Hey all, Sparkling Patronus here with a little one shot. I'm at my grandma's and needed something to pass the time, so I just typed up this little story about Danny and Valerie, though mostly Valerie. However, this fic disregards the episode 'Flirting With Disaster', so Valerie has the same suit and stuff. Well, hope you like it.
Edit: Just fixed this story up a bit. I fixed most of the typos (dunno if I missed some) and I added an extra three paragraphs at the end because I felt that it was a bit rushed. Guess that's what happened when you try to write while watching TV. Oh, and I need to add a disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Don't own Valerie, Danny, or any other characters appearing in this fic. All I own is my own ideas.
Valerie Gray sat on her bed, text books and spare pieces of paper scattered all across the floor. She'd been trying to get her homework done for over an hour, but she was finding it hard to concentrate. Her mind kept wandering randomly, trying to keep concentrated on anything other than finding the circumference of the various circles in her math book. However, she found that it kept wandering back to her work or hobby (she wasn't quite sure which to call it) of ghost hunting.
She been in this line of work for a little over four months now, ever since the infamous ghost boy, Danny Phantom, Invisobill or whatever the heck his name was (she preferred to refer to him as 'ghost kid' or 'ghost boy'), had cost her father his job at Axion labs and ruined her life. Since then she'd vowed to get her revenge on all ghosts, and to make sure they were all sent back to the ghost zone where they belonged. However, the white haired ghost boy was still her main target, and he turned out to be a very tough target. He'd managed to evade her every time she'd gone after him, but she refused to give up. If anything his escapes only strengthened her resolve.
Tracing over one of the circles with her pencil, she moved her line of thought of thought toward the aforementioned ghost kid. At first, she had been so secure in the fact that the town supported her hunting the ghost boy. Even before the town had labeled him public enemy number one she'd known that he was bad news. Then when they'd all started to despise him, she'd felt proud because she knew she was doing them all a service.
Then that had changed during the period when they were imprisoned by Pariah Dark. He'd taken the Fenton's battle suit and made like he was heading off defeat the ghost king. Then the town just went and ate up his act as if he were some great hero! It seemed as if she was the only one who saw through this ruse. She knew the truth about that ghost kid. He hadn't really done anything other than tell his ghost buddies to lay low so he could lull the town into a false sense of security. He was going to turn against the town sooner or later, and then she'd be the only one there to save their sorry behinds.
Valerie heaved a sigh, realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her homework. Sweeping her arm across the bed, she watched with satisfaction as the books and papers on fell to the floor in a heap of pages. Throwing her pencil onto the books, she put her hands behind her head and lay back on the pillows of her bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling. She knew she'd have to pick up the books and get moving again eventually, but for now she was going to take a rare 5 minutes to herself.
Unfortunately, her time was cut short when she heard the familiar beeping of her ghost radar. Figures, it couldn't have gone off five minutes ago when she would have happily chosen a ghost invasion over the probability of green marbles in a bag. Still, she couldn't ignore the call of duty; it was her job to keep the ectoplasmic scum out of the air.
Propping herself up on her elbows with a frustrated groan, she checked her watch (which was also conveniently the main operating system for her weapons) to see what the problem was. From the radar she could tell that there were two ghosts downtown by the park. She straightened up and hopped off the bed, her feet making almost no noise on the carpeted floor of her bedroom. She would have to make it past her dad if she planned to get out of the house and activate her hover board.
She snuck out of her room and peaked around the corner of the hallway. Her father was in the living room (one of the four rooms in their apartment) reading the newspaper. She'd have to establish her alibi quickly and make a rush for the front door. Sighing, she reflected on how much easier her life had been before her father had found out about her little extracurricular activity. Unfortunately, that had been another attempt by the ghost boy to make her life miserable. He'd unmasked her in front of her father shortly before stealing the Fenton's suit and taking of to 'defeat' the ghost king.
Taking a deep breath, she prepared to go. Her brain was urging her on, but her body didn't seem to want to listen. These sort of daring escapes usually led to a long argument with her father, and she really wasn't in the mood. She was happy that she wasn't carrying a backpack full of ectoblasters with her, because her dad would have almost certainly demanded to check it. As it was though, she only needed to push a certain button on her watch to activate her suit, her board, and the basic weapons that were stored with them. Convincing herself that she was leaving innocent people in danger by standing around, she was finally able to move out into the living and across the way to the front door.
