WoM- Hello all! 'grins brightly,' I figure I filled my angst quota for the next month with Cold, so I'm gonna try and lift some spirits here and make this chapter a little more funny. I can't do angst (Or any one specific category) for too long, or I'll lose whatever little sanity I still have to claim, and I figure this one's been depressing enough so far so… 'shrugs.'
(Panel shows Calvin sitting at a booth reading 'A swift kick in the butt; $1.00)
Hobbes- How's business?
Calvin- Terrible.
Hobbes- (rolling his eyes) That's hard to believe.
Calvin- I can't understand it. Everybody I know needs what I'm selling!
(Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson)
Clashing
"On come on!" Ember snapped irritably, "Does it really take that long to fill a bag with money?"
"Petty thievery?" Danny snorted as he floated in through the wall. "Wow, you've really fallen from a wannabe pop star, haven't you, Ember?" The ghost scowled at the unwelcome interruption.
"Well, well, well…" She sneered, "If it isn't the dipstick. What dragged you out here? Mommy and Daddy didn't want you anymore?" The female shot screamed in a mixture of pain and surprise as a powerful blast hit her almost before she finished talking.
"Oops," Danny said, glaring at the ghost with icy green eyes, "Sorry. My bad," Ember glowered at Danny as she got back to her feet.
"Oh, you'll pay for that, dipstick," She hissed.
"Ready when you are, Pop Princess," Danny shot back, charged for the fight.
Before either of them could make a move, though, the doors burst open and two hazmat-garbed hunters stormed in. Danny blinked at them in surprise before groaning to himself.
'Aw, hell…' He thought sourly, 'I should've known Vlad had agents here…' He studied them for a second before dismissing them as minor threats at best. They were clearly newer recruits, probably out on their first hunt. 'These can't be the hunter Clockwork warned me about,'
"Don't move!" The male ghost hunter ordered, aiming an ecto-gun at Danny, "try and attack us and it'll only make it harder for yourselves, ghosts!"
"Look, we're kinda busy here," Danny snapped back, impatient now that he saw exactly how new these two hunters (Who weren't any older then him) were at their job, "Mind rescheduling this little meeting?"
"We don't take orders from ghosts," The female snapped. Danny sighed.
"Suit yourself…" he said, shrugging. Shooting a sticky, gooey ectoplasm out of his hand, Danny trapped both hunters in the glue-like substance, ignoring their exclamations of surprise and protest.
Unfortunately, while he did this he had to take his attention off Ember, who was never known for fighting fair. She took advantage of his distraction to blast him hard in the side, sending him crashing to the earth.
'She's in a bad mood,' Danny realized shaking the hit off before smirking darkly at the undead singer, 'guess it's a good thing I am too…'
Shooting back into the air, Danny punched Ember as hard as he could, evading one of her destructive notes to blast her on her way down.
"You're dead, punk!" Ember snarled, sticking at her guitar furiously.
"After you!" Danny shot back, throwing up a shield to bounce the attack back at the singer, who dodged so it hit the wall instead. "Or am I a little late for that one?" Ember scowled heatedly at the half ghost.
One of the first things Danny had learned about ghosts was that they hated being reminded of their non-living status in the world, and he wasn't afraid to use that at times like these.
"Hey, at least I know what I am, dipstick!" Ember snapped back, her anger clear in her tone as she blasted Danny through the wall of the bank and out to the streets, away from prying ears. "What are you, huh? Ghost or Human?"
"Why pick just one?" Danny asked with a scowl. Ember smirked, apparently pleased with that response.
"See?" She said smugly, "You don't even know where you fit in this world! One or the other, kid, or else neither will ever accept you!"
"You think that's all I care about?" Danny growled, glaring at her. "Fitting in?"
"I think it means more to you then you let on," Ember said smugly.
"We'll see about that," And with that, Danny disappeared into the wall behind him, coming up behind Ember to hit her from behind. "I don't care what you think of me. I'm through trying to get other people to like me when they've already decided they won't. Right now, I'm just doing what I know is right, not what you guys think I should do."
"How noble," A new voice sneered, making Danny and Ember jump. "Want me to put that on your gravestone?"
Both ghosts turned to see what the new interruption was, their eyes widening at the sight of the dark-looking ghost hunter on a sleek black jet sled currently aiming one of the biggest ecto-guns either of them had ever seen right between Danny's eyes.
