So it hadn't been a dream, thought Ruby. I am... something else. Maybe a ghost.. that boy, Danny had said he was a ghost, but she was different. But, getting back to the present, should she tell her parents? What would they do? They were scientists, very dedicated to their work.
Best not to, thought Ruby. She didn't want anybody to know about this, especially anyone who might do experiments on her. She stood up, and walked downstairs. She was still in her clothes from the day before.
"Mom, Dad" she called as she walked down the stairs.
"RUBY" Her parents came running up to her. "You're up! We saw you in your bed this morning, but we didn't see you come in, or anybody bring you here. What happened"
"Ummmm... I don't remember. I passed out." Ruby said nervously. It wasn't completely a lie.
"Well, this settles it. We're moving" her dad said.
"WHAT" Ruby had to concentrate s hard as she could to keep her hair from catching fire again. They were acting like it was no big deal! Did they even plan to TELL her?
"Well... we got a job offer a few days ago" explained Ruby's mom"For a place a couple hours north of here. We were going to tell you yesterday, but... well.."
"And now we are definitely moving" finished her dad. "I want you to be someplace... safer."
"AAHH" Ruby scremed in frustration, and her hair started smoking. "I'M GOING FOR A WALK" she screamed, then ran outside and slammed the door. As soon as she got outside, she stopped concentrating and her hair burst into flames.
Why do they have to do this! At least I have TWO friends, and now they have to go and move...
Without thinking, Ruby changed.
"What the... oh yeah. Oh, I can fly now! Ruby lifted off into the air. It made her feel so much better, now that she was dipping in and out of clouds, under the bright morning sun. She could see her whole town from here. Suddenly, a little flame crept from the side of her mouth and drifted up into the air. Right as she went under a cloud, she saw something glowing shoot past.
Can I breath fire now, too? she wondered. She tried to do it again, but, it didn't work.
Oh, well, Ruby thought. In about an hour, when she finally landed, she was feeling breathless, but a hundred times happier than she had that morning. She could make new friends where she was moving, and it wasn't like she was completely out of touch with her old ones, either.
I love flying... She thought about Danny. He'd said she wasn't completely the same as him.. she had his powers, but with fire.
One time when having two hundred science fiction books comes in handy!
Ruby sat down in her beanbag chair with some of her favorite books.
Danny Phantom was going for a joyride. Not only was he grounded for a month after leaving school yesterday, after disappearing after school that same day, he had to stay in his room for a week exept for meals and school. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, but he desperatly needed fresh air.
Danny was sick and tired of getting in trouble every day for disappearing when he was supposed to be doing something. But, he loved flying, and he could never stay mad when he was in the air. It was so beautiful, the clear blue sky, and the wind in his face.
What a perfect day, thought Danny. Just then he saw a flash of glowing red vanish under a cloud. Danny sighed, wondering why there were so many ghosts, and followed. He didn't stop to think about why his ghost sense didn't go off.
Danny noticed that this ghost was behaving a little... strangely. It wasn't trying to wreck anything, or even trying to scare anyone. It was just flying around. As Danny continued to follow it, something about it started to seem familiar. This wasn't a ghost he captured in the Fenton Thermos before, but still...
It had done a few loops around the town, when suddenly it slowed down.
Yes! thought Danny happily. I'll catch it now! The ghost had stopped, and Danny finally got a good look at it. It was the girl from yesterday! She phased through the window. Danny watched as two flaming rings slid around her, the same way they did on him, and turned her human. She was a girl about his age with dark brown hair and glasses. Danny smiled and flew away. Even if she ever did find out who he was, he knew who she was now, too.
Ruby had come to a conclusion. Well, a close to a conclusion as she was going to get, considering all these books were on supposedly 'nonexistent' creatures. She was an elemental. Quote, A very rare mythological creature with the powers of one of the four elements: fire, water, earth, or wind. They are also immune to their own element; fire cannot be burned, water can breath underwater, etc. The elementals are often mistaken for ghosts, having all of the same powers, but they are not dead... Ruby had stopped there. It looked as close as she was going to get. So she was Ruby Fire, the fire elemental.
The next week was very uneventful, for both Ruby and Danny. Ruby was getting better with her powers; she noticed her fire didn't hurt or catch anything on fire unless she wanted it to, and Danny had told Sam and Tucker that he at least knew what that girl with the fire looked like. A week later, it was Sunday. But more importantly, it was the Sunday Ruby Myer and her family moved.
Ruby was still a little sad. She had meant to tell her parents she didn't want to move, but they had seemed so excited about it, and now it was too late. They'd bought the house and the movers were here. Ruby sighed and picked up the last box of her stuff to carry to the moving van. She put in in the van and got in her car. Ruby sighed as she caught her last glance at her house, and watched as the town she'd lived in for her whole life rolled away.
Ruby started thinking about where she was going to live. She'd missed the name, but she remembered her parents saying something abut it being more like a city than the places they had been before. She was going to have to walk to school, which was new. Ruby hoped she would make at least one friend. She was thinking about this when a little flame crept out of the corner of her mouth. She turned just in time to see a little glowing green man in overalls go into their moving van.
What was that? Ruby thought. She decided to check it out. She went fire (which is what I'm going to call it from now on, because it sounds better than 'elemental', plus, it's shorter.) and two flaming rings passed over her. Unfortunately, her dad noticed.
"Ruby, what was that" he asked, not taking his eyes off the road.
"Um... my flashlight" Ruby replied very nervously. "Yeah, I, uh took it with me because it wouldn't fit in the other boxes."
