AN: If you like this story, tell me in a review!
I'm really, really sorry… I lost the jump drive that I had been saving this story on. It may take me a while to retype everything. If you review, it may come back faster.
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The warehouse was more or less empty. There were dozens of rows of shelves several feet high, but they were all void of boxes or other items. Danny walked over to a corner, where an unknown source of water was falling from the ceiling, pulling a small handful of pills out as he did so. As he carefully laid the pills in a row on the dusty floor, his friends raised their eyebrows. Drops of water splashed over the pills, causing them to jump. Before their eyes, the pills burst out, becoming sleeping bags. The halfa quickly dragged them out of the water to prevent them from getting too soggy.
"I thought we may be stuck here for awhile, so I also ran back to my house to grab some stuff. I didn't have time to pick the rest out, so sorry if there's not enough." He explained, taking the backpack off and dumping the contents onto the nearest sleeping bag. Several cans of food, a can opener, and a dozen water bottles came into view. He gave the bag another shake, and a Fenton Thermos and a small first aid kit tumbled to the ground. Alex couldn't help but smile.
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The group of refugees had laid out their possessions in the aisle. At Alex's suggestion, two were currently resting while the other two kept watch. Danny and Tucker were the ones who kept first watch. Sam and Alex were huddled in their sleeping bags, somehow managing to force their bodies into a light doze. Through the soft green light, Danny and Tucker could see their faces as well as some of the surrounding area of the hollow warehouse. They were as silent as Sam and Alex. Tucker kept staring at his hands, fidgeting. Danny was still as a statue; he wasn't even breathing. His emerald gaze was fixed somewhere in the shadows. The halfa was using all of his power to keep his face neutral and to keep himself from screaming.
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Alex's face twisted. He curled up in his sleeping bag, unconsciously wrapping his arms around himself in protection.
An older man, with gray hair and blue eyes, was smiling sadly. Still a world apart, the General beckoned to him.
"Together, Alex, we will build a new world. Come with me, my son."
"No!" Alex whispered, backing up. Sarov took a step towards him, and Alex turned and ran into Vlad Masters who had appeared from the shadows.
The halfa seized him by the shoulders, dragging him away.
"Soon, Daniel will be no more, Alex. There is nothing you can do to stop me."
Alex lashed out at Vlad, breaking free in time to hear a familiar voice call his name. Danny appeared from nowhere in his ghost form. He grabbed Alex and shot up into the sky, dodging the deadly attacks from Vlad. They got away in slow motion, despite Alex's cries to go faster. Vlad had transformed, and was now inches away.
Plasmius tore Alex away from Danny, dropping him. Alex seized the older halfa by his foot to keep himself from falling. He was helpless as Plasmius took both of his hands and wrapped them around Danny's throat. Horrified, Alex thought that Plasmius was going to strangle Danny.
His thoughts were corrected as the two hands snapped Danny's neck, killing him instantly.
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With a strangled cry, Alex awoke. Danny had let the small green flame go out to save his energy, so the room was pitch black. His eyes began to glow green, creating light to see, when heard Alex.
"Oh God, oh God, oh God!" Alex moaned, sitting up and madly looking around. He expected Plasmius to leap at him in an instant. He shakily turned to see Danny and Tucker, and his mouth opened in embarrassment.
"You okay?" Danny asked, creating another ball of fire to see easily. The halfa noted Alex's pale face. Tucker hung back, not knowing what to do.
"Sorry. Nightmare." Alex mumbled, looking away.
"Want to talk about it?" that was Sam, announcing that she was awake. Alex shook his head, refusing.
Talking would result only in wasted time.
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Someone suggested that they leave the warehouse to search for help.
"We may be able to get Valerie to help. If we tell her that it's Danny Fenton who is in trouble, I don't see why she wouldn't." Tucker offered.
"It's worth a shot," Danny said quietly "We may need all the help we can get."
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Danny flew everyone back to Amity Park, taking only the Thermos with them. They decided it would be better to leave the moped behind and stick together. He flew into an alley before putting everyone down and changing into Fenton.
"I'm guessing it's about six by now. Valerie will probably still be at the Nasty Burger, about to leave for her home or something." Danny said, walking to the opening of the alley and looking out. The Nasty Burger stood across the street, in its silver glory. They'd be lucky if they caught Valerie before she left. If she wasn't at her work, she'd be out hunting.
"How are we going to get her to believe us?" Sam asked, joining Danny's side. Alex and Tucker were already looking out across the street.
Danny bit his lip, thinking. He though that telling her that Phantom was chasing them would work, but he was trying to get the public to realize that his other half wasn't evil. Valerie wasn't even aware that other people, besides her father, knew about her secret. They couldn't just waltz in and ask her to gun down any ghost that comes into sight.
"Hey, Val! We have a bit of a problem with a fruit loop ghost. Could you do us a favor and help us beat him?"
It sounded stupid in Danny's head. He sighed and shook his head.
"I have no idea."
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In the end, Alex decided to play the role of the lost tourist. He strolled in the restaurant, seemingly alone. Danny had changed back into Phantom at the last minute and followed him in. Alex was unaware of this though as he walked up to the counter.
"Can I help you?" a bored teen asked.
