#ps there is also a little easter egg pointing towards Nick's fic that he wrote for the truce this year!

[ghostgothgeek]

Exposed.

Holiday truce 2019 gift for @pigte! I tried to incorporate all three of your topics in some form, I hope you enjoy it and have a great holiday!! :) 

Rating: T for swearing, mild gore

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Vlad Masters was having a rough day, to say the least. He spilled coffee all over his favorite dress shirt, Maddie had blatantly ignored him at the grocery store, another one of his clone experiments had failed, Maddie (the cat) threw up on his lap, he had to fight off Daniel for a short period of time...and now…

Now he was getting beaten and bruised and, for lack of better terms, having his ass handed to him by the Red Huntress, the ghost hunter hellbent on revenge. He had been grooming her to go after Daniel as Phantom, not himself as Plasmius! Using a man’s own weapons on him was some sort of cruel joke this terrible day had been playing on him. Especially when said huntress is a fourteen year old girl who didn’t have ghost powers. Now that just hurt a man’s ego. 

“Come back here, ghost scum.” Valerie growled, kicking off her hoverboard and following hot on Plasmius’s trail. 

Valerie Gray, on the other hand, was having a great day. She had a run in with Phantom, where, much to her dismay, they agreed to a temporary truce. She had caught two ghosts already, she got an A on her Spanish test (she would know what Paulina was really saying about her now), and she was already maiming Vlad Plasmius, third most annoying ghost on her list (one and two are Phantom). 

Plasimus took a glance over his shoulder to see the teenager rapidly catching up to him. He grimaced and went invisible, keeping on his path.

Valerie pressed a button on her wrist cuff, activating a new screen inside her helmet. “Time to take this baby for a test drive.” She smirked as her thermal imaging sensors went on. She easily spotted a very cold entity flying just in front of her where the ghost she was chasing just was. “Pfft. Amateurs.” She snorted and held out her gun, aiming directly for Plasmius’s back, and fired, hitting him directly. She smiled in satisfaction.

“Ahh!” His invisibility flickered in and out as he grabbed his searing shoulder. “What the-” It felt like something was digging into his skin. His eyes widened as he saw the teen once again coming full speed at him, a look of pure rage and vengeance on her face. He quickly took off again, flying lower to the ground. “I didn’t buy her that!” 

Plasmius quickly landed behind a tree and transformed back to human. He rolled his shoulders back a couple of times, still feeling the burn from her gun underneath his suit. No matter, he was decent enough to make it home from here. 

As he called for a car, Valerie swooped down to look for Plasmius. She growled when there was no sign of him, although she did see Mayor Masters getting into his car. “Stupid ghosts,” she muttered as she started typing things into one of her gadgets. “Good thing that blast didn’t just burn you.” She looked at the GPS in her helmet and smiled when something popped up on the radar. “Yes! Mrs. Fenton’s ghost tracking system worked!” 

Valerie took a small moment to celebrate and reminded herself to thank Mrs. Fenton for letting her test some new inventions. Danny had been reluctant to let her talk about ghosts with his mother, but Valerie had eventually worn her friend down. 

She took off, following the little dot on her screen. “Weird, it looks like the ghost is trailing Mayor Masters’ car…oh no, he’s after the mayor!” She had followed the car back to the mayor’s mansion, surveilling the outside once she saw he was safely inside his home. 

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she double checked her radar to see that the ghost was indeed here at the mayor’s mansion. “What are you up to…” She pushed a button dismantling her hoverboard and storing it back in her boots and looked around for an open window. For the mayor’s safety. She quietly climbed in and scoped the place out. “Mr. Masters?” She whisper-yelled and started checking out rooms in the mansion. 

Why did the mayor’s mansion suddenly have an eerie feeling to it? She had been here dozens of times, but for some reason, today the atmosphere was more sinister. She had only been in a few rooms of the large estate before. Perhaps it was because she was charting unknown territory. She slowed her breathing down so she could be quieter, and continued tip-toeing down a seemingly never ending hallway. 

