Nom de Plume deserves a huge amount of credit for beta-reading this chapter!
Chapter Three
Valerie called her father the moment she got home from school, just to assure him that she was following orders. It was better that he didn't have to call her. Her father was strict, but she knew if she followed the rules, she could bend them as well; and she was hoping that he would shorten the length of her grounding based on good behavior.
She itched to run to her room and explore the new features on her ghost hunting suit, but forced herself to do her homework and complete extra chores instead. Her father called her three times to check on her. She sighed in exasperation, wishing he would trust her just a little bit more.
It was a quarter of five when Valerie finished her chores, which left her about thirty minutes to spend checking out her suit before her father came home. She ran to her room, locked the door, then activated her suit.
She watched in the mirror as the bluish rings engulfed her, changing her into her suit. She frowned when the transformation was complete. Something seemed off. She walked to the mirror and examined her face closely. Her eyes were glowing a strange sort of green. She blinked a few times. This wasn't right!
The only time she'd seen green glowing eyes were on ghosts—and she could think of one hated creature specifically whose eyes the color reminded her of. She shivered as she stepped away from the mirror. An odd feeling in her gut was telling her that something was very wrong, and she needed to be careful. She sat on her bed and took several deep breaths, then felt herself sinking.
"What the…" she started as she caught herself. She stood in dismay. How could she be sinking through her bed? Why was she disappearing? What was going on? She looked down at her feet, then at her hands in wonderment. Could it be that she was…a ghost?
"No way!" she said out loud as she shook her head violently. It wasn't possible. She couldn't be a ghost. She was alive. If the accident with the suit had killed her, she'd be witnessing her funeral, instead of sitting at home because she was grounded.
She considered calling Mr. Masters…but if she used the phone to call anyone but her father, her grounding would be extended; there was no way she could hide a long-distance call to Wisconsin, even if she called collect. Her father would find out somehow; he always did.
"Valerie," her father called. "I'm home."
"Oh no!" Valerie said, hoping that she could completely change out of her suit before her father entered the room.
"Val? Are you in there?" her father asked as he put the hand on the door.
"Yeah, Daddy," she called. "I'm just changing. Hold on a sec."
"Valerie," Damon said as he sat with her at the dinner table, watching her pick at her food. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Valerie answered as she pulled herself out of her worried thoughts. "I was just thinking about…um…my math test."
"Really?" Damon asked, knowing it had to be something else, but waiting patiently for his daughter to confide in him.
"Yeah," Valerie replied. "You know how polynomials are." She laughed a little then looked down at her food, which she had barely touched.
"What else is bothering you?" Damon pressed.
"Is there anyway I can get a suspended sentence?" Valerie asked as she looked up at her father hopefully.
Damon looked at her daughter and sighed as he sat back in his chair. "So this is what your contrite and solemn act is about?" he questioned. Valerie smiled weakly and he shook his head.
"Please, Daddy," Valerie begged. "I need to get out of the house. I can't stay cooped up in here!"
"You mean you can't stand knowing that Danny Phantom is out there wreaking havoc and you can't do anything about it," Damon stated bluntly. Valerie looked at her father in dismay. She was so busted.
"I don't like this ghost hunting business of yours, Valerie. We've been over this time and time again. It's dangerous. Don't you think I've lost enough? Why do I have to make me constantly worried about losing you?"
"You don't have to worry about me, Daddy," Valerie said softly. "I'm really good at hunting ghosts, and I really like it."
"And why were you late yesterday?" Damon asked.
Valerie hung her head. "Because I had an accident," she said, but looked up. "But I'm fine. It just made me a little late."
"I see," Damon told his daughter. "I want this ghost hunting business to stop. Let the professionals take care of the problem."
"The professionals?" Valerie asked, wondering who her father was talking about.
"The Fentons," Damon elaborated. "Let them handle the ghosts; you focus on being a teenager."
