Mina: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Nothing major happened after the school dance and life moved at a slower pace. No ghosts had shown themselves in a few weeks and Danny started to wonder what this meant. School was just as hard as ever with the numerous confrontations with Dash which usually ended with Danny in a locker and Cana yelling at Dash.
It came as a surprise then when on a Friday afternoon while Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Cana walked home from school that Danny's ghost sense went off. Sam, Tucker, and Cana formed a ring around Danny as he went from Danny Fenton to Danny Phantom. He then took off and started to look around for the ghost that had made his ghost sense go off. He was then hit by a red blast that came from behind him.
"Looking for me?" the ghost said as Danny spun around. This was a ghost he had never seen before. The ghost had black hair that reached down to cover his left eye. The eye that was showing was blood red. He wore a blood red shirt with a black jacket over it. His pants were black with streaks of red on them. His shoes were also black with skulls on them.
"Who are you?" Danny asked stunned with the figure that he was looking at.
"I am known as the ghost of despair or just Despair!" the ghost replied and then shot another red blast at Danny from his hand.
"Despair huh? That's a strange name," Danny said in reply and then shot a green blast at Despair.
Despair was barely hurt when the blast hit him. He simply fired another red blast at Danny. This blast sent Danny flying into a building. He rubbed his head and quickly dodged the next blast that had been aimed at him. He started to fire another blast at Despair but was hit by another red blast coming from behind him. He turned around to find another ghost floating in the air. This ghost had black hair as well that went down to her hips and had some red and orange streaks in it. Her eyes were red just like Despair's eyes. She had way too much black eyeliner on and her lips were black from her lip stick. She wore a red shirt with a skull on it and over that she wore a black leather jacket with flames drawn on the sleeves. She also wore a black skirt that ended at her knees with flames drawn on the bottom and she wore black boots. On her hands she wore black nail polish and she had little skulls on each one. She grinned evilly at Danny.
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot to introduce my sister! Meet Misery!" Despair said as he fired a red blast at Danny that caused him to fall to the ground.
Danny fired a bunch of green blasts at Misery and Despair but they dodged every single one.
"Is that the best you can do Phantom?" Despair asked.
Danny flew up toward them at full speed and hit both of them with his glowing fists. They flew back a little from the force of the punches but they quickly recovered. Misery made fire balls appear in her hands and she began throwing them at Danny. He then went intangible and was able to avoid them. He aimed a kick at Misery but she grabbed his leg and sent him flying into the building that was next to them. Despair then fired a few red blasts at Danny who was unable to dodge them. Then, before Danny could retaliate, both Misery and Despair just disappeared in a flash of red light.
Danny got up from where he had fallen and just stared at where Misery and Despair had just been. Darn it! I let them get away! Man they were powerful, but what a boring color scheme. Before he could turn back to Danny Fenton a pink blast hit him. Zooming toward him on her glider was Amity Park's number one ghost hunter, Valerie Gray. She was wearing a red suit with a hood that covered her head. She was carrying a huge gun which was the source of the blast.
"You're going down Danny Phantom!" she yelled.
"Now is really not a good time!" Danny shouted back.
Valerie fired another shot at Danny who dodged and started to fly away. Valerie pursued and fired a few more blast that Danny was able to dodge while still flying away. He was heading toward the park. Valerie then started firing rockets at him which he easily dodged as he headed into the park.
"Running away are you?" Valerie said. "That just proves that you're a coward!"
"I'm not a coward!" Danny shouted. "I just don't want to hurt you!"
"Well I want to hurt you!" Valerie shouted while firing another barrage of rockets at Danny which he was able to dodge.
Sam, Tucker, and Cana had followed Danny to the park and were now crouching behind a bush and watching the fight between Danny and Valerie. Danny landed on the ground and so did Valerie. She fired a blast at Danny which he went intangible to dodge. Valerie then pulled out a bigger gun but never got a chance to fire.
Cana had jumped in front of Valerie's huge gun. Her arms were spread out to protect Danny. She just stood there with a determined expression on her face.
"Move out of the way Cana! I have a fight to finish!" Valerie commanded.
"I'm not going to move. I'm not going to let you hurt him," Cana said determinedly.
"And why not?" Valerie asked.
"Because he's not a bad ghost. He just wants to protect this town and the people in it. He's saved me twice now. Please Valerie, you've got to listen to me. What has he ever done to you?"
"He revealed to my father that I'm a ghost hunter which then got me grounded!"
"Do you think he did that for a reason?"
"What other reason is there other than the fact that he's evil?" Valerie asked.
"This was during the time when your town was sucked into the Ghost Zone right?" Cana questioned.
"Yeah! I was just going to take the suit and save the town but he ruined that plan!"
"Well, let's think about that. The suit amplifies the wearer's natural abilities. Therefore since he's a ghost and you're not his abilities are the ones that should be amplified in order to fight another ghost. However, there was not enough time for him to explain this to you and you wouldn't have listened anyway so he did the one thing that would get through to you," Cana explained.
"But that still doesn't change the result!" Valerie shouted.
