WoM- Ack! So busy! 'dizzy' So much time has been devoted to Gender Confusion lately, I barely have time to work on my other stories! And school isn't helping, either… you'd think it'd get easier by the time you were a senior but Noooo… Hmph! 'pouts' Anywho, Here's chapter five, and don't forget to check out Flirting with Disaster this Friday!
Valerie: What are you? (Ghost dog spits green ectoplasmic saliva on Valerie)
Danny: I'll tell you what I'm not: covered in dog saliva. (Valerie screams)
Hunting For Freedom
They flew for about half an hour in the direction Wole gave them. Normally, half an hour wasn't a big deal for Valerie, even with a ghost. She and Phantom had been trapped in the Ghost Zone by Skulker for more then half an hour, after all, and that wasn't even including after she'd blacked out.
Half an hour with two pre-adolescent and extremely hyper kids, on the other hand…
"So you're hair's really that color naturally?" Heather asked, wide-eyed. Phantom laughed.
"Well, it was a different color before the accident…" He admitted amused.
"What accident?" Wole asked.
"The one that killed him, of course!" Heather scoffed. "What about your eyes? Were they green before?"
"No," The ghost admitted, "They got changed, too."
"But I can't picture you without green eyes!" Heather complained. "They're soooo cool! What was your real coloring? Before you died, I mean."
"Uhh…" Phantom glanced at Valerie quickly, "…I, uhh, can't remember." Heather groaned in disappointment, and Valerie frowned. It was obvious he was lying, but why would he lie about something like that?
"I don't get it," Wole complained, "How come you're still here if you're dead?"
"Becauuuse," Heather said, sounding faintly annoyed, "He's a ghost!"
"You already said that! What's a ghost, anyways?"
"Basically? Dead spirits that won't rest," Phantom said grimly, "They usually have some sort of business in the living realm they never completed, and a lot of them aren't people you'd wanna meet in a dark ally alone."
"But you're not like that, Phantom!" Heather said sweetly, "You're way too cool to be a bad guy!" Phantom smiled at her, but it was an empty smile. His eyes were glazed, and his mind was somewhere else completely. In fact…
"WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!" Valerie screeched, gripping Phantom's shoulders as hard as she could to try and awake him from his daydreams.
The ghost yelped and came back to reality just in time to phase them all through the tree in question. Valerie, Wole and Heather all sighed in relief, and the ghost hunter scowled at Phantom, her hands encircling his neck.
"Don't you EVER scare me like that again!" She yelled, "I nearly had a heart attack back there!"
"Alright, Alright!" Phantom gasped out, "I get it! If you don't stop strangling me, we're all gonna fall!" Valerie's scowl darkened, but she loosened her grip.
"Hmph," She grumped, glaring down at the trees below them.
"You know, that kind of power is really amazing," Wole said, giving Danny a wide eyed look, "No human I know can do things like that,"
"He isn't human," Valerie sighed, "Look, you're sure this Treya knows our contact? Because if this is a wild goose chase, I'm hauling your butt straight back to that creepy king guy back there!" Wole stared at her.
"You guys really aren't from around here," He said, shaking his head.
"No duh," Valerie said, irritated, "And we need to get back home as soon as possible."
"What's the rush?" Heather asked, annoyed, "I mean, it's not like Home's going anywhere, right?"
"Valerie's right," Phantom said, "We don't have time to waste."
"But it's so much fun here!" Heather complained, "I mean, yeah at first it was scary, but everything looks so different and cool! And you're here to protect us from the creepy stuff, Phantom!"
"Speak for yourself!" Valerie snapped, "I don't need anyone fighting my battles for me!"
"Yeah, you really stood up to that thing that attacked us and got your flying board thingy," Heather said sarcastically.
"It's a jet sled!" An angry Valerie growled, "And I could've beaten him if SOMEONE wasn't too busy acting like a spoiled brat!"
"I know you are, but what am I?" Heather countered. Phantom burst out laughing, earning an evil look from Valerie.
"S-Sorry," He laughed, "But you who sound almost like sisters or something."
"Yeah, right," Heather said, "I could never be sisters with a cold-hearted snob like her!"
"And any little sister of mine would know when to hold her tongue and NOT be an insufferable brat!" Valerie glared at the girl. Phantom's grin widened.
"Hence proving my point," he said cheekily. Then his attention was drawn to something below them. "Hey, there's some people down there…"
Alert, all three humans looked to the ground, scanning for any signs of life, human or otherwise.
"I don't see anything…" Heather complained.
"Me either." Wole frowned.