'Okay,' Danny thought grimly as he turned to face this new threat, 'THIS one may be trouble…'
'This is really Phantom?' Valerie thought, vaguely disappointed. He seemed even smaller in life then he was in his pictures, a skinny kid with bright eyes that seemed to carry a heavy burden. 'Why the heck does Mr. Masters think this one ghost is so threatening?'
"Don't you ghost hunters ever take a break?" Ember snapped, glaring at Valerie, "We're busy here, so take that stupid gun and shove it up your-!"
Before the singer could finish what would no doubt have been a very rude statement, Valerie had already taken said 'stupid gun,' off of Phantom to take aim at her, blasting her in a flash of pink energy that made the ghost disappear.
"Nice aim," Danny observed casually, eyeing the ghost hunter warily, "You're not like those newbies, huh?" Valerie was a little proud that the ghost had noticed this.
"You got that right," She said, aiming at him again, "And you're about to join your little friend in Mr. Master's Lab!" Valerie fired three shots, all of which Danny dodged with speed Valerie could just barely follow.
The next thing the hunter knew, her gun had been blasted out of her hand by a thin stream of green energy, falling to the ground where it exploded in a mess of metal, plastic and circuitry.
"Ember's not my friend," Danny said as he hovered in front of Valerie, his arms crossed in a casual pose, "And just because you're better then them doesn't mean you can beat me," Valerie scowled.
'Okay,' She thought sullenly, 'Maybe he's a LITTLE tougher then he looks… but just a little!'
"And what makes you think I can't, huh?" Valerie challenged as she shot forward, "I've beaten hundreds of ghosts before you, and you're no different then any of the others!"
"I beg to differ," Danny said dryly, a little amused at the irony. After all, it was unlikely a ghost could get much different then Danny was…
'Best not tell her that, though,' Danny decided.
He had a sinking suspicion that this was the hunter Clockwork had warned him about, but he couldn't figure out why the Master of Time thought he would ever let her beat him. After all, she was no different then any other ghost hunter…
'They don't care about anything but catching ghosts,' Danny reminded himself, his eyes growing cold as he glared as Valerie. 'Not even things that should be more important.'
"I'm only giving you one warning, Hunter," Danny called out to his opponent, "I'm not in a good mood right now, and the whole ghost hunter attitude get on my nerves, so if you really want to fight, there's no way you're walking away without some bruises,"
"Maybe," Valerie said casually, reaching for another gun Danny couldn't see, "But at least I'm walking away the winner."
Then, without giving him any warning, Valerie pulled the gun out, firing at the ghost and catching him completely off guard. Danny was hit by the blast and went flying through a wall, going intangible last minute to avoid making himself vulnerable to a second blast.
Valerie shot after him, conjuring up her three energy-blasters as she did so. Shooting a hole into the wall, she charged through to scan for the ghost she was hunting, scowling when she didn't find him.
'He must've snuck off…' She realized sourly, 'Now I've gotta deal with Terrance getting all smug on me for letting him get away…' Blowing out a sigh of irritation, Valerie landed and switched back to her street clothes, walking out of the alley to walk to the apartment so she could figure out what to do.
'WHAM!'
Yelping in pain, Valerie grabbed her forehead where she'd collided with someone else, looking across from her to glower at the boy she'd knocked into as he was coming around the other corner.
He was a pale boy, wearing a white shirt with red accents and blue jeans, both a little oversized for him. Semi-long, messy black hair fell into his baby blue eyes, and a look of irritation was clear on his face as he glared right back at Valerie.
"Watch where you're going, punk!" The ghost hunter growled as she got back to her feet.
"Why don't you watch it, creep?" The boy snapped back as he did the same. They glared at each other a moment longer before brushing past one another to go their separate ways.
'Man,' Valerie thought darkly to herself, 'What the heck it that guy's problem…?'
'What was her problem?' Danny thought sullenly as he walked of. He sighed. It was no big deal, he supposed. After all, it wasn't like he's see the girl again…
Brushing the rude encounter aside, Danny turned his thoughts to the ghost hunter he'd just finished fighting. She was definitely a level up from the other ghost hunters Vlad had sent after him, which suggested that the billionaire knew he was here.
That didn't surprise Danny, though. He just needed to figure out how to stay under the other half ghost's radar long enough to figure things out.
