Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Anathema's Abode
Chapter 1
"Sam, on your left!"
Samantha Manson bit back as a curse as she dove for cover, the ghost hunter's lithe form disappearing into the shadows of the secluded alleyway.
"That was close." Valerie Gray breathed, unfurling crimson lacquered fingers from the trigger of her ecto blaster, allowing herself to lower her guard as the ghost threat disappeared from their view.
Above them, the barely visible half moon cloaked itself behind grey clouds, casting murky beams of moonlight into the black sky.
"How are things looking, Tucker?" Sam whispered under her breath. At this rate, the chances of a successful capture tonight seemed slim.
"West side's clear." Her team mate affirmed. "No one else has run into any real trouble yet."
"They're getting better at deactivating our traps." Valerie grumbled, as she rewired the portable thermos surreptitiously concealed behind the dumpster on the alleyway floor.
"It's just as well we keep coming up with new inventions." Tucker provided offhandedly, and Sam could hear the familiar lightning fast tapping of keys in the background through her earpiece.
"We have our superiors to thank for that." Valerie supplied, as she continued calibrating the capturing device.
"And me." Their tech operative provided, a note of smugness entering his voice. "Where would Lancer be without his favourite apprentice?"
"His only apprentice." Sam corrected, grinning.
"Same difference. I was still his first choice."
"After Jasmine Fenton, you mean." Valerie jibed.
"I was her replacement. Previous apprentices don't count. Besides, what would Sam do without those anti-intangibility combat boots that she's obsessed with?" Tucker maintained, not appreciating the belittlement of his abilities.
The rapid clacking of keys intensified, a comforting, familiar sound in the stillness of the night. "So aren't you going to ask me how my date with Star went?" The techno geek asked, unperturbed.
"Not now Tucker." Sam murmured absently into her mouthpiece as she assisted her partner in recharging the ghost trap. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
"With a techie like me behind the scenes, that's never happening." Sam could practically feel her friend's grin, even through the communicator. "I could detect any high level ghosts a mile away."
Sam rolled her eyes. Among her peers, Tucker was beyond doubt the best tech operative she could have been assigned. It was unfortunate that he delighted in talking constantly on field missions. Typically about himself.
Sam opened her mouth to retort, but her partner got there first.
"Like the four ghosts that just went straight past us?" Valerie Gray inquired wryly. "If Sam had been a metre further away from cover, we would have been seen."
"Those ghosts were hardly high level." Tucker snorted dismissively. "Even I could have taken them."
"I'd like to see you try." Sam grinned as Valerie shot her a significant look that clearly said, 'Why are we even friends with him?'
Whatever outsiders would assume, the Sam knew she wouldn't trade her team mates for the world. Despite how abrasive towards Tucker that Valerie could be, and as obnoxious as said techno geek occasionally was, they were still her best friends. The extreme liberties they took with each other were those of long standing friendship, rather than spite.
Besides, Sam was certain that Valerie's attitude towards Tucker was nothing more than an act on her part. She had seen the chemistry between the pair for years, now. However, Sam knew that a relationship between Tucker and Valerie would never be initiated until Tucker finally mustered the courage to ask Valerie out on a date, and Valerie finally swallowed enough of her pride to admit that she was soft on Tucker Foley, of all the men in the brotherhood.
The stillness of the night air was once again interrupted by Tucker, in yet another a superfluous attempt to make conversation.
"So did I tell you about the girl from Sector Three-"
"When did we ever give you any implication that we were even the slightest bit interested about hearing about your latest failed dating exploit?" Valerie snorted.
"Tucker- I swear if it wasn't regulation to have our earpieces in, I'd turn you off." Sam replied in mock exasperation, as she allowed herself a grin.
"And miss hearing my dulcet tones?"
"Just shut up and get the trap back online." Valerie retorted, reloading her weapon.
"Already one step ahead of you." Their tech operative quipped, self satisfaction evident in his voice.
Sam rose, ridding her hands of the grime and filth from the alleyway ground onto her black combat trousers, leaving twin dirty streaks on her dark stealth suit. "In that case, I believe our work here is done."
"How are you girls doing?" Her mentor's voice crackled through Sam's earpiece, ending the teenagers' banter.
