WoM- Ah, it's good being on break… 'giggling happily,' This is the first Monday I've been able to sleep through in a long time! A lot of people seem to like Heather. 'snickers' What is it about evil children that people are so drawn to? Here's the third chapter, enjoy!

Valerie: (To Danny) So, Tucker tells me your parents hunt ghosts.
Danny: Did he now? What else did he tell you?

Chapter 3; Hunting for Answers

Valerie moaned, pain coursing throughout her body. She couldn't remember how or why she was hurt or pretty much anything else, but deep down, she knew she was in trouble. The pounding in the back of her head, the dizziness… none of those were good signs.

She heard her moan echoed on her left, and felt an icy cold hand touch the sides of her head so softly, she almost wondered for a second if she was delusional. That's when it all started to come back to her.

Heather. The fight with Phantom. The box…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Valerie screamed, shooting up. Phantom yelped and fell back in surprise at her abrupt awakening. Valerie was too shaken to even be angry with him for hovering over her when she was unconscious.

It turned out Heather was indeed on her left, still knocked out from whatever had hit the three of them.

"What happened?" Valerie demanded, "How long have I been out? Why does my head hurt?"

"Talk about Déjà vu…" Phantom muttered dryly. "Well, at least there's no power-blocking handcuffs this time…"

"Are you gonna answer me or not?" Valerie yelled, glaring at the ghost.

"Alright! Alright!" Phantom held his hands in front of him in a compliant gesture. "But we should probably see if Heather's okay first. She's just a kid, and to take that kind of blast of energies…" Valerie frowned as the ghost approached her charge.

"I'll do it!" She said, standing in front of her foe. Phantom raised an eyebrow at her.

"You know how to check for abnormalities in a person's psyche due to supernatural energies?" He asked in a tone that said he already knew the answer.

"…Uhh…"

"Thought not," And with that, Phantom flew literally through Valerie to crouch down beside the young girl. Valerie scowled darkly at his back.

"Stupid know-it-all spook…" She grumbled.

"Oxymoron," Phantom said, not turning to face her as he put both gloved hands on Heather's temples, closing his eyes.

"You're a moron alright…" Valerie shot back. Phantom didn't respond, but Heather moaned again before shooting up in a similar way to what Valerie had done, only she was couching and sputtering instead of screaming.

"Easy…" Phantom said, putting a hand on her back, "You okay?"

"My tummy hurts," she moaned, putting a hand on her stomach. She looked near tears in pain.

"It's a rebound pain." Phantom explained, turning so he was talking Valerie as well, "Jumping dimensions is difficult for humans, so when they come to they end up with a physical pain. The place that hurts and how much depends on the person."

"Can you stop it?" Heather asked. Phantom frowned.

"I have the power," he said hesitantly. "But I don't have it under control yet, so I'd rather not risk it. It'll go away on it's own after you get used to this place."

"What makes you think I wanna stick around long enough to get used to it?" Valerie demanded. "Where is this place, anyways?" Valerie looked around her wide-eyed, a horrified chill sweeping down her spine as she fully took in her surroundings.

She'd never seen anything like the place she was in now. It even topped the Ghost Zone as far as creepy exotic places go. Plant life unlike anything she'd ever seen grew thickly around them in all sorts of strange colors, none of which were the usual green. Even the mossy, grass-like plants beneath her boots were a deep, blood red. Also, there was the fact that vines in her world usually didn't move…

She could barely see a lavender sky above them through the multi-colored foliage, spotted with orange clouds. The sun was still a burning yellow, but there were two of them, almost side by side. One was far bigger then the other, and a little darker in it's color.

Just as creepy as the plants and sky were the few animals the ghost hunter saw. Most of them were small vivid yellow things, a cross between a bird, a iguana and a spider, but there were also ones that looked like huge green cat/frogs and a few bat/snakes as well…

Valerie screamed and stumbled back as one of the bat/snakes flew at her face.

"We're inside the Ambiguity," Phantom answered her, "Apparently we were lucky enough that it was a Class B Ambiguity."

"Huh?" Valerie said, raising an eyebrow.

