DarkFoxKit: Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone. I'm guessing a lot of you had a very busy week. There was a very strange lack of reviews in the last chapter, so I can only guess everyone got busy. But I do appreciate those who did leave a review.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': As long as people enjoyed reading the chapter, the reviews don't matter much. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that nobody got trampled on Black Friday.
DarkFoxKit: Or let the big, fat turkey get away.
Andy: I didn't know it was still alive, okay!?
DarkFoxKit: I wasn't talking about that!
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Chuckles* Sure you weren't. Also, Andy, it still had feathers on it and it was in a pen, of course it was still alive.
Andy: It was lying lifelessly on the ground!
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': It was playing dead.
Andy: What kind of turkey is smart enough to play dead?
DarkFoxKit: Will you hush? We need to get it before it gets away!
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Anyway, this AN is going to be pretty short. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. I'm gonna go see if I can find the turkey that's still running around in the castle.
Chapter 121: A Bonding Experience
Andy's POV
Anna is quite an interesting girl. I thought to myself as I was walking back home.
It had gotten a little late, since we didn't leave until the school was closing down for the day. I would say it was around 6 PM right now. Anna seemed to share a few interests with me, surprisingly enough. She talked about how she wrote in her own diary, how she liked studying biology, as well as documentaries on animals. She had a lot of interesting ideas for the script changes as well. We ended up losing track of time.
I, admittedly, didn't want to go home anyways. Because Mom was being weird lately, she was being both smothering and evasive at the same time. She would ask Danny and I questions if we suddenly came out of our room without announcing we came home from the front door. She would watch us go to our room. She would make dinner for us, though lately she had been avoiding using any of her or Dad's cooking inventions, which was a relief, but also worrying.
But Mom wouldn't really talk to us. She wouldn't look us in the eyes. She would avoid any questions we asked related to how she was acting. I really wish I knew what was wrong with her, but I wasn't stupid, or desperate, enough to say those words out loud where a certain genie ghost could hear it.
I shook my head. I needed to focus on the school project, then worry about Mom later. I didn't want to worry about too many things at once. My visions hadn't been showing me anything regarding Mom though, which was starting to drive me up the wall. I could only hope that if I gave her some space, Mom would eventually open up and-
My train of thought was rudely interrupted when I suddenly had a familiar warm sensation coming up my throat, and a dark blue mist came out of my mouth. I was about to look around for the ghost when suddenly I was covered with thick, green goop.
"OH COME ON! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUDGING KIDDING ME!" I screamed, definitely not enjoying my gooey bath.
Danny, who was in his ghost form, landed in front of me, a sheepish grin on his face as he scratched the back of his head. "Uh… hey, bro… you… look good in green?"
I glared at Danny, realizing he was the one responsible for why I was covered in goo right now. I noticed that Danny flinched back a tiny bit.
"Yeah… uh… let's get you cleaned up, and I'll explain what happened," Danny sheepishly remarked as he gulped a bit.
"I swear bro, if you weren't already half dead, I would kill you right now," I hissed in annoyance.
"How about I explain while we get you cleaned off?" Danny offered. "You like explanations… right?"
"I would love an explanation," I grumbled. "Because this stuff is hard to get off! Intangibility doesn't work so well with ghost goo! How am I going to walk in our house with ectoplasm all over me? Especially with how Mom has been lately?"
"We'll go to the backyard and hose you off," Danny stated. "That should work."
"I don't like that you said 'should'..." I frowned.
Danny picked me up suddenly and flew me to the backyard of Fenton Works. I didn't like being wet, but at least water was easy to get off, ectoplasm, not so much.
As soon as Danny landed, he looked around for a moment before changing back to his human form. He went over to the fire hose.
"So what did happen that caused all this goo to fall on me?" I asked, wanting to know what the heck Danny had been doing.
"Well a super muscular ghost showed up and… well…" Danny frowned before he fully explained the situation with the ghost girl. "So yeah… I think… we may have killed that ghost…"
Danny had been spraying me with the hose to try to wash off the ectoplasm while he had been explaining the situation to me. The water was cold, it was almost stinging my skin with how cold it was. But I endured through it since I really didn't want to walk home with ectoplasm all over me with how Mom was right now.
It took me a moment to think about what Danny said about the ghost girl, and how they apparently 'killed' a ghost, and its remains were on my body. I would be hurling right now if I wasn't trying to endure being sprayed by cold water.
"Too bad you can't just absorb the ectoplasm," Danny muttered as he continued hosing me off.
"I swear to Clockwork, if I absorb this, I'm going to-" I began to say when I was interrupted by someone opening the door to the backyard.
"Danny? Andy? What… are you two doing?" Jazz asked in surprise.
"Ghost goop got all over Andy," Danny summarized. "So I'm washing him off."
"Oh…" Jazz responded awkwardly. "Maybe you should come inside and take a bath. I think you're going to catch a bad cold if Danny keeps hosing you with cold water."
"Do you think you can keep Mom busy then while I do that?" I asked.
"Dad's already taking care of that," Jazz informed. "He went down to the lab slightly before that hulk ghost showed up."
