Red, Green, and Gray

Danny instinctively swerved to avoid an ecto-blast, paying close attention to the hairs that stood up on the back of his neck. After his powers had been renewed, he'd found that his sense of intuition had been heightened, and he elected to pay close attention to it.

The halfa twisted midair, turning towards the scaly ghost. It was large — about twenty feet long with a tail that accounted for half of its length. The strong hindquarters pushed itself through the air, as if it was swimming. Its green and grey reptilian hide glittered in the morning sun, and Danny had to stop himself from staring at the mesmerizing swirling patterns. Shaking his head, he focused on the ghosts eyes, though that turned out to be a mistake.

The moment he looked into its eyes, Danny's mind went fuzzy, the world slowly fading to a green and grey swirl before him. His limbs felt numb, and for a sickening moment, he thought that that might be alright. If everything went numb, just for a little while. After all, Danny had been so stressed. For the first time since the asteroid, the pressure on his head subsided, leaving him with a calm, cool feeling to match his icy core.

The world came back into focus with a sickening thud as Danny was sprawled on his back. He let out a deep groan, his eyes fluttering as he tried to focus on something — anything. After a few gut wrenching moments, he was finally able to see the cloudy sky above him, though with his headache returning, it seemed to spin back and forth like a broken gyroscope.

"Phantom! Ah, uh, Fenton? Ugh, Danny! Get up!" a shrill voice called from above and behind him. Danny flipped over to his stomach, unable to find his footing, and looked up towards the voice. Zipping through the air was none other than Valerie Gray, wrapped in her ghost fighting suit. She was fighting off the reptilian ghost with difficulty.

Danny steadied his shaking breath, turning his attention once more to the ghost she was fighting. He concentrated on staying focused, and was able to catch a better glimpse at the creature before he had to turn away again. While the ghost's body looked like that of a massive lizard, its head seemed to be misplaced. The human face was gorgeous, the light green and turquoise features pointing upward like some sort of elven super model. Thick black hair fell on either sides, somehow maintaining a beautiful green-grey sheen despite the whipping wind and turmoil of the fight. Despite the fact that the ghost must have been furious to be enthralled in a battle, it wore an expression so gentle and heartbroken that Danny had to keep himself from running over and comforting it. The strangest part was its eyes.

The ghost's eyes glittered a million colors, like a kaleidoscope made of gemstones. He didn't dare focus any more, as he was afraid he'd go numb again. Instead, he turned back to Valerie, who was hardly managing to avoid the beast's attacks. It must have been firing ecto-blasts with its tail, as the aim didn't seem to coincide with what direction it was facing.

"Danny, come on! I need your help!" Valerie called out upon the realization Danny was looking at her. With a shaky breath, he rose to his feet and hardly managed not to tip over. He willed himself back into the air, ignoring the pounding waves crashing against his skull. Flying quickly and following his newfound intuition, Danny grabbed Valerie by the waist, turning away from the ghost and erecting a shield in front of them right as it fired another blast. He flew Valerie farther away, listening as the ghost let loose a moaning wail.

"Danny! What's your problem? Why were you flying towards that thing?!" Valerie demanded, squirming away from Danny's firm grip. She looked at him with stern judgment in her eyes, and with a start, he realized that he hadn't talked to the other ghost hunter since the asteroid incident.

"It...I don't know. That thing...did you look in its eyes?" Danny asked nervously, looking around them to make sure the ghost wouldn't sneak up on them.

"Its eyes? They're green, maybe a little red. A typical ghost," Valerie spat the word 'ghost' venomously, causing Danny to flinch back. Her gaze softened slightly as she noticed his reaction. "Oh, um, I didn't mean—"

"It's fine," Danny lied. "I think that thing has some sort of power over ghosts. When I looked into its eyes, it's like I was under its spell. I can't get too close."

"Oh."

"So I can fire shots from a distance, try to get it to keep turning around. You can take it closer. We'll weaken it enough to get it in the thermos. You should probably capture it, though. Just so I don't...you know," Danny explained, embarrassment tinting his cheeks at the end.

Valerie nodded as Danny handed her the thermos, which she clipped onto her belt. "Got it."

The two ghost hunters flew into action, finding the massive ghost immediately. Danny went invisible and, avoiding looking at the ghost, flew behind it. Meanwhile, Valerie kept it distracted and facing one direction, calling out taunts and dodging its attacks nimbly. Danny stayed invisible, firing a few shots in its direction. He didn't know if he managed to hit the ghost or not, but he did manage to get its attention either way. It turned back towards Danny, finding nothing to look at as he stayed invisible. It roared and turned back towards Valerie, who had launched a few red blasts at it. She dodged another volley of attacks, moving quicker than before after having a moment to catch her breath.