She had heard some faint beeping coming from nearby. Glancing in one of the rooms, she saw a picture frame with an otherworldly glow behind it. Bingo. 

Valerie scanned her surroundings before entering the room and glanced up at the painting of the mayor. She rolled her eyes. The mayor was nice and all, but after losing everything on Phantom’s accord several months ago, she was realizing how insignificant most superfluous things, such as a twelve-foot tall headshot of yourself, were. Men and their egos.

She tried lifting the painting unsuccessfully. It was worth a shot. She double checked her surroundings for a button or a switch, and started playing around in the dark with items until she found the switch beneath the fireplace mantel across the room. She quickly maneuvered her way into a lab. “What’s this?” 

It looked similar to the chemistry labs at school; there were all sorts of glass beakers filled with miscellaneous liquids, notebooks laying askew, and she recognized a Bunsen burner. She walked over to a chalkboard with formulas written all over it. She had never been a mayor before, but she was pretty certain a mayor didn’t need all of this. This looked vaguely like the Fentons lab, though she had only seen it in brief one time, but this lab was more...creepy.

Valerie quietly looked around at all the machinery, looking for any sign of Plasmius or Mr. Masters. Could he be held hostage in his own home? None of this was adding up.

Alert, she jumped at a small thump behind her. She stiffened, turned, and had her gun pointed and ready to fire at whatever the source was. “What the…” She lowered her weapon and removed her helmet, carefully approaching the...whatever that was.

It looked vaguely human, but she was certain it was most definitely not human. 

“H-hello.” She jumped back when the...thing…spoke. It was somewhat shaped like a human; it had limbs, eyes (though one of them was slowly dripping down its face) and a mouth, obviously. The rest of it was glowy green goo. It looked like a person had been half melted in a nuclear power plant mixed with Frankenstein’s monster that had gotten run over by a truck, exploded, and then was put back together to resemble a human. Definitely some nightmarish hybrid that could have only been cooked up by an insane scientist. 

“Uh, hi?” She looked at the thing suspiciously, quickly glancing around to see if there were any other current threats. Heart pounding in her chest, she took a deep breath and tried to steady her voice. She needed answers. “What...what are you?” She raised an eyebrow, keeping her gun at standby just in case. 

The creature pointed to a computer screen behind her. Keeping an eye on the monster, she glanced at the screen. 

Clone Experiment #360: Failed

Notes: Less ectoplasm; need to strengthen ghost powers; human aspects making progress

She looked back at the thing. “You’re a clone? Of what?” Valerie searched for a mouse beside the computer and...was that a picture of Mrs. Fenton?! She grimaced and clicked on the computer, showing a new screen.

Clone Experiment #361: In Progress

Notes: Still developing, but most promising; switched genders and adding another human’s DNA helped stabilize; shows most sign of life; need more Phantom DNA

Valerie’s eyes widened. “You’re a clone of Phantom?!” She raised the gun back up at the monstrosity. It nodded and took a step closer. “Stop or I’ll shoot!” 

“P-please…” 

She tilted her head in surprise. The thing wanted her to shoot it? 

“Please shoot. End pain.” She stared into its somewhat familiar eyes and she saw suffering and despair as it moved one of its eyeballs back into place. 

“You...you can feel all of that?” She looked at the deformities once again and cringed when it nodded. “Who did this to you?” She demanded. 

“Master,” raising a goopy limb, it pointed to a painting of the mayor on the wall similar to the one she came in through. Odd. It paused before pleading again, “P-please...shoot. End me.” 

Valerie gulped and weighed her options. The thing was kind of a ghost, which she is set to destroy, but it still seemed vaguely human. It clearly had a soul, a tortured one at that, which meant she was ending a life and she didn’t think she could live with that. However, the thing was clearly suffering and she would be giving it a mercy kill. “I...c-can’t.” It started advancing towards her so she raised her gun again, arm shaking. “Don’t come any closer! Please!” 