"There are two classes of Ambiguities," Phantom explained, Class A disrupt the dimension they were opened on by merging it with their own dimension, or destroying it all together. Class Bs with take all people within a ten feet radius of the box when it's opened and bring them to the dimension the Ambiguity was created on."

"This is all your fault!" Heather said accusingly, glaring at Valerie.

"MY fault?" Valerie glowered. "How is this my fault?"

"You opened that Stupid box!" Heather reminded her, "Danny told you not to open it! I wanted you to listen to him but you had to be a stupid, stubborn-!"

"We've got bigger problems now," Phantom sighed.

"How do we get back home?" Valerie asked, feeling a little guilty. On some level, she knew this was in fact her fault. And now all three of them were trapped far from home in a world that looked nothing like their own.

"I don't know," Phantom admitted.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Valerie demanded, glaring at the ghost, "You have to know! It was your stupid box!"

"I keep telling you, I was getting it back for my friend!" Phantom glared, "The Ghost Council has forbidden him from coming to the Mortal realm after he broke a rule about temporal displacement or whatever…"

"Then how do we get back?" Heather asked helplessly.

"I don't know," Phantom sighed, then he frowned in determination, "But I'm gonna find out!" And with that, he stood looking around him. "We should probably try to find some kind of civilization. I might not know the way out, but Clockwork did tell me that there's an immortal contact on each level of existence that meet the others in the Eternal every ten thousand years to see how everything's changed and evolved. He's the one for our world, and since I still have Clockwork's mark, the one here should listen to us at the very least…"

"Mark?" Valerie repeated, a little confused.

"It's a symbol of guardianship," Phantom explained, holding his right hand out palm down. "Basically, when you see the mark on someone it means that a supernatural being is protecting him. And if you hurt or kill the person in question, the guardian is obligated to take action. On the flip side, though, helping them means their guardian is indebted to you,"

"So this Clockwork guy's your backup?" Valerie said, suddenly wary. How powerful was this ghost? And would he hurt her when she beat Phantom? As if reading her mind, Phantom quickly added.

"I've already asked him to let me handle things myself. Clockwork knows I can fight my own battles. Really, the Mark is just a symbol of deep trust and loyalty."

"Have you given the mark to anyone?" Heather asked.

"Just three people," Phantom answered, "All human,"

"As interesting as this is," Valerie said in a cool tone, "shouldn't we get started on finding our way back?" Phantom looked sheepish.

"Oh," he said meekly, "Right…" He hovered a few inches off the ground, "Wait here for a second, I'm gonna see which way it is to the nearest town or whatever…" Before Valerie and Heather could protest, the ghost flew straight up, going intangible to get through the… well, Valerie supposed the closest term for them was 'leaves…'

The two girls sat in an awkward silence after the ghost disappeared from view. Heather shot Valerie a Nasty look every one in a while as Valerie wondered numbly why her headache was getting worse. After a while, though, the silence was broken.

"It's still all your fault…" Heather muttered sullenly.

Don't you think I know that?" Valerie snapped, "Look, I'm sorry for getting us into this mess, but these kinds of dangers come with my profession! That's why I wanted you to stay where it was safe!"

"Then why'd you open the box?" Heather shot back. "If you were so worried about my safety, you should've kept it closed."

"That's none of your business," Valerie said shortly. She wasn't about to explain the origins of her feud with Phantom to her nine year old charge. Remembering who the girl was, she added, "And not a word of this to your uncle when we get back home, you hear?" Heather rolled her eyes.

"And why shouldn't I say anything?" She asked defiantly. "You're putting my life at risk by sucking me into alternate dimensions, after all…"

"You BLACKMAILED me to force me to bring you!" Valerie reminded her, glowering.

"Not my fault you're dense enough to be tricked by someone who's five years younger then you," Valerie rolled her eyes.

"Thought you were nine and a half?" She countered, earning a glare from the girl.

"Okay, I think we'll be okay if we- Uhh, girls?" Phantom seemed hesitant to break up the girl's glowering match, his gaze darting between the two uncertainly.