"Okay. I promise that I will find a way to make your dad think that you're not the ghost hunter as long as you never harm Danny Phantom again," Cana boldly said.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Valerie asked doubtfully.
"I'll think of something. Just promise."
"Fine. I promise that I won't harm Danny Phantom," Valerie reluctantly said as she put away her weapon.
The whole time Danny had just been standing behind Cana too stunned to move. The thought that she would even do something like jump in front of a loaded weapon that still could have been fired just to protect him had startled him. He was relieved to hear Valerie agree to not harm him.
"Good. Now just let me think for a few days and I promise I will come up with something," Cana said.
Valerie then left the park and went home before her dad could notice her absence. Once she was gone Danny went behind the bush that Sam and Tucker were still behind and changed back to normal. Cana then walked behind it to join them.
"So now what's the plan Cana?" Sam asked.
"I said I didn't know and I needed time to think," Cana replied a little irritated.
The four of them left the park and headed back to Danny's house. There they spent their Friday afternoon watching a bunch of movies. Jazz and Danny's parents were not home. The next day Cana had to skip out on hanging out with Danny, Sam, and Tucker because of the continued lessons on ghost hunting. However, it was during one of these boring sessions that she got an idea. On Monday, she was able to tell Valerie the plan.
"Okay Valerie. I've got this all figured out. The next time a ghost comes around I will borrow your ghost hunting equipment. You will be with your dad and I will fly past both of you. You will then point that out to your dad. If he asks why you were wearing all the ghost hunting gear before you will say that the person who normally wore it wanted you to fill in for them and that you were sworn to secrecy so you had to lie and say it was you. If your father is gullible enough that should work," Cana explained.
"Okay," Valerie said and handed Cana all of her ghost hunting equipment.
Then for the next few days they waited for a ghost to show up. On Wednesday Danny's ghost sense went off and Cana ran to put on the ghost hunting stuff. She then hopped on Valerie's glider and flew off after Danny. Danny eventually found Misery and Despair near an ally. He engaged in a fight with them while Cana stayed back and waited for Valerie and her dad to show up. Danny was getting hit pretty hard with red blasts and fireballs from Misery and Despair and his green blasts barely hurt them. Cana decided that she couldn't wait for Valerie much longer and she hopped into the fight. She fired a pink blast from one of the guns at both of the evil ghosts. It hit them and sent them flying into the building that was behind them. They then began firing red blasts and fireballs at Cana while Danny snuck up behind them and hit them really hard with his glowing fists.
Valerie had just shown up with her father. She pointed up to the sky where the fight was taking place.
"See dad? I can't be the ghost hunter if I'm down here," Valerie said to her father.
"But Valerie, what were you doing wearing all of that stuff when I caught you in the Fenton's basement?" her dad asked.
"I was filling in for the person who normally wears the suit. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone about it so I had to lie to you and say that I was the ghost hunter," Valerie said exactly what Cana had told her to say.
"I guess Valerie. Okay, you're not grounded anymore," he said being just as gullible as Cana had been counting on for her plan to work.
Up in the sky Danny had just been kicked down to the ground so that he landed in the ally. Cana fired a rocket at Despair and Misery and it hit them and knocked them into the building again. Despair then fired a huge red blast at her that she couldn't dodge and she was sent flying off of the glider and before the glider could catch her she hit a building. Despair and Misery fired a few more blasts at Cana and Danny and then they vanished in a burst of red light.
Valerie left her dad and ran over to Cana. Sam and Tucker had run over to Danny and covered him as he turned back to normal. Valerie's dad had decided to go back to his house and wait for Valerie to come home because Valerie had to go to the library to do some homework. Cana slowly got up and took off all of the ghost hunting stuff and handed it back to Valerie.
"Did it work?" she asked.
"Oh it most definitely worked!" Valerie shouted in excitement. "Thank you so much!"
"It wasn't a problem," Cana said weakly. That last blast had hurt pretty bad.
Valerie helped Cana to her feet and then Cana walked over to Danny, Sam, and Tucker.
"Now remember Valerie, you can't harm Danny Phantom ever again!" Cana yelled back to Valerie as they went in opposite directions.
"I won't!" Valerie shouted back.
The group of four continued on their way back to Danny's house. They were all unaware of the surprise that would await them there.
Mina: Okay. I just want to say that if you made it this far I think you can easily leave a short review if you read this chapter. This message wasn't for my faithful reviewers, only to those who are possibly reading this without leaving a review. Anyway, I obviously went with the long version of the chapter but that means that the next chapter may take a while to get up here. I will try my best to update quickly though. I will now thank my wonderful three reviewers!
Nari-chan SND: I know I update fast but sadly I think that is about to end with school starting and then sucking up all of my time. Now that's a scary thought.
funkymonkey92: I'm glad you like this story so much and I'm glad that I was able to put it on the C2. I would love to read your story on fictionpress. I will try to continue to update as quickly as I can but with school starting that will get tougher.
Missmeliss4251: You'll get the answers to your questions soon enough, at least if I'm able to update quickly once school starts.
Mina: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and I will try to get the next one up as soon as I can. It may start taking me longer though so be patient. Please review!