Pre-Note: Sandruu says a bad word. Just a heads up.
There was still a ghost hovering about ten feet behind them; Sandruu had expressed the opinion that it was probably Phantom again. Danny had become slightly more animated, forcing the cyborg to hold him with his metal arm. He seemed relieved to have an excuse to get the weight off of his flesh one.
Valerie watched with sad eyes as her only real friend struggled weakly against the machinery that held him. Oddly enough, she couldn't help but notice, he was no longer trying to hurt them like the other mindless people. He seemed more interested in reaching something that was behind them. She couldn't imagine what that might be, unless it was the ghost kid.
But that was just silly.
"So who's this Clockwork guy?" she asked, more to take her mind off of Danny than because she was interested.
Sandruu shrugged. "A friend of the family...who can control time..." He angled his head to regard her with his human eye.
"So what? He's a ghost?"
There was a somewhat prolonged pause, during which Valerie had the odd thought that he was trying to control his temper. At last, he said carefully, "Not all ghosts are evil."
"You sound like that ghost kid," the hunter replied, giving him a suspicious stare.
"And so what if I do?" he yelled, breaking at last. Valerie stumbled away in alarm, certain that the boy clutched protectively in his arm was the only thing that kept him from bashing in her skull. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, visibly attempting to calm himself. At last, although his voice still shook with anger, he said, "Don't talk to me about Danny Phantom. It is a very sore subject for me." As he stalked away, she thought she heard him add, "Especially from you."
So she finally succeeded in destroying him? That gave her some hope for the future, at least. She glanced back at Danny with a worried frown. He had finally relaxed again, but only because he had passed out. At least, she thought he was unconscious. His eyes were closed, anyway.
She hated Phantom. She was relatively certain this was his fault in some way, and she hated him for it. She hated him for what he had done to her, to her father, and, in a more roundabout way, to Danny.
After a few moments, she shook her head and muttered, "What's your deal with him anyway? He's just a stupid ghost."
Her next clear memory was of staring up at him and seeing his human eye turn bright green. Danny had been transferred to his flesh arm, so he had clearly still been thinking when he hit her. Her head pounded and her ears rang; if not for her helmet, she might have acquired a broken jaw. "So you are his kid," she said, standing slowly.
"And if I am?" the angry cyborg demanded. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be forced to help your father's murderer? Not only that, but to hear to the insults, the hatred, and be forced to ignore it?" He advanced on the ghost hunter, who readied herself for a fight.
"Because of you," Sandruu snarled. "My father is now a mindless murder victim. He doesn't even recognize us anymore; all he cares about is revenge. And right now, I'm half tempted to get it for him, consequences be damned!" He cried out suddenly and whirled around.
Electra regarded the knob of her cane as though to check for damages from the contact with his head. Her voice was carefully casual when she remarked, "Touch her again, and let me assure you; not even Clockwork will be able to save you."
"Stay out of this, Kat."
"And who are you to address me in the familiar, sir?" she demanded.
"Enough!" Valerie yelled. "Both of you! I don't care if you fight, but give Danny to me, first!
Sandruu drew back protectively, and his eye returned to its normal blue. He shot a glance toward the irate gremlin, perhaps startled to realize that she wasn't from his time, and resumed walking.
"What do you care about me?" the girl asked, turning back.
Electra smirked, her eyes sparking. "About you? Not a bloody thing." Then she was gone in a puff of blue smoke. Valerie shook her head in disgust and ran after Sandruu to enjoy an extremely prolonged and uncomfortable silence.
After what seemed like an eternity, she shuddered and asked, "Where is everyone?"
She didn't think her companion was going to respond until he sighed. "They'll be gathering wherever Necrowind is. Look, Phantom is a good man. You never saw that, though, and you killed him."
Valerie scoffed. "Yeah? Well, he's tried to kill me more than once."
"He always held back when he fought you!" Sandruu paused to get his temper under control again before continuing. "Always. I watched him. I know. But when you found out he was...doesn't matter...never mind. You don't care; you never did."
The ghost hunter stared, a dozen different thoughts running through her head. Foremost, she wanted to know what he almost said. She also would have liked to ask how he could possibly be human if his father was a ghost. Since she knew neither of those questions would get a response, she glanced down and pretended to fiddle with her ghost alarm.