Danny turned visible for a moment, sending a non-verbal 'wrap it up' signal to Valerie. She nodded, and Danny slipped into invisibility once more, sending one more wave of attacks and watching the ghost turn its back on Valerie. She readied the Fenton thermos, preparing to fire, when Danny was forced back into visibility, doubling over in pain and bobbing up and down in the air.

A hissing, snake-like voice seeped into every crevice of his mind, causing the headache he was already nursing to intensify. All he could see was neon blue as it spoke into his mind. "Great One, he is back. I was trying to protect you. Spare me. Prepare yourself."

With that, Valerie sucked the creature into the thermos, and Danny's vision cleared. While he could see again, that didn't stop him from falling out of the air like a bag of rocks, landing heavily on the pavement below and creating a concrete crater. Valerie flew down to him just as his transformation dropped, leaving Danny Fenton lying in a puddle of rubble.

"Danny!" Valerie's voice made Danny cringe, groaning in pain as every inch of his body throbbed along with his head. "What's wrong? Danny?"

"I—" Danny started to speak, but the sound of his own voice echoed inside his head so painfully it stopped him from saying another word. Valerie grabbed his shoulder and shook him, which caused another blinding flash of pain. By the time his vision came back to him, it was like a minute or two had escaped his perception. He was slumped against Valerie's legs, his own legs draping off of her hover-board. She held him close to her by the collar of his shirt, and it chaffed slightly against his neck. They took a turn, the pain exceeding Danny's limits once more, and the world faded to black.

Danny woke up with a headache, which didn't surprise him at all. He'd been waking up with a headache all week. What did surprise him was the throbbing pain radiating from his head down his body. It didn't help that he was on a freezing cold lab table, wires attached to his head, arms, and back.

"Ah!" Danny sat straight up, wincing as the pain intensified. He looked around the lab, assessing danger hastily before his eyes landed on Valerie and Jazz, who must have been chatting a few yards away from him. Now, they both stared at him with wide eyes, clearly surprised by his abrupt awakening.

"Danny," Jazz breathed her brother's name, rushing over to him and grabbing his hands. She pulled back, cursing under her breath. "Ow…"

"Wh- what?" Danny stammered, mentally adjusting to the pain that accompanied his words.

"You shocked me," Jazz mumbled, rubbing her hands together before her focus dropped back down to him. "What happened? That thing…it hurt you?"

Danny's mind wandered momentarily to the ghost's warning. 'Great One, he is back. I was trying to protect you. Spare me. Prepare yourself.' He shuddered, not sure what it had meant. Whatever the message was, though, he was sure it wasn't a good one. "No. It- it didn't hurt me."

"What do you mean it didn't hurt you?!" Valerie exclaimed from across the lab, causing Danny to wince again. If she noticed, she didn't let on. She strode quickly over to the lab table, pounding her fist down between his feet. The shudder of the table rattled him all the way up to his already-aching brain.

"I don't think it was trying to hurt me. Didn't you hear what it said?" Danny asked. Valerie responded with a furrowed brow and a quick shake of the head. "It said it wanted to protect me, and…"

"…And?" Jazz picked up, and Danny realized he'd trailed off without finishing. He looked between his sister and Valerie before shaking his head hurriedly.

"And nothing. That was it," he lied. He didn't know what the rest of the ghost's message meant, and until he found out, he didn't want to worry Jazz. His sister looked down at him and gave him a look that told him she could see right through his lie. He lowered his head, turning away and avoiding her analytical gaze.

"Well, I don't know what ghosts consider protecting, but—" Valerie started, only to be interrupted by heavy footsteps clunking down the stairs to the lab. Sam ran right up to Danny the moment she saw him, her hands flying to his face before she flinched back.

"Sam? What's the matter?" Danny asked, rubbing his face self-consciously. He hadn't started to grow facial hair, had he? No, he realized quickly. He was still (to his dismay) completely hairless.

"I…it must be staticky in here," Sam said softly before grabbing his hands this time, squeezing them tightly. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"There was this ghost. A really strange one. I've never seen anything like it before," Danny began explaining, momentarily forgetting anyone else was in the room. "It was like a giant lizard, except for the head. It had a human face, and hair, longer than Jazz's. And its eyes…"

"A siren," Sam breathed the words, rubbing small circles across Danny's knuckles. "She put you in a trance?" Danny looked down and nodded in response.

"More than that, though. She didn't hurt me. She told me…" Danny almost shared the entire message before looking back up at Jazz and Valerie. Neither of them needed to know the entire truth. He swallowed his words, biting his lip nervously. "She said she was trying to protect me."

Sam grabbed Danny under his chin, lifting his gaze back up to her's. "Are you ok now?"