"Ah, yes." Alex said, laying his British accent on thickly "I'll have a regular, er, Nasty burger? Yes, one of those with some chips."
"Chips? You mean fries, right?"
"Ah, yes, sorry."
"That will be five dollars then."
Alex handed him the cash, and the worker flung the bag of food at him before helping the next person. Rolling his eyes, Alex walked out of the Nasty Burger, walking around to the back. Along the way, he briefly examined the food before taking a fry out and eating it.
Danny followed him, hoping that they'd find Valerie. Luck was on their side as Alex saw Valerie leaving through a back door. He waved at her, and she slowly returned the gesture.
"Uh, hi? Who are you exactly?"
"Oh, sorry! I'm Alex. I'm visiting some family. They said that I should come by this place and try the food."
"Hm? Who are you visiting?"
"The Manson's."
Danny pulled a face. Was that all he could think of?
Valerie looked confused.
"You're related to Sam?"
"Second cousins. My family is only staying here for a day or two. We were going out West, and thought we'd stop and visit them first. We heard that this place had a lot of ghosts."
"Yeah? Well, don't trust the ghosts if you meet them."
"That's what I heard. They're lying bastards, the lot of them."
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Danny wished that Alex would hurry up. He was hiding, invisibly, by the dumpster. It was overflowing with old boxes and bags of trash.
"This stinks," he thought to himself, growing impatient.
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Alex cut to the chase.
"I heard that there was this hunter who dresses in red and catches ghosts. I wish I could meet them." He sighed. Valerie eyed him warily.
"Why?" she slowly asked.
"I've only been here for a few days," he lied smoothly "and I've already had more trouble with the ghosts than I would ever want to have."
Danny chose this moment to "help out". He made a ghostly moaning sound and knocked a few boxes from the top of the dumpster to the ground.
"Oh, great! They've even followed me here!" Alex cried out in mock disdain. He turned to point to the mountain of trash.
"I think it's over there! Did you see it?" he asked Valerie, pointing. He only received silence.
Valerie was gone.
The high pitched whir of a machine met his ears. It was coming from the other side of the building. The Red Huntress zoomed past him, blasting the dumpster with a small ecto gun.
"Filthy ghosts! Get lost!" she barked, masking her voice slightly. Alex guessed that Danny had been the one to create the moan. Now he only needed a reason to get Valerie to "save" him.
Danny, still invisible, shivered. His ghost sense had gone off. This would probably be the one time that he would ever be happy to see another ghost.
The Lunch Lady burst from the dumpster. Valerie stopped firing, not knowing how to react to the ghost. She looked like she should have been haunting a bingo hall after all. The Lunch Lady completely ignored Valerie, zeroing in on Alex.
"Oh, you poor thing! You're skin and bone! Why don't you eat some meat?"
Alex stared at the bag of food still in his hands.
"Uh, I have some meat here, thanks." He said, smiling weakly. The ghost flared up at this, literally.
"You call that processed filth meat?! You need real food to grow! Not garbage!"
"Uh…" Alex backed up a step. Acting on impulse, he flung the bag of food at the ghost. She roared, firing ecto energy at him. Alex dodged by throwing himself to the side with seconds to spare. Valerie jumped into action, attacking the ghost. AS Alex got back on his feet and jumped out of the fray, he saw Danny. He motioned at him with his hands.
"No! Stay there!"
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Valerie had it under control. Even after the ghost copied itself, she could still hang on and defend Alex. Alex wasn't bad himself. He favored kicks rather than punches though, probably because of the broken hand.
"Beware! I am the box ghost!"
Danny yelped as the blue ghost phased through him. The box ghost, wanting to create havoc using all things square, started throwing boxes at the hunter and Alex. This wouldn't have been much of a problem by itself, but they were busy keeping the Lunch Lady back. The boxes were also full of trash, making them heavy.
"Dang it! Were getting out of here!" Valerie yelled. She spun her jet sled around and grabbed Alex, flinging him onto the craft before taking off. As they fled, Valerie fired off more blasts at the ghosts. She didn't check to see if she had hit her targets. At least they weren't following her. Alex stood up behind her.
"Where are we going?" he shouted through the wind at her. Valerie answered by landing on the roof of a building. She turned to face him.
"Are you some ghost magnet or something?" she snapped in annoyance "What was that all about?"
Alex put his hands up in defense. "I have no idea, bad luck I guess."
"Hmph."
"Seriously. Actually, I was wondering if you could help me."
"Why? I think that I have done enough."
"There's this evil ghost, worse than Phantom, and I think he's after me." Alex blurted. This got Valerie's attention. She stared at him, into his eyes. After a moment, she sighed.
"What ghost is it then? What could be worse than Phantom?"
"Plasmius. Will you help me?"
"And this 'Plasmius' is after you? What did you do?"
"He's also after one of my friends. I really didn't do anything though."
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Danny leapt out as Alex and Valerie sped away. He opened the Thermos and quickly captured the ghosts before flying back to Sam and Tucker and changing back into Fenton.
"I think this may actually work," the halfa muttered, giving his friends the thumbs up.
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AN: Just kidding about the loss of my jump drive! But seriously, leave a review if you like this story!