She'd almost made it the whole way, and she thought for one brief and shining moment that her father hadn't even noticed her. However, her hand was inches from the doorknob when she heard her father speak up.
"Valerie, where are you going?" he asked setting his newspaper aside to look at his daughter. Valerie cringed and dropped her arm away from her only portal to freedom.
Mustering up as much fake enthusiasm as is humanly possible, she replied sweetly, "Oh no where daddy, I was just going out to stretch my legs for a little bit"
"Don't you have homework to do?" he asked suspiciously, raising one eyebrow. Valerie always began to lose hope of escape when he made that face. It usually signified that her father wasn't stupid enough to believe one thing that came out of her mouth.
"Yeah, but I've been working on it for over an hour, and I can't concentrate. It's a nice day, so I thought I'd take a quick walk around the block and come back," she said quickly, batting her eyelashes innocently. He didn't buy it.
"This wouldn't have to do with your ghost hunting would it," he asked, anger seeping into his voice. Damn, he always saw right through her.
She sighed, "OK dad fine, yes! Are you happy now? Look, there are these two ghosts down by the park. It should only take me five minutes to get rid of them and I'll come right back, I swear!" she pleaded, begging him with her best bambi eyes.
"No Valerie. I already told you, no ghost hunting on school days. Plus, you've already lied to me and you know how I feel about that! Now go back up to your room and do you homework and I don't want to hear about any more of this nonsense," he said, his voice only lower than yelling by a little bit. He stood up and pointed his finger toward the door. All hope of argument left Valerie in an instant.
She was contemplating maybe listening to her father for once and not getting into trouble, when her radar beeped again, signifying that the ghosts were on the move. Not wasting a second, she turned and wrenched the door open, barreling down the stairs faster than she knew was possible without breaking a limb. She rushed down the three flights of stairs that led to their apartment, ignoring her fathers outraged cries of 'Valerie come back here!', and practically flew out the front door. She knew she was going to get it when she got home later, but that didn't seem very important right now. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she activated her suit and board and shot off, following the radar to the ghosts' location.
About ten blocks from her house she saw them. There were indeed two, and she recognized the first one immediately. Fire blazed in her eyes as they alighted upon the being (she couldn't quite call him a person) that she hated more than anyone or anything else in the world. That white haired, green eyed, black and silver clad ghost boy. She happened to recognize the second ghost as well, but she didn't spare it nearly as much thought. It was that large mechanical ghost that had trapped her in the ghost zone with her most hated enemy. She couldn't remember his name, but she knew it started with an 'S'. What was it again"? Skelka...Stalker...Snigger...Steve? Ah screw it! Who even cares?
Drawing a bit closer, she realized that the two already seemed to be battling it out. That was one thing she didn't understand. Why did the ghost boy fight with the other ghosts? She assumed it was because those ghosts had done something to offend him in someway, and he was taking his revenge on them. She almost found herself feeling sorry for those other ghosts. Key word being 'almost'.
However, she couldn't help but admit that the ghost kid was a tough adversary, and he seemed to be doing a good job taking the other ghost down. He just kept hammering it with those strange green ectoplasmic blasts, and whenever the other would retaliate he'd shake it off and continue his assault. It was almost as if the ghost boy was already familiar with the other ghosts attacks and knew how to avoid them. However, the other ghost seemed to be very weak. The ghost kid never got in that many shots when he was fighting her. In fact, he hardly got in any shots at all from what she could remember of their previous battles. This thought made her feel rather proud of herself.
Deciding that she could take both of the ghosts at once, she charged up her bazooka and shot into the thick of the fight, deciding to take out the ghost boy first since the other one already seemed too weak to bother her while she went after him. Firing off a blast, she watched with satisfaction as it caught the ghost boy by surprise and blasted him sideways a good few feet. She watched shake his head and look up, eyes widening as he spotted her.
'That's right, you know who's boss,' she thought, aiming her gun to fire another blast at the shocked ghost.
However, when she pulled the trigger, he darted out of the way with surprising speed. Valerie, used to being led on a chase by the ghost kid, happily followed him in hot pursuit. She missed several blasts before sending one that hit him hard in the back and sent him spiraling toward the earth.
Mentally patting herself on the back, she swooped down to the ground to weaken him further. She was in position with her gun aimed before he even had a chance to get up. As her gun was charging up, he turned around, and his eyes grew wide with fear. Valerie was sure the terror in his eyes was caused by the gun. She didn't know how wrong she was.