"Oh great," I sighed in relief. "You can stop now, Danny. I think I'd rather take a nice, warm bath than being hosed by cold water."
Danny responded by turning off the hose. "I'll take care of your laundry while you wash up. It's the least I could do for dirtying up your clothes in the first place."
"That would be appreciated," I replied back.
"I'll let you two know when our parents come back from the lab," Jazz volunteered.
After a very long, thorough bath, I was glad to be in my baby blue PJs. I held up a hollow ecto ball I made, keeping one sample of the goo that fell on me inside. I figured it would be a good idea to analyze it. Because if a ghost could melt so easily like that, then there might be something going on with that ghost itself. I was worried about a few possibilities, like a fatal ghost disease it had. In which case, I could be in danger myself due to having its carcass all over me. But I didn't see any futures of being struck down with ghost illness any time soon, so I could only hope that wasn't the case.
First thing was first, however. Once I had gotten changed, I walked over to my closet. I reached into the back of the wall to take out a spare Fenton Thermos I kept in there in case I would need it. I opened the Thermos to have it suck the gooey sample inside. Once that was finished, I put the Thermos away in the wall again, before walking over to Danny.
Danny was sitting on his bed, looking deep in thought. He was wearing his own PJs already. I wasn't sure if he was worried about Mom, that ghost girl who apparently looked similar to him, or the fact he may have murdered a ghost. While I couldn't help with the first two things, I could at least alleviate the third thing he may be worrying about.
"Hey, bro… if you're still worried about murdering that ghost, you shouldn't be," I said softly to him.
"Why not…?" Danny softly asked.
"Well… from what you told me, the muscular ghost just melted, right? Did you see a core when his body melted?" I questioned.
Danny shook his head. "No, but with how strong the attack was… it's possible that we destroyed the core."
"Even if that were the case, you still should've seen the core before it got destroyed. Ghost cores don't get destroyed that easily, bro, especially if the ghost was powerful," I explained. "You melted the body, but there was no core. Which leads me to believe it either wasn't a ghost, or it was some kind of duplicate you were fighting."
Danny frowned. "But then why did it leave behind goop? All duplicates we've come across so far just fade to nothing when destroyed, they don't leave something physical behind."
"There are different types of duplicates, bro. Some are more solid than others," I answered. "From what I've read, some ghosts are capable of creating duplicates with real ectoplasm. So when the duplicate gets destroyed, it leaves whatever it was made from behind."
"So what you're saying is we may have a mysterious enemy who is capable of creating those stronger duplicates and who is very much interested in eliminating me," Danny surmised. "Great."
I frowned a little. "Well… is that really any different from most ghosts we meet? I'm also interested in that ghost girl you mentioned, about how she looks really similar to your ghost form. That's pretty… unusual, and she apparently hunts ghosts, using her own kind of thermos-like gadget."
Danny nodded. "I don't know who she is, I don't think I've even caught her name. I just know that after the fight, she vanishes like she was never there. From our lessons with Juliette, I couldn't sense any mid to high level invisibility. So either she's flying off super fast, teleporting, or has invisibility that is even stronger than high level invisibility."
"Either way, it's really dang impressive," I commented. "She can elude the great Danny Phantom himself."
Danny grumbled. "It's annoying though. I feel like I should know more about her, but she keeps disappearing before I get the chance to ask."
I gave it some thought. "There seems to be some mysterious things going on lately. How about after the play is done, I help you look for that girl, or that mysterious ghost who sent that duplicate after you?"
"That'd be appreciated, bro," Danny responded with a soft sigh of relief. "I was considering asking Valerie for help. Explain to her that there's been a mysterious ghost girl and that there have been strange ghosts nearby that I think are duplicates."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "She might hurt the ghost girl, and… she's not exactly fond of your ghost half. Seems the only ghost she doesn't try to shoot to death right away is me."
"I was going to go in waving a white flag. Then I would explain how there've been threats that I nearly haven't been able to handle and how I was hoping she could possibly help me to track down this ghost girl as she seems to be a part of the new threats to Amity Park," Danny explained before sighing. "Though… saying it aloud, I see myself having a maybe… 10 to 15 percent chance of succeeding."
I sighed as I thought about it for a moment. "Let's wait on that. Valerie's going to be busy with the school project anyways. Let's see if we can find this ghost girl and that mysterious other ghost ourselves first before we try asking the angry ghost huntress to help us track her down. And… you might want to let me do the talking, if you want your relationship with Valerie to improve, I'll have to be the medium between you two."
"I would like to improve our relationship at some point, that way we can both be on the side of protecting Amity Park from ghosts," Danny admitted before looking at me. "How are preparations for your play going?"
"They're going well. I had some help with tweaking the script," I answered, not wanting to let Danny know how much of the script Anna and I had to rewrite. "Anna decided to help out."
"Anna? You mean that girl who's one of Vlad's adoptive children?" Hope spoke from my bed. "Are you sure it's wise to let her help you?"
"I'm still keeping an eye on her," I replied. "But she's… not so bad. She seems interested in the paranormal stuff, she knows a lot of its history. She's also easy to talk to."
Danny chuckled. "Sounds like Vlad hasn't gotten to her too much then. Though I wonder if she and her sister know about the Plasmius side of their father."
