Before we start, I better make the usual disclaimers as not to incure lawsuits. I do not own Danny Phantom or its characters. Please remeber to review. Cheers.

Chasing a Ghost

Chapter 1

Mr. President

If there was one thing that Dash Baxter, head of the Secret Service, hated, it was State Dinners. The broad shouldered, blond-haired man watched through the thick sunglasses that he wore over his grim face as the President of the United States moved through the crowd of people in the banquet hall shaking hands and making small talk.

"All tiers, report in" Dash announced into a small earpiece/mike that was positioned in his ear.

Replies came in from each respective group all over the White House.

"Tier 1, clear!"

"Tier 2, nothing to report!"

"Tier 3, all's well!"

Dash let out a breath in an effort to steady the butterflies that were fighting to get out of his stomach. If were up to him, the President would be kept in a protective bubble 24/7 and shown to the people maybe twice a year to prove he was still alive. Any sort of public event was a huge stressor for him and his men under normal circumstances, but with recent events in mind, this State Dinner was an absolute nightmare for the Secret Service.

Still, Dash could do nothing about the situation. The President had been adamant about going. So now here he was, shaking hands while his head Secret Service man had a near heart attack at the slightest sudden noise.

"No one said it was an easy job" a voice in Dash's head reminded him.

At this thought, the former football star actually let out a small chuckle. He then continued to scan the guests in the room. After a few minutes, his gaze fell on a young woman who looked about in her mid-thirties. She had black hair that was tied up in a bun and distinctly violet eyes. She too was scanning the crowd, and her gaze fell on Dash.

The woman nodded and smiled slightly at the Service Head, who gave a smile of his own in return. Dash considered walking over to the woman and talking to her, but he his job to be concerned about. So he continued to gaze out over the partygoers looking for any suspicious activity. Eventually, he found some.

A man stood near the back of the room. He was dressed in a pair of faded tan slacks and a brown and white checkered shirt. However, the one thing that made him stand out among the other guests the most was that he was wearing a baseball cap that had been pulled down low so the brim of the hat hid his eyes from view. But the cap did not hide his black hair that that stuck out a little on either side of the hat.

With a sigh of frustration, Dash made his way through the groups of senators and other officials until he reached the man. The man looked up at Dash when the he stopped just in front of him. As soon as the Secret Service man got a glance at the latter's light blue eyes, his suspicions were confirmed.

Without a word, Dash grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him out of the banquet hall and into a nearby restroom. Once they were past the door, Agent Baxter threw the man up against a toilet stall.

"What the Hell are you doing here?!" he hissed angrily.

"Nice to see you too, Agent Baxter" the man replied scathingly.

"Do you realize how suspicious you look? You've probably been spiked by five of my guys by now" Dash continued, ignoring his former classmate's sarcasm.

"And here I was thinking that I was blending in" the young man took off the base ball cap to reveal a head of black hair that was formed into a hairdo that was familiar as the sun to Dash.

"A party full of snobby politicians all flashing off their expensive duds and you think that that's blending in?" the head agent gestured toward his companion's clothes.

"Hey, not all of us can afford to buy a tux".

"You probably can't even afford to rent one".

"If there a point to this?" the man was starting to lose his patience.

"Yeah, it the same question: why are you here? Do you realize that if they find you, they'll…" Dash began, but the black-haired man cut him off.

"He's here, he's gonna try and kill Tuck" he explained.

At this, Dash fell silent for a minute. "Are you sure" he asked finally.

"He's probably already in the banquet hall".

At this, the latter shook his head. "No way, I got men on every entrance and they got pictures of him. There's no way he could get in!" he insisted fervently.

"He probably fazed through the walls".

"Nope, I've got magnetic sealers on every wall and the ceiling. No ghost could get through".

At this, the blue-eyed man gave a short laugh. "Well then you should fire whoever placed the sealers because I got in through the back wall of the janitors closet.

This blatant exposing of his men's carelessness caused Dash's cheeks to go red in anger and embarrassment. "Damn it Fenton" he muttered.

Daniel Fenton gave a small smile. "So, like I said, he's here, and he's gonna kill Tucker".

"How can you know for sure that he's here?"

"I can feel him, Dash" Danny's voice grew irritated again.

Said agent let out a deep, frustrated sigh and looked at the tile floor of the restroom, deep in thought. Some time passed until he finally looked back up at Danny.

"Okay, I'll handle it, but you need to get out of here" he insisted.

"No way, you'll need my help to stop him!" the latter objected fiercely.

"We got this, Fenton!"

"You think you do, but just how many of your agents are equipped to take on a ghost?"

"The Guys in White will back us up if we need them."

"Their best response time is 15 minutes. Tucker will have been dead for ten by the time they get here".

"What if someone recognizes you?!" Dash's voice became a shout as the argument turned in Danny's favor.

"No one else at this party, besides you and Tuck, knows me. I'll be fine" said Halfa replied confidently.

"That's not true, Sam's here as well. I saw here a few minutes ago".

This new information caused the self-assured look to fall from Danny's face.

"Does she know I'm here?" he asked in a quiet tone.

"I doubt it, she'd be on you in an instant" Dash replied with a shrug.

"Look, I've got more important things to be dealing with than my ex-wife right now" the latter insisted.

"You know, you two are still technically married".

"Till death do us part, remember?"

"Yeah, but you're not dead. Not yet anyway".

"But she doesn't know that".

"Oh, I think she does".

"Are we done here?" there was a bitter undertone to Danny's words as he growled them as Dash.

Baxter shrugged once again, and stepped aside to allow his old rival to pass.

"Don't expect me to save your ass if you get into an awkward situation" he cautioned Danny as the young man exited the rest room.

"You can count on it" the Halfa whispered as he headed back out into the hordes of partygoers.

