Thanks to RevyCaitEll, Lexosaurus, Barely Existent, Gerren, Mychron, and Guest for reviewing the last chapter! If you want to discuss this story or talk in general, I have a blog on tumblr at grayyghost (incriminating, I know)
Valerie groaned as she added yet another folder to her 'investigate' pile. Danny really hadn't been exaggerating when he said that a bunch of new ghosts had recently started attempting to take Amity for themselves. Luckily, she had already gotten permission from Hayes to show Danny the files; he was an official consultant, after all.
She had even convinced Hayes to let her at the shooting range for a little while before returning to desk work. She was surprised that he had stayed to watch her, seeing as he almost definitely had other things to be doing. He sat in the glass observation room, eyes bouncing back and forth between herself and the targets she was massacring.
Still, Valerie wasn't going to complain. She loved showing off a little, and she figured that by proving her battle prowess, Hayes would be willing to overlook any minor transgressions to keep her around. Minor transgressions like snooping around his secret projects and telling Danny about them. She frowned as she began packing folders into her bag. For a moment, she felt a little guilty. After all, her job was to keep an eye on Danny.
She shook her head, dismissing the line of thought. She was keeping an eye on Danny, but she was keeping an eye on Hayes too. The director of the Guys in White didn't have the powers Danny had, but he was far from a helpless civilian. He had the means to do some real damage, just as Danny did. Mind made up, she walked out of her office and locked the door behind her.
Danny had offered to drive her home again, but she refused, telling him that she planned on talking to Laura when she got off work, and didn't know how long that would take. Instead, he offered to meet her at her apartment since she had given him her spare key and start unpacking for her. She agreed, blushing at his kindness. It's been a while since she had someone around to do little things like that for her.
It didn't take her long to reach the Labs. She was thankful that they seemed to be relatively quiet. A lot of the scientists must've gotten off work at the same time as her. She noticed a man who had his lab coat hung over his forearm walking towards the exit.
"Excuse me," She said, stopping him, "I was wondering if you knew where I could find Dr. Brannon."
He hummed. "She always stays pretty late to work on a few personal projects, so I'm willing to bet she'll be in her lab." He turned and pointed to a door on the other side of the massive lab. "It's through that door."
Valerie thanked him and walked that direction. She glanced around, taking in the equipment all around her. She didn't know what most of it did, though some of it looked like something she had seen at the Fenton's. Chemicals lined the walls within tall reinforced glass shelving cases. With a huff, she realized that even if there was anything incriminating here, she wouldn't know what. Danny probably wouldn't either.
If they could somehow get the Fenton's in here…
She reached the door to Laura's lab, and she could hear very faint humming from within. Valerie knocked a couple times, and the humming cut off abruptly. "Dr. Brannon?" She called through the door. "Are you available?"
She listened at the sounds of clinking glasses and papers rustling before the door opened, revealing a short woman with vivid red hair. She blinked up at Valerie, blue eyes looking huge from behind her large round glasses. "Um," Her voice was soft, "Who are you?"
Valerie smiled kindly, holding a hand out to the shorter woman. "I'm Valerie Gray."
Laura returned the smile shyly and shook her hand. "Well hello. I'm Dr. Laura Brannon, but, uh, feel free to call me Laura."
"It's nice to meet you Laura." Valerie glanced past her to the lab for a moment before looking back down at her. "Could we talk?"
Laura bit her lip, looking a little nervous before nodding. "Of course, come in." She turned and led Valerie into the lab. For the most part, it was a bunch more stuff that Valerie didn't recognize. Her eyes skimmed her surroundings with disinterest. She froze when she caught sight of a glass case. Within was a lone flower, sitting in a clear glass vase. It looked like a rose, but the strange colors and faint glow was all she needed to know it definitely wasn't.
Laura seemed to notice her sudden interest. She smiled at Valerie and led them over to the plant. "Lovely, isn't it? I have several of these that I'm studying, but I begged Hayes to let me keep one for myself. I just thought it was so strange and beautiful." She dragged a finger down the side of the glass.
"It is." Valerie agreed, heart racing. She did all she could to remain nonchalant. Laura made no effort to hide the plant from her, so she clearly wasn't worried about a security issue or anything. Valerie wanted to keep it that way.
"We keep it in a case because we aren't sure what kind of effects it may have on humans." Laura continued, adjusting her glasses. "If it's anything like what it does to ghosts, we'd be in trouble, for sure."
Valerie blinked. "It's harmful to ghosts?" She asked.
Laura nodded. "From what I've observed it has nasty effects on ectoplasm. It's safe to assume that ectoplasmic entities wouldn't do well with it." She began speaking faster as she got more excited. "It was my idea to study it, I mean, a ghost plant that's harmful to ghosts? How strange! It took a lot to get Hayes to let me so this extra research. My father was a botanist, so I've always had this interest in studying plant life."