Valerie sighed heavily as she picked up her plate and put it in the sink. She wished her father would understand. She liked hunting ghosts; it made her happy—and right now, not much made her happy.
"Since I can't do anything," Valerie told her father bitterly, "I'm going to go to bed early. There's no point in staying up." She hoped her father would bend—feel sorry for her, give her a break—but he wasn't going to budge, so she went to bed feeling irritated and sad.
Something cool and hard was pressing against Valerie's face. She yawned and turned her head and opened her eyes. She looked in confusion at the blank white wall her nose was pressed against. She lifted her hands and pressed them against the cool surface and pressed away from it. It moved! No wait, the wall didn't move. She moved.
"Whoa!" Valerie cried as she realized she was floating. She grasped at the ceiling to steady herself, then it hit her that she wasn't going to fall, and she could control her movements. She smiled slightly as she drifted back down to her bed.
"Okay," she said to herself as she sat up. "This is really freaky."
She stood and floated around the room, then bit her lip as she looked out the window then at her alarm clock. It was two a.m. She could take a little flight around the neighborhood and her father would have no clue she had left.
Valerie took a very deep breath, then imagined changing into her ghost suit. The two glowing rings enveloped her again and she transformed. She was very scared, but also thought it was extremely cool. She imagined herself floating and lifted off the ground. She wiggled her feet but realized they'd been replaced by a ghostly tail, just like in her nightmares, and wanted to panic.
"Okay," she whispered to herself as her stomach began doing flips. "So I seem to be a ghost, but I know I'm not. We need to figure out what's going on." She looked out the window again, then floated forward and phased through the wall. She almost started laughing as she went.
"Now," she said as she gathered herself together. "Let's see how fast I can move." She flew straight up as fast as she could then stopped and looked down at the city lights.
"This," she said as she floated, "is so cool!" She took off flying again and ended up at the park, dodging in and out of the trees as she pressed her self to fly faster and faster.
Valerie stopped flying once she reached Casper High. She floated into the school and looked around thoughtfully, then flew out. She flew up to the flag pole then down and around the football field, reveling in the feeling of flight.
She flew upward again, then stopped once she was high enough to see across Amity Park. She could see, off in the distance, the Ops Center array of Fenton Works. She paused in thought then flew back down toward the ground.
Valerie only had one big worry, and that was weapons. She flew back around the school a few times then sat on the bleachers at the football field to think. She looked at her white-gloved hands, admiring the strange ghostly glow.
Her suit had always had a strange, eerie glow about it—even her first one—so she'd never given it much thought; but as she looked at her hands, she realized this was the same strange glowing aura that clung to the ghost kid.
A sense of panic began to invade her mind again and she forced herself to take several deep breaths. She told herself that if she was breathing, she couldn't be a ghost, and did ghosts really get scared like she was? Did ghosts feel nauseous? She didn't believe they did.
Ghosts were evil. She didn't feel evil. She had no evil urges. No, she reasoned, she couldn't be a ghost. There had to be some other explanation for her powers. She knew her new abilities had been caused by her suit's malfunction, but she didn't know how. She needed to talk to Mr. Masters—but, of course, she wouldn't be able to contact him until her two weeks were up…not without risking a permanent grounding.
Valerie continued to look at her hands. The ghost kid could shoot some sort of green blast from his, which made her wonder if she could do the same. Her ghost hunting would become much more convenient if she could; her weapons would always be at her finger tips, dependent more on her reflexes than the time it took to arm each gun.
She flexed her fingers and wondered how the ghost kid did it. How did he use his powers? So far everything she'd been able to do was by thought, so if she had any type of weapon in her hands, it must be manipulated by thought too. She bit her lip and stared hard at her hands, trying to imagine power filling them…and then it happened.
It started like sparks at the tips of her finger tips, then a gold light radiating around her hand and turning into a golden orb in her palm.