"Well, keep it off."
"Okay, Dad" Ruby replied just as she phased out of the car.
She flew back to the moving van and phased into it, where she saw the little glowing guy going through her stuff.
"HEY" Ruby yelled. "That's mine"
He turned to her. "I AM THE BOX GHOST! MASTER OF ALL CONTAINERS CARDBOARD AND SQUARE"
"Okay, fine. But can you get out of my stuff"
"NO ONE TELLS THE BOX GHOST WHAT TO DO! BEWARE MY CARDBOARD VENGANCE"
The Box Ghost made an empty box fly at Ruby, which she caught easily.
"I'm asking you nicely for the last time. Get out of this stuff."
"NO! I SHALL"
But he was cut off, because at 'NO' Ruby had tackled him. It ended with Ruby standing on top of the box ghost.
"Will you leave it alone now" Ruby asked dangerously. The box ghost looked scared for a brief moment. Then, he yelled,
"BEWARE" and phased through the bottom of the truck. Ruby put all of the stuff The Box Ghost had taken out back into the boxes, and went back to her car, where she went back human.
"Ruby, keep the flashlight off" her dad said.
"Okay" Ruby said, getting buckled. "Where are we moving again, Mom"
"I already told you, it's called Amity Park.
Maddie Fenton looked out the window. "Jack, Jazz, Danny, we have new neighbors! Let's go welcome them."
"I don't have to, because I'm grounded, right" asked Danny, sounding hopeful.
"No, you're coming" said his mom.
"Alright" sighed Danny.
Ruby stepped out of the car at the same time Danny stepped out of his house. When they saw each other, they stared and their mouths dropped open.
Ruby's eyes met Danny's. He was staring at her as if he'd seen a ghost. (lol) Ruby looked thoughtfully at Danny.
I've seen him somewhere before... Ruby thought to herself. But then I couldn't have... we live about two hours away... Then it hit her. He was that ghost kid from the bus! Wow, that was strange... they'd moved in right next to someone who was probably the only person with powers like hers.
She opened her mouth to say something. "Hey"
But Danny cut her off. "Hey, come look at... um..." Danny paused"this thing... over here" he finished, somewhat lamely, as he started pulling Ruby toward the back of her new house.
"Well, hi..." Ruby said. "You're Danny Phantom, right"
"Yeah... well, I'm Danny Fenton..." Danny said. "And you're... that girl... from the bus..."
"Right" replied Ruby. "My name's Ruby. I'm a fire elemental. Why did you pull me over here, and how did you recognize me"
"See, I was flying, and I saw you, so I thought you were another ghost, and I followed you."
"Oh. Wait, another ghost? As in, you get a lot"
"Yeah. My parents are a little... to put it mildly, obsessed. They built a portal, which is supposed to let ghosts out of the ghost world, it's called the Ghost Zone, and into ours. When they built it, it didn't exactly work, so they gave up. I went inside it- yes, I know that was dumb" he added at the expression on Ruby's face. "and I accidentally hit a button. The portal turned on, and I passed out. When I woke up, I was in my ghost form. I pulled you away because I don't want my parents to find out about me. I'm not sure what they would do."
"I can understand that" Ruby said. "My parents are scientists. I haven't told them, either."
Danny opened his mouth to reply, but at that point, a large man in a orange lab suit ran over to Danny and grabbed his arm. "DANNY! Help me tell the new neighbors all about GHOSTS! He started pulling Danny toward the front of the house.
"Ruby this is my dad..." Danny said.
Ruby had a look on her face that clearly said, 'this is what he has to live with?'. In the front, Mrs. Fenton was saying something about ghosts, while Ruby's parents were looking at them, very obviously pretending to be interested, and Ruby didn't blame them. A month ago, If someone would've told her ghosts existed, she would have had to try hard to keep from laughing in their face.
"So" said Mr. Myer, finally speaking"have you ever actually seen a ghost"
"Once, said Jack. This got the Myers' attention. "It was on our anniversary. It kept flying around and yelling, 'I AM THE BOX GHOST!'"
Ruby was surprised at this. That was the ghost she'd seen on the way here.
"Hey, Ruby, I'll help you carry your stuff to your room" offered Danny.
"Okay" agreed Ruby. She grabbed a box, and Danny grabbed the one next to it.
"Something you wanted to say" she asked Danny.
"Yeah, have you seen the box ghost? Because I saw that look on your face when my parents mentioned him."
"On the way here, he was trying to take our stuff in the moving van. All the ghosts can't be that pathetic, can they"
"No. Definitely not. See, I fight them with my powers, and the machines my parents make."
"I was wondering about that. If your parents make ghost hunting stuff, why haven't they figured you out yet" Ruby got to her room and started taking her things out of the box she was carrying.
"It's weird. They think my sister Jazz is a ghost, but all their inventions point to me and say 'ghost' but they think they're all broken."
"That's convenient." They started outside, and had to quit talking. Danny saw two people pass by the house just as he got outside.
"Sam! Tuck" he called, and they came over. "Hey! This is Ruby." He gestured toward Ruby. "Ruby, this is Sam" he pointed to the gothic girl. "and Tucker." he pointed toward the boy. "Ruby's my new next door neighbor. You know what, in about an hour, we should all meet a my house."
Sam and Tucker knew this usually meant something about ghosts. Was he planning to tell Ruby!
"Okay Danny..." they said together.
Sorry I took so long after saying I'd post… please review!