A/N: Thanks for waiting, people. This should be your answer to my previous cliffhanger.
Chapter 5 - Into the Fire
Memories, long forgotten, came back to haunt Danny as the surrounding air suddenly changed from a pleasant warmth to a chilling cold.
...his past two dreams...
...the ghost beetles that infested Casper High...
...and the more prominent memory...the incident with the dominoes that almost killed his sister...
If there was any other ghost that Danny disliked other than Vlad Plasmius, it had to be Spectra...whenever she was around, it was as if she had to pluck every single mistake he had ever made in the past and make him feel insecure...
And it had to be in the coldest area possible...the cold almost always made him feel miserable...
The Christmas holidays...one of the coldest points of the year...no wonder she was here...this area could be her foreground of destruction, feeding on any possible remnant of teen misery she could get her hands on.
"Well, Danny," she said, with a grin. "Did I come at a bad time? The whole school putting you down? Calling you a loser?"
Tucker and Sam were a bit uneasy about this line. They knew how Danny felt about being called a loser...
And Danny was feeling every word drill into his head. Trying to shove the thought of his social life going down in tatters, he preferred not to answer.
"What are you doing here, Spectra?" he asked, changing into his ghostly form.
"I was just around," she said, still smiling. "Seeing if I could get my hands on any miserable teen! You know how the holidays can take their toll on some certain people who take them too seriously. And it looks like I might have hit the jackpot!"
"Oh, man," said Tucker. "This isn't good..."
That statement was quite true. Danny's hands were suddenly shaking.
Spectra continued speaking. "Oh, look, the ghost boy is shaking! What's wrong, Danny? Those dreams suddenly getting to you?"
Danny froze, along with Sam and Tucker How did she...?
"How do I know that, you ask?" asked the dark spirit. "Let's just say it's a ghost thing. Some how are those dreams, Danny? Anything to do with those"
Danny tried to suppress the thoughts of Dash, Kwan, and the dreams full of darkness, but it felt as if he was suddenly losing control of his doubts...
His body suddenly started glowing green. His misery was shown through the glow's radiance, and it was quite strong...
"Danny!" yelled Sam. "Don't listen to her! Fight it!"
Danny did his best, but it felt as if every haunting memory was raining down upon him...
Clutching his head from all the past incidents, he screamed in agony from all the stress he was placing upon himself.
"Ahh!" she said, sniffing the air. "Teen misery! How marvelous! You'll make a perfect start to my holiday treatments!"
She flew at him, attempting to grab him.
It took a split second...as she was flying towards him, he sudenly thought of all the times that he was able to beat her off.
The misery suddenly turned to rage, and the green light changed to red.
"Only if you can catch me!" said Danny, suddenly charging back at her.
Noticing the change in surrounding light, Spectra flew out of the way. Danny spun around, trying to locate her.
A flash of green light hit him in the face. Danny spun towards the pavement, skidding into it with his back.
"Ouch," said Tucker, watching.
Shaking it off, Danny flew up and fired a ghost ray of his own at her.
Flying out of harm's way once again, she flew directly at him, attempting to grab him and absorb his misery from the pain from the skidding.
Danny avoided the tackle by putting up a protective shield with his hands.
Unable to stop herself in time, and flying into the shield, Spectra felt herself being zapped with ghostly electricity and went flying out of control, spinning through the air.
He now had to act quickly. In her vulnerable state, he knocked her to the ground and blasted her with a ghost ray.
The blast hit her in the side, and sent her flying towards a dumpster, screaming.
"Yes!" said Tucker, giving his friend some encouragement. "Way to go, Danny!"
Acknowledging the cheering, Danny quickly flew towards where she lay. He attempted to take out the Fenton thermos and suck her inside...
...only to have it knocked out of his hand by a flying star.
His hands in pain after the sharp star gashed through his silver glove and opening the skin within, Danny dropped the thermos, hands bleeding.
Sam and Tucker looked around to see who did that. Their eyes located a ghostly green ninja standing on top of the school roof.
"Bertrand!" said Sam, her fists tightening.
"Foolish boy!" said the ninja, flying down to Danny's level. "You thought you can defeat her? You'll have to get through me to do it!"
"Bring it on!" said Danny, his attention turning towards him.
Bertrand threw a series of throwing stars at Danny.