Danny almost nodded, but he hesitated. The pounding in his head had eased up as soon as Sam had come into the lab, but it was still almost deafening. How could he call that 'ok'? "I don't know."

"What's going on?"

"My head. I think there might be something wrong."

As soon as Danny mentioned that there might be something wrong with his head, Jazz called in to school for herself, Danny, Sam, and Valerie (who, for some reason, insisted on staying, despite the fact that they'd hardly talked the last month or two). The school wasn't happy about it, but as soon as Jazz played the 'savior of the world' card, they finally relented and excused the teens. Next, the elder Fentons were called. They'd left before sunrise to test some of their new equipment a few miles over in a field they rented out from time to time. Now that they knew how much damage their experiments could cause Danny, they decided that they'd test them somewhere they couldn't hurt him.

"Oh my baby boy, what's the matter," Maddie ran up to Danny as soon as she saw him, giving him a big hug before stiffening. "Ooh, it must be dry in here. You gave me a little shock, dear." Danny pulled away, looking skeptically at her as she ran to the kitchen to boil a pot of water. It was pretty normal for the lab to be dry, but Jazz and Sam had helped Danny upstairs into the living room. It was usually humid up there.

"Jazzy, you said it's his head?" Jack asked his daughter, turning to her with a worried gaze.

"Well, Danny said it's his head. I called you right away; I figured a head injury is nothing to mess around with," Jazz explained, redirecting Jack's attention to his son.

"Danny-boy, what are you feeling? Where does it hurt?"

Danny had to keep himself from saying 'everywhere', even if it was accurate. He knew that answer wouldn't exactly be all that helpful. "Um, my head in general. A little more in the back, like something's pressing against my skull. And then there's radiating, sometimes shooting, pain all the way down my body," Danny explained, taking his time with each word. He knew he was talking slower than usual, but he just needed some time to recover from every word — scratch that, every syllable.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows, sizing Danny up as he slumped back in the plush recliner. "We should do a CAT scan. Maybe an MRI. Make sure there's nothing going on in your brain. With the pain all over, it might be a good idea to do an x-ray, too. Let me talk to your mother."

Jack followed Maddie into the kitchen, joining her as she started the pot of water on the stove. Danny watched their worried expressions before turning back to Jazz, Sam, and Valerie. He still didn't understand why Valerie was there. Sure, she'd been there when the world's leaders had accepted him as an international hero, and she seemed to be ok with his existence, but she still hadn't talked to him since. Come to think of it, he hadn't even seen her at school. So why was she here?

"You're going to be alright, baby brother," Jazz smiled sweetly at him, taking a seat on the sofa next to the recliner he'd been set in. Sam leaned closer to him against the recliner, grabbing his hand and tracing his fingernails.

"You've had this headache all week," Sam didn't even ask — she stated. Danny looked down and nodded slowly. "Why didn't you tell me how bad it was? Why would you keep this from me?"

Danny felt a pit drop into his stomach. He swallowed hard, looking up at Sam. He met her eyes, shaking his head gently. "I'm sorry."

"Danny, I'm not mad. I'm just scared."

Danny closed his eyes. His headache was getting worse again, and talking about it brought it to an unbearable level. He didn't know how to tell them that he needed a distraction.

"So you said that thing's a siren?" Valerie asked, eyeing the thermos she hadn't let go of since he had come to. Sam turned to her, and Danny could feel her hand tense in his.

"What does it matter? All ghosts are all the same to you, right?" Sam spat, her deep purple eyes narrowing at the other girl.

"What's your problem? I helped your boyfriend, you know. Him and his cousin," Valerie spat back, venom seeping into her voice despite her genuine intentions.

"My problem," Sam almost took a step towards Valerie, but Danny stopped her by hanging on to her hand tighter, "is that you tried to kill him. Over and over again. And then you drop off the face of the earth, like nothing happened. Are you even sorry? Do you even care?"

Valerie turned away, her shoulders taught. "What do you want me to do with the siren?"

The ghost's voice echoed in Danny's ears again, causing him to tense up. 'Spare me'. "No. I'll take her."

Valerie spun around so fast, Danny was surprised she didn't get whiplash. "But—"

"I said I'll take her," Danny asserted, meeting Valerie's eyes. "Please."

She squared her shoulders, giving him a small nod. Setting the thermos down on the small table next to Danny's chair, Valerie left, closing the door softly behind her.

"Danny," Maddie said, stepping out of the kitchen and looking at her son with worried eyes. "I think it's time to run some tests."

Hey all! What do you think?

Sorry for the late update, I've been a bit distracted with everything going on lately. But I've been working on some fun ideas for this fic that I think are really fun!

Please comment if you like this story! Or even if you have some constructive criticism, I really do enjoy comments :)

Until next time,

~Ash