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Valerie Gray does not need sidekicks, thank you very much.
She hasn’t had any kind of contact with the Vlad who sent her the suit before now, but if this is going to be what their meetings are like, she’s pretty sure she could do without.
But no, for the first time the person who gifted her ghost hunting equipment actually makes himself known, and Valerie is finding herself nothing but irritated by the interaction.
It’s more than a little disappointing. She’d thought before about potentially learning about and meeting who sent her equipment, and how she’d thank him. But when Vlad approached her, introduced himself, and took her to a training area he’d apparently had made for someone else, she found herself feeling a tad offended.
“You said they just started learning how to use the suits a couple weeks ago?” Valerie asks, putting her hands on her hips in an outward display of her irritation.
“Yes, but Miss Gray, please understand—”
“I don’t have time to babysit a couple of newbies!”
“Miss Gray, please,” Vlad says, holding up his hands. “Allow me to explain.”
Valerie crosses her arms, but doesn’t say anything else.
“These are two individuals who have been hurt by Danny Phantom just like you have,” Vlad says, which is… not what Valerie expected him to say.
“Really?” Valerie asks despite herself. She can relate to that, at least. “Who are they?”
“They ah, wish to remain anonymous,” Vlad says. “Surely you can understand that.”
Valerie gives a huff, but nods. She can’t imagine anyone learning about her identity as a ghost hunter. If these two want to keep their secrets, that’s fine.
“Fine,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean I have time to show them the ropes. I’ve got my own problems.”
“I understand, Miss Gray, but please,” Vlad says. He gestures towards the two small chairs sitting on the other side of the room. Valerie sighs and follows him over, then takes a seat across from him.
“I’m working with these two after a difficult time,” Vlad says. “Surely you remember what it was like to lose everything in your life to Phantom and his ghost dog.”
Valerie nods. It’s not a time she likes to think back on. She’d spent the week watching her life fall apart around her, with nothing she could do about it until Vlad sent her the ghost hunting gear. She’s adjusted better to it now, but there are still nights she goes to bed hungry and cursing Phantom’s name.
“These two are going through something very similar,” Vlad says. “I understand that it’s a lot to ask, but could you please be there to help them work through it?”
Valerie sighs. That’s a lot harder to say no to. If Phantom is ruining other people’s lives, and she really wants to stop him and the harm he’s doing, how can she not be there to support other victims of his?
Finally, Valerie nods, looking back at Vlad. “Alright,” she says. “When am I supposed to meet these two?”
“If you can come back here tomorrow, about an hour after school, you can meet them then,” Vlad says. “They’re eager to not put it off too long, I’m sure you can imagine.”
She can, though she doesn’t like it. She does, however, agree to it, even if she heads home trying not to think about it too much.
Vlad made a training ground for these two, and not for her. He met them first, and not her.
She supposes it was a bit much to assume Vlad would help her because he thought she was special. He’s just trying to take out Phantom like she is. She should just be grateful to have an ally who helped her become capable of joining the fight herself. Of course he reached out to others, especially if they’ve been victims of Phantom too. If he’d told her about them and then asked her opinion, she probably would have recommended they do the same thing.
…But he hadn’t asked her about it.
He’d met them first.
…
Today is a better one than most, because Dad’s work schedule lines up with Valerie’s, and he can pick her up and take her home instead of her adding an extra hour and a half by having to walk or take the bus. Valerie’s pretty exhausted from her own shift, and more than a little sweaty from staying in the Nasty Burger mascot the whole time. At least it’s getting colder, and she doesn’t have to wear the thing with the summer sun beating down on her.
Still, she stays awake on the drive home and listens to Dad talk about his day in favor of napping. It’s a lot of boring science talk she doesn’t really understand, but she listens anyway. If there’s one thing she can say the money troubles have done for her, she does like feeling closer with Dad.
Then, however, he finishes talking about his day and follows it up with “And how was your day, sweetheart?”
And obviously Valerie can’t tell him about the meeting with the Vlad or the coming meeting with Phantom’s latest victims tomorrow, so instead she talks about the math test that’s coming up that she’s not excited for, and how that’s definitely the biggest stressor in her life right now and it’s what she’s spending all her time thinking about.
…Okay, so maybe she doesn’t say all of that.
And maybe she doesn’t feel that much closer with Dad.