"Not too badly." Valerie shrugged. "Ghost activity's pretty high tonight, but so far we haven't spotted any of the higher levels we've been keeping tabs on."
"Where's Jack and Vlad?" Sam inquired.
"East Side." Maddie replied. "Lancer's detected the Fright Knight. They're laying low for a while."
"That ghost is up to something." Valerie's eyes narrowed. "He hasn't been this active in a while."
"Whatever it is, we'll make sure he doesn't succeed." Sam affirmed. "Pariah must be getting pretty mad at him, especially after all his recent failures. With luck, we're soon not going to have to worry about him."
"The ghost king might replace him with something worse." Her partner pointed out grimly.
"True." Maddie agreed. "Better an adversary that the brotherhood are familiar with."
"You're not being serious." Sam voiced her disagreement. "There's no way that monster can be allowed to rampage Amity Park unopposed."
"The Fright Knight is probably about as powerful as Pariah's elite get." Tucker added. "If we take him down, I don't think we're going to have half as much to worry about."
"At the rate the war's progressing, the brotherhood is going to be eliminated by the end of our lifetimes." Valerie's eyes narrowed in displeasure. "We need new tactics. And fast."
"When did you kids decide to join the council?" Maddie cut in, half jokingly. "Leave the decisions to us. Right now, you are of most use to us in the field."
Despite the light tone of her mentor's tone, Sam could sense the bone deep weariness in Maddie's voice at having to once again discuss a topic that the council had argued over for months with no advancement. Maddie was eager to adopt a more aggressive defense against the ghosts, involving slightly risky tactics that her advisors refused to endorse.
"We wouldn't have it any other way." Sam agreed, steering the subject away from the topic of her mentor's frustration. She and Valerie had endured years of grueling training to finally be allowed out on the streets on patrol, taking the offensive. There was no way that she was going to give up her chance to make a difference to discuss war tactics with middle aged veterans.
"I expect you back to headquarters safely by three am sharp." Her mentor reminded them. "I have enough on my mind worrying if Vlad will be able to stop my my husband from getting too carried away."
"I'll keep an eye on the time." Tucker acknowledged.
"Is Jack trying out a new invention of his tonight?" Valerie asked, grinning.
"Fortunately not." Maddie replied, with poorly concealed relief. "I managed to convince him that perhaps the field wasn't the best place to test run the ecto skeleton."
"Perhaps not." Sam acknowledged, mirroring her partner's grin, which faded the moment she glanced at the time on her communicator. "We should probably go if we want to get anything done tonight."
"Don't let me hold you up." Maddie agreed. "And girls?" She added, almost as an afterthought. "This is our last night of hunting for a while. Make sure you give them something to remember."
"Don't we always?" Valerie smirked.
"Roger." Sam replied, ending the transmission.
"I refuse to return empty handed." Valerie declared, pushing dark ringlets of hair off her face.
Sam nodded, accordant. As always, her mentor was nothing short of inspirational.
Madeline Fenton. The only ghost hunter in the history of the brotherhood to survive possession. She was a living legend. Almost two decades after the incident, her mentor was still revered the entirety of the brotherhood.
The occurrence of their leader's possession had not been without lasting effects, however. The ectoplasmic shock that she received while resisting the ghosts' overshadowing abilities had permanently ingrained a small portion of ectoplasmic energy in Maddie's being, leaving her prone to sudden bursts of inhuman strength, and short periods of uncontrolled levitation. It was even rumoured that her eyes glowed green when angered.
Sam grinned, having witnessed the wrath of her mentor first hand. If only those rookies knew how close to the truth they actually were.
As it was, Maddie was no longer fit for field missions. When her mentor's predecessor was killed in action almost a decade ago, Maddie had been elected by a practically unanimous vote.
As passionate as her mentor was about the extermination of ghosts, Sam knew that Maddie would doubtlessly relinquish her position as leader of the brotherhood for one thing. Or rather, one person. The son she lost almost two decades ago.
Sam didn't know much about Daniel Fenton. Jack and Maddie never spoke of him. But she knew that Maddie blamed herself for allowing her son to suffer the brunt of the possession while she survived, and that her mentor would never be able to forgive herself for being unable to protect him.
Valerie confessed that she found it odd, how their leader was so attached to the memory of a child that she never knew. Then again, her best friend shared much of Vlad Master's detached personality regarding relationships.