"It's nothing," Valerie snapped, "What were you saying?"

"There was smoke coming from a large clearing the north," the ghost explained. At least, It would be the north in our world judging from the sun… ah, suns." Phantom shrugged helplessly, "There's no telling how much things have changed in this realm when you compare it to ours, so there's no clear way to put it,"

"We'll just have to wing it, then," Valerie said, activating her jet sled, "Heather, get on. Ghost-boy, we need you to get us through the trees so we can fly above them. It'll be faster then walking." While she hated relying on Phantom for anything, Valerie knew he was her only hope for getting out of this dimension.

"Don't boss me around!" Heather scowled, "I wanna fly with Phantom!" Before Valerie could respond, the ghost in question shook his head.

"That may not be a good idea, Heather," He told the girl, "If we run into anything, it'll be hard for me to fight if I'm holding you. Going with Valerie leaves both of us with our hands free, so that's probably for the best."

"You think we'll find something we need to fight?" Valerie asked, tensing. She wasn't sure how well ecto-guns worked on the inhabitants of this world.

"Can't say," Phantom shrugged. "But we still wanna be careful, right?"

"I guess…" Heather said sullenly, getting on the jet sled behind Valerie.

"Everybody ready for take off?" Phantom asked, hovering next to the two, "Alright then!" And with that, Phantom placed one icy hand on Valerie's shoulder, turning her, the jet sled and Heather all intangible.

The ghost hunter shot up, and Phantom matched her speed without faltering, keeping that one hand on her shoulder as they rose higher and higher. When they broke past the trees the ghost released his rival, allowing them to turn tangible again as he did the same in turn.

"This way," Phantom said, his spectral trail tailing behind him as he flew in the direction he was pointing. "It should be about an hour, two hours tops flying…"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Valerie asked, shooting forward. Phantom once again matched her speed without any signs of strain, and Valerie found herself suppressing the childish urge to go faster and try and either outrun him or tire him out.

"So, Phantom-!" Heather yelled to the ghost over the roar of the wind and the whirling of the jet sled's motors, "-Do you have a girlfriend or something?" Phantom looked a little surprised at the question, and Valerie couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Uhh, no," The ghost answered, looking awkward and embarrassed. It was almost cute…

Valerie promptly gave herself a sharp mental kick for thinking that.

"I don't even have that many friends. I'm not exactly the most popular guy on either sides of the living and dead," Phantom finished, "The only girl who's ever really liked me is Paulina, and that's just because she wants to live a fairy tale life…"

Valerie had to admit (Rather begrudgingly,) that she admired the boy's sharp eye for the true source of his biggest fan's affections. Still she couldn't help but roll her eyes as well.

She didn't know what world he was living in, but she saw the whole good/evil situation differently. To her, far too many people were arguing Phantom's innocence. Even the poll at the end of the big attack when the city was drawn into the ghost zone showed more people thought he was good then bad.

But maybe that was because she wanted everyone to think Phantom was evil, so she only ever really heard those who defended him, and Phantom wanted people to think he was good, so he only heard the slander and insults. Perhaps they had the same mentality, the same drive that focused so much on perfecting their crafts that they were both missing the big picture…

'Or perhaps he's trying to fool you,' The voice hissed in the back of her head, 'Gain your sympathy, and ultimately your trust before betraying you horribly, worse even then the first time,' Valerie felt a chill go through her at the thought of that. 'Don't give it to him, Valerie, don't let him win…'

"What about this Clockwork guy?" Heather asked, "And those three humans you marked or whatever?"

"That pretty much sums up my friends," Phantom said with a dry smile. "Well, There are a few other ghosts that are okay, I guess, and I do have one other human friend. Sort of, anyways…"

"Sort of?" Heather repeated.

"It's complicated," Phantom said shortly.

"Well, I'll be your friend too, Danny!" Heather said sweetly.

"Oh, God…" Valerie snorted, disgusted.

"Don't mind her," Heather told Phantom, "She's still just sour that she can't go out with the guy she has a crush on," Valerie's eyes widened underneath the mask.

"HEATHER!" She yelled, an unseen blush working it's way across her face.