I shrugged. "If they do, I doubt they would go around announcing it. I'm just going to focus on the fact that it's good to have the extra help on the play. So… any news on Mom's behavior?"
Danny shook his head. "It's still the same."
"I… really hope this… phase, or whatever this is, doesn't last too long. I'm getting worried." I frowned.
"Everyone is, bro, even Vlad has found out about the funk Mom's in," Danny informed. "His younger daughter, Ella, was over before. She left just a little bit before we got you into the house, according to Jazz."
"Ella was here?" I blinked, surprised.
"Yup," Danny answered.
I frowned a little, wondering about something, before sighing. "We better check our room for bugs… just in case."
"I already did while you were bathing," Danny informed. "Did 3 different bug sweeps in fact, and there was nothing."
"Let's hope it stays that way," I remarked.
It was starting to get a little overwhelming. Focusing on the school project, Mom's funk, Ella and Anna's real intentions, this mysterious ghost girl who looked like Danny, and a mysterious ghost that apparently had it out for Danny. Not to mention the Guys in White's hybrid thing was still hovering over our heads. I took a deep breath and let it out. Getting worked up wasn't going to solve anything. I could only focus on one thing at a time. Get the school project out of the way first, so our grades don't suffer, then worry about the other things.
"Maybe you should relax for a bit? You seem a little stressed out," Hope suggested.
"I am relaxing," I huffed.
"It doesn't seem like it to me," Hope replied. "It looks like you're constipated from where I'm sitting."
Danny was chuckling, and I grumbled before I went over to my computer, and sat down on the chair. Maybe I could find something interesting on the web… Why do I feel like something freaky happened on a website before?
Over the next several days, I had been busy setting up the school project's play.I had been hanging out at Valerie's apartment with Dash to go over our lines. Whenever a ghost decided to attack Amity Park, I tried to sneak away to take care of it myself, or if it was closer to Danny, I called Danny about the ghost. If one of us was busy with something, we called the other and asked him to deal with it. The only reason I was okay with doing this was because the ghosts were usually low level and easy for one of us to deal with.
We were still worried about Mom though. She had been doing who knows what and we hadn't seen her in over a week at the point the play took place. I wanted to use the lab's equipment to analyze the goo from the ghost Danny had fought with, but since Mom locked the lab for over a week, I never had a chance to. I had personally hoped that Mom would snap out of her funk and at least attend the play, but she unfortunately didn't. Which… I guessed was for the best, since I wouldn't have wanted her to see me blacking out at the final few scenes.
… If someone was somehow reading this journal, that was all you needed to know and nothing else. Not that I would know what happened myself. All I remembered was we had entered the final kiss scene, I was leaning in to kiss the 'sleeping' Juliette, and then I was in the dressing room, taking off my costume.
I was relieved the play was over though, and according to Mr. Lancer, we did an 'above and beyond' job. From what he explained, we actually didn't need to worry about future homework for the class for the semester. Apparently we had done such a good job that all who participated in the play would be getting an A+ in his class.
That was great news for us, so Dash, Valerie, Anna, and I decided to celebrate at the school cafeteria the next day since it was pizza day. Though I couldn't stop getting the feeling that something even more embarrassing than me blacking out had happened...
Tucker, Sam, and the other students who helped with the play had been invited, but each of them had their own things to do. Sam and Tucker had to work with Danny to finish up their project, which they would be turning in tomorrow. The others either had a class or simply had other plans. There were a few juniors and seniors who turned us down and said they appreciated the offer but were going off campus for lunch as they didn't exactly trust the cafeteria food even with the improvements that had been made.
I sat down with Dash and Valerie at an empty table in the cafeteria as Anna volunteered to get the pizza. She asked what everyone preferred as their toppings before she went to the serving line.
That gave me some time to talk to Dash and Valerie.
"Okay, what is so funny? You and Dash have been snickering and chuckling ever since the play," I grumbled.
"It's nothing, Andy," Dash responded, though he coughed out a few chuckles.
"Yeah, it's totally nothing you should worry about," Valerie added, though I could see her trying not to smile, and failing.
"Did I do something incredibly embarrassing when I blacked out? Was it being recorded? Did I fall asleep on top of Juliette? Juliette won't even tell me!" I complained.
"I'm sure someone was recording, since the auditorium ended up packed," Valerie answered. "And no, Andy, you didn't fall asleep on Juliette."
"Then why won't you tell me what happened?" I asked.
"Because it's funnier this way~" Dash grinned.
"Both of you are such teases!" I groaned.
"I'm surprised nobody in the school has told you yet," Valerie chuckled. "Guess everyone decided it was better to keep it hush hush."
"The whole school is a tease then," I huffed.
"But isn't it great that the play turned out great despite doing the abridged version? I've never seen Mr. Lancer looked so proud before, especially towards me," Dash admitted.
"I'm just glad we got the highest grade possible, as well as not having to worry about literature homework for the rest of the semester. Any free time I can get is welcomed in my eyes," Valerie sighed.
"Are you still… you know… ghost hunting?" Dash whispered.
