The morning began as usual, with him sitting up with a sharp gasp and a stream of mist at some ungodly hour of the morning as a ghost decided that now would be a good time to attack. With a groan the halfa sat up in bed and checked the time. 3:34. Remembering why he was awake at this time, he got up and quickly snuck over to his window, opened it, and jumped out.

Now, for most people, jumping out of a window on the second floor at o'dark thirty in the morning would be abnormal and downright idiotic. Danny Fenton was not most people. Danny Fenton was certainly not normal.

This brings us back to the stream of mist. That was one of his powers, one of the things that made the eighteen year old decidedly not normal. Danny Fenton/Phantom was a half ghost vigilante superhero who spent all of his free time and then some fighting off supernatural attackers and keeping his home, Amity Park, safe.

As he plunged through the cool morning air, he whispered his catch phrase, "Goin ghost!" A white circle spread from his waist, then split in two and went in opposite directions, changing pajamas to black and white jumpsuit, black hair to white, and dull blue eyes to glowing green. With a barely restrained whoop of adrenaline, the young hero shot off into the air to find whatever stupid ghost that decided to interrupt his sleep and kick it's ass so he could possibly get a little more sleep before facing the day full of school, ghosts, idiots, students, ghosts, teachers, and probably more ghosts.

~~DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP~~

"Whoa dude, you look like crap."

Danny rolled his eyes internally at the oh so eloquent statement from his best friend, Tucker Foley.

"Yeah, well that might have to do with the Box Ghost waking me up at three thirty this morning, then leading me on a wild goose chase around Amity. I barely got home in time to eat breakfast and throw some clothes on, let alone get any sleep." Danny finished the statement with a grunt of exhaustion before letting his head drop to the old wooden desk he was sitting at.

"Hey man, on the bright side you weren't late to class today!" Tucker said with more cheer and happiness than anyone should be able to even think about showing this early on a Monday.

Before Danny could reply, a bag was dropped onto the desk to the left of his, catching his attention.

"Hey Sam." He greeted his ex-girlfriend and current other best friend.

During the beginning of their junior year the two had tried dating, but between ghost hunting and homework and school work, they found that they just became frustrated from never seeing each other for anything not school or ghost related. 'Besides,' Danny chided himself in his head, 'we're better off as friends. I would have just ended up hurting her anyway.'

From there, his thoughts strayed to a darker corner of his mind, a place he preferred to avoid if at all possible. Danny shook his head and opened his mouth to ask Sam to repeat what she had said, but couldn't get the words out before the bell rang and their teacher, Ms. Brown started her lecture on whichever ancient civilization they were covering today.

With a nearly silent sigh, Danny tried his best to pay attention. Of course, the universe was never going to let him, Danny Fenton/Phantom, have an easy day, and at that moment his ghost sense went off. In the past, he would have just darted from the room, blathering out some excuse about the bathroom or the nurse, but he had long since mastered the power of duplication to the extent where, given enough concentration, he could create an invisible duplicate that was already in ghost mode and the original would never even have to transform.

Grumbling silently to himself, he did just that, then sent the duplicate to check it out. If need be, he could shift his awareness so that majority of his focus was in the duplicate, but that was unnecessary unless it was one of his stronger enemies. With any luck, it'd just be Ol' Boxy again, or an ectopus.

After a brief battle, Phantom sucked the ghost he was fighting, Klemper, into the Fenton Thermos. The rest of the day went much the same. Go to class, try to pay attention, switch focus to the duplicate when needed, and try to get homework done in class so he wouldn't outright fail any classes. Lunch was the only break in schedule, because Danny, Sam, and Tucker could go out to lunch, so of course they ran over to their favorite hang out: Nasty Burger. After a lunch full of goofing around and talking about various things (most of which pertained to ghosts), the day went back to how it had been proceeding prior to the break.

Finally, the school day came to an end and the trio gratefully left the building, moving with the crowd of students that poured out the front door. As per usual, they made their way to Fentonworks, a huge brick building with an even bigger metal contraption resting on top of it. Halfway there, Danny's ghost sense went off again and the three looked around to see who was attacking.

"You guys go on ahead, it's only Vlad's vultures." Danny shooed his friends on as he transformed. "He probably sent them to cause me trouble again."

Sam and Tuck just laughed a little, thinking of the time when the birds had flown right through the Fentons' living room and caused Danny to get sucked into a thermos by his over zealous father. Thankfully, Sam had been there and had "accidentally" tripped and fallen on Jack and "accidentally" hit the release button. The duo continued on their way, chatting happily.

"Alright bird brain, what do you want?" Danny inquired as he flew up. "For that matter, where are your buddies? Doesn't it usually take all three of you to even attempt to accomplish anything?"

Instead of answering, the bald bird just dove at him, taking a swipe, before turning and darting off in the opposite direction.

"Hey! Get back here!" Phantom shot off after him, easily catching up. "I said," he grabbed the bird by it's tail feathers and yanked, "what do you want?"

"Me? I vant nothing! Can't an old bird zimply fly around for ze fun of it?"

Danny cocked his head and looked at the bird for a second before rephrasing his question. "No, not usually. But if you don't want anything, then what does Vlad want?"

The bird just cackled, then phased through Danny's grip and flew away again. They kept up this game of cat and mouse for a good ten minutes before danny got fed up and just surrounded the stupid thing with duplicates.

"I'll ask again. Why are you doing this? Or maybe you're just stupid and can't understand the question." Danny was starting to get pissed.

"Hey hey hey! I'm not halv as shtupid as you are! You're the vone who hasn't noticed the decoy, shtupid brat." With another cackle, the avian ghost faded from visibility, leaving Danny there to ponder the statement.

Suddenly, Danny felt as though someone had dumped a bucked of ice down his back. Dread washed over him, and he tried to kick himself as he realized that the ghost had led him to the complete opposite side of town from his home, from his friends and family. So that was Vlad's plan!

Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Danny blasted off toward the other side of Amity Park, traveling at a whopping 215 miles an hour and arrived there in less than thirty seconds. He landed in an alleyway a couple of houses down, then sprinted back to his house, noticing with a sinking feeling that the anti ghost defenses had been activated and destroyed. Danny burst in through the front door, calling out the names of his friends and family.

"Mom? Dad? Sam? Tuck? Jazz? Please, anybody!" He cried out in vain, searching the house desperately before stopping and pulling himself together. This was Vlad, he wouldn't have just killed them for no reason. The guy was evil, but he never did anything without a plan and motivation.

Trudging back to his living room, he plopped down on the couch, trying to think of what to do when he saw a letter on the cushion. On it, in scrawling calligraphy, was written Daniel.

With a most decidedly NOT shaking hand, he reached out and grabbed the letter, tearing open the envelope and opening the folded parchment inside. Everything about it oozed richness, telling Danny before he even read it who it was from.

Dearest Daniel,

I trust that this letter finds you in good health. By now, I imagine you have discovered the absence of your loved ones. It truly is quite a shame that it has come to this, but you know where to find me. Give me an offer, and I will consider returning your family and friends back. I know you have quite the imagination Daniel, so I suggest that you use it.

Sincerely, Vladmir Plasmius.