Sam Fenton felt out of place standing among so many important and well-known Heads of State. She actually recognized the governor of Illinois at one point. As she continued to wade through the crowds (trying her best to be as unobtrusive as possible) she was suddenly swept up in a wave of people as they crowded around the President. The pushing of the crowd caused Sam to bump into someone, and when she turned around, she was greeted with the sight of fairly built young man wearing a baseball cap.

"Sorry" the stranger muttered before moving away in a hurry.

"That was weird" Sam thought as she watched the retreating back of the man.

She was just about to pursue the strange man when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Sam whirled around and found herself looking into the smiling face of a tall, handsome African-American man who was flanked by two Secret Service men.

"Hello, Sam" Tucker Foley greeted his old friend with a tight hug.

"Hello, Mr. President" she replied, giggling a little.

"Not sure I'll ever get used to that" Tucker admitted as he let go of Sam and stepped back from her a little.

They both shared a good laugh at the situation. Tucker had never seemed the political type. However, after his stint as Mayor of Amity Park, he ended up pursuing a rather fruitful career in the field. Now, he had just recently been elected President of the United States, the youngest one in history at 36.

"So how are you?" Tucker asked when the laugh was over.

"I'm alright, you?" was the reply.

"Stressed" the latter admitted, taking a deep breath and letting it out sharply.

"It's a stressful job. But I'm sure you'll manage. You always do" Sam assured him with a smile.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, we have a previous engagement to get to" one of the Secret Service men reminded the Commander-in-chief, who nodded before turning back to Sam.

"You take care. Try not to be a stranger" Tucker called after her as he was led away by his guard.

The President was led out of the banquet hall and down an abandoned hallway toward the helicopter pad on the South Lawn. However, as the group was nearing the end of the hallway, a voice suddenly sounded from off to their left.

"Gentlemen, if you don't mind, I'd like some time alone with the President" it said a curt tone.

The Secret Service men drew their weapons, but two of them were immediately hit by bursts of ectoplasm which pinned both men to the opposite wall. The third and final agent managed to get a shot off before he too was stuck by a blast of energy and downed by his opponent.

That opponent was Vlad Plasmius, another Halfa who stepped out of the shadows of the hallway in ghost form, grinning maliciously. Tucker stood his ground and looked up at his enemy with defiance as the ghost flew closer.

"Now that we're alone, I wanted a few words with you, Mr. President" the solid evil, former billionaire continued his grin growing wider as a ball of ecto-energy charged in his hand.

"I'm not a big student of government etiquette, but I'm pretty sure you need an invitation first, Fruit Loop!" another voice sounded from behind the two confronting figures, and both turned to see its origin.

Danny stood behind them, his baseball cap on the ground next to him.

"Daniel, you're just in time for the party" Vlad called in a mock excited tone.

"I'm goin' ghost!" Danny shouted, and two rings of energy appeared near his midsection, one travelling up his body, one traveling down, shifting him into ghost mode.

Tucker had barely enough time to step back a little when the two Halfas went at it. Vlad had flown at Danny, his foot outstretched in order to deliver a kick to the younger man's jaw. However, Danny caught this and grabbed the outstretched foot before throwing his arch-nemesis to the ground.

"Space has made you sloppy, Plasmius" he observed with a sneer.

Vlad sat on the ground at first and shook his head a little. Then, he looked up at Danny with a smile of his own.

"My dear boy, I'm just getting warmed up" he hissed.

Danny should have seen it coming. A last of ecto-energy hit him, sending the young Halfa flying across the hallway and through the door at the other end. There were screams as partygoers scattered at the sudden cloud of rubble and plaster dust. Danny gave a cough as he stood up out of the remains of the wall. Vlad was already hovering through the hole, the grin still planted firmly on his face.

"You haven't changed a bit either, little badger. Still the same cocky young fool that left me floating in space" the evil ghost mocked.

"LET"S TEST THAT THEORY!" Danny shouted at the top of his lungs as he flung a piece of rubble at the hovering Plasmius.

It struck him in the shoulder, knocking Vlad off balance for a minute. That minute was all Danny needed, and he shot up from the floor and delivered a solid punch to Vlad's jaw. Said villain was knocked backward, but quickly recovered before launching another ball of ecto-energy at his attacker.

Danny dodged this by stretching his body out a little and moving it off to the side, allowing a large gap between himself and the ball of energy.

"Is that all you got?" he mocked Plasmius, his own cocky grin on his face.

"Well, only because you asked" these words were followed by a column of light from Plasmius's hand that stuck Danny like a hammer, causing him to fly across the room and hit the wall with a grunt of pain.

The ghost boy (although now he was a full grown man) slid to the ground and lay there for a few seconds, trying to regain his bearings having been disorientated by the sheer power of the blow.

"Man, that focusing stone really does work" he thought weakly.

Suddenly, Danny felt an arm under his shoulder and he was lifted to his feet. He looked upon and found himself looking into a pair of violet eyes that he could never forget.

"Danny, is it really you?" Sam whispered.

"Hey Sammy" her husband replied huskily.

"How touching, a cute reunion for the happy couple. Pity it has to be cut short I'm afraid" people moved aside as Plasmius approached the couple, both his hands charging up balls of ecto-energy.

When they had reached a certain size, Vlad combined the two into on large bubble of ghostly energy, which he unleashed upon Danny and Sam.

"SAM RUN!" Danny shouted, pushing his wife out of harm's way before the bluish-green beam engulfed him.

"DANNY, NO!" Sam screamed.

She had just gotten him back, she couldn't lose him again!

Not quite sure how I fell about this chapter. It's my first Danny Phatom fanfic after all. Guess I'll just have to see what kind of feedback I get. Happy reading. Cheers.