Sometimes, Sam wondered if she and her partner would have turned out differently if they had switched mentors. She contemplated if Valerie would have unconsciously imitated Maddie Fenton instead of acquiring more of Vlad's personality with each passing lunar cycle. Unlike her partner, Sam respected Maddie, but her deference to her mentor stopped short of the blind admiration Valerie had for Vlad Masters.
She started, caught unaware by the sudden beeping of one of Tucker's homemade tracking devices. She glanced at the screen. There seemed to be several ghosts in the nearby vicinity.
"Tuck, are you getting this?" Valerie inquired, all traces of her previous fatigue evaporating.
"Yeah." Their friend replied. "They're fairly low level, so I don't think you're going to run into any problems capturing them."
"Hopefully not." Sam's lips pursed into a grim line as she ensured that her reloads were within easy reach.
Although naturally aggressive by nature, Sam typically found herself being the cautious one in her ghost hunting partnership with Valerie, purely due to her partner's complete inability to restrain herself. Someone had to make sure that they didn't end up doing anything stupid.
"You ready?" Valerie asked her partner, releasing the safety on her weapon.
"Yeah." Sam nodded in reply, hugging the shadows as she navigated her way out into the empty street.
-
Masked by the inky sky, a dark figure with striking white hair observed them, unbeknown to the ghost hunters below.
Were these the brotherhood's new recruits? He raised an eyebrow in mirth. If the resistance hoped to have any chance of halting the advance of Pariah's empire, they would have to do a lot better than sending little girls to the front line.
He dully noted as a human at the end of the street, undoubtedly a civilian, gazed contemplatively out of her window, admiring the view of the town in the sparse moonlight, unable to stop himself from finding dry amusement in the fact that she was completely unaware of the silent battle occurring all around her.
In such circumstances, he had always thought it ironic that the period when the supernatural were most powerful was the same night that most civilians regarded as holding the most arcane beauty. Perhaps ignorance was truly bliss.
It had always intrigued him, why the brotherhood continued to fight against such ridiculous odds. Surely the humans knew that they could never hope to equal the brute force commanded by Pariah's empire. After all, they were physically inferior to his kin. Combined with their short lifespans, whatever experience a human gained in battling against ghosts was quickly lost to the ravages of time.
He pulled forward the cowl of his dark cloak, concealing his features beneath the hood as he continued to regard the pair of girls engaged in battle with a couple of low level ghosts. What did they hope to achieve by sunrise? He had always thought that there was more to the brotherhood than the sporadic capturing of weak ghosts. Perhaps he had been mistaken. Although at the very least, their bravery was commendable, that they dared to oppose those that were their superiors.
It seemed strange to think that the frail, human girl before him and her accomplice were ghost hunters. Compared to veterans such as the fabled Madeline Fenton, surely she could not be considered a threat. But the humans' resourcefulness had surprised him on more than one occasion. Despite their physical weakness, they had still managed to halt Pariah Dark from completely conquering Amity Park for more than a century.
He raised an eyebrow, impressed. The humans appeared to have invented some form of gauntlets that negated his kin's advantage of intangibility. Yet another reason for him to keep out of the brotherhood's way.
He started as a pale stream of frost brushed past his lips and escaped into the night air, forewarning him of the arrival of the Fright Knight's subordinates.
If pair before him did not leave the area, they would soon be outnumbered five to one. Although they had proven adept at defending themselves against low leveled paranormal beings, he knew that they would stand no chance against the Fright Knight's minions.
The ghost's lips pursed into a grim line as he observed the humans, who maintained oblivious to the fact that they were about to be ambushed. All the resourcefulness in the world would not save them if they did not take their leave immediately.
-
"Great work, Val." Sam allowed herself a grin of satisfaction as the last of the spectres were drawn into the bright swirling vortex of the thermos. They had easily done Maddie proud tonight. The ghosts they had captured might not have been high level, but they were still valuable test subjects for the tech department to experiment on.
"Well done, guys." Tucker congratulated. "Maddie's definitely going to be pleased with this."
"There's not much else we can do tonight." Valerie conceded, her voice barely above a whisper to avoid detection.
"We should go." Sam agreed.
"Before you do, can you check up on that containment device near North Street?" Tucker requested. "I'm not sure how much help my improvements actually were."