“I can help you study if it’s worrying you,” Dad says as they pull into their apartment complex. “You have tomorrow off from work, don’t you? You want to come by the lab after school and we can work on studying there?”
“Oh, uh, sorry Dad,” Valerie says with a wince. “I have to meet with Mr. Lancer tomorrow to ask for an extension on my English essay. I’ve been pulling too many shifts to have time to get it done.”
Which is… also true, actually. She’s going to have to head there right after in order to kill just enough time to match up with Vlad’s schedule.
Dad pulls them into a parking space, then puts the car in park and turns to face her. “Valerie, you know that your schoolwork needs to come before your job. If you need more time to get things done I can pull some extra hours—”
“No,” Valerie says instantly, maybe a little too quickly. But her Dad is too tired already, he can’t start pulling extra hours. “Really Dad, I’m okay. This is just a flukey thing, I normally have plenty of time.”
Though she’ll probably have plenty less of it if she has to start teaching two newbies how to ghost hunt—
“Alright,” Dad says, shutting off the car. “Just let me know if I can help in any way. And let me know when you want to study for that math test.”
“I will Dad,” Valerie says, thinking in her head about when in the world she’s going to find time for it.
She shakes the thought off as they both climb out of the car. She grabs her backpack that has her schoolwork and hidden ghost hunting equipment in it, and Dad grabs his briefcase and the projects he has from work. Dad locks the car behind them as they head up towards the building, and turns to Valerie as he uses his key to open the door.
“What are you thinking for dinner, sweetheart?” he asks, holding the door open behind him for Valerie as he walks inside.
“Do we have any ravioli?” Valerie asks. “The kind with the meat inside?” She needs filling food after an emotionally intense first meeting with Vlad followed by a long shift.
“I think we have a bit left,” Dad says with a smile as they both head for the stairs. The complex’s elevator is still under repairs for another week (read: month), but thankfully they’re only on the second floor, and it’s not long before they’re inside the apartment and heading towards the kitchen.
“I’ll make some lemonade while you start on the ravioli?” Valerie offers.
“Sounds perfect,” Dad says with a nod, so Valerie pulls the lemonade packets out of the cabinet and the pitcher off the top of the fridge.
She dumps the lemonade packet in the pitcher first, then fills it with water, and starts stirring it with a wooden spoon as Dad sits down at the table, done setting the water to boil on the stove. Valerie stirs for a little while longer, then sets the pitcher down on the table and goes back to the cabinet for cups.
She pours some lemonade in the two cups, then gets ice like Dad likes, and takes them both back to the table, handing the one with ice to Dad and sitting in the chair across from him.
“So hey,” Dad says as Valerie takes a sip. “Do you wanna watch the next episode of Scalpels and Secrets while we eat tonight?”
“Oh hell yes!”
“Valerie.”
“Heck yes!”
Scalpels and Secrets is a medical drama her and Dad have gotten hooked on. They decided pretty early on that they needed something to look forward to, since their life was likely about to get much harder than they were used to, and so they picked a cheesy medical drama to watch and get way too invested in. It’s sort of a joke, but also Valerie isn’t sure what she’s going to do if Kelly actually forgives Kevin for cheating on her again.
But after the day she’s had, an escape with her Dad to the world of overdramatic doctors dealing with stupid problems sounds like exactly what she needs.
So while her Dad boils the ravioli, Valerie takes their cups into the living room and turns on the TV. They knew they wouldn’t make the episode yesterday— Dad had a late shift and Valerie had ghosts to fight— so they recorded it, and by the time Dad walks in with two plates of ravioli for each of them, it’s cued up and ready to watch.
“Thanks Dad,” Valerie says with a smile at him as he hands over her plate. He sits on the recliner, since they only have one and, like he always argues, his back definitely hurts worse at 45 than whatever Valerie’s done to hers. (There are definitely some days after a long hard ghost fight when Valerie wants to disagree with him.)
But tonight she lets him with no argument and sits down on the ground next to the chair. And with that, Dad starts the show, and Valerie feels her long day drain out of her shoulders as she leans back against the chair.
But seriously, if Kelly takes Kevin back again, she’s going to scream.
…
Valerie goes through the next day slightly dreading the meeting with Vlad and whoever Phantom’s latest victims are. She’s not going to let any of them down, but she honestly wishes more than anything that there was someone else who could do this. She has enough going on in her life without adding on taking care of two ghost-fighting newbies.