"What?" the girl asked in feigned innocence. "You said I couldn't tell my uncle your business, you never said anything about Danny Phantom,"

"Well you can't!" The ghost hunter hissed, "Ghost boy doesn't need to know who I like, okay?"

"So you DO have a crush on him!" Heather said triumphantly. Valerie ground her teeth together and tried counting backwards from ten.

"Wait, you've gotta crush on someone?" Phantom asked, sounding faintly surprised. (Which only irritated Valerie more.) "On who?"

"No one!" Valerie yelled. "It's none of your business!"

"He's really cute!" Heather said brightly at the same time, "A nice guy, too. Way better then this creep deserves. I think she said his name's-!" Before Heather could finish, Valerie clamped one black gloved hand over her mouth.

"Finish that sentence and the next thing we find out about this world is how well the gravity works," She said threateningly. There was almost no chance that Phantom didn't know the Fentons, considering they were Amity's main ghost hunters. And if he knew about her crush on Danny, it wouldn't be long until her classmate himself found out.

"You're not the boss of me!" Heather said back as soon as Valerie let her go. "I can tell him whatever I want! Besides, you know Phantom would catch me, anyways…"

"Never mind," Phantom said, "It really isn't any of my business." Heather pouted as Valerie shot her a triumphant smirk.

"What about you, Danny?" Heather asked the ghost sweetly, "I mean, you said you don't have a girlfriend, but you HAVE to have a crush!" The ghost's face reddened slightly at that, much to Valerie's amusement.

"Uhh…" He stammered, "W-Well…" The ghost coughed and cleared his throat nervously, "Moving on now!"

"What's the matter, ghost-boy?" Valerie taunted, "Bashful?" The blush deepened.

"Hey, if you don't have to tell me your crush, I don't have to tell you mine," Phantom said firmly, "And since when were you so interested in my non existent social life?"

"Since you destroyed mine," Valerie said, her good humor fading. Phantom flinched guiltily.

"Ahh…" He said, hesitantly. "Valerie, look, I-!"

"I don't want you hear it," Valerie interrupted him. "Let's just keep the rest of this trip quiet and forget all about it once we get home."

"Valerie-!" The ghost started again, a little sharper this time. The hunter cut him off before he could finish though.

"Didn't you hear me?" She snapped, "I said-!"

"LOOK OUT!" Phantom interrupted her. Valerie turned away from the ghost sharply, her eyes widening when she found a blue and orange dragon/tiger like creature charging up at her…

"KYAAA!" Valerie and Heather screamed as one as the creature hit the jet sled before Valerie could steer them to safety. In tore through it without even slowing, shattering the machine to bits. Both girls started to fall as one.

"Valerie! Heather!" Phantom yelled, diving down to catch both of them with a different arm before they hit the trees. He swooped back up just in time to avoid the creature's talons as it came back around for another hit, but ended up getting a nasty scratch from one of it's claws. The ghost flinched slightly, but showed no other signs of pain.

"Get us out of here, now!" Valerie yelled over the creatures growling and Heather's soft whimpers. The nine year old kept her head buried into Phantom's shoulder, with an iron grip around his neck.

Phantom didn't need to be told twice. He shot off at what Valerie realized was his top speed, and the ghost hunter felt her breath leave her at exactly how fast the ghost was going. Looking back over her shoulder, though, the girl realized it wasn't enough. "He's gaining!" She yelled to the ghost, the wind blowing her voice right back at her.

Phantom must've heard her, though, if the sudden pursing of his lips meant anything. He sighed and seemed to come to a decision on what to do, though he didn't look like it was something he'd enjoy.

"Listen," He said in a serious tone. "I'm going to have to stop and turn around,"

"WHAT?" Valerie and Heather screamed as one, Both turning to give him wide eyed stares.

"I have an idea!" The ghost yelled back, "I just need you two to hold on as tight as possible and trust me," Valerie was about to retort, but it died in her throat when she saw the glint of the monster's fangs as it grinned at them hungrily.

