I am a procrastinator...that is my excuse for updating so late.
And since I really don't want to do my homework right now I'll name everybody who reviewed! ;)
Big thanks to- JuneLuxray2, Call me Mad, Aurora Borealis 97, stormygirl335, Super Sis, I 3 DP, Sheillia, Nightstar113, Danny Phantom Phanatic, rosebird333, MOONLIGHT-97, ectomaniac234, ice-storm1196, ForeverHalfa, and Anonymous (to anonymous- yeah, you were right about Nathan, so I fixed it :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom
The class hiked on through the forest in hope of finding the others on the island. Unfortunately, they found no one. Mr. Lancer wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Let's settle down here for the night. We'll find everybody tomorrow," he said. The teacher eased himself down onto a moss covered rock. His class made no argument and put down any bags they brought along with them.
"This sucks. We were already stranded on this island, and now we're lost from the people we got stranded with!" cried Paulina to her friends.
"I know right? Plus I saw a really cute guy on the beach," Kelly said, a cheerleader comrade of Paulina.
"Omg! I saw him too! Did you see when he took off his shirt?" Paulina asked.
"Yes! He had a six-pack!" Kelly squealed then frowned. "Unlike Billy," she glanced over to her boyfriend and rolled her eyes. "Even Fenton has one!" Billy blushed as his friends snickered.
"I haven't gone to the gym lately. I've been busy! And Fenton… he probably takes steroids or something." The boy shrugged.
"I don't know… I think he might be in a gang," Star said.
Dash snorted. "Fenton in a gang? Yeah right." The A-listers looked over at Danny, who was currently talking to his only two friends.
"Did you see the scars on his stomach?" asked Star, with an eyebrow raised.
"What about them? He said he was clumsy."
Kelly stared at Dash as if he had just said the earth was square. "How stupid are you? You can't get that type of damage from clumsiness," she said. "I agree with Star, I think he's in a gang. He had to learn how to fight from somewhere."
"Wait, wait. Didn't you guys see Valerie? She was kicking some major ghost ass," Christie said. The others nodded in agreement.
"Her and Fenton used to date. Fenton knows a lot about ghosts and Valerie's a black belt. Maybe they like, practiced together or something," Kelly said.
"Who really cares? They can just be the next ghost hunting idiots in town," Billy said as he walked away from the group. His friends looked a little startled, but then Paulina's faced lit up.
"So do you think they know the ghost boy?"
It had been three hours since Mr. Lancer had told the class to get to sleep, but Valerie couldn't. Her physical body was tired and begged for rest, but her mind refused to. Valerie couldn't stop thinking about the earlier events in the day with Danny.
He wasn't a ghost. But he had a little of what makes a ghost, a ghost, inside him. He had a ghost power. But she couldn't stop wondering if that was the only power he had. Intangibility is only one basic ghost power, it wasn't so far fetched that he at least had one more. 'What else can you do Fenton?'
Once she realized she wasn't going to fall asleep any time soon, Valerie snuck away from her sleeping peers to go flying on her hoverboard. She flew through the woods, wanting to get far away from everybody.
If she could just find Phantom again so she could take her anger out on him. She kept flying in hopes to see a dot on her ghost detector device. "Come on Phantom, I know you're around here somewhere," she mumbled. She glanced down again to her device. She froze when she heard a roar of water in the distance.
"Whoa," she said in admiration when she reached a beautiful waterfall. The moon reflected off the lake that sat at the bottom of the waterfall. She was broken out of her state of awe when her ghost detector started beeping rapidly. The girl looked down at her wrist and saw a cluster of glowing dots blipping on her tiny screen. Valerie looked up, according to her technology the ghosts were behind the waterfall. "Huh, is where you and your friends' layer is hidden Phantom?" she whispered.
Valerie flew to the side of the waterfall looking for an entrance. She saw an opening between the water and the rock face. She landed on a small path carved out of the rock that led behind the waterfall. The huntress found an entrance to a cave. She double checked her wrist again to make sure this was where the ghosts were, then entered.
It was dark and humid. The waterfall echoed inside the cave as she traveled down a passageway lit only by the occasional torch. Water collected inside the cave and dripped off the damp ceiling. Valerie's breathing picked up when she heard a voice that came from the end of the hallway. The words were incoherent to the girl. She carefully tiptoed down the hall until she saw an entrance to a very bright room. The huntress put her back against the wall and inched forward until she was close enough to understand the words, but still out of sight.