"I've been doing it when I can," Valerie answered. "It's been a bit more active lately, since those white suited menaces left town."
"I've been wondering about those guys. Aren't they good though, since they hunt ghosts?" Dash asked.
"Not necessarily," I spoke up with a frown. "Just because they hunt ghosts doesn't mean they're doing it for the people's safety. Have you seen how they hunt ghosts? They nearly destroyed half of Amity's Observatory just to get at someone they thought was the ghost boy just because he dyed his hair white. They're callous and ruthless in their methods, not seeming to care about the people caught in the crossfire."
"From my info sources, they're morally closer to neutral, leaning towards bad," Valerie added. "They apparently do unspeakable tests to a ghost while it's still 'living'. Even I don't torture the ghosts I hunt. Sure, I'll play around a bit from time to time, but I'd never do what I've heard they do."
"Speaking of ghost hunting… I haven't seen you hunting Public Enemy #1 in a while," I said to Valerie, hoping to know what her thoughts were on Danny Phantom now. "Any particular reason for that?"
"Well a part of it is that he's been elusive lately," Valerie explained. "He shows up for just long enough to fight off a ghost and then disappears without a trace. It would seem that he's picked up some kind of ability to hide his energy and disappear completely from my radar."
You can thank Juliette for that. I thought with an inward chuckle.
"Why are you still hunting him anyways? Isn't he the hero of Amity Park?" Dash asked.
"Not all heroes are good, Dash," Valerie sighed. "Take heroes like Batman and antiheroes like Deadpool. Batman more often than not hospitalizes the people he's fighting. And Deadpool, well he saves the day, but he doesn't care about collateral damage one bit."
"But Danny Phantom hasn't been doing a lot of collateral damage lately, especially since he's got his brother helping him now," Dash pointed out. "Speaking of Danny Phantom's brother, I haven't heard you say anything about him."
Valerie shook her head. "That's not a topic I'd really like to bring up right now. Also, while Danny Phantom appears to be doing better, he's still a potential threat as… outside of fighting ghosts, nobody knows what he wants or why he's in Amity Park in the first place. For all we know, the reason that ghosts are coming here could be because Danny Phantom is here. I mean think about all the chaos that has happened since Danny Phantom first showed up. Think of all the threats that Amity Park has faced, all the intruders. It can't just be coincidence."
In a way, Valerie isn't wrong. The ghosts and Danny Phantom only started showing up because Danny turned on the ghost portal. I frowned to myself. Would Amity Park be safe if we were able to turn off the Ghost Portal?
I inwardly sighed. Well, even if we could turn it off, which is pretty impossible as the switch is inside the portal, that wouldn't stop the ghosts from coming here themselves. The portal's existence already caused Amity Park and the Ghost Zone to be closely linked with each other, especially after Pariah Dark pulled the city into the Ghost Zone for that brief moment of time.
"Although your logic makes sense, Val, it's all still just speculation," I pointed out. "You're right in saying that we don't know Danny Phantom's story. Maybe… if we knew that, we could… reach some kind of truce and understanding with each other. Wouldn't it be nice if we could team up with the hero of Amity Park to face the invading ghost threat instead of fighting each other?"
"That's asking quite a bit, Andy," Valerie responded before shaking her head. "I don't think I'd be willing to enter a truce or even entertain the idea at this time."
"I'm not saying you have to, just…" I sighed. "Maybe you can try a ceasefire at least? Maybe you and Danny Phantom could try talking to each other? I've seen you guys work together during the Pariah Dark incident." What would happen if she knew Danny Phantom was actually Danny Fenton? Would she still hunt him? Would she stop? Would she be angry? Would she still think he's a ghost pretending to be human? Too many uncertainties… but… she does seem willing to talk to Andy Phantom. Maybe I can use that in my favor to try to make this truce work?
Before Valerie could answer back, Anna came over, holding two large trays. She put the trays down on our table, showing our pizzas. One tray had half pepperoni pizza, and the other half supreme pizza. The other tray had half cheese pizza, and the other half was bacon and sliced italian sausage.
"Alright, I got everyone's favorite toppings." Anna smiled. "If you guys want more, you can go up and get some."
"Ah, pizza day, the best day for lunch of the entire school year~" Dash dreamily remarked as he picked up a supreme pizza slice.
I took a pepperoni pizza slice myself. I always loved to stick with the classics. Valerie took the bacon and sliced italian sausage slice, while Anna took cheese.
"Here's to your A pluses." Anna smiled.
"Thanks, it's nice that you decided to take our invitation to sit with us." Valerie grinned.
"I was happy to join you." Anna answered. "After all the hard work we put in, I definitely wasn't going to miss the celebration."
"It might be a bit crude to have the celebration at school, but at least it doesn't cost us anything," Valerie chuckled.
"Besides, we got lucky that it was pizza day the next day after the play," I remarked. I wonder if Juliette's ever had pizza… I should bring over a slice for her to try out later.
"Indeed. It's not often I get to enjoy such tasty and greasy food myself," Anna chuckled. "Though I did ask for something that did cost me a tiny bit. Though it should be ready once we finish our food."
"What is it?" Dash asked eagerly.