"Wow," she said shakily as the flickering golden orb twirled in her hand. "This is so cool!" she said to herself then smiled as she threw the orb up into the air and watched it float for a minute. Then an idea hit her. She aimed her finger like a gun, and then shot at the orb. She was slightly surprised when a gold beam shot from her finger tip. She completely missed hitting the orb which dissipated like a popping soap bubble before it hit the ground. She growled and formed another orb, threw it up into the air, shot, and missed again.
Valerie sat for several hours, forming golden glowing orbs then shooting them into the sky; her aim was still off, and she was determined to get it right. If she had been more aware, she would have noticed someone watching her at a safe, undetectable distance. From the top of the school, he watched as she learned how to use her newfound powers, a wistful smile on his face.
Danny had just finished chasing down the Box Ghost, and was on his way back home to hopefully get some sleep, when he caught a flash of white streaking across the sky from the corner of his eye. He followed the streak of white, thinking it was just another ghost he needed to catch before finally heading back to bed, and then realized it was Valerie.
He stayed far enough away that he could watch her and not trip her ghost sense. He shook his head in amazement. It was strange to think that Valerie had a ghost sense—that she was just like him, half ghost. He was excited—there was so much he could teach her about her powers; she wouldn't have to learn on her own, he could help her—but his joy quickly faded as he realized that it wasn't likely that she would accept his help, and that she had just become that much more dangerous to him.
The first sign of dawn began creeping across the sky, and Danny shook himself out of the trance he had fallen into as he watched Valerie familiarize herself with her new abilities. He sighed in dismay; he was probably going to end up in detention for falling asleep in Lancer's class. He smiled slightly, looked at Valerie one more time, then made his way home.
Danny looked at his alarm clock and sighed as he transformed back to his human self. He had an hour of sleep left, and he knew it wasn't going to be enough. He considered telling his parents that he was sick and staying home for the day, but he really needed to find a way to approach Valerie before she turned to Vlad for help.
"Oh man," Danny groaned as he covered his face with his hand and laid back in his bed. Valerie would be Vlad's dream come true; a half ghost who would willingly join him. She would be Danny's worst nightmare. If he couldn't convince her to drop her vendetta against him, and Vlad got a hold of her…well, then life as he knew it was as good as over.
Valerie stifled a yawn as she sat in her first class, trying desperately not to fall to sleep. Star kept kicking her desk to jostle her awake.
"What's wrong with you?" Star said as the bell rang and Valerie tiredly gathered her books together.
"I couldn't sleep last night," Valerie answered. "I'm thinking of going to the nurse and going home."
"Don't you have to work tonight?" Star asked. "I mean, I think you should quit your job and everything, but…" Valerie yawned again and Star sighed.
"I'm really sorry," Valerie apologized.
Star shook her head. "So were you able to talk your father into lightening your sentence?"
"No," Valerie said petulantly. "He's sticking to his guns; he thinks that ghost hunting is too dangerous. I don't see how grounding me for two weeks is going to change things, but I guess it makes him feel better." She shrugged her shoulders, and then burped.
"Gross!" Star said as she covered her mouth. "What was that?" Valerie gave her friend a wide-eyed look.
"I'll tell you at lunch," she said quickly. "But I have to go now." She nearly dropped her books as she took off down the hall frantically looking for a place to transform. She ran into Danny and they both burped at the same time. Valerie looked at him with wide eyes and then he laughed nervously and grabbed her arm.
"We need to talk," he said.
Valerie ripped her arm away as she continued to walk. "Get your hands off of me!" she told him irately. "I don't have time to stand and talk to you."
"Valerie! Wait!" Danny called as he followed her. He tried to catch her again, but she was gone. He looked around for Sam and Tucker, but they were probably in their respective classes. He growled in frustration then ducked into the boys' bathroom, where he transformed, then took off in search of Valerie and the ghost who had tripped their ghost sense.