"Just tell us about your relationship with Phantom," a voice said.
'What the hell?' Valerie thought. She resisted her desire to peak around the corner.
"-complicated. To say the least," there was a strained chuckle from the new voice. "See, the boy doesn't understand how similar we are. One day I hope he will see that."
Valerie recognized the voice instantly, Vlad. She finally couldn't stand it anymore and looked around the corner. From her quick look she saw Vlad Plasmius sitting down in front of a camera. There were about few humanoid ghosts behind the camera. One for the camera, another for the microphone, and the last ghost seemed to be asking the questions.
She went back to her position straight against the wall, more confused than ever. It was obvious Vlad was behind this, but why was he being interviewed? And why are the questions about Phantom?
"How long do you think it'll take Phantom to figure this out?" asked the ghost holding the papers.
'Guess the ghost boy didn't know anything after all,' she thought.
Vlad chuckled. "Honestly Daniel's a bit slow," he told the voice. "But usually if he really puts his brain to it he can solve most things...eventually." There was a strange mix of pride and reluctance in his voice, Valerie noted.
"Well, I guess that's all we need for now. Thanks, Plasmius," the interviewer ghost said.
"Remember to cut that part out where I-"
"Gotcha!" came a voice behind Valerie.
Valerie turned around to prepare to shoot, but cords wrapped around her arms to her side.
"What's going on?" Vlad asked.
Valerie glared at where Plasmius floated, silhouetted by the light of the room.
"The Red Huntress? What an unexpected surprise," he said, straining a smile. "Technus, how come I received no notice about our visitor?"
The girl glanced at her assaulter. From the technology loving ghost's reaction, she could tell he was guilty of something.
"I was taking a break," the ghost quietly said.
"So are you telling me no one was watching the control room?"
"Uh-"
"It seems as though you are not capable for the job," Vlad said as he floated back into the light of the room.
Technus followed him, grabbing Valerie as he did so. "Of course I am! For I am Technus! Master of-"
"From now on you will watch the cameras 24/7. Do I make myself clear? Or do I need to email it to you?" he sneered.
"No, for I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL THINGS TECHNOLOGY-" the ghost yelled enthusiastically, but when he saw the glare Vlad was giving him he lowered his voice, "understand."
He turned his attention back to Valerie and forced another sparkling smile. "So sorry about-"
"Shove it, Masters!" she shouted.
The ghost's face dropped in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Mr. Masters," she said. She knew this wasn't the right place nor time to be saying this, but she couldn't help herself. She hadn't seen him since finding out and her hate for him had been building as she thought of all the way he had used her. Now that she knew that he caused the plane crash she really couldn't hold it in any longer. "That whole time I thought you were a good guy! Then I found you're just a dirty, good for nothin' ghost!"
The look of shock melted into a look of rage. "Daniel told you didn't he?" he growled. "No matter, I'm getting my revenge anyway."
"Phantom didn't have to tell me anything. I saw you transform myself when I tried to rescue you from...you!" she yelled as she struggled to break free of the glowing cords Technus wrapped her in.
Vlad watched Valerie for a few moments, then let out a dramatic sigh. "It's a shame, you were my favorite pawn."
"You're the ghost that crashed the plane, aren't you?" Valerie exclaimed.
"No," Vlad said with a smirk.
She narrowed her eyes. "Then what are you doing here?"
"Business," he replied curtly.
"You're lying!" she shouted as she attempted to break free of the cords.
"Technus, bring Ms. Gray down to the containment chamber," he said casually.
"No, wait! I'm not done with you!" Technus grabbed her by the shoulders.
"You'll regret this Vlad! When I get out you are going down!" she shouted.
"Oh please, I think I can take on another teenaged brat," Vlad scoffed as he watched as she and Technus disappeared through the floor.
"Where could she have gone?" Mr. Lancer shouted.
"I'm sure she's around here somewhere. Val would never run off without telling someone," Star said in an attempt to calm the teacher.
"I beg to differ," Sam muttered under her breath to Tucker and Danny.
"She has been gone for two hours, possibly longer!" Lancer yelled, staring at his wristwatch.
"Maybe she found the way back to crash site," Mikey suggested.
"Or maybe she was eaten by a monster!" Kwan yelled.
"It's summer camp all over again!" Mikey screamed with his hands on his head.