"It's something for dessert," Anna answered. "Though I won't spoil the surprise."
"Can't wait to try it out then!" Dash smiled.
I guess Vlad wouldn't want his supposed children to eat 'unhealthy' food. I chuckled to myself as I was enjoying my pepperoni pizza.
I noticed that we had some onlookers though. It was probably odd to have the former popular kid, the star quarterback, the rich yet intelligent student, and the loner outcast all sitting together at one table. I guess they didn't mind it before since we were working on a group project. But now that the project was over, most were probably wondering why we were all still sitting with each other.
"You know…" Anna said, also noticing some of the onlookers. "I think you might end up becoming one of the cool kids from this, Andy."
"Doubt it, once you're labelled, it's difficult to get rid of it," I replied. "Besides, I don't really care about being a 'cool kid' in this sea of predators."
"That'll probably just end up making you cooler," Valerie chuckled. "I can see it now, 'Andy, the cool kid who doesn't care about being cool'."
"Shut up," I pouted. "That's not cool, that's just… annoying."
"Sometimes annoying or indifferent can be cool," Dash informed. "I mean… look at Star."
"She's dating Kwan," I pointed out.
"She wasn't always dating him," Dash replied. "And she was a cool kid not just because she was Paulina's friend."
I was about to ask Dash to tell me about that when I suddenly felt a familiar warm feeling riding up my throat. I quickly covered my mouth for a moment to hide the dark blue mist. Oh come on, is there really going to be a ghost coming here now? Why do so many ghosts have to show up at lunch?
I was about to make an excuse to go to the bathroom, when suddenly something tiny, yet brightly glowing came down from the ceiling. It zipped and flew around in an erratic pattern, and it zoomed across a lunch table, causing trays of pizzas to smash into the other students' faces. Everyone quickly got up and started screaming at the tiny, supposed ghost thing, flying around and causing trouble.
This one's pretty bold and aggressive to be attacking everyone directly right away. I frowned as I, Valerie, Anna, and Dash quickly got up from our tables too.
"I'll get everyone out of here," Dash volunteered. "Anna, I'll need your help."
"I'll be right behind you," Anna assured as she and Dash went to evacuate the students.
"Andy, you get to safety. I need to go hide somewhere to suit up," Valerie quickly said to me.
I wanted to stop Valerie from doing that, since as much trouble this ghost was causing by flipping over the tables and making a mess, it was still a low level threat. Danny or I could handle it ourselves, but if Valerie came into the mix, that could complicate things.
"But-" I tried to argue, but Valerie was already running out of the cafeteria. Argh! Crap! Crap, crap, crap, crap!
I was shouting in my head as I ran to the nearest exit of the cafeteria myself, knowing I had to do something quick before an even bigger mess unfolded. I didn't know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that Danny was currently at study hall in the library, because it meant he didn't know, at least right away, about the ghost attack. But he would notice it eventually, and if he came out as Danny Phantom while the Red Huntress was out there, then all hell would break loose.
I ran to the nearest janitor's closet, and opened the door. Unfortunately, the janitor himself was in there, taking a break from cleaning. He shoved me out and sprayed some air freshener at me for going into the closet. Well, at least I'll smell like flowers going into this battle.
I ran to one of the empty classrooms, did a quick scan to make sure it actually was empty, but I ran under the teacher's desk to make absolutely sure some idiot wasn't hiding in a closet or something and was watching me. I transformed into my ghost form, turned myself invisible, and intangible, and flew through the window. I hoped I wasn't too late in catching that little troublemaker or in keeping Danny from coming out in his ghost form. I also really wanted to avoid Valerie seeing Danny Phantom while she was the Red Huntress.
Alright, where are you? I frowned as I followed my ghost sense to try to pinpoint the tiny ghost.
I quickly found the tiny bugger flying towards the city. The ghost may be as small as a mosquito, but it was bright enough to light up an entire Christmas Tree. Catching it shouldn't be too hard, I just had to get in close enough to use my telekinesis on it.
"Need a hand?"
I blinked at the sudden voice. It wasn't Valerie, but it sounded vaguely familiar.
Before I could answer, the tiny ghost was suddenly caught up in some kind of field of suction. I was surprised when I saw it was sucked up into some kind of lipstick.
"No more chaos for you."
I saw what looked like a smaller, girl version of Danny Phantom floating in front of me. She fit the description Danny gave to me, to the letter.
"Oh, hello. You must be that ghost girl my brother told me about," I greeted in a kind voice, not wanting to scare her off.
"Huh, I got the feeling you were different from the other one I had been seeing around, but not much different," The ghost girl remarked. "Are you his twin?"
"Yes, I am," I admitted. "I'm Andy Phantom."
The ghost girl nodded a bit. "Well, it's nice to finally see the rumored 'twin, duplicate, or clone of Danny Phantom'~"
I groaned. "Is that what people label me as?"
"Well nobody really knows you that well," The ghost girl replied. "You don't exactly make a name for yourself. Most of the time you're seen with Danny Phantom or not at all, so of course people are going to think you're a duplicate."
"I don't always stick with Danny Phantom…" I grumbled. "Whatever. I'm more curious about you though. Who are you? Where did you come from?" And… why do you look like Danny Phantom?