"Fine," She said sullenly. "Don't get used to this, though!" and with that, the irritated ghost hunter did as Phantom instructed. Taking Valerie's surrender as a sign that she should follow suit, Heather hugged closer to Phantom as well, closing her eyes as tightly as possible.

Phantom stopped dead right there, and a sharp wind blew past them from their high speed trip. Valerie felt her heart pounding loudly in her chest and she began to shake as the ghost turned. Swallowing audibly, the girl forced herself to keep watching as the creature came closer… closer… closer…

And just as Valerie was about to start screaming, Phantom took a deep breath, filling his lungs with as much air as possible before letting out a roar that shook everything in sight, cleared the trees in front of them at a five mile distance of leaves and sent the monster flying.

'…Oh…My…God…' Valerie blinked numbly as Phantom turned all three of them intangible and brought them safely back to the earth. He released the two girls as soon as their feet touched ground, leaning against a nearby tree and looking rather drained. Heather grinned at the ghost, latching herself to his waist.

"That was so cool!" she yelled giddily. "You totally sent that monster flying without even touching him!" Phantom gave the girl a weak smile, patting her on the head.

"Thanks," he said, "Wish I could say it was nothing, but I don't think I'll be using any of my powers for a while…"

"That…" Valerie said, staring off at the barren trees that stretched as far as she could see. "How long have you been able to do that?" The ghost hunter looked visibly shaken.

"Not long," The ghost told her, closing his eyes to take deep, cleansing breaths, "About three or four months now. I don't like using it, since it's hard to control and drains me so much," Valerie frowned, logging that away for future studies.

"Well, looks like we've all been grounded." She sighed, peeling her mask off so she could breathe easier, "We'll have to try and finish the way on foot." Frowning, she pushed a few buttons on her wrist. "I marked the direction and approximate distance we need to go to get to that place Phantom saw. It should lead us straight there."

"Wow," Phantom said, looking impressed. "That helps,"

"Technically it was made to help with my ghost hunting so I wouldn't get lost," Valerie explained, "But it's definitely cool that it has other uses."

"We'd better get started," Phantom said, standing, "If things like that hang out during the day, I don't WANT to know what comes out at night…"

"Agreed," Valerie said quickly, "Follow me,"

Phantom and Heather didn't argue, both staying as close to the huntress as possible. Valerie noticed that Phantom seemed to be keeping a keen eye out around them for any future attacks, even going as far as to open his sixth sense a little more. She had to admit she was grateful, despite her reservations about relying on an enemy.

She also saw on her radar that he wasn't kidding about how much power that wailing attack used up. Phantom had been drained to the last 10 of the maximum power he used when fighting her, and though Valerie was pretty sure that wasn't actually 10 of his full power, the intensity of the drain had her a little edgy.

"How long will it take to get some energy back," Valerie asked, unsettled by the forest surrounding them.

"I'll need at least half an hour worth or rest," Phantom admitted, "Even then, I'd probably only keep the powers I use to the basics,"

"Basics?" Heather repeated.

"Intangibility, flight and invisibility, the three ghost powers that use minimal power, and that all ghosts possess," Heather looked surprised. Not really at the answer, though, as much as the fact that it wasn't Phantom who told her.

"Exactly," Phantom said, nodding. Then, with a wry smile, he added, "Just like the good ol' days…"

Valerie was tempted to ask then exactly how he died, and how long he'd been dead, but couldn't bring herself to do so. Doing so would acknowledge that the creature she now hunted was once human like her, which would bring reservations to harming him. Never allow yourself to think of a ghost as a person was Ghost Hunting Rule Number 1, and Valerie wasn't about to break it.

"What else can you do?" Heather asked.

"This and that," Phantom said, shrugging, "You know, Ecto-blasts, shields… those sort of things," Valerie couldn't suppress a smile, amused smile. The ghost knew full well she was listening in, and wasn't stupid enough to give her an inventory of his powers.

"Well, can you at least tell me what that screaming thing back there was?" Heather asked, "That was REALLY cool!" Phantom laughed.

