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Danny rubbed his left hand. It ached.
He could only be glad he was right handed because he still had several more class periods where he would be expected to take notes.
Sam and Tucker were good about giving him their notes when he needed it.
But he didn’t want to need it.
It had been three months already. Why wasn’t he getting better? Why wasn’t the pain going away?
His hand pulsed in pain again, and Danny winced as the pain shot through his arm and his back. His whole left side felt tingly like it had fallen asleep.
He just had to get through the school day and hope there weren’t any big ghost fights. He just wanted to lay in bed and try to ignore everything.
If only his stupid ghost half didn’t make taking pain medication impossible.
If he could just have a couple days where it didn’t hurt, or feel tingly, or numb…
Then his ghost sense went off.
He dropped his head onto his desk and groaned.
Danny stood. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Mr. Fenton wait just a–”
Danny let the door close and made his way to an empty hallway before transforming and flying off.
He grimaced. The pain was always worse in this form, his lichtenberg scars feeling like they were on fire, but thankfully not glowing through the suit like when he had a seizure. He had thankfully not seen Johnny since that incident.
“Beware!”
Oh, thank all the Ancients! It was just Boxy.
“Hey! Boxy! Over here!” Danny said, stopping over the park.
The Box Ghost floated out of a recycling bin. “I am the Box Ghost! Beware.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I get it, you’re the recycling ghost.”
“No. I am the Box Ghost! Beware!”
The pain in Danny’s shoulder flared again and he grimaced. “Look, I can’t really do this whole thing right now. So why don’t you go ahead and just stay still so I can put you in soup time?”
Danny had just gotten the thermos out when a beam of energy blessed him in the shoulder and crashed to the pavement.
“You aren’t getting away this time, ghost boy!”
Danny picked himself up from the pavement. “Look, Red, can we reschedule? I’m really not feeling up to this today.” He dodged a pink blast meant for his head. “I guess that’s a no then.” He turned around. Aaaaand of course the Box Ghost got away.
He flew up, dodging blasts and flying towards Valerie.
They grappled as Danny tried to get her newest weapon away from her, and as she tried to end him.
He had finally gotten ahold of the weapon and landed on a roof. He was just about to phase it into the roof when his left hand spasmed and pain shot through his whole left side. The gun dropped from his fingers and Danny gritted his teeth waiting for the pain to ebb.
He didn’t realize he had closed his eyes till he heard a familiar blaster power up. He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes. And oh. He had apparently also fallen on his knees. That was probably going to hurt later.
His eyes were watery as he looked up at Valerie.
She wasn't firing. Why hadn’t she fired? I mean, don’t get him wrong. He was grateful to still be among the mostly alive. But she had had plenty of opportunity to shoot him.
“What’s wrong, Red? Run out of ammo?” And okay, that came out wobblier than he would have liked.. He probably shouldn’t have said anything.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “Apart from being a ghost?”
“Why’s your arm glowing like that? A new power?”
Danny glanced down at his arm. Ah shoot, two times in one week. His life sucked.
“What? This old thing, it’s just cosmetics.”
Valerie glared at him. Or at least he assumed she was glaring at him. It was hard to tell with the tinted visor.
“It looks like lightning.”
Danny flinched, he couldn’t help it.
“What’s it from?”
Danny couldn’t help it. He snarled, his eyes glowing. “None of your business.”
Val had taken a step back, but her weapon was now pointed at his chest.
“Is that how you–”
“I’d watch how you finish that sentence, Valerie,” she flinched, “most ghosts would kill you for mentioning such sensitive topics. Be grateful I have more restraint.”
They stood staring at each other before Valerie lowered the gun an inch.
“Why did you drop the gun?”
“Dying doesn’t fix everything.” Danny said, turning away. “I’m going to go. Got ghostly things to do, ghostly places to be.”
He flew off, expecting a beam to hit him at any moment. When none did he turned over his shoulder to look back. Valeire was staring after him, her gun pointed at the ground.