"Well I'm a ghost who has been helping to keep Amity Park safe," The ghost girl answered. "As for where I come from… not saying."
"You didn't answer any of my questions…" I sighed.
"Fine then," The ghost girl chuckled. "I'll give you one answer. You choose which question you want answered."
I wanted to ask why, but that would be a trap. She was only going to give me one answer to one question, so I better make it count.
"What is your name?" I asked, deciding that having a name was better than having nothing.
"Danielle," The ghost girl answered.
"And I'm guessing you're new in Amity Park since we had never seen you here before until recently," I remarked.
Danielle smiled, not confirming or denying my guess.
Why is she being so darn cryptic? Isn't that Clockwork's thing? I frowned in annoyance. Well… no, she isn't exactly being cryptic, she's just not being helpful.
Suddenly, I saw a warning vision of Danielle being hit by an ecto ray. I quickly pushed her a few feet in the air, just narrowly avoiding an ecto ray that could've really hurt. I looked back to see Valerie in her Red Huntress suit, holding a ghost bazooka while on her hoverboard.
"Surrender now and I'll make this quick," Valerie, with her voice modulated, instructed.
"Whoa, who's that?" Danielle asked in curiosity, and also slight fear.
"Hold on, Red Huntress! You don't have to hunt this one," I quickly said, hoping Valerie would listen.
"Says who?" Valerie questioned. "For all you know, she could've been responsible for that little pest that was causing a mess."
"She caught that ghost that was causing a mess in that school. She has some kind of ghost hunting device that catches ghosts like with the Fenton Thermos," I explained. "Why would she catch it if she was the one responsible for it to cause chaos?"
"Because it's job was done and it got what she needed it to get," Valerie answered.
"Which is what exactly?" I questioned. "Attention? She could've caused the mess herself for that. To look good? What reason would she have for doing that? Especially with ghost hunters who like to shoot first and ask questions later."
"Perhaps it was harvesting chaos or panicked emotions," Valerie answered. "There are ghosts out there who feed on that stuff. And perhaps the reason she didn't do it was because she had that little ghost to do it for her."
"While you may not be wrong about that, you are kinda reaching and making assumptions," I sighed. "I know you don't trust ghosts, and you have a good reason not to. But you seem to trust me, a ghost, who happens to be related to the ghost boy you seem to hate so much. At the very least, you know not all ghosts are evil and malicious. At least ask her what she was doing before accusing her of being responsible for a ghost that is completely separate from her?"
"Fine then…" Valerie grumbled a bit before looking at the ghost girl. "What are you doing here at this school? What are you planning to do while in Amity Park? And how long are you planning to stay?"
"Um…" The ghost girl who called herself Danielle hesitated, looking pretty scared of Valerie. "I'm not really doing anything other than stopping ghosts from causing trouble, maybe even help the famous Danny Phantom and his maybe brother as well."
"I'm not maybe…" I grumbled.
"Fine then, his brother as well," Danielle corrected while rolling her eyes a bit. "I came here right now in order to catch the ghost that I caught because it was being aggressive. As for how long I plan to stay… not sure. I'm mainly playing it by ear right now."
"You are quite a mystery though. Even Danny… Phantom and I have no idea what you're doing here. Did you come here to just play hero or something?" I questioned.
"If I was just playing hero, then I wouldn't be successfully doing your job for you," Danielle retorted.
I didn't need nor ask for your help… I grumbled to myself. "That doesn't really answer the question."
"I'm here because I want to be of help to Amity Park," Danielle answered. "If I was just playing hero, then I'd be doing no work and trying to claim all the credit, but I'm not. You may not realize it, but more and more ghosts are coming to Amity Park on a daily basis. You and Danny Phantom might only deal with a few ghosts a day. Meanwhile, I am dealing with the rest of them. Today alone I've caught 6 ghosts."
"Is that actually true? How do we know you're not lying?" Valerie demanded.
"I could release them all for you right now if you really want to see~" Danielle giggled as she waved her little lipstick tube around.
"Are you threatening us?" Valerie growled.
"Okay, let's all just calm down!" I quickly spoke up. "I don't know what your full story is for being here, D- uh…" I hesitated, not sure if it was okay to say her name in front of Valerie. "... But if you're not causing trouble or hurting people, then I don't see any reason to get on your case for it."
"Here, just to prove I'm telling the truth, you can take this," Danielle said as she held out the lipstick tube towards Valerie. "I don't really have a way to dispose of ghosts right now, or send them back to the Ghost Zone. And I figured you'd be more willing to trust me if I gave something of mine for you to stuff, as a token of good faith."
I frowned, not sure if giving Valerie all those ghosts Danielle captured was the best idea. Not because it would hurt Valerie's trust in Danielle, but because I didn't know what Valerie did to the ghosts she was able to capture herself. Valerie didn't have any access to the Ghost Portal herself, so it was difficult to say that she would just 'catch and release' the ghosts she caught like Danny and I did. Not that Danny and I really had the ability to catch and release ghosts right now as Mom seemed to be in the lab 24/7.
