didn't 'take pleasure from my suffering'," she drawled out mockingly. "then how come you haven't changed it?!"
"That's not it works!"
Valerie lowered her gun. "That's not it works?" she said slowly. "That's not how it works?"
"THAT'S NOT IT WORKS?" She screeched, shooting her gun again, smirking viciously when Clockwork fell to the ground moaning in pain. Valerie took a few steps forward towards Clockwork, placing a foot on theIr chest, aiming her gun at the Time Master, she said slowly, "Well then, how does it work?"
A tense silence stood between them and it was Valerie's hatred that broke it. "Don't tell me then. I'll get it out of you sooner or later." She weaves her gun around Clockwork's body, taps their case several times, enjoying how they flinched at the action before removing her foot off them and stepping back.
"You'll be a useful asset to me, but right now I want you to suffer." She said throwing a bouquet of blood blossoms at them, smiling sadistically as they begun to scream.
"Ms. Gray, please stop!"
"Scream louder." was her only response.
Fin! Please read and review!