"You said Valerie was wearing her technological suit at that time, did you not Skulker?"
"Yes. I did."
"And she was considered a co-owner of your conceptual realm?"
"I did."
"Did the prey attempt to escape at any time?"
"They did. They fled into a ghost realm, and had to be coerced out."
"Notice the word coerced. Why so, instead of being chsaed out since one was a human?"
"Because it was one of their personal realms, as opposed to a conceptual one."
"Whose realm was it then?"
"Valerie Gray's."
Val looked shocked.
"Why hers, and not the ghost-childe's?" Walker continued.
"Because no matter how powerful you are it takes at a minimum five years for a personal realm to manifest."
Skulker stepped down, but was reserved for recall. Valerie looked shocked. Clockwork had seemed to have the advantage, but Walker had managed to change the argument. It did explain a fair bit about why Skulker had lured them out rather than chase after them. The case was not going well.
Clockwork rounded on Ember. "Why didn't you tell me of your gift to her? If I had known that, I could have countered it."
"She's my kid. Of course I'd start a realm for her. It's just so obvious from my end, that I didn't realise you were thinking human rather than child."
Clockwork sighed. This was the same sort of mistake he had made as with Dan Phantom. He had been too concerned with the future and not enough with the past. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he did get too confident in his manipulations occasionally.
Damon cursed. Where the hell was Valerie? If she had been out ghost hunting there was no way Phantom would have had to deal with Earthsound. As much as Phantom's heart was mostly in the right place, he had slipped up too often to ever be trusted as completely as he seemed to be. So yet again he'd have to get out his old skills. Something was terribly wrong. As much as he didn't like his daughter ghost-hunting, she was good at it, and, more, when these sorts of crises happened - she was needed.
As he was about to head out, a black and white streak sped into him, winding both of them. As the ghost child got up he spoke. "Let Val Out! She's needed!"
"I know that! But if she was out there you'd never had have to deal with Earthsound. Val's MIA. Do you know what's happened?"
"No, few ghosts talk to me, and the only one that's likely to boast about killing her isn't going to be here." Then Danny thought to himself. "Note check the ghost zone's greatest hunter's lair. An army of human-form ghosts is here, so check the Prison."
"Why don't you activate the ghost shield? That will deal with 90 percent of the problem..."
"Not if people are overshadowed. That requires some very careful manipulation, and I'm too powerful to blast ghosts out anymore. I suppose I could overshadow them but for every one I free two can be taken. Is there anything else?"
"That is going to be difficult. I'll have a look in Val's things. You get out there."
Danny flew off never wondering why Damon had actually used the Ghost Worms name, especially when Val was not likely to talk about Ghost hunting to her father. Once back at the Fentonworks he sighed. The Fenton's were doing well, even Jack and Jazz, (as usual in a crisis of this magnitude) but they were not enough. Val would be useful, and she had vanished.
"Got Damon to release Val?" Sam asked.
"'Fraid not but he showed me a graph of Earthsound's attacks I never encountered him before today, yet he's been active ever since Cujo. Fortunately he turns up like clockwork. But since I have not encountered him, neither as Fenton nor as Phantom, The ghost hunter who must have dealt with him was..."
"Valerie." Sam cursed. This could put the pendulum back to tell Val. She didn't want that. Oh well at least Valerie was relatively sane unlike Vlad.
Eight red blasts took down several of Walker's men about to ambush Team Phantom. And there stood a very exhausted Vlad, almost as if had taken on Pariah Dark. Who could have exhausted him this badly? Technus could but Danny doubted that he would want to reveal himself to Vlad. Boast to someone else certainly though.
"Not had a good day. Walker's goons attacked me, Technus turned up, and the last you will not believe, Daniel. I thought Technus and Pariah were powerful, but this ghost. Remind me to actually listen to Val. She wasn't being paranoid - she was right."
Daniel thought to himself. "I know. I can still become like Dan Phantom even if I never combine with Plasmius. Sam and Tucker think Plasmius was dominant, but I know better."
"Wish I could. Val has vanished."
"She's too good to just vanish, Daniel. Haven't you found her yet?"
"I know. I'm afraid she's dead."
"I never wanted her dead, Daniel, just getting in your way. Did you ever wonder why I chose her? Why not Star for instance, or 40 percent of Amity's population. I chose her because of who her mother was before she died. Her mother was the Wisconsin Hunter."
"Yeah I know of her, but I just can't seem to place her." Danny said. "And I was pretty ghost-obsessed at that point."
"I know. I'm having that problem, and she was my first Arch-enemy (except for your bumbling father). Still embarassing as those two facts are they're still not as embarrassing as being defeated by the Box Ghost, Daniel. He's started to understand exactly what power over boxes gives him."
"And here we were hoping he'd stick to thinking inside the box." Danny said.
"Bad puns are neither what I want or need, Danny."
Sam and Tucker looked at Vlad and Danny. "Are you really taking this seriously?"
"In the alternate future, the Box Ghost was far more dangerous, and he still wasn't at his peak." Danny stated. Vlad notices Danny's two companions nod. That was interesting indeed.
"Blue ghosts start off extraordinarily weak but can become very powerful indeed. In fact Daniel, Pariah and I are also blue ghosts. Clockwork used to merely be just an embodiment of time; now to an extent he can control it. He's probably the most powerful ghost that exists." Vlad cursed. "I just thought the Box Ghost was too much of an idiot to realise his true power. Now I realise he didn't want to be seen as a danger to the other ghosts, since his power encompasses several realms."
"Didn't want to be considered a second Pariah." Sam stated.
"Eminently sensible of him. So why now?" Vlad asked aloud "What would make him feel safe? Now of all times?"