"Her ghost sense," Danny said to himself and shook his head in amazement before flying out of the bathroom.
"Hold still, you filthy ghost!" Valerie yelled as she chased a large snake like creature across the sky. The creature dodged each of her blasts. Valerie was tired, frustrated and in a very bad mood when Danny arrived.
"Oh no!" Valerie yelled as she noticed his presence. "Can't you, like, just go back to wherever you came from?" she yelled at him. Then dodged out of the way as the snake ghost turned on her and tried to bite her.
"Don't get distracted," Danny yelled as he shot a few blasts at the ghost.
"Just go away, and I won't!" Valerie growled. She quickly shot a blast at the snake, shooting it in the face and sending it spiraling out of control, then shot a blast at Danny.
"Whoa!" Danny yelled. "Why are you shooting at me?"
"Because as soon as I'm done with this stupid snake," Valerie answered, "you're going down, ghost kid!"
"Great," Danny sighed then watched as Valerie dispatched the snake. When she was finished she turned on Danny.
"Get ready to get your butt kicked!" Valerie told him. She shot without warning, causing Danny, whose guard was completely down, to scramble out of the way.
"Wait!" Danny yelled angrily. "I don't want to hurt you!"
"What makes you think you can?" Valerie growled at him as brandished her glowing hands. "From the way I see things, we're on equal footing now."
"Please," Danny said as he shielded himself while Valerie blasted him repeatedly. "Just talk to me. I can help you! There's so much I can teach you! So much I need to tell you."
Valerie paused and looked at Danny and disbelief. "Why would you want to do that?" she asked.
"Because I've been where you are now. I know what it's like. I can help," Danny told her calmly.
"No," Valerie told him sharply. "For one thing I don't trust you, and for another, I need to get back to class." She started to fly away and Danny stopped her.
"Meet me tonight," he said. "Here. Midnight."
Valerie sighed tiredly, she hoped to be in bed sleeping peacefully by midnight. "Why should I trust you?" she asked.
"I can't give you a reason," Danny said quickly. "Please. Just meet me here. Midnight."
"Fine," Valerie said. "It's a date." Danny grinned and Valerie felt her cheeks sting in embarrassment as she turned to fly away.
"Don't get all excited, ghost, I didn't mean that kind of date," she threw over her shoulder. Danny chuckled to himself as he watched her go, then returned to classes himself.
"You're going to what?" Sam asked in outrage as Danny sat with her and Tucker at the lunch table.
"Dude," Tucker whispered. "I don't think telling Val that you're, you know, you is a very bright idea."
Danny sighed heavily. "What should I do then? Let her fall in to Vlad's hands? I can just see him adopting Valerie and making my life hell."
"That would be so cool," Tucker said enthusiastically. Danny gave him an incredulous look and Tucker blinked. "Not the part about making your life a living hell."
"What is wrong with you?" Sam asked as she blinked at Tucker. "Were you dropped on your head too many times as a baby?"
"No," Tucker said indignantly. "It would just be cool for Val, because she'd have money again, and then maybe she wouldn't be so angry at Danny."
"Riiiight," Sam said then looked at Danny. "I think Valerie gaining ghost powers is bad, no matter how you look at it."
"How would she have got them, anyway?" Tucker asked. "I mean both you and Vlad were exposed to portals, right? How would she be exposed to one?"
"That's what I want to find out," Danny started, then sighed in frustration.
"Do you want us to be there with you?" Sam asked as she picked at her salad. "I mean in case you need back up."
Danny shook his head. "I don't want to overwhelm her."
"Then don't tell her," Tucker advised. "I mean, it's going to freak her out pretty bad."
"She might try to kill you," Sam added.
"She's already trying to kill me," Danny stated.
Tucker tapped his fingers on the table a moment. "We could, like, hide," he suggested. "That way if she flips out, we can, you know, help."
Danny shook his head. "I think it's better if I just do this on my own," he told them. Sam and Tucker looked at each other sadly.