Avoiding them all, Danny fired a series of ghost rays at the shape-shifter.
Matching Danny's speed, Bertrand avoided all of the blasts.
"You've certainly gotten faster," said Danny, looking at him.
"You have no idea," said Bertrand, firing a throwing star at Danny.
He couldn't avoid it in time. It ripped across his leg, and the resulting gash started bleeding. Danny winced, along with Sam and Tucker.
Bertrand took the chance. Taking out his nunchaku, Bertrand spun the weapon in his hands and knocked Danny in the face with it as he was trying to recover from the sneak star attack.
Danny careened in a wide arc toward the school billboard and smacked into it with his back, knocking off all of its attachable letters.
The half-ghost slid to the ground and fell at the billboard's base, the letters scattered all around him.
The sight of the letters gave him an idea...and fighting fire with fire was what he usually did protecting the town.
"Oh, ghost kid!" said Bertrand, looking around. "Had enough yet?"
He got his answer with a giant black K spinning into his face and knocking him to the ground.
"Ahh!" he said, covering his face. "What is this?"
His answer came in the form of a flying X and A hurtling towards him.
They pinned Bertrand to the ground, which was just enough time for Danny to grab the thermos before Bertrand could realize what was going on.
"Let's send you back where you belong!" said Danny, activating the thermos.
"AHH! NO!" screamed Spectra's assistant, getting sucked inside its inner recesses.
"Yes!" he said, capping the thermos. He flew over to his friends, who were still waiting in the dark corner of the school.
"Way to go, man!" said Tucker.
"That was great, Danny!" said Sam. "I knew you could do it!"
"Well," said Danny, "if it weren't for you guys, I seriously wouldn't have been able to -"
His words were suddenly cut off from a blast that sent him flying far away from his friends, ending their little celebration.
"AHH!" he screamed, being catapulted away from his best friends.
Landing in some bushes, he regained his senses, realizing he had forgotten all about Spectra.
His dazed eyes locked onto a flying target.
But there was a problem...this target wasn't black...she was dressed in red, riding a machine, and holding an ectoplasmic launcher...
"You stay away from them, Ghost!" said the figure, in a voice he recognized instantly...
It was Valerie.
"Crap!" thought Danny. "She shouldn't be here! She could get hurt! I could get hurt!"
Flying out of the bushes, he faced her.
"Valerie," said Danny, trying to get her to back down, "it's not what you think..."
"You actually have the nerve to call me by my first name?" she asked. "It figures...but I also can't believe you have the nerve to actually try and capture two defenseless students, you stupid ghost kid!" she screamed at him.
"I wasn't trying to kidnap them! I was -"
"Enough of your excuses, Ghost!" she said, activating her launcher. "I can't trust you anymore!"
"But you -"
"Shut up, Ghost! This is for taking off my mask in front of my father!"
A blast erupted from the gun.
"Valerie!" said Danny, avoiding the blast by inches. "I had no choice! You could have been -"
"A hero of the town!" she finished for him. "But you had to come along and ruin my life even further! I should have never taken that truce with you!"
"Valerie, you have to listen to me...you're in serious danger right now...you have to -"
She cut him off again, finishing his sentence. "Destroy you, the thing that is giving the town grief right now!"
"Oh, man," said Danny out loud.
There was no stopping her. She was really mad...
"Eat this, ghost kid!" she said, about to pull the trigger on her gun.
He closed his eyes, hoping for some miracle...
But he didn't get the kind he was hoping for...she was knocked away from a blast that hit her in the back.
"AHH!" she screamed, caught off-guard.
Danny watched helplessly as Valerie's body took the surprise hit and flew straight into a rose bush...
Valerie wasn't moving...she was unconscious.
His eyes shifted from her to the person that blasted her with the ray...which of course, was Spectra, who finally recovered from her earlier blows from Danny.
"Well, I don't know who that was," said Spectra, "but I had to get rid of her...she's quite annoying..."
Danny was now full of rage. Enough damage had been done.
"YOU!" he said, flying at her at full speed.
"Oh, please," she said, blasting him with a ghost ray. "Rage always causes a person to lose common sense..."
"GAAAHHH!" he screamed, trying to fight the pain as he careened towards the ground...glowing green...