“Can’t do more experiments. End pain.” It continued to move towards her. “Please.” She looked at its pleading eyes before shutting hers, turning her head away, and pulling the trigger. She flinched when she felt warm goo hit the side of her face, hearing it splatter all over the wall behind her as well. She opened her eyes and looked at the glowing ectoplasm splattered across the lab. She was still trembling. 

“What was that noise?” Valerie barely made out a voice that sounded similar to Plasmius’s. Shit. No time to process the murder she just committed. She forgot why she was there in the first place: to protect the mayor and catch a ghost. She quickly found a spot to hide while she charged up her weapons, preparing for battle and hostage negotiation. 

“...incompetent children and their lack of discipline.” She heard him muttering as he flew into view. “What?! What happened here?!” He flew over towards where Valerie had been standing before, looking at all the gunk covering his equipment. He pressed a button and a hidden wall suddenly came into view. 

Valerie gulped. More experiments. Just like the one she just destroyed. Some looking more like Phantom, some looking more like goo in a jar. One seemed to resemble a little girl, “Dani Phantom #361” written below the tank she was floating in. There were at least eight clones there, some hanging from chains. She could hear some of them whimpering. 

Plasmius scanned the wall and saw the empty spot. “Hmm...must have been more unstable than I thought. It appears #360 combusted and broke free of its bonds.” He typed a few things into the computer. “Now to get this painful contraption off of me!” Plasmius transformed back to his human half, his hand clawing at the silver device embedded in his shoulder. Masters stood where Plasmius once was. He grabbed some forceps and starting prying at the tracking device, not stopping or even wincing as blood oozed out around it. He set the forceps down and wrapped his fingers around the device. With a brief glow of his fingers, the device was zapped off his shoulder. 

Valerie could smell the burnt circuits along with the stench of the clone ectoplasm in the room. She could feel her stomach churning, but she was strong. She held her breath as she watched Vlad Masters glance at his watch.

“Oh fudge! I’ve got to meet Ed at seven for D&D!” He slapped a piece of gauze on his wound and looked for some medical tape, continuing to mutter to himself. “Last week I was late from Spectra’s book club running long, and if I’m late again I’ll miss Harriet’s spinach puffs! Better fly there.” After tending to his wound, two dark rings surrounded the man and flash of light filled the room, Masters becoming Plasmius once again.

Valerie’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth to mute her gasp. She couldn’t believe what she just saw. Plasmius/Masters quickly flew off. She blinked rapidly as she gathered her thoughts, making sure what she just saw is what she think she just saw. The mayor was trying to clone Phantom? Is that how he had ghost powers himself? The mayor was a ghost?! And not just any ghost, a ghost who had harmed her and who she had been hunting for months on end, despite Vlad Masters’s insistence to focus on Phantom instead of Plasmius. Of course. 

And Phantom. Phantom had tried talking to her when they formed their temporary truce earlier this morning, ironically setting aside their differences over the man whose house she was standing in; the man who wasn’t really a man at all. Phantom’s warning about Mayor Masters echoed in her head.

“You can’t trust him, he’s not who you think he is.”

He was right. She didn’t completely trust Phantom’s word, of course, but considering the new information she unraveled over the past ten minutes, Phantom…was telling the truth? Maybe she had to reevaluate her stance on Phantom.

No. Just because he isn’t as malevolent doesn’t mean he wouldn’t destroy her if he had the choice. He’s still a ghost. Just like Vlad. 

Vlad Masters. 

Valerie felt so stupid. Here she was, top ten in her class, and she didn’t make the connection between Vlad Plasmius and Vlad Masters. They talked similarly, behaved similarly for the most part, tended to show up one after the other...they even had the same first name for crying out loud! She should have just ignored her grudge and listened to Phantom. He never hurt her like Plasmius did, after all. No, Danny Phantom was pretty civil towards her, she supposed. 

Wait.

Phantom.

Danny Phantom. 

Danny Fenton.

“Oh shit.”