"But," Danny continued, "I'd appreciate it if the two of you stayed on alert, so I can call you in case I need you."
"Of course," Tucker said happily as he began eating his lunch.
"We'll always be there for you when you need us," Sam added. She looked over at Valerie who was talking quietly to Star, who looked extremely bewildered by whatever Valerie was telling her.
Sam sighed, looked at Danny who was now looking down at his lunch tiredly, then at Tucker who was now absorbed in his PDA.
"You know, Danny," Sam began, "I think you are completely insane."
Danny looked up and smiled disarmingly at Sam. "Thanks," he told her. She rolled her eyes and laughed, then looked again at Valerie and Star. Valerie's posture indicated that she might be crying, Star was patting her back in comfort, and Paulina was walking toward the two girls, with a sadistic light gleaming in her eyes. Sam fought with herself for a moment, looked at Danny quickly, then back at Paulina.
"I'll be right back," Sam said as she grabbed her lunch tray. "I'm just going to throw this in the trash." Both Danny and Tucker looked at her in confusion as she moved toward Paulina, reaching the popular girl just as she stopped in front of Valerie and Star, and opened her mouth to say something.
Sam feigned a trip over her boots and fell toward Paulina, showering her with salad and oil and vinegar salad dressing.
"Get away from me, you loser!" Paulina screeched as she frantically pushed Sam away from her, and then began to bat the salad from her shirt. "My clothes are ruined!"
"Oops!" Sam said in mock innocence. "I'm so sorry, Paulina!"
Paulina glared at Sam a moment then said something about clumsy loser freaks, and the need to change her clothes to rid herself of the reeking toxic waste Sam had dumped on her.
"Bye!" Sam said cheerfully as she waved at Paulina, then looked at Valerie who was watching her with wide eyes. Sam smiled and raised her eyebrows as she made her way back to Danny and Tucker who were in full laughter at her salad-dumping antics.
"What was that about?" Tucker asked as Sam sat down.
"Nothing," Sam answered. "I just threw my salad in the trash." She smiled happily to herself and Tucker cracked up laughing.
"Thanks," Danny mouthed to Sam, as Tucker looked back down at his PDA. Sam only shrugged her shoulders, then looked at Valerie who was watching Sam thoughtfully.
"So, are you going to tell me what's going on?" Star asked as she sat down beside Valerie. "Why are you so tired? Your eyes look like you're packed and ready to go on vacation."
"Gee thanks," Valerie said tiredly as she pressed her hands to her eyes.
"You really look bad," Star continued. "What's going on?"
Valerie took a deep breath and shook her head. She wondered if she should trust Star with her secret. She needed to talk to someone, though, and Star had been very good about keeping her ghost hunting hobby a secret.
"Remember how I told you I had an accident with my suit the other day?" Valerie asked.
Star nodded. "And remember how I told you to, like, completely dump the ghost hunting gig?"
Valerie smiled slightly. "Well," she began. "The accident did something to me. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm different."
"Different how?" Star asked worriedly as she moved away from Valerie slightly.
Valerie rolled her eyes at Star. "I don't know. I have these new powers. I mean it's like, I don't know, like I'm a ghost or something." She repressed a shudder of horror and pushed back the feeling of panic which had been making itself comfortable in the pit of her stomach since she had discovered how ghost-like she had become.
"What?" Star asked as she looked at Valerie in confusion. "What does that mean? I don't think someone can be like part ghost or whatever. That's really freaky."
Valerie smiled at Star's reaction. "I don't know what it means, but I can like do things. I can fly and…"
"Wait," Star said as she held up her hand. "You can fly? Like Phantom?" Valerie nodded her head and Star opened her mouth in amazement as Valerie detailed the rest of her powers.
Star wrinkled her forehead in bewilderment. "So you're tired because your suit has given you new abilities? Do they, like, drain your energy or something? Because that would totally stink."