"I see 'em," Valerie whispered, her eyes narrowing on a spot where a bush trembled without wind. Her eyes immediately sought out Phantom's to find he was already giving her a questioning frown, obviously torn between seeking the disturbance out and continuing. Valerie considered for a moment before sighing in defeat. "The way they're acting, we'll definitely have to deal with them first," She decided. "You heard what Wole said about your powers, and we don't need any attention here."
"Right," Phantom agreed, turning the whole group invisible. He flew them over to a large tree where he set them all down. Valerie automatically started preparing her weapons.
"Stay here," She ordered the two children, "We don't need either of you getting in our way," Both Heather and Wole stiffened and glared at Valerie, but she paid them no mind, jumping silently to the earth. Phantom disappeared from sight once again, though Valerie saw the direction he was heading in and knew he was planning to circle around behind their audience.
Activating her extendable Ecto-staff without turning it on, Valerie tensed, listening close for any hints of movement and keeping keen attention on the ground. Unlike ghosts, who were intangible more often then not, she'd learned to feel when a human's foot fell, and tell with direction they were coming from.
These skills let her know that there were four… no, five. Five people were now trying to circle around her. Three of them weren't any good at being inconspicuous at all, one was so-so and the other was fairly good. Not up to par with a ghost, but still impressive for someone who was bound by the rules of Physics.
One of the first three was also edgy and impatient, and was the first one to try and attack Valerie from behind. The Ghost Hunter responded by planting the end of her staff in the man's gut, then twisting around to knock him against a tree, too dazed to move again.
This was the cue for the other four to attack. Two of them were knocked out mid-air by Phantom before they could reach for their weapons, and a third yelped in surprise when his machete jumped out of his hand and into Phantom's gloved one.
Only the fourth managed to reach Valerie, who dodged the sword he wield with expert precision. Swinging around, she brought her staff up to par another blow, one of her boots sweeping out to knock the man's feet out from under him.
He jumped up before she could do so, though, falling back to try and circle around Valerie again. Phantom flew down before he could do anything else, though, and the man swiped at the ghost with his sword.
Only to freeze up with wide eyes when the sword sliced through the air as if he wasn't even there, the path the sword cut clear through him sealing up almost as soon as it was made. Taking advantage of the man's surprise, Phantom punched him hard in the jaw, sending him flying into another tree.
"STOP!" Wole yelled, out, "They're on our side!" All seven people in the clearing gave the boy a startled look as he began to climb down from the tree.
"Wole?" One of the men Phantom had knocked out of the air said in surprise, "I thought the Kesan got you!"
"They did," Wole sighed, "But these guys saved me,"
"What are you?" The swordsman asked Phantom holding his head where it's hit the tree.
"Look, can we save the Q and A stuff?" Valerie asked in irritation, "We're in a hurry, and you guys aren't helping."
"These are people from another world, Kren," Wole answered, "That's Phantom, she's Valerie and up there's Heather." The five men stared at the young girl attempting to climb down from the tree after Wole. Their staring became more pronounced when Phantom flew up to help her down.
"What is he?" The first man to attack repeated Kren's question.
"What part of 'in a hurry,' Doesn't make sence here?" Valerie demanded irritably.
"We'll answer your questions on the way," Wole reasoned. "Right now, we need to get these three to see Treya." Kren frowned, studying Phantom hesitantly before sighing in defeat.
"Come on, then," He said begrudgingly. Everyone began to follow him through the forest as he led them away. Now that the heat of battle was firmly dead, Valerie took the time to study the man.
Kren was about twenty-something, with dark blue hair and violet eyes. He wore a red headband, much like Wole's, and his fashion sence was much the same in that in consisted mainly or blacks and dark blues.
"Well?" Kren asked in the silence, eyeing Phantom again when he saw the boy was floating rather then walking. Phantom realized what he was doing and hastily landed, obviously hoping to keep tensions at a minimum, but the damage had been done.
"Yovven," one of the men hissed, scowling at Phantom, "The boy's obviously a Yovven, a demon! And you're taking him to see our leader!"
"That's not true!" Wole defended the ghost, "Phantom can fly and walk through things, I've never met a Yovven that can do that." This did little to soothe the man's distrust of Phantom.
"He's a ghost," Valerie said, sighing, "They're fairly common in our world. Or at least, in our part of our world."
"You're world?" Kren repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"We're from another dimension," Phantom said, "There was an accident, though, and we ended up here, but we have to get back home in a 24 hour time span."
"Since when was there a time limit?" Heather asked, confused.
"Never mind, Heather," Valerie said automatically. Heather scowled at her.
"Why do you always do that?" She demanded. "I'm not a three year old, and I've been handling this stuff pretty well so far, considering it's all your fault! Why don't you just tell me what's going on already?"