"Ah, so this is all you?" Valerie asked, a little relieved.
Laura nodded. "Mmmhmmm. A little research for curiosity's sake." She giggled in delight. "It's nice, sometimes, to study things for fun. Hayes is so focused on being able to stop ghosts that he forgets what a fascinating phenomenon they are." She stopped suddenly. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm sure you came here for something far more important than my little side project!" She stared at Valerie expectantly.
Valerie balked. "Um, yeah, actually. I, uh…" She glanced around, noting the messy piles of papers a couple lab tables over. "I was hoping you had another copy of the toxicity report for Thorn? I've managed to misplace it." She smiled sheepishly. Laura grinned.
"It's alright! I lose papers all the time! Let me run into my office and print you up a new copy." She turned to walking into the adjoining room before stopping suddenly and turning back to face Valerie. "Oh, and don't touch anything please! I don't want you to accidentally poison yourself or something!" She giggled nervously before turning and walking into her office.
Valerie turned to look at the flower again. She didn't know how something so innocent looking could apparently be so dangerous to Danny, but she was glad Laura had no ill will and Hayes wasn't aware of what he had stumbled upon.
A rack of small sealed vials next to the plant caught her eye. The liquid within was a bright magenta that seemed to glow a little. She glanced back towards Laura's office to make sure the other woman wasn't looking before grabbing one of the vials and carefully placing it in her bag. She hoped Laura wouldn't notice one missing, but felt confident since the rack wasn't full anyway. She moved away from the counter the flower was on and pretended to inspect a little machine whirring away a couple tables over.
Laura walked out of the office with a piece of paper and a smile. "Here it is!" She noticed Valerie's pretend interest in the machine before her. "Oh, you've found our purifier! We use it to purify ectoplasm for our experiments. Pretty neat, huh?" She handed Valerie the paper.
"It is." Valerie agreed, taking the form and skimming through it for a moment before slipping it into her bag. "Thank you so much for this Laura."
"Of course!" The woman blushed and looked away. "I, uh, I'm a huge fan of the Red Huntress's work, so this is really an honor."
Valerie blinked. "I thought you didn't recognize me?"
"No, I did, I just didn't want to seem like an obnoxious fan or a spaz or something. I'm sure you get that enough." Laura smiled shyly. Valerie smirked.
"Well, let it be known the Red Huntress is a fan of your work as well." She moved to walk out of the room. "Thanks again!"
Laura positively beamed. "Anytime, Valerie."
Valerie walked out of the room before letting her face fall. Another possible friend, and another betrayal in the making.
By the time she made it back to her apartment, Valerie had pretty much well and truly repressed her guilt; as she did with most unsavory emotions lately. Instead, she allowed herself to be more relieved than anything. After all, Danny had been wrong about the creation of a weapon, and Hayes was too busy with any number of other projects to bother asking Laura about the Blood Blossom's dangerous potential.
She wasn't sure how long that would last, but between herself and Phantom, who was also friends with her, it shouldn't be hard to convince her to keep that little fact under wraps. She used her key to open her door and smiled at Danny's progress. He was almost finished unpacking the kitchenware, and it was all sitting on the counters so she could put them where she wanted. He looked up when she walked in.
"Hey, Val. How was the rest of your day?" He asked, pulling another plate from the box.
"Mostly boring." She said, reaching into her bag and pulling out the glass vial. "You might want to put that plate down." She warned with a grin.
Danny looked up as he placed it in the pile of plates before him. "Huh?" He noticed the vial. "What's that?" He asked, moving around the counter and walking over to her for a closer look. She immediately pulled it closer to her chest.
"Careful. If it's what I think it is, you won't want to be anywhere near it."
"Wait," Danny said, eyes going wide as he froze mid step, "Is that…?"
Valerie shrugged. "I honestly don't know, but it was sitting near Laura's flower thing, so… I have a feeling." Danny stared at the vile warily.
"Only one way to know for sure." He changed direction and moved to sit on the couch. "Come near me and open it."
Valerie stared at him. "What? Are you crazy?"
"No," He insisted, waving her over, "Why do you think I sat down?" She walked over to him, eyes full of uncertainty.
"I don't know about this Danny." She said as she came to a stop and stood directly in front of him.
He gave her a nervous smile. "Me either, honestly. But we have to know what this stuff is for sure." He took in her uncertain look and squeezed the hand that wasn't holding the vial gently. "I'll be fine, Valerie." He insisted before releasing her hand. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again they were the bright green characteristic of Phantom. "I'm going to access some of my powers in my human form rather than change all the way, in case that is some super potent Blood Blossom goo." At that, he glowed slightly before disappearing.