"No," Valerie answered. "I was just up until five this morning, trying to figure out everything I can do."
"Oh," Star replied, then looked confused again.
"And this morning I had a confrontation with the ghost kid again," Valerie continued. "He seems to know what happened to me or something, and wants to meet tonight."
Star grinned saucily. "So you have a date with Phantom?"
"No!" Valerie denied. "Not like that. Gross."
"But he's so…smexy," Star gushed.
"Smexy?" Valerie asked in disbelief, then laughed.
"Very smexy," Star admitted.
"That is gross," Valerie told her and shuddered. "He's a ghost and he's evil. He needs to be destroyed, and you're a fan girl like Paulina!"
Star smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't say I wanted to be friends with him, Val," she said in a suggestive tone.
"You're sick in the head," Valerie laughed.
"So," Star said as soon as their laughter subsided. "You have ghostish powers like the ghost boy…I mean, how do you feel about that?"
"I don't know," Valerie replied as she slumped forward tiredly. "The truth is, Star, I'm really scared; and if I call Mr. Masters for help before my two weeks are up, my dad will kill me."
"You can, like, use my cell phone to call him if you want," Star offered as she reached forward and patted Valerie's shoulder comfortingly. "Your dad would never find out."
"I only have his phone number at home," Valerie sighed.
"Well, bring it tomorrow and you can call him," Star told her friend, then looked up. "Uh-oh, the shark has detected blood in the water."
"What?" Valerie asked as she looked up to see Paulina sashaying toward them, wearing a very pleased and cruel grin on her pretty face. Valerie sighed—the last thing she needed today were some of Paulina's rude remarks. Usually she could hold her own against the popular girl, but today she was on the edge and couldn't guarantee she wouldn't try to rip some of Paulina's perfect skin from her oh so lovely face.
Both girls looked up at Paulina and braced themselves for her snide remark. Paulina smiled cruelly, then suddenly was covered with salad. Valerie looked at Sam in surprise as the Goth girl apologized for her clumsiness, then smiled at Valerie as she made her way back to her own table and sat across from Danny.
"That was weird," Star said.
"I think she knows something," Valerie said thoughtfully.
"Who?" Star asked. "Paulina? She's as dumb as a brick, how would she know anything?"
"No," Valerie laughed. "Sam. I think she knows something." She looked over at the girl in question who was now sitting back at her table. Sam returned her glance. Valerie was positive she knew—but then, she'd suspected for a long time that Sam had some kind of freaky relationship going on with the ghost kid.
"I guess I can ask him tonight," Valerie half said to herself as she turned her attention back to Star.
"You're actually going to meet with him?" Star asked. Valerie nodded her head and Star sat silently for a moment, apparently wrestling with a heavy thought—which was not a common occurrence for Star, who generally flitted along the surface of life rather than trying to think too hard.
"Do you, like, want me to go with you?" Star asked hesitantly. "I mean, as back up or something?"
Valerie smiled and shook her head. "You know, you really are a good friend, Star. I don't know what I'd do without you…but no. I think I need to do this on my own." Star let out a sigh of relief, then nodded her head in agreement.
"I won't trust him, though," Valerie said. "So I should be fine." She looked toward Sam, Danny and Tucker again, only to find they'd left. She shook her head, then yawned tiredly.
"I think you should go home and get some sleep," Star began. "I mean, especially if you don't want to be too tired to fight Phantom tonight."
Valerie agreed with Star. She had been fighting with her new powers off and on all day, trying to keep herself visible and from sinking through chairs, floors, desks and tables—so she went home, called in sick for work and waited impatiently for midnight.
Much thanks to all my lovely reviewers on the last two chapters. Your kindness is appreciated greatly; as a reward, I've made a semi-long chapter! Whoo hoo!
This meager writer humbly submits a request for reviews from her mighty readers. Thank you.