"Right, because you're proven yourself to be the shining star of maturity," Valerie said sarcastically. Then, to prove her point, Valerie added, "'I know you are, but what am I?'" Heather's glare darkened.
"Like you're really all that much better!" She countered. "At least I don't go around pretending I'm better then everyone else!"
"I'm not even gonna touch that hypocrisy." Valerie said dryly.
"Heather," Phantom sighed when the girl opened her mother to retaliate, "knock it off. You too, Valerie. If we waste all our energy fighting each other, we'll never get out of here in time," Valerie turned her glare to the ghost.
"You think you can tell me what to do?" She challenged, tilting her chin to give the ghost her nastiest look to date.
"I think I want to get all of us out of here before anything bad happens to either of you," Phantom snapped, frowning at her, "Considering you're on the clock, I'd think you'd appreciate that." Valerie's look softened from anger to confusion.
"Why do you even care?" She asked.
"Because it keeps me human," Phantom responded, a weird look on his face. Heather looked from him to Valerie, a dark frown on her face.
'How can you trust his words?' the voice played in the back of her head again, 'He's already broken the first truce you two held, who's to say he won't break another…?'
"What's with this world, anyways? Why are you guys rebelling against those creepy Kesan guys back there?"
"The Kesan don't exist in your world?" Kren asked, surprised.
"Nuh-huh," Heather shook her head, trotting to walk alongside Phantom. "Just humans and ghosts. Phantom, I'm getting tired again…"
"Already?" Valerie asked incredulously, suspicion playing at the corners of her mind. Nine years old or not, Heather was a girl with an infatuation, and there were little forces more dangerous in any world then that. The suspicion deepened when Heather shot her a pointed scowl.
"Tell you what," Phantom said, oblivious to the transaction between the girls, "I'll carry you some more if you promise not to fight with Valerie, okay?"
"Deal!" Heather agreed quickly, grinning at the ghost. Valerie shook her head as the girl climbed back onto Phantom's back.
"The Kesan are the rulers of this world," Wole answered. "For hundreds of years, they've controlled everything, but their biggest market is the trade of humans." Phantom and Valerie stopped dead, and all three newcomers looked horrified at his wording.
"…trade of humans?" Phantom repeated, his voice cracking slightly, "You mean as slaves?"
"Exactly," Kren sighed, "That's what we're rebelling against. We want to free the human race from Kesan suppression."
"We managed to get a lot of them to the sanctuary," Wole added, "But there's still a lot more the Kesan still got. That's why we need someone with powers like you! You can make lots of people fly and invisible and stuff, so getting people out of the camps should be no problem for you!" Phantom frowned.
"I'd love to help you out, kid, but there could be some serous consequences on both our worlds if the three of us don't get back home in time." He said apologetically. Wole's face fell slightly.
"Is that all you can do?" Kren asked doubtfully.
"No," Phantom sighed, "But I've got a lot of powers I don't use on the living."
"You say that as if you're dead," One of the other men snorted disdainfully.
"He is." Valerie said absently, ignoring the way that he and three other men stopped dead in their tracks. "About this Treya chick… does she really know as much as this kid says?"
"Most likely more," Kren smiled, "Treya is the daughter of a Shamaness and one of the strongest warriors the humans have to offer. She's got it all, looks, brains, strength…"
"A Shamaness?" Phantom repeated, frowning slightly. "Does she talk with any immortals?"
"Plenty," Kren answered, "There are even rumors that she's the granddaughter of one."
"Good," Phantom said, sighing in relief. "If she doesn't know who we're looking for, she probably at least knows who does."
"Yeah, but it'd help a lot more if we knew what we were looking for…" Valerie added dryly. Phantom shot her a look, but didn't say anything.
"You guys are getting us something to eat, right?" Heather asked Kren, "I'm starving!"
"HEATHER!" Valerie shouted disapprovingly. Heather made a face at her, but didn't say anything, lest she break her promise to Phantom.
"First, we'll take you to Treya," Kren said, smiling at the little girl slightly. "After that, we'll see about finding any food for you,"
"There!" Wole shouted, "Up ahead there's our base!" Danny, Valerie and Heather all looked up at the boy's shout, their eyes widening at the sight before them.
Everywhere they looked, it was tents made from animal hide and enough people to fill three 'bases' instead of just one, which filled Valerie with dread when she realized they would have to cut a path through the crowd to get to their informant. None of the three could tell what animal was used to make the tents, but Phantom couldn't resist one comment when he saw them.
"Wow, Sam'd have a heart attack if she ever saw this place…" He said in dry amusement.
'Sam Manson?' Valerie thought, raising an eyebrow, 'He can't be talking about Sam Manson…' Though now that she thought about it, wasn't Sam hanging around after the first time Valerie attacked Phantom.