She’s going to do it anyway, though. It would be a betrayal of everything she stood for otherwise.
So, after school, and after hanging around a little longer and successfully getting her extension from Lancer, she walks towards the building she met Vlad in yesterday.
She hears voices as she approaches, and stops outside before going in. She looks around for a second, confirming no one else is there, before activating her suit and walking quickly through the door.
Vlad is talking with two people, who are also wearing suits, one that’s red like hers, and one that’s purple.
Great, she doesn’t even have an originally colored suit—
Valerie shakes the thought off and clears her throat.
All three of them turn to face her, a little too quickly for them to have known she’s there beforehand.
“I’m told there’s some people who want to meet with me?” Valerie asks, looking back and forth between the two people in suits like hers.
The one in the red suit almost seems to shrink back slightly, and the one in the purple suit immediately stands up taller.
“Yeah,” they say, and Valerie is pretty sure she picks out a girl’s voice from under the suit, though there’s clearly some kind of voice modulator going on there. “You’re Valerie then?”
Valerie jerks backwards, then turns a glare at Vlad, even though he can’t see it from under the suit. For a minute she wishes he could. “So I can’t know who they are, but you told them who I am?”
“I’m sorry my dear,” Vlad says, looking genuinely remorseful. “I figured they would have guessed eventually. It’s not exactly private knowledge, what happened to you.”
Valerie feels her cheeks warm in anger and a little bit in shame underneath her suit, and is once again glad he can’t see her expression. She keeps her hood on, the fact that they know who she is be damned.
“Fine,” she groans, turning back to purple suit. “Yeah, that’s me. Vlad said you two are the newbies I’m supposed to help?”
“I’m not a newbie,” purple suit snaps. “We’ve been training for like a month and a half.”
Valerie raises an eyebrow, though still no one can see it, and looks around. “In here?” she asks.
“Yeah, so?” purple suit asks.
Valerie doesn’t say anything, just turns her gaze back to them.
“I thought you might appreciate having some allies,” purple suit says. “Since, you know, you’ve been doing this all alone?”
Valerie laughs a little, unable to stop herself.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” purple suit snaps.
Valerie doesn’t say anything, and glances back at red suit, who still hasn’t said anything and is now looking at the ground.
Oh, the ghosts are going to eat that one alive.
“Alright,” Valerie says, glancing back at purple suit, who she dubs “Thing 1” in her head. “Yeah, I’ll help you. But come with me, we’re not training here today.”
“You want to just fly out there in the open?” Thing 1 asks.
“Well, you’re gonna have to get used to that anyway,” Valerie says, crossing her arms. “We’re going a bit outside of town. Come on.”
She turns and walks back out the door, pulling her board up so she can fly as she does. She doesn’t look back, but eventually hears the sound of two other boards following her.
“Hey,” snaps Thing 1, flying up next to her. Thing 2 stays thoroughly behind her, and Valerie doesn’t pay them much mind. “You want to explain why you’re dragging us out to the middle of nowhere?”
Valerie glances over at her. “You’ve spent all your time training in there, have you?” she asks.
“Yeah, so? What, are you just jealous you never had someplace like that?”
Valerie laughs to cover the spark of anger at Thing 1 having guessed a little bit right. “As if,” she says. “That place is calm and stationary. Practically peaceful. Good for learning basic controls, but not much else. Ghost fights aren’t like that. They’re fast-paced, and they regularly change with no warning. You can’t be prepared for them if you spend your whole time practicing indoors.”
“Vlad never mentioned that,” says a new voice, and Valerie turns in slight surprise at the first time Thing 2 has spoken. Sounds like a boy, still with voice modulation.
She narrows her eyes a second later, turns in midair and crosses her arms. “Well it’s not his job to teach you everything,” she says.
Thing 2 doesn’t say anything in response, and after a second Valerie turns back to Thing 1. “We’re going out to the woods so you can weave in and out of trees. You need unfamiliar terrain to practice in.”
“Fine,” Thing 1 says, though she doesn’t sound happy about it. Valerie smirks a little under her hood.
She leads them all towards the outside of town, going on until they meet the woods, which takes them about half an hour. Valerie slows to a stop in midair and turns to Thing 1 and Thing 2, who have stopped behind her.