"Fair enough," He agreed, "I call it my Ghostly Wail. Basically it can project my voice like a sonic wave and destroy everything in its path, as I'm sure you saw. But it's still a little too powerful for me to use too often. Besides, I'm sure you can only imagine the hassle it'd make for property owners…"

"You don't seem to care about that too much before," Valerie said coolly.

"And you do?" Phantom countered. Valerie blushed, finding no retaliation.

"How much longer do we have to walk?" Heather whined, "I'm getting tired!" Valerie and Phantom flinched simultaneously, realizing that, thanks to their exceptional physical form they'd been keeping a pace that was too hard for a child, even with Phantom tired out and Valerie still suffering from an increasingly worse headache.

"Hang on," Phantom said, stopping he dropped down onto one knee and looked at the girl over his shoulder, "Climb on and I'll carry you a bit so you can rest, okay?" Valerie frowned.

"I don't think-!" The ghost hunters protest died in her throat as Heather squealed, eagerly climbing onto the ghost's back.

"Thank you, Phantom!" She sang out cheerfully. Valerie glowered at the ghost irritable, but bit her tongue as they started off again.

"How much longer do we have to walk?" Valerie asked irritably.

"It should only be about half an hour or so, I can sense a big mass of people nearby," Phantom responded, "Need a break?"

"No way," Valerie answered, though nothing could be further from the truth. Phantom studied her face for a moment, then stopped. "What?"

"I'm getting kinda tired, mind if we rest for a bit?" The ghost asked. Valerie's lips pursed as she studied Phantom's cool, perspiration-free face, knowing that sweat was pouring down her face.

Other then the fact that the strenuous physical trek was made easier on him because he could now levitated above the ground and fly straight through the trees and other obstacles Valerie had to walk around, the fact that his body temperature could be compared to ice even in the smoldering heat around them made her almost envious.

Almost.

At any rate, she also knew that Phantom didn't need a break. He'd regained enough of his energy over the last three hours that he chanced an ecto-blast on one of the bizarre creatures that lived here when it tried to attack Valerie not twenty minutes ago, without disturbing the sleeping nine year old on his back.

Phantom was just giving her an excuse to stop and catch her breath without wounding her pride, and while the majority of Valerie wanted to insist they keep going, a smarter part of her mind she could've really used back when the box was in her hands told her to rest for a few minutes. It was no good keeping up with Phantom if she was dead after doing so, after all. Beside, her headache still hadn't gone away…

"What happened to that stupid box, anyways?" Valerie asked as she sat, taking deep, even breaths and closing her eyes to help regain her energy faster. She wasn't afraid, she knew Phantom wouldn't chance leaving without her.

Besides, she had her other senses, too. They'd been enhanced thanks to this ghost hunting thing, since ghosts spent the majority of the time invisible. She'd know if he tried anything funny.

"Disappeared," Phantom said grimly, "Right outta your hands… hopefully, the contact will be able to tell us what happened. That's not our biggest problem, though…" Phantom sighed. "Valerie, there's something you should really know. I didn't want to say anything in front of Heather since she's just a kid and all, but…"

"What?" Valerie asked, not opening her eyes.

"Well… Because you're the one who opened the box, you're more at risk then me and Heather," Phantom said delicately. Valerie cracked one eye open to glare suspiciously at the ghost.

"How much more at risk?" She asked, a little more tense then before.

"…if we can't get out of here in 24 hours, you're going to die, Valerie," Phantom told her, his tone serious and sympathetic at the same time.

"…WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

WoM- Poor Valerie! Never a break, ne? 'grins innocently' Sorry if a lot of my senseless babble went over your heads, I was trying to explain things the best I could. Looking back at this chapter, I'm starting to realize how fun the squabbled between Valerie and Heather are! 'giggles.' Hope you stay tuned for the next chappie!

Thanks to;

Evilevergreen

epobbp

My Eternal Facade

Tetsukon

Assasin of Light

Titan6

Mariko the Reviewer

Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet

TallieCat

Rob the Hedgehog

Samantha-Girl Scout

Byrdie Fae
the sleep warrior

Bluemystgirl

Firefury

Inumaru12

Petitio Principii

Next update; December 26th

See you then!