"Sure, no prob-"
Sam's reply was interrupted by the sudden, unexpected plummeting of the temperature in the alleyway.
"You're not going anywhere, human." An eerie voice rasped.
Maddie's apprentice tensed, spinning as she turned to face the newcomers.
"Guys?" Tucker called out tentatively. He was used to being ignored on field missions, but never when they were discussing something important.
"What do you want with us?" Valerie demanded, as dark eyebrows lowered to frame her narrowing eyes.
Sam grimly noted the presence of a dark purple flame on the skeleton's helmets, the Fright Knight's insignia. They was dealing with the ghost king's troops.
"What do we have here?" Their leader rasped, the beginnings of a smirk forming over a fleshless visage. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that it isn't safe for little girls to be out after curfew?"
Sam froze, grabbing Valerie's wrists to draw her partner towards her. There was strength in numbers, and she had no intention of being separated from her partner.
"The only reason Amity Park's unsafe is because of monsters like you." Valerie spat, blinding ectoplasmic energy surging around the fists of her ghost gauntlets as she activated them.
"Guys, what's happening?" Their tech operative yelled, panicked by the lack of response on his teammates' part.
"I cannot believe they fell for the bait." Another chortled, a dry, chafing sound rising from the back of the skeleton's throat that made Sam feel sick. His laughter reminded her of the scraping of sandpaper on bone. "Our liege will be pleased."
"Sam? Val?" Tucker tried again, his voice laced with desperation.
Sam was desperate to activate a signal flare, to inform the brotherhood of the magnitude of their situation. However, she knew the ghosts would attack the moment she reached into the pocket of her stealth suit, for fear that she would draw new weapons to aid her defense.
"Back off, ghost scum." Valerie threatened, gesturing to the thermos slung across her waist. "Unless you want to end up like your kin."
"You're not going to be able to subdue all of us with that pathetic contraption." The Fright Knight's lieutenant mocked. "Especially when it's already filled with the inferior half sentients that you just wasted your time capturing."
He extended a hand, and Sam winced as the earpiece of her communicator, formerly embedded into the interior of the shell of her left ear, was ripped off in single fluid motion. A hiss of pain from Valerie told her that her partner's communication device had also just been removed. Sam fought a fresh rising wave of fear as the minuscule electronic devices levitated towards the spectre, coming to rest in the palm of his hand. She had not been able to contact Tucker before, but his voice, however panicked, had provided a source of comfort to her and Valerie. She wondered if she would survive past tonight to ever hear her tech operative's voice again.
"When will humans ever learn that all the technology in the world will never save them?" The spectre closed his fist, crushing the chips within his palm.
Sam glared as her gaze fixated on her assailant's hand, fervently hoping with all her might that the sparking electronic devices had shocked him in some way, no matter how small. Tucker had been so proud of those earpieces.
"We'll start with the smaller one." The lieutenant commanded, gesturing at Sam.
It was going to be a process of elimination, Sam realised. First they would kill her, then Valerie. Yet she held savage satisfaction in the fact that she and her partner were being viewed as a genuine threat.
The tension was so thick in the air that Sam could practically taste it, as both sides waited for the other to make the first move. Valerie's lips pursed into a grim line, the expression on her partner's face mirroring exactly how she felt. No matter how they approached the situation, the odds were stacked against them.
Sam felt a slight sting on the interior of her ear, where her earpiece had once been so carefully grafted. Beads of blood were collecting at her ear lobe, slowly dripping onto the cracked cement floor. Why hadn't Tucker's technology forewarned them of the ghosts' presence?
Suddenly, their leader was upon her so fast that she barely knew what was happening. A skeletal knee crushed painfully into her stomach as she was thrown back several metres, the wind knocked out of her as she hit the alleyway floor. Sam ran her tongue over the roof of her mouth, and grimaced at the coppery taste of blood.
"Get away from her." Valerie screamed, hurling a ray after ray of artificial ecto energy at the spectres.
"Don't worry." One of them mocked. "You're next."
Valerie's eyes narrowed, insulted that they had chosen to ignore her for the moment. They would soon regret that decision, she decided with grim determination, running towards her partner.
"What are you doing?" Sam yelled, fear for her partner overriding her own blind panic as she rose to her feet. "Run."