"Right." Valerie mumbled. "Ok Danny, I'm going to open it in three… two… one." She couldn't tell if he was bracing himself, but she hoped he was. She unscrewed the lid and removed it. To her surprise, the scent that drifted out was quite fragrant. "Well, it smells nice." She noted. She stared intently at the empty space where she knew Danny was sitting. "How are you doing?"
He still wasn't visible when he spoke. "I'm… Not great." She could hear the strain in his voice. She gasped and moved to put the lid back on the vial when she heard his disembodied voice again. "No… Just… I'm trying to see how long I can last."
"Are you insane!?" She glared at the empty space before her.
"…No… But it's… An important thing to know… I think." He sounded sluggish, and Valerie wished he would just hurry up and appear so she could cap the vial again. A low groan sounded out from the couch, and Valerie thought her heart would leap out of her chest with worry. "I… I can't…" And then Danny appeared again.
Valerie gasped and resealed the vial, no longer waiting for his permission. She ran over to the kitchen and put it in the cabinet furthest away from him before rushing back.
He was breathing heavily still as he relaxed limply against the couch, and his face was terrifyingly pale; closer to the shade of Phantom's skin than Danny's. Sweat had begun beading up along his hair line and he had still yet to open his eyes. Valerie crouched down and grabbed either side of his face, thumbs tracing his cheekbones gently.
"Danny?" She spoke softly. "Danny, are you ok? Can you open your eyes?"
He nodded before doing so, looking into her worried gaze for a few moments before smiling sheepishly. "I'm ok."
Valerie deflated in her relief, moving her hands to his back and pulling him into a hug. He hesitated a moment before wrapping his arms around her as well and burying his face between her neck and shoulders. "We are NOT doing that again. This was the stupidest idea you've ever had Fenton, and you've thought of some idiotic stuff before, let me tell you. You stupid, masochistic, motherfu-"
"Valerie," Danny cut her off, "I'm ok." He pulled away from the hug so she could see the color returning to his face. "See?"
She inspected him for a moment with a critical eye before standing and pulling out of his grip to walk towards the kitchen. She needed something to get her mind off of that, and some mindless unboxing would surely do just the thing. "I can't believe you wanted me to be the sole owner of a Blood Blossom weapon. That was horrific." Danny rubbed the back of his head as he stood and followed her.
"Right, uh… About that…"
Valerie froze at his tone before turning and glaring at him. "What?" She ground out, already having an idea of exactly where this was going.
He reached out and grabbed her hands so they were resting between them. "Hear me out here Valerie. We've made hundreds of contingency plans because we weren't sure which one, if any, would work. But this one…" He looked right into her eyes, undeterred by the fury he saw within them. "This one would. Guaranteed."
Valerie stared for a moment, trying to keep her eyes from watering. She didn't succeed. "I… Yeah. Yeah it would." Her voice cracked as she spoke. Danny's eyes widened. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Valerie cry. Actually, he wasn't really sure if he ever had.
"Oh Val, c'mon," He tried, wiping her cheeks with his thumbs, "I know this is a really shitty thing to ask of you but…" But she was a fighter just like he was, and she deserved the chance to win against him if she ever needed to.
Valerie shook her head and pulled away from his grip, pushing past him as she walked the bathroom. "I've told you once and I'll tell you again," She looked back at him with a dark glare, "Don't give me a reason to use it, Fenton. Or I'll make sure your death is painful."
Danny shivered slightly at the threat, but nodded all the same. "Duly noted."
Later that evening found Danny and Valerie sitting on the ground at her coffee table, surrounded by folders and the leftovers of the Chinese food they had ordered. Danny huffed as he tossed the folder in his hand onto the table.
"Alright, I going to say it. We might need a little help."
Valerie put her face in her hands and groaned. "Ugh. I was worried you'd say that." She lifted her face and looked over at Danny. "How in the world has this gotten so bad anyway?" Danny patrolled almost every night, and he was constantly having to take ghosts down during the day.
Danny shrugged and picked up his phone. "No clue, honestly. It hasn't seemed like there's been a spike in ghost activity. Why hasn't Hayes showed me all this before now?" He sounded frustrated as he typed away.
Valerie lifted a brow. "Who are you texting?"
Danny turned his head to her and grinned. "I'm calling in the cavalry. We're cleaning Amity up this weekend." He sounded excited at the prospect.
Valerie leaned back onto her hands. "The cavalry?"
Danny nodded. "Sam's going to buy her and Tuck plane tickets since she can afford last minute trips like that, Jazz lives about an hour and a half away, so she can drive down here, and I'm sure mom and dad would love a little action."
Valerie felt a twinge of nervousness at the list, but she dispelled it as quickly as it came. They were all adults now, it was very unlikely that Sam and Tucker held any grudges against her.