"Oh please. The monster would throw up and run screaming in the sight of the chica's clothes," Paulina replied.
"What if it was that ghost we saw earlier?" Nathan asked. That idea spread whispers throughout the Casper High students.
"Quiet!" Mr. Lancer shouted over his scared students. "Valerie is probably safe at the crash site with all the others," Mr. Lancer said, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than his students. "Let's keep moving, I think we're close."
After gathering up their small amount of belongings, the class was back to hiking. The teens were abnormally quiet on the way. They were all listening in for sounds of the beach, Valerie, other people, and of course the monster and/or ghosts.
"Dude can't you just fly up there and point us in the right direction to the beach?" Tucker asked quietly, pointing to the sky.
Danny sighed, "I would but I don't want to attract any 'unwanted attention'," he said.
"But I'm starving, man! They might have some meat at the beach!" whined Tucker as his stomach gave a loud growl.
"Maybe if you had some fruit you wouldn't be as hungry," Sam said from behind the two boys. Tucker threw her a glare.
"I hear waves!" a student shouted.
"I hear people!" somebody else yelled.
"It's coming from over there!" Star pointed to the left of the group. In an instant everyone started running over to the source of the noise.
"We made it!" Dash yelled victoriously.
"Race you to the water!" Kwan yelled to Dash and a few other football cronies.
In a flash all of the jocks were racing toward the water. When they reached the ocean they dove in and started splashing around and dunking each other.
"How immature," huffed Paulina.
"You guys are back!" an approaching voice called.
They all turned to see the pilot of the plane. "Eric!" Mr. Lancer greeted. "Yes, we got a tad lost," he replied.
"We had people go searching for you, but obviously, we couldn't find you. Come with me, some others came back with food," said Eric, ushering them with his hand.
"Please tell me it's meat!" pleaded Tucker.
"Hope you like bird," the man smiled.
"Thank God!" Tucker cried. The man chuckled lightly when he saw Tucker's reaction.
"How did you manage to catch a bird?" Mikey curiously asked.
"Not just one, three of them." Eric shifted uncomfortably as he said the next part, "As for catching them, we found these really strange weapons from one of your bags-"
"You found weapons in one of my student's bags?" Mr. Lancer yelled in shock.
"You looked through our bags?" Paulina asked, equally as shocked.
"We needed something to hunt with. All of you were gone but we decided it would be worth a shot," the pilot said to Paulina, then he turned to Lancer. "I think so, the suitcase we found the stuff in was mixed in with your students' bags. There was a lock on it so I knew there was a chance that it had something we could use in it. It's the only way you can bring weapons onto the plane," he explained.
"Who brought weapons on this trip?" Mr. Lancer asked sternly to the group.
Danny's face turned a shade of pink and he weakly raised his hand. "I think it was me Mr. Lancer. My parents made me bring some ghost hunting equipment."
Lancer relaxed a tad at hearing that, the pilot on the other hand, looked on in confusion.
"Uh, ghost hunting equipment?" the pilot repeated. Lancer took his eyes off Danny to explain to the bewildered man standing next to him.
"You must think we're crazy, but I assure you, I'm not making this up," Mr. Lancer said to the pilot. "It's an everyday occurrence to have a ghost attack our city. And Daniel's," he gestured to Danny, "parents are ghost hunters."
Eric nodded a little unsurely, then his eyebrows shot up when he recalled something. "Well that would explain something that happened awhile ago." The class curiously looked at him. "I fly through Amity a lot," he explained. "And one day, a little after we had taken off, one of the flight attendants was scared out of her mind. She kept saying a teenage boy flew right through the plane while she serving someone water," he shrugged.
"Hm, seems like she met the famous, or infamous depending on your point of view, Danny Phantom," Mr. Lancer said.
"Danny Phantom, huh?" the pilot asked.
"Have you heard of him?" asked Lancer.
"I've heard rumors of him. That he terrorizes people and "destroys" buildings. No offense, but it doesn't make any sense. How could a ghost do that?" Eric questioned.
"Phantom's a hero!" Paulina retorted as she shot a glare to the pilot.
"Trust me, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't live there myself," Lancer shrugged. "And those rumors you heard are dated, that's what everyone thought when he first appeared. Last I read, 70% of Amity Park thinks of Phantom as a hero now."
"Actually it's up to 76% now!" Danny said quickly, but snapped his mouth shut when everybody around him gave him strange looks.