"Hey!" she exclaimed quietly. "There's two more behind us, and they're getting closer."
Sandruu said something that did not bear repeating and looked back. "We've stopped being amusing, I think," he said dryly. "The other two look like Skulker and...it's either Ember or Desiree. I can never tell the difference." He smiled slightly at her questioning glance and tapped his eyepiece. "Ghost vision."
Valerie nodded, grateful that he seemed to be back in a relatively normal mood. She had not yet had occasion to find out if her helmet had working ghost vision. Since the trio behind them took that moment to become visible, she would have to wait a while longer. "Desiree," she needlessly clarified. "Don't make any wishes." She glanced over at the grinning cyborg and rolled her eyes. "All right, tough guy. You any good at fighting ghosts?"
"I can hold my own," he confirmed. "Hey, Kat! I know you're still around! Can you at least watch Da-Danny?"
"Yeah, I'll take him somewhere safe," she replied, fading into view with a worried glance at the approaching ghosts.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Valerie interrupted.
"Do you have another choice?" She took the unconscious boy and sighed sadly. "There's more on the way; you'd be wise to run. Don't hurt Phantom too bad?" She vanished, this time without fanfare, before getting a response.
The ghost alarm was already picking up new arrivals as they came into view. However, the two partners were no given no chance to discuss the situation or possible plans. As though Danny's disappearance was some kind of signal, Phantom grinned maliciously and threw his arm forward with a cry of, "Get them!"
Suddenly, the ghosts were crawling out of the woodwork, both metaphorically and literally. Valerie had just enough time to see Sandruu get tackled by the alligator, and then she was dodging blasts from a familiar Dracula look-alike. "You!" she yelled to the Wisconsin Ghost. "How the heck did you get here?"
Plasmius smirked and shrugged. "I go where the Master bids me."
Trapped between Plasmius and Phantom, the young ghost hunter found herself wishing that Electra had stuck around. At least, the ghost would have been another ally, and one that specialized in wide-ranged attacks.
She ducked to the left as Phantom fired, vaguely hoping that the attack would hit her other enemy. Sadly, it merely hit that attack, and both were cancelled out. She fired back, and then it was time to dodge boxes and various lunch meats while still managing to avoid the green and red Ghost Rays. The Box Ghost finally went down, but Valerie left herself open to electrocution courtesy of Technus' Electromag Rod.
"Sandruu!" she called from the middle of an attack on Skulker. "We gotta go!"
"Love to!" was the reply. "But there's a giant lizard attached to my arm!"
Valerie ducked under someone's attack; she was beyond caring exactly who, at that point. "Well, shake him off and let's go!" She caught a glimpse of him, the Ghost Master's jaws clenched around his mechanical arm, trying to fend off Desiree and Ember with only one hand. It didn't seem to be going well. She fought her way across and blasted the alligator, then grabbed Sandruu and pulled him along. "Don't you have, like, intangibility or something?"
"Dad's the ghost; not me," he informed her as he backhanded something above her head.
They finally got out of the middle of the melee and simply ran. The girl noticed her companion's eye blaze green as he turned to look back; the other one seemed to have shut down. He slowed down and motioned her to do the same. "They're not following," he said, confused.
His mechanical arm was twitching, and he seemed to be limping. "Are you okay?" Valerie asked, concerned in spite of herself.
He grimaced and shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like my circuits are over...loading...oh, no..." Suddenly, his red eye flickered back to life, and he froze. It took a few minutes of impatient demanding before he continued. "You remember I said my body took some pretty heavy internal damage?"
"Yeah?"
"And you remember I mentioned both of my lungs had been deflated?" She agreed again; although he had really only implied it, she did get the message. "Well, what I'm trying to say is...my body is mostly machinery, now."
"Okay?" Valerie was beginning to grow somewhat edgy. It was as though he was trying to dance around a certain subject, which made her very irritated. However, he also seemed to be fighting something, which might have accounted for it.
He nodded slightly as his fist slowly clenched of its own volition. "Right, so, what I'm trying to say is...I think Technus just possessed my machine half."
A/N: Now, I need your help. Is this fic boring to anyone? I like it, but I want everyone to like it, too. Only your honest opinions, please. Be as blunt as you like, and don't worry about hurting my feelings. I wouldn't be posting here if I couldn't take a little constructive criticism now and again. Besides, my ego could use a little deflating.