Special thanks to my reviewers for sticking with me...I'm sorry, but I've been so bloody busy lately!

Annie struggled in the mud, her head was spinning from the loss of oxygen and the only things she could sense were the pressure from the other halfa's foot, the squish of the mud, and the torturing pain in her skull.

Fear ran through her body and her form adapted to the emotion, becoming intangible and floating upwards into the air. Annie breathed, a gasp for air before the other halfa slammed a bolt of blue ectoplasm into her back and she hit the wall full force and the wind was knocked out of her.

'Child…' her mind whispered, 'listen to your instincts! Man or ghost, it doesn't matter. He is male.'

Annie was startled by her thoughts and yet they spoke the truth, she turned and faced her attacker again, but by the time she had glimpsed him, he had already landed another blow. 'Okay…calm down, you cant hurt him with anger. What is he least expecting?'

He flew at her again, aiming for a punch to the head, but Annie was ready this time and turned invisible before fling head-on into the wall.

"It's ghost-proof you idiot," the dark-haired halfa nearly sang with cruel humor, "Honestly, I don't understand why my father ever chose you for this program anyways."

A memory suddenly sprang up into Annie's mind and she turned visible again and rose above the other halfa. She shook her aqua hair out while she spoke and put her hands behind her back, "Hey, grease-hair! Maybe your dad was just smarter than you…I mean, everybody knows that girls are better than guys!"

"Child, honestly, that nickname suits you too well. Childish insults wont work on me."

"No…will it work on your Care-Bear collection?"

"I told you-"

"Do the chicken dance! I don't wanna be a chicken, don't wanna be a duck, so I'd better just-"

"Shut the hell-"

"Shake ya tail feathers! Girl go an' take it low, take it down to da floo'-"

"STOP RAPPING!"

"When the pimps in da-"

"STOP!"

"Good eye…sniper, I shoot…you run! The words you stapled on the walls; the-"

"THAT'S IT!" He took off and aimed a low punch at Annie, who narrowly dodged and then put her plan in motion. As he passed her, she kicked out with her foot, hitting her opponent squarely in the-

"OH FREAKIN GOD! WHAT THE HELL! AW MAN! MY NUTS!"

Annie giggled, she had always loved doing that! And while he was down, she aimed a couple of ecto-blasts at him and managed to singe his jumpsuit.

"That's it girl, you fight like a human with ghost powers and I fight like a ghost; I always win!"

She ducked his crippled attack and landed on the ground, "Ghost form deactivate!" The ghost adrenaline that had been moving her body left and Annie nearly collapsed to the ground, "True, but that is my most powerful weapon!"

"What?"

Annie grabbed to ectoplasm pistols from her belt and fired several shots in succession; they threw his body against the wall despite his efforts to turn intangible. "It's ghost proof." She muttered and walked over to his nearly unconscious body, his form was flickering back to human. "Here, let me help you with that." She struck the back of his neck with a knife-hand and he blacked out.

"I win."

Vlad waited anxiously outside the testing room; when he had gone up to check the monitors, all that he had been able to see was mud. Apparently, the fight inside was fierce and one of the two inside had been thrown the thick sludge all around the room, coating the walls.

There was a click of the door, and a very exhausted person tottered out of the room. Annie stood on her shaky legs and flung the handle back, sighing as she did so.

"Ms. DuVale! I see you have passed!"

She laughed sarcastically, "Yeah, no shit Sherlock. What were you trying to do…kill me?"

"Of course not…at least I hope that your opponent didn't try to, if he did… But anyways, there is one final challenge, and it is not difficult. Walk through that door." He gestured down the gray hall.

"O…kay," Annie cracked her neck twice, then put her feet in front of each other and plodded down the hall. She got to the door and looked back at Vlad, who nodded encouragingly. She walked in and closed the door just as a silver-haired young man lunged through the door.

"Where is she!"

"Annie, she's taking the last step."

"What! But she's already a-"

"What the heck?" Annie murmured to herself, the room was all dark and she couldn't see anything but a glowing switch which read "On" and "Off."

There was a rushing noise she had heard once before and ectoplasm surrounded her form. Her already half-ghost DNA fused with this blue (not green like the last portal) ectoplasm and she couldn't stifle the scream of pure anguish that escaped her lips and rang out into the hall.

Please review, you'll find out what'shappened toAnnie in the next chapter. Full ghost? No ghost? Halfa? excessive use of question marks? YESSS!