'He probably still thinks I'm just randomly running from place to place,' Danny decided, 'So the orphanages and schools are still pretty safe for me… now I just need to figure out a good place to hide when he finds out where I am.' Danny scowled as he thought about his.
He hated running away from anything. Ever since he'd become half ghost, he'd gotten into the habit of fighting for everything, no matter what the enemy was. It seemed cowardly to him to just keep charging forward like he was, barely a step ahead of Plasmius as he tried to keep himself alive, keep himself human…
"Danny?"
The half ghost turned at the familiar voice, raising an eyebrow at Morgan's surprised look as she approached him, a black messenger bag slung over her shoulder. The girl noticed him looking at it and scowled, hiding it from sight.
"What are you doing here?" She asked suspiciously, studying Danny warily.
"Just walking around," Danny answered honestly, "You?"
"Nothing," Morgan answered instantly, "what makes you think I'm doing anything?"
"Because when someone's acting weird, it's usually for a good reason," Danny pointed out to her with a knowing look.
"You don't know me," Morgan reminded him, looking annoyed. "How would you know if I'm acting weird or not?" Danny snorted in doubt, but decided to drop the subject.
"You share a room with Trish, right?" Danny asked Morgan, deciding that was neutral ground.
"Yeah," Morgan said, rolling her eyes, "And you share a room with Dash and Lenny. What's your point?"
"Has she been talking about me?" Danny asked. As Morgan raised an eyebrow at him, he decided to clarify himself a little more, "She's been following me around a lot recently, and I just want to see if she's telling anyone anything."
"Trish and I don't talk," Morgan said, sounding faintly annoyed, "We just share a room. I wouldn't know if she's been talking about you. I wouldn't worry about it, though. You're lucky if you can get Trish to respond to anything you say at all, let along get her to willingly start a conversation with you. You should be a lot more worried about the fact that a certified psychopath is following your every move,"
"Trish doesn't scare me," Danny said shortly. "And I think you're being a little hard on her. She's spoken to me, and see seems a lot more sane then most people I've met,"
'Then again, taking into account exactly what kind of people I know, that's really not saying much,' Danny pointed out dryly in his head.
"Oh?" Morgan said, eyeing him curiously, 'And who's the craziest guy you've ever met, huh?"
"The one who's trying to convince me to help him kill my dad, marry my mom and take over the world," Danny answered. Morgan rolled her eyes, thinking he was being sarcastic.
"Fine," she said curtly, "Be that way."
Danny watched her storm off, not feeling too sorry about getting her angry. He didn't care what Morgan, or anyone else for that matter, thought of him. Maybe he would've at another point in time, but right now surviving to see tomorrow was his biggest worry. After that, everything else didn't seem that important…
"So, you lost him, huh?" Terrance said smugly, crossing his arms as he smirked at Valerie, who glared back.
"So what?" Valerie snapped, "At least I showed up!"
"She's got a point there, Terrance," Tara said, amusement clear in her voice. Terrance glared at her sourly before turning back to Valerie.
"I was expecting better from Mr. Master's pet hunter," He said coolly. Valerie growled.
"Call me that again and we're gonna see how far an ecto-gun can be shoved down your throat," Valerie warned, standing up and storming away.
Between the disastrous first meeting with Phantom and the rude encounter with that boy afterwards, the ghost huntress wasn't in the best of moods right now. Combine that with the fact that she had to look forward to starting up high school soon…
'I just can't catch a break anywhere, can I?' Valerie thought sourly to herself as she fell onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
She'd been to high school before undercover, and quickly developed a distaste for it. In her mind, there was nothing worse then shoving a bunch of so-called 'normal' idiots in the same building for seven hours a day, five days a week under the supervision of teachers who couldn't control them.
'Whoever came up with that idea needs to be shot,' Valerie thought sullenly, 'Repeatedly,' Then she sighed softly to herself, 'Ah well… this will all be worth it when I bring Phantom down once and for all…'
WoM- Urk… I tried to put a little humor in, but it really doesn't work at this point. 'Sweatdrops' Ah, well. At least it's not so angsty…
Thanks to;
epobbp, IwuvMyKenshyPoo, Firefury, Tetsukon, Moss Royal, Petitio Principii, KatieKumquat, conan98002, Lumias, The Great Susinko, Lunaqua, Light Dragon SunsSong, Ghost Writer's Assistant, Worker72, Goofn1, Mizuki hikari
Next update; February 26th
See you then!