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Every minute of every day, Valerie could feel her suit humming through her bloodstream. She could feel how it would flow in her body, from her heart to her fingertips. She knew, intellectually, that the suit was a part of her after she first got it, but she didn’t realize until much later how true that really was. At first, her ghost tracker would just be an alert in her vision, a number indicating the power level of the ghost, and the direction she’d need to fly to get to it. However, after about a year and a half of going out and fighting ghosts as the Red Huntress things started to really change. Instead of hearing a faint beep to catch her attention, she felt her blood burn. Instead of seeing numbers in her vision, the heat was what told her how strong the ghost would be. Instead of seeing which direction the ghost was in, she’d just know.
It’s not like she could actually ask anyone about this. Masters was just, no. After the whole fiasco with Danielle, she knew that while he would probably know what was going on, it would be a terrible idea to actually go to him about it. He’d probably try and use her in some scheme against the Fentons or Phantom. The Fentons were a maybe, but she didn’t quite trust them with something like this. After about a year of running around as the Red Huntress, she got that not every ghost in Amity was violent and deserved to be shot at. Sure, they were still monsters, but she could just let Phantom kick them back into the Zone, they weren’t her problem. The Fentons still weren’t quite there yet. They still shot at every ghost they saw and just the idea of going to them about this felt like a bad idea, the thought of it making something in her chest tighten and squirm in discomfort. Danny had been a bit more vocal about his support and knowledge of ghosts recently, and while he definitely knew more than he was letting on, Valerie didn’t want to bring him into this whole ghost hunting thing, Ancients knew he already must get enough of that at home. She knew he’s frustrated with his parents most of the time with their whole “shoot first, ask questions never” attitude, and also knew he wouldn’t place her “shoot first, ask questions maybe” much higher. Valerie sighed as she surveyed Amity from on her hoverboard. She would easily admit to herself that she’d have loved to have taken him flying at least once, it was easily one of the best parts of what she did. Her ghost tracker went off again, burning her veins in the way that meant the hunter ghost was out in Amity again. Wherever he would be, Phantom would follow.
She noticed another physical change with her suit after the fight with Skulker and Phantom. The damned hunter ghost threw a knife her way, trying to distract her from getting shots off at him and Phantom. It only grazed her, but it still was enough that she’d probably need to use some butterfly stitches to close it up and bandage it. After the fight was over and Phantom had gotten away again with the other ghost in his thermos, Valerie landed on a nearby rooftop to assess her injuries. Bleeding bright red was, well, new. She deactivated her suit to get a closer look and, as soon as she did, her blood started bleeding a normal dark red again.
Probably just a trick of the light.
Valerie reactivated her suit, explicitly not looking at the cut, and started to make her way back to her apartment. Even though it was a weekend, she still didn’t want to spend too much time out hunting that she’d completely ruin her sleep schedule. It’s not like other teenagers didn’t also get too caught up in their hobbies either. Danny and his friends were always sleep deprived because they spent too much time playing Doomed anyway, and it’s not like fighting ghosts is too different.
She landed in an alley nearby her apartment and deactivated her suit once again, pinkish red light surrounding her. Glancing at the cut, she had to do a double take. The cut couldn’t have healed that much that quickly. It was fully scabbed over, and already starting to close up. She’d always healed quickly, when she’d sprained her ankle early in her time hunting ghosts she’d only needed to wait about a week and a half to be back on her feet. She knew that she could heal quickly, just not that quickly. Humans just didn’t heal that fast.
Nope, she was not going down that rabbit hole. She knew she was still human, of course she was! She wasn't obsessive or violent like those ghosts were, right? She was just making sure to protect Amity from them.
Protecting people from having their lives ruined like hers was.
Her heart still beat, she still bled red, even if it’s a bit of a different shade but she thought she had heard that some medical stuff could make people bleed a slightly different color. She was fine, she was alive, she was still breathing.
Valerie fished out her set of keys for her apartment complex and unlocked the door quietly, making sure not to make too much noise and disturb any of her neighbors. She’d gotten pretty good at being sneaky after she’d started ghost hunting, she had to be quiet to be able to sneak away from whatever situation she was in when a ghost attacked. Locking her apartment door behind her she crept inside to get to her room, and grabbed her first aid kit from under her bed. She picked up an antiseptic wipe to go and clean the cut to make sure it wouldn’t get infected but it just. Wasn’t there.
There was no way that a cut like that would heal that fast. It was impossible. But it also happened. But there was no way a human could heal that quickly. Was she human? Valerie flopped down on her bed. No, she couldn’t be anything but human. She wasn’t a rampaging monster like ghosts were. She couldn’t be anything like the monster that ruined her life. That took her friends, her status, her everything away from her. That hurt people and wrecked her town. She wouldn’t - couldn’t - let that happen to anyone else.
Vlad wasn’t either. Neither was Dani.
Was she somehow becoming like them? No, nope, not possible. She couldn't be like them. She was still human. She wouldn’t become a ghost, or a ghost hybrid, or whatever they were.
The humming beneath her skin said otherwise.