Valerie frowned deeply as she remembered the way she's stumbled upon Sam and Danny's… 'alone time' and she decided NOT to continue down that train of thought.
"This way," Kren called, leading them through the crowd. This wasn't as much trouble for them as Valerie had anticipated, as people willingly cleared a path for them after taking in their bizarre, outlandish looks.
The fact that Phantom and Heather were walking right through people wasn't helping matters, either.
"Here we are!" Wole said cheerfully, ducking into a tent, "Treya? Treya! There's some people here you've gotta meet!"
Moments later, Wole exited again, accompanied by a young woman. Phantom froze up when he saw her, a light blush working it's way across his cheeks and Valerie couldn't help but scoff slightly.
"She's not THAT pretty!" She hissed for his ears alone. Then she turned a dark glare back to the girl in question, knowing that that was a lie and absolutely refusing to admit it.
Treya was a girl maybe a few years older then them, with long, soft lavender hair braided back out of her way. Some of it was left to fall over her left eye in a very attractive-looking style, hiding one of her startling red eyes hooded by the longest eyelashes Valerie had ever seen on anyone, man or woman.
She had a soft, muscular body that Paulina would kill for, and was wearing a dark blue top with black jean shorts and animal hide boots that showed off her long legs all the way up to her thigh. A soft smile played at her lips as she studied Phantom, pretty much brushing off the rest of them, much to Valerie's annoyance.
'Just be glad Danny's not here to meet her,' Valerie told herself.
"Well, well," Treya said, not taking her eyes off the blushing Danny, "What do we have here?"
'A bashful ghost, an annoying brat and a ghost hunter in a hurry,' Valerie answered mentally.
"We need your help," She added out loud. "And we're really short on time," Treya finally turned her attention to Valerie, studying her for a moment."I see…" She drawled out, holding the flap of her tent open for then to enter, "Well, we'd better make this quick then, huh?" Highly suspicious that the woman was mocking her, Valerie resisted the urge to glare at her childishly as she slipped inside after Phantom and Heather.
'When I find this Clockwork guy,' She promised herself mentally, 'I'm so giving him a piece of my mind!'
"…That's quite a story," Treya said, frowning at Phantom and Valerie. They'd just gotten done telling Treya about what had transpired while Heather and Wole hunted for something for her to eat. Something that mainly 'Wasn't stinky, green, or still alive,' to avoid any of the world's admittedly unique cuisine.
"So we need to know if you how the person we're looking for," Phantom reminded her, "And also, we need to get there in less then a day." Treya nodded.
"I know who you're talking about," She admitted, then with a glance at Valerie, she added just as casually, "I even know why you guys are so sort on time,"
"So, you'll help us?" Phantom asked, brightening.
"Maybe," Treya said, uncrossing her legs to draw them underneath her, "That all depends if you want to help us. I've got a task I want you to do for us, something that would be perfect for someone of your talents if half of what Wole said is true," Valerie was about to agree when Phantom cut her off, suspicion coloring his tone.
"What are the terms for our agreement?" He asked. Treya smiled at him.
"You get all your information, and a free way to get you to the contact in less then five minutes, and you help me break into the main empire to get some people and things we desperately need here. It won't take long, especially not for someone how can walk right through walls."
"Can you guarantee this contact will help us?" Valerie asked, rubbing her temples to fight her headache.
"No," Treya said casually, "She's quite stubborn. Runs in her blood, I'm afraid. If she decided she doesn't like you, or that it'd be too risky, you can give up your little quest then and there. But at the very least, this gives you a chance, right?" Phantom and Valerie frowned, exchanging uncertain glances.
"…We'll do it," Valerie said at once. Treya beamed.
"Perfect!" She chirped, standing up, "We'll leave in half an hour." And, with one last sly grin at Phantom, Treya stood up and left, not seeing the brilliant blush she'd gotten from the ghost-boy. Valerie noticed it, though, and rolled her eyes.
"Boys…"
WoM- I hear ya, Valerie! 'grins' I'm glad I finally got this up! It's nice to get a break from writing one thing too many times, though I have to get back on my Gender Confusion slump for tomorrow with SoS. 'dizzy.' Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter!
Thanks to;
epobbp
Petitio Principii
Tetsukon
the sleep warrior
Divine-Red-Crayon
hikari lady
My Eternal Facade
Firefury
KatrinaKaiba
Evilevergreen
conan98002
Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet
Inumaru12
Dance of the Soul
Firehedgehog
phantomshadowdragon
Shells/of/Peanuts
briedee
Writer's-BlockDP
Raving-Lunatic
Next update; January 16th
See you then!