-The Hunters and The Prey.
Valerie exited Nasty Burger, slightly tired, yet happy for ending another job's day. Certainly, even if she no longer needed to work since her father recovered his job, the girl actually enjoyed earning her own money, and it was easier now that she had been promoted from mascot to cashier. Plus, she could eat all the French Fries she wanted for free (ghost-hunting burned many calories), and had made some good friends among the other students who worked there.
After walking a few blocks, Val's ghost alarm went on. After realizing nobody was around, the girl dashed into an alley, and activated her battle suit. She sometimes was a little hesitant about using the new one, since had no idea about its origin, but it worked even better than the old suit, so decided to not look at the mouth of the given horse. A few seconds later, she was flying on her techno sled, looking for the ghost who had activated the alarm.
Valerie flew over the buildings, knowing by previous experiences that most ghosts liked to stay at street level or just a few feet over it, so the bird sight was the best way to spot them. When couldn't discover any specter, she started looking up, guessing that maybe this ghost would be from the most aerial type. She wasn't wrong; over her, she saw a ghost with a black and white outfit, white hair… and was a girl.
"Oh, my… it's a ghost girl! And she looks a lot like Phantom!" Valerie said to herself, and got an idea. Instead of attacking the ghost at the spot, as usual, decided to follow her, since maybe she and the ghost boy were related somehow, and might as well guide her to Phantom, and then finish them both.
After following the ghost girl for a few minutes, always keeping a certain distance, Valerie saw her landing in the park, so the huntress decided to fly down now, hopping to surprise her and Phantom. She was right; Val saw how the ghost girl was greeted by Phantom, who obviously was waiting for her to arrive.
"Now you're mine, ghost." Valerie smirked, and got ready to charge against them, when noticed both ghosts got surprised expressions, and started looking around them.
"They didn't see me, or they do?" Valerie thought while hiding behind a thick tree. Then, out of nowhere, the ghosts were attacked by a series of blasts, dodging it by pure miracle. Valerie and the ghosts looked up, discovering the attacker.
"Two! Two prey at the same time! Ah, the after-life is good!"
"Skulker!" Valerie and Phantom said at the same time, while the ghost girl hided behind the boy. The huge hunter ghost, hovering over them, got an evil grin, and took out a missile launcher.
"Oh, no! If this fight runs out of control and leaves the park, many people can get hurt!" Valerie exclaimed; the only thing she hated more than ghosts was the idea of ghosts hurting people. The girl growled, and left her hiding place to finish the three specters.
"Dani, jump!" The ghost boy said to the girl. She obeyed, so they could avoid the first missile, which exploded where they were standing just a moment before. Then, Danny spotted Valerie, flying at top speed against them.
"Ah, another prey! Glorious!" Skulker laughed.
"Ah, another hunter. Great." Danny gulped a split second before using his ecto-shield to protect from a series of shots from Valerie's cubic-like blasters. He then phased through the ground and reappeared next to Dani, who was using her own ecto-shield for protection against another missile.
"Danny, I don't think I can get another shot!" The girl exclaimed in fear.
"Fly away, now! I'll handle this!" Danny ordered to her, taking advantage of the fact now Valerie was exchanging shots with Skulker. The girl nodded, and flew away from the battle field.
Valerie shot against a missile when it was just a few feet away from Skulker, so the explosion got him and sent the massive ghost against a tree. Then, the huntress turned back, and started shooting at Danny again. The boy phased through some trees, which received the shots instead, with Valerie right behind him; luckily, since the girl couldn't phase through the trees, she couldn't chase him directly, so had to keep shooting from a high position. Then, Val spotted Dani, who was still close enough to be seen, and left her main target to get her.
Skulker activated his jet-like wings, and started chasing the huntress and the ghost girl. Danny realized that now Skulker was after Valerie, and both hunters were chasing his clone-friend, so abandoned his hiding place to chase them as well.
Valerie started shooting at Dani, who turned back to shot some ecto-blasts in reply, but the huntress, thanks to her experience fighting Phantom, could avoid all the attacks, and hit the ghost girl a couple of times. However, she wasn't aware of Skulker right behind them, so couldn't avoid one of the hunter's missile-nets. The net prevented Val from fighting, plus messing with her flight, so the girl smashed against one tree's branches.
While Val was struggling to get rid of the net, Danny shot at Skulker, destroying his net-launcher. The hunter took out a little gun, and shot some mini-missiles against Phantom. Danny avoided them, but, to his surprise, they made a U-turn, returning against him.
"Tracking missiles, ghost boy." Skulker grinned. "Programmed specifically with your genetic code."
Danny flew in circles with the missiles right behind him. Danny shot one, but, instead of a powerful explosion, it only made a minor one, releasing a green dust. Danny decided to stay away from that dust, since, being a Skulker's invention, it certainly would be a nasty surprise.
Dani, partially recovered from Val's attack, charged against Skulker, and gave him a powerful kick on his chin. The hunter smirked at her, and replied with a punch of his own; the girl got stunned, but tried to blast her enemy. Unfortunately, Skulker was way stronger and faster, so had no problems to grab both her wrists.
"Hey, ghost boy! Genetic code, remember?" Skulker shouted at Danny, while squishing Dani's wrists and moving her in front of him. Then, to Danny's surprise, the missiles stopped chasing him, and headed against a closer and immobile target.
"NO!" Danny screamed, and flew at top speed to place himself between Dani and the missiles. He then created a shield for protection. Valerie, now free from the net (thanks to a few well directed blasts), saw the whole action.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Once the green dust cleared, Val could see Danny emerging from the cloud, coughing. Luckily, his shield protected him from the worst part of the impacts, but some of the dust managed to pass through the shield. Danny got a sick expression, and then fell to the ground.
"Danny!" Dani cried, and, ignoring the pain, handled to blast Skulker's face. She then dived to grab Danny before he hit the ground. He seemed to be mostly fine, but couldn't move at all.
"Danny, what happened?"
"Ghost Tranquilizer…" Danny replied weakly.
Valerie overheard them, and got an evil grin. She remembered that tranquilizer from her first encounter against Skulker; even if Phantom wouldn't be really hurt, the paralysis would last for a few minutes, more than enough time for her to finish the ghost girl and Skulker before eliminating Phantom for good. The huntress charged against the young ghosts, forcing Dani to leave Danny for the moment.
Dani avoided a blast from Valerie, and then shot against her sled, making her lose balance for a moment. The ghost girl then charged against her, ready to take Val out of the fight, but Skulker was already recovered from the previous attack and shooting again. Valerie got a shot on her chest, but, luckily, her new suit was far more resistant than the original, so she just lost her breath. Skulker tried to blast her again, but was cut by the glowing fists of Dani, who caught him by surprise and took the chance to punch the hunter several times.
Valerie took some deep breaths while flying away from the battling specters. She realized that fighting them both at the same time wasn't exactly the best idea, so decided to wait a little while they weakened each other before finishing them. She had a more important target waiting for her anyway.
Danny struggled to break the paralysis, but it was useless. He hardly could talk, so moving was out of the question. The most he could do was turning his head a little… spotting a red outfitted person walking through him.
"This isn't exactly my style, but I can't complain." Valerie said while a miniature blaster emerged from the back of her right hand. "At last I have you at my mercy, ghost… and you know, I don't have said mercy!"