Dash, now back from celebrating, snickered. "What are you? Phantom's official fan boy?" Dash's friends laughed as Danny blushed.
Sam crossed her arms and glared at Dash. "Of course he knows that. His parents are ghost hunters, don't you think they'd keep close tabs on Amity's number one ghost?" Dash glared right back at Sam.
Lancer glanced at Eric and saw he looked a little overwhelmed. "Trust me, it's something you have to see to believe," the teacher said.
Eric gave an unsure nod. "Yeah, it's kind of hard to picture a dead teenager flying around and acting like superhero," he said with an eyebrow raised. "I'll be sure to visit, if we ever get out of here," he mumbled the latter.
"Maybe you won't have to," Lancer said. "We actually saw him the first day we were here. I have no idea why though…" he trailed off, looking completely baffled.
Eric looked slightly concerned. "Really?" he asked with forced enthusiasm, no doubt coming to the conclusion that Amity Park must put something in their water.
The teacher nodded, still deep in thought, until a look of panic took over his features. "Have you seen a student of mine? Her name is Valerie Gray." His eyes shone with worry and hope.
"Valerie?" Eric repeated, his eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. "No, I'm sorry, we've been doing sort of an attendance around here. To make sure nobody goes missing," he explained. "but there hasn't been anyone named Valerie."
Screams erupted from where the rest of the plane crash's victims were. The class and pilot turned to see what was going on. They saw two large, oddly colored birds hovering above the screaming people.
"Are those the birds we were going to eat?" Mikey squeaked.
"They were," the pilot mumbled. He made a dash towards the scene, with Lancer and his class following close behind him.
"Why are they green?" asked Kwan.
"We thought they were just strange birds that might only be native to this island," Eric panted.
"Ew! So what if the bird was like, poisonous?" Paulina shrieked. "Bright green means poisonous, right?"
"There's no such thing as a poisonous bird, Paulina," Star said with an eyeroll.
"Actually there is," Lancer gasped, "for example the Hooded Pitohui," he gasped for another breath, "but we'll talk about that another day."
The class arrived, confused. People were still running away, but there were no birds in sight.
"Where'd the birds go?" Kwan asked.
After a few more people ran away his question was answered. Two green vultures were pecking at a net to free another vulture trapped inside.
"This is the last time you are picking the vacation spot!" the one inside the net yelled.
"Uh, could those Hooded Pitohuis talk too?" Eric asked as he stared wide-eyed at the birds.
"Why do I have a feeling those are ghosts?" Star asked to nobody in particular.
"Hm, I don't know," Sam remarked, "maybe it's because they're green, talking, and glowing!"
"Vhy can't I phase out of thiz?" the bird asked in a strong accent as he struggled to break free of the slightly glowing net.
"It's ghost proof you dolt!" another bird said in the same accent.
A couple more seconds and the once contained vulture was free. He sped off into the sky.
"Let'z get out of here!" he yelled. The other two took off after him.
The people who were originally from Amity were a bit in shock, but they were nothing compared to the ones who didn't live in Amity. Those people stood with their mouths agape as they looked where the vultures disappeared.
"What the hel-" a tough looking man started to say but was shushed by a nearby mother.
"Watch your language, there are children here!" she scolded, with her hands covering her own 5-year-old's ears.
He sighed, but continued, "What the heck," he glared at the mother, and she smiled approvingly, "were those things?" he asked.
"Those things," Lancer said, "were ghosts."
"I might not know a lot about 'ghosts'," he used air quotations, "but I'm pretty sure they weren't no ghosts," he said as he folded his tattooed arms.
Lancer looked a little offended (not to mention irritated at the man's poor grammar), but straightened himself up and said, "What do you suppose they were then?"
"I don't know, some freaky looking birds? Or aliens. As long as they don't come back, I don't care," with that the man stomped off to where he had put his luggage.
Lancer sighed and turned to his students. "I think we should get ready to go to sleep, it's been another long day," he sighed, and started to walk to where they last left all of their luggage and bags with the rest of the class following close him.
"Aw Man," Tucker whined as he sulked off after his teacher, "I was this close to having a meal!"
Danny strolled behind the class. He eyed the plane with a sharp pang of guilt. He sighed and was about catch up with the class when something caught his eye. Though it was scorched and blackened a bit, Danny could clearly read the word DALV printed onto the side of the plane.