"Behind you!" shouted the ghost boy, pointing his finger at something over Valerie's shoulder.
Valerie scoffed at his pathetic attempts to trick her, "Yeah right! Like I'm gonna believe-
But her sentence was cut off as she was rammed hard from behind. Apparently that other ghost hadn't been as weak as she had been counting on, and she soon found herself struggling in its surprisingly strong grip.
"Let me go," she shouted, kicking and flailing for all she was worth. There was no way she was going to be captured by the very thing she hunted.
"Ah, I remember you. The red hunter. I do recall you wrecking my plans a while back. We can't let that happen again now can we?" he said menacingly, tightening his grip so much that Valerie couldn't breathe.
"Let her go!" came a voice from not too far away, though it sounded so much more distant to Valerie, who was beginning to feel dizzy. Then suddenly, a burst of air filled her lungs as she felt her attackers grip vanish from her neck. Regaining her senses, she saw the ghost boy once more hurling attacks at the other ghost not too far away.
For one moment she thought that perhaps the ghost boy had done that to help her, but then she remembered what kind of ghost he was and realized that he had merely wanted to get back to venting his anger on the other ghost. Obviously he saw the other ghost as a better target than Valerie herself for the moment.
Taking advantage of the ghosts' being preoccupied, Valerie checked to make sure she wasn't injured in any way. She should have known better than to let her guard down for even a second, even if it had seemed that the ghost had been too weak to do anything, and she had almost paid dearly for her mistake. It almost made her sick to think that her life had been save, albeit accidentally, by that white haired plague on humanity. This time she'd attack one at a time, always being sure to keep a well-trained eye on whichever one she wasn't beating senseless.
She pulled out two ectoguns, holding one in each hand, and moved toward the two ghosts once again. This time, she fired two shots, one meant for each ghost. The ghost boy only dodged the one meant for him, but the other (what was his name?) dodged it and shot toward her again, firing a blast of his own at her as he drew closer.
Valerie was caught quite off guard by this, and the blast hit her, knocking her from her board before she could process what was happening. It was strange, this ghost was not nearly as weak as she'd assumed by watching the ghost kid fight him. Luckily, the board changed course and headed back toward her. Not so luckily, the other ghost noticed this, and destroyed the board with another blast before it could reach her.
Valerie felt fear grip her heart as she plummeted toward the ground. She squeezed her eyes tight and waited for the impact that would most certainly kill her, but it never came. After noticing that she was not going to hit the ground and break every bone in her body, she tentatively opened her eyes. What she saw made her wish she'd just hit the sidewalk instead, for she had apparently been caught by none other than the ghost kid, and she was still in his arms.
Valerie immediately did what any ghost hating teenage girl would do; she began kicking and screaming for him to let her down. Obviously, she didn't realize that they were still a good many feet off the ground. Finally, the ghost boy came to a halt and set her down.
Valerie, still cringing at the idea of being held in the arms of her worst enemy, shouted, "Don't you ever touch me again!"
All she received in reply was a sarcastic, "You're welcome!" before the ghost in front of her was blasted off his feet by the other ghost, who'd obviously seen his chance while the ghost boy let his guard down.
Recovering quickly, the ghost boy jumped back in front of her and put up a rather large shield, just in time to protect her from an oncoming blast of energy. If Valerie hadn't known better, she might actually say that this ghost kid was trying to protect her. But obviously, that very idea was completely ridiculous. It had to be a trick! He was going to try to get her to let her guard down so he could finish her! Well, she wasn't going to let that happen. She wasn't as stupid as he obviously thought she was.
"I have so had enough of this!" shouted the ghost kid, dropping the shield and sending a powerful blast at the other ghost, who was blasted several feet away from the sheer force of it. Quickly, he sent another blast with his other hand, and continued firing them in rapid succession until the other ghost fell to the ground.
Valerie watched all this with fascination; the ghost kid seemed to be more powerful than she'd thought. She'd never even seen some of the attacks he was now using. It was almost as if he'd been holding back when he'd fought her. But that didn't make sense. He was a ghost, why should he care about harming a human? She shook her head again. It most definitely had to be a trick.
Finally, the ghost kid seemed to have weakened to other ghost so far that it couldn't even stand back up. It was then that she saw him pull something out, though she couldn't quite be sure exactly what it was, and suck the other ghost into it. When he was finished, he capped the thermos-like object and floated back to the ground, looking a bit worse for the wear. Then he seemed to pick something up and, noticing Valerie still standing there, he floated over to her.