But seeing how Valerie seemed surprised, in a good way, when Danielle held out the lipstick. I personally wanted to see this as a good thing.
"Besides, from just looking at your tech, it might help to have something to capture ghosts in that they can't escape from," Danielle added as Valerie floated closer. "I can see you have net launchers and other traps that ghosts can unfortunately escape from, but you don't have any true containment tech. So if you want, you can study this tech and make your own."
"I have my own containment tech, I just don't have it on me," Valerie informed as she took the lipstick tube. "But I wouldn't mind studying this to see how you got it so miniaturized. I also want to double check and see if you really did catch 6 ghosts. If you have… well, I guess that'll be two ghosts that I'll have at least a truce with."
"Really?" Danielle asked with a smile. "That'll be a relief. After all, having the Red Huntress being an ally is better than having her as an enemy."
"You know about me?" Valerie asked, surprised.
"Of course, while you may not be as famous as Danny Phantom and his mysterious brother, people do still talk about you. They especially talk whenever you two work together or end up in a fight. Honestly, some speculate that it might be more of a sparring match than a fight, since Danny Phantom doesn't seem to be going all out on you," Danielle explained.
"Well, I only really have ever worked with him," Valerie said while pointing to me. "Also, we're not allies, not yet. We're just not enemies for the time being."
"Which I think is a good thing," I added.
"I think it's a good thing too. Heroes shouldn't fight each other after all," Danielle chuckled.
While my ghost sense didn't activate, I sensed a familiar ecto signature heading our way. It looked like Danielle did too, because she looked in the direction I was sensing the ecto signature coming from. I heard something beeping in Valerie's suit, likely a ghost radar of some kind.
Valerie knew who was approaching from the annoyed look on her face underneath the mask she wore. "It's getting too crowded. Since you don't seem to be an evil ghost, at least until I can discern you're telling the truth, I'm no longer needed here."
I wanted to stop Valerie and have her stay. I wanted her to talk to the ghost who was approaching us, but I realized there was nothing I could say right now that would get her to stay. Valerie put the lipstick tube into her pocket before she turned her hoverboard in the opposite direction and flew away quickly.
"I should go too," Danielle said.
"Wait… you said you wanted to help Danny Phantom, right? Why not talk to him? He told me you always kept leaving before he got the chance to," I pointed out.
"Because I've got other places to be and because I don't think it's time for us to meet just yet," Danielle answered.
I didn't know how she did it, but it looked like she went invisible, but I couldn't even sense her. Not even with Juliette's stealth training could I sense Danielle, it was as if she just vanished from existence rather than just turning invisible.
Was that some kind of teleportation? I asked myself.
Not long after Danielle disappeared, the ecto energy I was sensing caught up to me.
"Looks like someone just missed the party," I remarked.
"Aw come on!" Danny groaned before pouting a bit. "I was hoping for a bit of a fun break from the project…"
I couldn't help but chuckle a bit from Danny's reaction. "I found out a few interesting things though. Especially about that ghost girl you've been seeing lately."
"You've met her?" Danny asked, surprised.
"Yeah." I nodded. "I'll tell you on the way back."
DP-Marvel94: DarkFoxKit: Okay, we were a bit confused on if you were reviewing the last chapter or the current chapter for a bit because you left a review on chapter 120. But reading through your review, you were definitely reviewing the current chapter.
We are going pretty slow with the project due to the boys just living out their lives while the whole Kindred Spirits episode is going on. We also wanted Andy and Anna to spend some time with each other, Anna is also knowledgeable about ghosts herself. And since Blood Blossoms weren't mentioned at all until that one episode in season 3, we figured it would be a good idea to bring those up earlier.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I mean Butch and the others likely only thought of those plants in season 3, but the fact of the matter is they still could've hinted at special plants in the world that have effects on ghosts or something. With us, we wanted to bring in Blood Blossoms now so they're pre-established. Additionally, we want to give ourselves the ability to add other plants or even animals that could have some kind of interactions with ghosts later on. Having Anna mention it now is actually laying out the groundwork for future additions.
DarkFoxKit: Yup. And we also have the advantage of knowing about these Blood Blossoms already, so we know when and how to incorporate them. As for Danny and Maddie… yeah, things are starting to get worse with Maddie, and poor Jack, he's worried but doesn't know what to do to help. Ella being sent there by Vlad makes total sense, since Vlad is still in love with Maddie and all, of course he would be worried about her. He likely knew about her condition due to setting up bugs in their house to keep an eye on the Fentons. As for if Vlad was the one who caused Maddie to have this change of behavior… heh, well, I guess you'll see.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Vlad actually probably didn't set up bugs, and if he did they likely would've been found by the Fenton's home defense system. My idea for it, which matches the explanation in the chapter, was that Vlad occasionally sends emails to Maddie and Maddie often sends back a response or at least looks at the email, which would give Vlad the 'email read' notification. But with Maddie acting like she is, she likely hasn't looked at any of Vlad's recent messages. This would've tipped him off to something being wrong, so he sent Ella to check on Maddie.
As for if Vlad said something, it's unlikely. Vlad would more likely be trying to tempt or woo Maddie or perhaps share parts of his research with her in an attempt to get some kind of business 'meeting' *cough* date *cough* with her.