Landing on his back, he tried to get up, but was forced back down when she stepped on his chest.
"Ahh, there we go!" she said. "Your doubts and miseries...all flying into me! You have no idea how good this feels!"
"Get off of me!" he said, trying to force her away.
"Why would I do that?" she said, as her appearance suddenly changed from a dark spirit to a young female. "All this misery you held within you...it's like a walking spa treatment!"
It was no use...he felt himself getting weaker and weaker as she absorbed his power through his misery...soon he was to be powerless...
"Danny!" yelled Tucker.
He was getting weaker...and there was nothing he could do about it...
He looked up at Spectra's laughing face...it reminded him of all the students in the school that were making fun of him...it was just more misery for Spectra to absorb...
Danny's eyes grew dim as he was slowly losing consciousness...he didn't notice that there was another person there, watching from the shadows once again...
That person forced Spectra off of him with a blast from a certain lipstick ectoblaster...
"AHH!" screamed Spectra, getting blasted away from Danny.
Sam and Tucker were aghast. Another person to join the fight?
The person stepped out of the shadows.
Danny's best friends stood, dumbstruck, at the fifth person to enter the fray of attacks. Where did she come from?
"Get away from my brother!" screamed Jazz.
"Huh?" said Spectra, looking at her, and recognizing her from the earlier encounter. "Oh, you're the little brat's older sister! Let's see what misery you hold within you!"
"I beg to differ about misery!" said Jazz, taking out the Fenton Peeler.
Spectra suddenly stopped her charging as her eyes locked onto the weapon, the same weapon that had been used to defeat her the first time...
"NO! NOT THAT!" she shrieked.
"Yes, this!" said Jazz, activating it.
The Fenton Peeler's ghost suit surrounded Jazz's body. It shot out at Spectra...
Spectra's screams were the last thing Danny heard...
With most of his power drained out of him, he lost his grip on consciousness. As he involuntarily changed back into his human form, he last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was Sam and Tucker running up to him...
His final thought..."Am I going to be all right?"
Only the future could tell, as his head fell backwards against the soft grass...
000000000000000000000000000000
He awoke in a strange room with a blurred vision...what time it was, he had no clue...
But as his vision got clearer, there was a damp washcloth on his head, and he was lying on a cot...that pretty much narrowed it down...
He heard voices...they sounded oddly familiar, sort of like Sam, Tucker, and Jazz...
And the owners of the voices were standing right over him...
"He's awake!" said Sam, yelling. "Danny! Are you all right?"
He raised his hand to his forehead. It was hot. Was he running a temperature?
"W-what's going on?" he said, shakily. "What am I doing here?"
"You lost consciousness after you changed back into your regular self...but Jazz saved you from Spectra," said Sam. "But she got away before we could suck her into the Fenton thermos."
Danny groaned. He hated it when there was a ghost on the loose...and that was especially during a holiday, when he was supposed to have a day off...
But at least Bertrand wouldn't be there to help her...
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by another visitor who suddenly came into the room, a person covered with cuts and bruises...
Danny wanted to tell Valerie that she was pretty much in good condition after being thrown into that rose bush...but knowing that saying something like that would put him in a worse spot, he decided to play the innocence factor.
"Hey, Valerie," he said a bit shakily, since there was a bit of worry in his voice about how much she might have seen. He then questioned her injuries "Ouch, what happened to you?"
"I was thrown into a rose bush by that stupid ghost kid and knocked unconscious," she said. "But enough about me...I heard that you fainted from heat stroke...are you all right?"
Danny looked at his friends and sister. "A heat stroke?" he asked them with his eyes. "You could have done better than that!"
Valerie was still awaiting an answer. "Danny?" she asked with concern. "What's wrong? Are you all right?"
He snapped out of it. "I...uh...yes...I'm all right...I'm just...tired..."
"Well, at least you're all right," she said, getting up. "Just wait till I get my hands on that ghost kid...I don't know how he hit me from the back, but seriously...I'll get him..."
Danny spoke up. "Yes, Valerie, perhaps..." he said, forcing himself to swallow the fact that it was Spectra that did that.
"That ghost kid ruined my life, and I'll stop at nothing to ruin his!" she said.
Tucker and Sam started sweating.
"That's a promise!" she said, starting to limp out of the room. Suddenly she stopped.