"Sounds like a party." Valerie said with a smirk. She stood and stretched before gathering her and Danny's trash and walking into her kitchen so she could throw it all away.
"It'll be something, for sure." Danny agreed. "Meanwhile, you and I can probably knock out a few of these by Friday." He waved Valerie's list she had written earlier.
Valerie leaned against her counter and nodded. "Hayes told me I don't have to come into the office until Saturday morning for combat training." She bit her lip. "Speaking of Hayes: We still have to find out what he's doing with his prisoners."
Danny nodded. "I've been thinking about that actually, and I have an idea." He sighed. "I don't really like it but it's the best I've got."
"Well, let's hear it then."
"So my parents have been working on this liquid tracker stuff." He explained. "A liquid is the best way to get a tracking device on – or in this case in - a ghost, seeing as they aren't entirely solid all of the time. The stuff is basically ectoplasm and microchips mixed together."
"Wait, wouldn't the microchips just… fall out if the ghost went intangible?"
Danny grinned. "That's the thing, but get this: mom and dad figured out that ectoplasm has a certain frequency, and if an object is able to match the frequency then it'll act with the ectoplasm. It's how my clothes can become intangible with me."
"So people must be able to adapt to the frequency too." Valerie noted.
"Exactly. So basically, they set the microchips to vibrate at the same frequency and bam! They can go intangible too. The weapon has this projectile that's sort of like a dart or something, and they coat the tip with the tracking fluid."
Valerie nodded in understanding. "So basically, we just need to hit a ghost with the stuff and let me bring it to Hayes. Then we see if the ghost stays in his holding cell the whole time or if he's moved at all."
"And if he is, we'll know exactly where." Danny finished. He frowned. "The thing is, if he is… torturing ghosts, I'd hate to bring one right to him."
Valerie sighed. "I know, but if we find out what's going on, we can save that ghost and hopefully keep this from happening again."
"I know," Danny stared out of the window in thought, "It still sucks." He looked back over at Valerie. "We also have to be careful that he doesn't know your involvement in all of this." She cocked her head.
"What? Why?"
"You want to keep your job, don't you?" He crossed his arms. "Do you really think that if Hayes even suspects you might be more loyal to me than him that he won't hesitate to send you somewhere else?"
"Good point." She agreed. "Although you seem pretty confident about me being more loyal to you." She pointed out with a smirk.
Danny shrugged. "I mean, I don't know for sure, I guess." He gave her a hopeful smile. "But I always have been kind of an optimist."
Valerie ducked her head shyly before changing the topic. "Next order of business then… What are we going to do with the Blood Blossom extract?" She had already put the vial in a safe within her closet.
"We should get it to mom and dad," Danny made a face as he thought about it, "Well, you should anyway. I would make the weapon myself if I could." He seemed genuinely disappointed that he couldn't.
Valerie raised a brow. "You really think your parents will be willing to create a weapon that can kill you?"
Danny shrugged. "I mean, if you think about it, all of their weapons could kill me."
Valerie snorted. "Yeah, right. Not with your healing factor." She pushed off the counter and moved over to her friend, plopping onto the ground next to him once again.
"Touché." Danny conceded, throwing a casual arm over her shoulders. "Just mention that you want a specialized weapon made. I'm willing to bet they'll even throw in some security measures so only you can use it."
Valerie looked up at him. "So… lie to them about it being just for you." She crossed her arms.
Danny cringed. "I wouldn't say lie, just… omit." He squeezed her shoulders. "C'mon Val, they'll never know because I'll never give you a reason to use it, remember?"
Valerie sighed. "You've turned me into a delinquent in two days." He smiled at her sheepishly.
"I know Val. It's just… this is the nature of this life, you know?" He frowned. "I wish it wasn't like this. I wish I didn't have to ask you to do this kind of stuff." He looked away from her, visibly upset.
Valerie rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Fenton. We all do what we have to to keep everyone safe." He seemed mildly comforted at the reminder. "I'll get the weapon made. But you have to talk to Laura and convince her to lie to Hayes about how lethal the Blood Blossoms are."
Danny groaned and tilted his head back so it rested on the couch behind them. "Omit."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Valerie gave his chest a couple quick pats before standing. "Speaking of sleep, I hope you aren't expecting to get too much of it tonight."
Danny laughed at that before giving her a smoldering look and wiggling his eyebrows. "Is that a promise?"
Valerie snorted and swat at him with a pillow. "Get your mind out of the gutter Fenton. Amity needs some ghost hunters, and we're the best of the best. Suit up."
As I go on I get more and more surprised at how this story keeps evolving and changing. This is the chapter where I feel like the story starts getting a lot better, so I'm looking forward to you guys reading the rest of what I've got. If you think you know what's going on, well, guess again ;)