Valerie now realized that she seemed to have dropped her guns when the other ghost had knocked her off of her board. She was defenseless against the ghost without her weapons. She began to panic as she started to slowly back away. It was not like her to back out of a fight, but even she knew when she was outmatched. There was no way she could stand up to a ghost with only brute force, she needed her weapons. Unfortunately, none of them were even in sight from where she was standing.
The ghost kid slowly and landed on the ground, closing the distance between them on foot. Valerie knew what would happen now. She was defenseless, and this ghost was going to finish her. Still, she was not going down with out a fight. To her aggravation, she saw that the object he'd picked up was one of her own guns! Was he going to use one of her own weapons against her? To her utter astonishment however, not only did he make no move to harm her, but he held out the ectogun and motioned for her to take it.
Tentatively, Valerie reached out, slowly at first, and then used her fast reflexes to swipe the gun out of his hand, should he be planning anything tricky. Oddly enough though, he only smiled as she took the gun. This was going against every law of ghosts she knew. Something was most definitely fishy here.
"Are you OK?" he asked, sounding…did he actually sound concerned?
Valerie was about to make a snide remark and tell him to leave before she blasted his ghostly head off, when she met his eyes. It was so strange, there was something there…he had such an innocent, truthful look in his eyes. Could it be that he actually was concerned?
Yet, every pore of her being screamed that it was a trap, and she found herself asking with narrowed eyes, "What do you want ghost
The ghost kid simply put his arms up as if he were defending himself and said, "Nothing, I was just checking! You know, you don't have to be so quick to try to blow me up. I've told you before, not all ghosts are evil"
Valerie almost felt inclined to believe him, but her pride would not allow her to think anything good of the ghost kid. "And I've told you that not all humans were saps!" she said angrily,
He sighed in frustration and said, "Fine, fine, I'm not about to hang around with someone bent on my destruction. Good day to you," And with that the ghost kid gave a sort of mock salute and flew away.
She knew she should shoot him with the gun that was hanging limply at her side, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She could only stare dumbly after him, wondering what on earth had just happened.
A few minutes later, after the ghost boy had vanished from sight some time ago, Valerie deactivated her suit and began to walk home, since she now had no board to fly home on. She looked down at the cement as she walked. It had been the strangest afternoon of her life thus far. It was as if everything she'd ever known had been turned upside down, and now she didn't know what to think. Before she had been so secure in her rage against the ghost kid, now…was it possible that he wasn't so bad. The day before, if the thought had even crossed her mind she would have doubted her sanity, now though…now she wasn't so sure…
Was that why the ghost boy was fighting those other ghosts? Could it be that he actually did want to protect the humans, or was she right and he was only seeking revenge. But those eyes, they hadn't been the eyes of an evil, vengeful ghost. They had been so innocent and full of concern…they almost seemed sort of familiar, as if she'd seen them somewhere before…. Still, the whole thought of this was confusing. Everything she knew about ghosts said that they were devoid of all emotion, and most of them were rather destructive. So how could this one ghost have good intentions?
When she had walked for about a block and a half, she was quite surprised to see none other than Danny Fenton stumble out of a nearby alleyway. Wondering what on earth he was doing, she was about to walk up to him, but then she shook her head and decided that she didn't want to know. She wasn't in much of a conversational mood right now; she had too much on her mind.
Continuing on her way, she wondered what on earth she was going to do about the situation she was in right now. She had no clue what side this ghost boy was really on now. The next time her radar went off on his behalf, would she fight him or leave him be? She wasn't sure which would be better, to beat him up when he was only trying to help, or to leave him be while he was trying to deceive her. It was quite the dilemma. She'd have to think that over more later when she got her thoughts in order.
She sighed heavily as she reached the front door of the apartment and turned the doorknob. Unfortunately, she seemed to have forgotten something, for as she opened the door, the first sight that met her eyes was the face of her enraged father.
"Oh crap," she mumbled. She'd forgotten all about rushing out of the house against her father's will.
"Valerie! You are so grounded!" he yelled, yanking her inside by her wrist. Valerie had the feeling she'd have a lot of time to mull the situation over, for she most likely wasn't going to see daylight again for a very long time.
There you have it, just a short oneshot. I don't think anyone cares anyway, but this fic will not be continued, no matter what. I simply don't have time for another fic right now, especially since I just started 'Shadows of the Past'. Well, hope you liked it, and please leave a review if you have the time!