"Danny?" she asked before she left. "I hope you feel better sometime soon. I'll bet this has something to do with that ghost kid, too!"
Danny gave her a smile that almost immediately vanished. If only she knew...
"See you later, Val," he said.
"Bye, Fenton," she said.
After she left, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were left alone with him.
"Dang, man," said Tucker. "Danny, I don't know about your friendship with Valerie anymore...things are just getting way too risky."
"You're friends with that person?" asked Jazz. "Sam and Tucker just told me that she hunts ghosts, but now you tell me that you're friends with her?"
"Yes," said Danny. "I know it seems weird, but I want you guys to know that -"
"You're losing your mind?" Tucker finished for him.
"Guys," said Danny. "I don't know what it is, but there's just something about her that -"
Sam just about hit the ceiling. "Danny! You're talking crazy! Unless you're doing something like trying to stop her from hunting ghosts, which I'm sure is not the reason, then perhaps this is something I'll let happen...but you're not doing anything like that!"
Tucker joined in the fray. "Valerie's your enemy, Danny. And she'll forever be your enemy unless you do something to change her mind about ghosts. And judging from that speech she just gave, it doesn't look like it's anytime soon! Eventually you're going to run out of excuses to defend her!"
"Will you just give it time?" asked Danny. "I'm sure that soon things might clear up in a positive way..."
"But Danny..." said Jazz. "...what if something positive doesn't show up?"
"Yeah," said Tucker. "If she finds out who you are, she'll start the endless questions...just hours ago you were talking about how much you hated being chased by a ghost hunter!"
"You're all just being overprotective!" said Danny. "Valerie and I have a lot of things in common -"
Sam interrupted him. "Fine," she said. "You do have something in common with her. You fight GHOSTS! That's what I see. But there's a huge difference between your fights!"
"What would that be?" asked Danny.
Sam crossed back over from her corner of the room and stood right in front of him.
"Your reason for fighting them!" said the goth girl. "The reason YOU fight them is because you're trying to protect this town, to protect us! So everyone can live in peace! The reason SHE fights them is because she wants revenge! There's no heart into her fighting, unlike you! YOU want to protect this town from EVIL! SHE wants to protect this town from GHOSTS, whether or not they're trying to save the town! No matter how you look at it, you're fighting to save others. She's just fighting for herself..."
The part of Danny that was listening was hearing every single word...it seemed to make sense...he slowly sat up from his cot.
Sam got closer to him as her voice dropped in volume, and her hand touched his.
She didn't care that Jazz and Tucker were in the room. She had to get through to him.
"Don't you see, Danny? Rage is what drives her...it's just like what Spectra said after you tried charging at her when you were angry...rage sometimes causes people to lose common sense...she lost the sense about any ghost being good...she only wants to destroy them so she could have her life back, which in the beginning, you have to admit, was pretty messed up...she was just like one of those shallow people. It took everything she owned before she finally realized that she was with the wrong crowd."
Danny found himself looking at her, completely listening to everything Sam said.
"Look, Danny, I don't know if you heard the whole thing, but please, promise one thing...just be careful," she said. "I know you'll make the right decision..."
She hugged him...
At first he was surprised...he wasn't expecting something like that...
But soon the magic happened...for some reason...he felt himself return the hug...
"We're just looking out for you, Danny," said Sam. "It doesn't matter what happens to us. If all else fails, you are the one who has to go on...not us..."
Jazz and Tucker watched on with a smile on each of their faces.
So the reason finally came out...they were concerned for him...not because they hated Valerie...
These were his true friends...
But one thing was wrong...though it was a poignant moment, he developed a fear...the fear of letting go...
Though he had just established them to be more than just his best friends...he couldn't bear it if anything happened to them...he suddenly cared more about them than he did ever before...
And even more for the person he was currently hugging...it was just like the time he cared more for his sister after the time she finally told him she knew about his secret...Sam suddenly meant a lot more to him...
Danny knew that as soon he broke out of this hug, his friendship with Valerie would never be the same.
...just in time for the holidays...
End of Chapter 5...6th coming soon...
A/N: I won't be near my computer for another week, meaning another long update wait. (Sorry about that...) So please continue the reviews...hopefully there's a lot by the time I get back...but of course, I have no control over that, do I?
Signed, BlackShadow875