"Are you joking?" Valerie's eyes flashed. "I'm not leaving you."
"Better one of us than both of us." She insisted, fear gnawing on her insides. Soon, her partner would be captured if she could not convince her to leave.
"Someone has to tell Maddie what happened." Sam shifted her gaze towards her shattered earpiece that lay abandoned on the ground, wishing that her communicator had been spared.
Valerie stopped and hesitated, unwilling to leave Sam at the mercy of the enemy. Her friend could be long dead by the time she returned with help.
Sam felt as though she being crushed by the weight of her partner's hesitation. "Val, stop being stupid. Run!"
"I will come back for you." Valerie's eyes narrowed, as if filled with fresh resolve. "I promise."
Sam willed her partner with all her might not to look back as Valerie tore her eyes away from the scene before her in a burst of determination and sprinted in the opposite direction. The fading sound of Valerie's combat boots on the aged concrete of the alleyway floor was oddly comforting, despite Sam's current plight.
Sam released a breath she hadn't realised that she had been holding, relief flooding her system. Now all she had to worry about now was herself. At least Vlad would be spared Maddie's plight of losing an apprentice tonight. Valerie Gray was far too valuable for the brotherhood to lose.
"Splitting up?" Their leader taunted. "You've just made our job twice as easy, little girl."
The ghost hunter ignored the jibe, allowing herself a long, shuddering intake of breath as she flexed her fingers, adrenaline surging through her veins as she powered up the Fenton Ghost Gauntlets. Her lips pursed into a grim line as the twin metallic bracelets extended across her knuckles, glowing with artificial spectral energy. She was going to have to plan her every move with hairline precision if she even wanted to merit herself the slightest chance of surviving until Valerie returned.
The first of her attackers lunged towards her with a snarl, overconfident about his prospects of defeating a lone human female. Sam crouched, lowering her centre of gravity before tumbling fluidly onto her back, transferring her weight to her arms. Using the spectre's own momentum against him, her heavy combat boots smashed into his chest, slamming the ghost into the alleyway wall behind her, ignoring the sharp pain that shot across her back where she had hit the floor. She'd worry about minor injuries later, if she survived past tonight.
Not knowing when she would next be able to break their ranks, Sam seized the opportunity to retrieve her partner's abandoned ecto blaster. Gathering the last of her ecto grenades from her pouch, she silently cursed herself for wasting them while capturing low level ghosts, when inspiration struck.
She could make use of the ghost trap that she and Valerie had set up several blocks away. If Sam could keep on the run until then, her chances of survival would be drastically improved. Granted, the capacity of the capturing device was not great enough to hold all of her assailants, but at least she would be given a fighting chance.
"Tiring already, human?" Their leader provoked, seemingly completely recovered from her attack.
Sam suppressed the sick feeling of dread at the pit of her stomach.
"Don't underestimate me." She hissed, adopting a battle stance as she detonated the explosives in rapid succession, deliberately ensuring that her aim was wide to the spectre's right as she attempted to steer them out of the alleyway, towards the trap that Tucker had activated in the neighbourhood.
"Is that the best you can do, little girl? I expected more." The ghost drawled.
Sam kept her features blank, refusing to acknowledge their mocking jeers regarding her aim. Let them think that she was a bad shot. It would probably serve her best in the long run.
God, she hoped Valerie would return soon.
As her assailants closed in on her from all four corners, Sam stood her ground, unaware of the phantom observer silently noting her struggles from the rooftops above.
Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the long delay between updates. But now that exams are over, I'm going to try my very best to keep you entertained! That wasn't the most subtle of cliffhangers, I admit. I bet you all can see what happens next;) Chapter 2's already been written. I actually wrote it before chapter 1. But only because I'm cool like that.
Many thanks to: Sweeteen19, katiesparks, Henshi-anichan, kia, Sasia93, Linda, Secret Spy Guy, raven luvan, yuuki, Koccinelle, vladimir's disease and FunkyFish1991 for your lovely, lovely reviews that kept me going:D
Thanks also go to Sasia for beta work, and having to put up with the impossible multitude of incomplete sentences and typos that I come up with while half asleep.
Hope you liked it, and please leave a review so that I feel motivated to update:D
Hugs and Kisses
Twisted