With Great Power

Signs of Life

Valerie had tried to retract the suit only once. It was a feeling akin to purposefully trying to bite her own tongue. Her skin had not started glowing, thank god, but her eyes were just as bright as Phantom's.

School was out of the question. Apparently getting captured by the Fentons wasn't.

After her breakdown and a very uncomfortable sleep hindered by her armour, she detected an ectoplasmic signature that was steadily growing. She couldn't make sense of the frequency she was reading. It was sporadic, jumping from high to low, yet clearly climbing in power.

Investigating was a mistake.

She was nothing but a blur of red as her board carried her speeding through Amity. She came upon the source almost immediately, but there was no threat she needed to take care of.

It was a cluster of ecto-puses. She wouldn't have detected them on their own, but the Fentons were much more effective than she previously gave them credit for. Their containment was full. Despite this, they managed to shove another pitiful ghost into the cylinder. She couldn't help but be jealous of its capacity.

Her sensors were going wild, trying to separate the ghosts signatures from each other. It was because of this she didn't notice their attention on her until a large green blast whizzed past her head, courtesy of Jack Fenton.

"Holy shit," she cursed, swerving her board to the side to avoid Madeline's more accurate shot. "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"You might pretend to be alive, but we know better!" Madeline shouted up at her, adjusting her aim. Her suit, driven by the most subconscious fears she had, manifested her vital sights to assure her that she wasn't quite dead yet.

Her heart pounded at a rate of 203 bpm, her respiration at 28 breaths per minute. She was panicking.

"You can't hide your ectoplasmic signature from us, ghost!" Jack added, levelling his anti ghost bazooka in her approximate direction. They fired consecutively.

With Jack's terrible aim she thought she only had to worry about Madeline, but she was proven wrong after she dodged the smaller blast. She cursed herself for not bothering to even look for it. The large bazooka sent her board spiralling.

She woke up to a blob of ectoplasm pressing itself up against her helmet. For a moment, with her vision consumed with bright green, she believed she was in the ghost zone. As she moved to sit upright, the little ghost slipped away like they were moving through water together, floating off and bouncing against the walls of their shared containment.

All around her were ghosts that looked just like it. Formless masses of ectoplasm, brushing up against her like shy cats and darting away when she moved her limbs. She climbed to her feet, pacing forward the short distance to the transparent wall of the containment.

One of her cell mates scooted quickly out of the way of her hand as she placed it on the smooth surface, but then snuggled up against her wrist. She shook her hand, pushing her face through the swarm that was accumulating as she stood still. She rested her helmet against the barrier between her and her personal space, standing like a statue as she observed the lab.

The two Fenton scientists poked and prodded at a particularly frisky blob ghost. It was pinned to the table by two long and thin metal spikes, but still managed to lash out against its captors by warping its small body into tendrils and flailing wildly.

It didn't make a difference as a large cleaver came down on it, like an execution, splitting the ghost in two. For a moment there was an unbearable screech as the two halves writhed, but it was cut short as the ghost melted like a green gas station slushie on the lab floor.