“So we’re just flying around the trees?” Thing 1 asks, glancing around.
Valerie smirks again. “Sure. But oh, one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Valerie raises her blaster and fires it at the same moment, aiming for the space right in between Thing 1 and Thing 2. Both of them cry out in surprise and dart to the side.
“Hey, what the hell?” Thing 1 snaps. “A little warning would be nice!”
Valerie laughs. “You think ghosts are particularly inclined to give you a heads up? If you’re so qualified after your indoor training, prove it!”
This time she aims and fires right at Thing 1, who dives out of the way with an angry growl, then behind a tree for cover. Valerie aims for Thing 2, who hasn’t moved, like an idiot. But the second she fires at him, Thing 1 dives out from behind the tree and shoves Thing 2 to the side, putting herself right in the line of fire with just enough time to dive out of the way again herself.
Valerie laughs again. “Aww, that’s adorable, you like each other,” she says. “That’ll get you killed, you know.”
“You know, you could stand to be a little nicer,” Thing 1 snaps, whirling to face Valerie and firing her own blaster at her.
“There you go! You’re finally getting it,” Valerie says with a grin that Thing 1 can’t see. She dives easily to the side and fires again, once at Thing 1 and twice at Thing 2, who clearly needs a little more practice. Thankfully Thing 2 finally starts to get his head in the game, and dodges the blasts instead of waiting for Thing 1 to shove him out of the way again.
Thing 1 fires at her, and Valerie flies over in between the leaves of two trees, staying just low enough that she can dodge larger branches while still being able to use the leaves of cover. She weaves back and forth, as well as doubles back around a couple times, and while the leaves do make it a little harder to see Thing 1 and Thing 2, she still gets four shots in, which is four more shots than Thing 1 and Thing 2 get at her. In fact, most of the time after she fires a shot at them they whirl around from having been facing the complete opposite direction from her, meaning they clearly hadn’t had a clue where she was.
After a couple more minutes of this, Valerie takes pity on them both and flies up above the trees entirely. “Alright, truce!” she calls.
With a frustrated huff, Thing 1 flies up after her. Thing 2 follows a moment later, panting, and rests with his hands on his knees.
“Do you see my point yet?” Valerie asks, crossing her arms.
“Yeah, alright,” Thing 1 snaps. “You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”
“Excuse me?” Valerie raises her arm and fires another blast at Thing 1, this time not at all trying to miss her. She’s not aiming to hurt her, though, so Thing 1 just gets blasted back a few feet.
That doesn’t stop Thing 2 from leaping in front of her to prevent further blasts, though. So they’re both idiots.
“Hey!” Thing 2 snaps. “We’re on the same side here!”
“I am finding time in my life, which is always incredibly busy, to help you two not die,” Valerie snaps. “I don’t really have the time or desire to babysit, but I’m doing it anyway. And now you’re yelling at me because I don’t have the right attitude? Who’s the bitch exactly?”
“We don’t need babysitting—” Thing 1 starts.
“You’re right,” Thing 2 says, shoving his arm in front of Thing 1’s face. “I’m sorry. We clearly do need your help, we should be nicer about you offering it. Thank you.”
Thing 1 huffs and crosses her arms, but doesn’t say anything else.
Valerie looks at them both for a minute, then sighs. “It’s alright,” she says. “Look, Phantom messed up my life too, so I get it. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on you, but… I know what you’re going through.”
“Doubt it,” Thing 1 mutters, and Thing 2 elbows her in the side.
Valerie narrows her eyes at Thing 1. “Just don’t expect me to have time to help you every day,” she says, glaring at Thing 1, then Thing 2, even though they can’t see it. “I do have my own problems.”
“I understand,” Thing 2 says with a nod. “We wouldn’t ask you to anyway.”
“Good,” Valerie says. She looks around them with a sigh. “For now, I’d say you two should get outside more and practice in less familiar environments. And be prepared for things in an actual fight to change very quickly. I can’t always be there to watch your back.”
Thing 2 nods again. “Thanks.”
“I have to go now,” Valerie says with a nod back. “I have things to do. I’m guessing I’ll see you at the next ghost fight.”
She flies off before she can get an answer, heading for the Nasty Burger. She’s going to have to find some way to get enough energy to work as a customer service mascot for the next six hours.
…She’s doomed.