DarkFoxKit: Yeah, Ella was speaking very formally, so that was why Danny was starting to get a bit frustrated talking to her.
As for the fight with Muscles, yeah, we figured we should show how much more careful and aware Danny is about his environment while fighting. He realized that people could be put in danger whenever a fight goes on in the city, that's why Danny was hoping to get the fight into the air, less chances of people getting hurt that way.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Glad you noticed the Vlad-like curse there, it was definitely something that we just had to add. And yeah… Andy is going to need to take ALL of the showers to get that goop off of him. Let's just hope none of it got in his mouth.
Mana16: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, I decided to pull out my mental lexicon of lore and remembered that ghosts, like many other magical mythological species, actually used to take children away. Much like the kitsune of Japan, ghosts in this world took kids and slowly changed them into a ghost to become a part of their family. I really do love folklore from all over the world, and you might end up seeing more of it in future seasons.
DarkFoxKit: Now the biggest challenge is for us to remember all of that. ^^'
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Though it shouldn't be as hard with this one, as it's not gonna be hard to remember.
DarkFoxKit: We figured we should put the Disasteroid into the story for something. We do have plans for it when we reach the end of season 3, but not gonna spoil anything.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': In regards to the Disasteroid creating Blood Blossoms, it only makes sense that something like the Disasteroid passing so close to Earth would've left some kind of impact on it. Blood Blossoms are just the tip of the iceberg and there's so much more we could do with it. After all, there's unanswered questions like 'Was this the first time the Disasteroid passed by so close to Earth?' and 'What kind of other things could it have affected or created?'.
DarkFoxKit: If Sam does want to add the Blood Blossoms into her greenhouse, I'm sure that someone would warn her about the whole 'killing crops' thing.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Or she would find a way to use that 'killing crops' thing to her advantage. Knowing her, she isn't going to plant something so strange without doing research on it first and finding out what it's capable of and what it will grow into.
DarkFoxKit: Moving on to the space company thing… *Looks at Onyx* You take this one.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I'm not sure how to answer this without spoiling things, so I'll hold off on some of it. But I will say that it made sense that a child of Vlad would have more grand desires than just becoming an astronaut. In Ella's eyes, becoming an astronaut is just a step on the path to achieving her final dream, of exploring space and colonizing the moon and planets and more. As for them both co-owning a space company… I don't see a Masters and a Fenton working together unless the world was at stake.
As for Danny, he's too stubborn to give up on his dreams and he's vowed to make it work, despite his declining grades and increasing superhero responsibilities. He doesn't want to have a plan to fall back on. One thing that I should point out is that with Fox and I, we have a little joke/meme for anything we write in the Danny Phantom universe. Anyone with the last name Fenton is incredibly stubborn.
DarkFoxKit: And yes, this includes Andy. XD As for season 3, yes, it was full of plot holes. I mean it wasn't something I noticed until years later, because I was just happy to get new episodes of Danny Phantom. But looking back on it now, long after the show ended, there were a lot of things that could've been done better. And I can see why season 3 is regarded as the worst season in the series. The quality of the show dropped, a lot of the established characters suddenly started to act less human and more cartoony and stereotypical, and ghosts were… suddenly 'not ghosts'. I mean seriously, how could Butch say that they weren't-
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Quickly wraps her arms around Fox so Fox doesn't go off on a tangent* There there. Keep going with the review.
DarkFoxKit: *Takes a deep breath and lets it out* Thanks, Onyx… anyways, as I was saying, I'm sure there could've been ways to make that Halloween special work. I just can't see Vlad being that stupid like releasing a very powerful criminal ghost onto the world just for his own gain- oh wait.
Yes, I agree, it would be better if it was one of the bigger threats that attacked Amity Park, or maybe a new ghost that fits the Halloween theme more than the Fright Knight, like something truly frightening that is at its strongest on Halloween. Maybe this could've been the thousandth year that allowed it to come into the world of the living, perhaps it was able to use this power to trade places with Danny, sending him into the Ghost Zone while shutting off the portal.
And maybe this Halloween ghost needs to take 100 people in Amity Park in order for it to truly form in the world of the living before the end of the night. Now we have some real stakes going on here, and Danny needs to get back to Amity Park to fight off this threat, while his parents, Valerie, Vlad, and his friends are trying to hold off this ghost, only to get taken themselves. Doesn't that sound more like a spooky Halloween episode befitting for Danny Phantom?
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Sighs* Annnnnd now we can't use that idea… *Lightly flicks Fox on her ear* If you're gonna come with ideas, don't share them with the readers.
DarkFoxKit: *Pouts* It was just me tweaking Butch's idea.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Which is often what we do with some of our writing. *Looks at Mana* Forget you ever read any of this part and have a great rest of your day. *Giggles* But seriously, you might see a tweaked version of
this waaaaay down the road, so you should feel proud you helped to inspire it. Anyways, see you next time! Also, Fox is grateful that you review pretty much every chapter.
DarkFoxKit: Yes, yes I am. I'm always happy to see your review. And I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy the upcoming Holidays.