Chapter 1:

My name is Christopher Haunting and I am a detective. I'm not the hardboiled, tough as nails type. I actually wanted to be a dancer, but it never worked out. I just took up the whole detective racket in order to make money while I waited for my real career to start. Three years later and I'm still waiting for real life to begin.

My secretary/assistant/partner, Daisy, was hanging laundry from a line that she had stretched across the office.

"…So I told her that you'd been without a client for a month, and she kinda laughed and said that you'd probably be needing clean socks, so she handed me that line and a bucket. I tell you, she thinks she's all that just because she works in that dingy little store and watches mysteries and soap operas all day…"

I was taken out of my reverie by Daisy's mention of our old classmate. Carol hadn't run in our circles, but she'd always been friendly with us. A little superior, but I didn't blame her. She'd worked in the library and read a lot, something our lower class urban classmates weren't into. Carol had been pulled into the same trap as we had. Plenty of brains, but no money or chance for the things she was really capable of. She did most of the work at the dingy little convenience store she worked at, and filled up the rest of the time reading detective novels, which was why she seemed to get such a big kick out of Daisy and my field of employment.

But the way things had been going lately, Daisy and I might have had to hang up our badges and beg her to put in a word for us with her boss, a nice but unintelligible little Mexican man who'd jumped the fence twenty years back.

I put my feet up on my desk like Carol's Sam Spade and tried to feel the part of a small-time gumshoe. Daisy swatted at my feet, protesting that she had just dusted the desk.

I was putting my feet back on the ground when the phone rang. Daisy and I scrambled for the receiver, and Daisy knocked my chair and I backwards.

"Haunting Detectives Agency!" She answered in her most cheery and blonde voice. She frowned at the answer on the phone and handed it to me.

"He wants you, Chris."

I took the phone from her and poked my tongue out at her.

"Christopher Haunting here."

"Ah, Mr. Haunting, A pleasure to hear from you." The voice was very aristocratic, not the kind of client we usually get.

" I have several associates who have vouched for your capabilities, and I am eager to employ your… unique abilities."

I frowned at this. The few times I've been involved with the upper crust, they've involved dirty sex scandals, not a favorite assignment of mine. But with the rent due and socks hanging across my office, I knew I couldn't afford scruples at the moment.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Sir."

"Dear me, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Vlad Masters." I mouthed the name to Daisy, who gave me a confused look. I rolled my eyes. Naturally Daisy wouldn't know the name of one of the richest men in the country.

"It all started in college after a tragic lab accident…"

Danny Fenton, son of Amity Park's most infamous ghost hunters, banged his head against the lunch table.

"Danny, it's not that big a deal." Sam Manson, the school's Goth tried to comfort her friend and stop him from banging his head against the table again.

Tucker Foley held up his tray to save it from getting knocked off the table.

"Yeah Danny, I mean, it's not like your parents aren't used to you getting F's on your tests."

Danny groaned and slammed his head against the table again.

Sam gave Tucker a venomous look before turning back to her other friend.

"Plus, Mr. Lancer said that you could do some extra credit to pull up your grade."

"You mean like last time with the gorilla? Sam, I don't think I could take another round of late nights fighting ghosts AND wild animals."

"Well, there's no guarantee that there will be a lot of ghost fighting, maybe it will cool of for a while."

"AAAAAAAA! BIG GREEN DOG!" someone yelled.

A red haired little geek ran past their table, waving his arms in the air. A blue wisp of air floated out of Danny's mouth, and right on cue, exactly as predicted, A gigantic glowing green wolf bounded into the cafeteria, sending the students into a panicked uproar, their tray lunches flying into the air.

"No ghosts, huh?" Danny sighed. "Not with our luck."

Danny sank down underneath the table. There was a bright flash as two white bands of light lit up the space, and out through the tabletop flew Danny Phantom, Amity Park's infamous ghostly superhero.

The wolf had cornered Paulina Sanchez, school sweetheart. Her eyes widened from fear to excitement as Danny blasted the wolf away with two glowing balls of ectoplasm.

"Yo Snoopy! Leave the lady alone to finish her lunch!"

The ghost wolf snarled at Danny, green drool dripping from its snout. It howled and leapt at Danny, sending him tumbling backwards through the air.

Danny crashed through one of the school windows, phasing through it just before he hit the plane of glass full on.

The wolf crashed through the window, sending shards of glass at Danny.

He covered his face with his arm, feeling one or two slivers slicing into his skin. The wolf howled once more and flew off into the sky.

"Oh no, you are NOT getting away that easily!" Danny took off after the ghost.

Sam and Tucker ran out to the yard, waving their arms, desperately trying to get the attention of their friend who was quickly shrinking into the distance.

"DANNY! You forgot the Fenton Thermos!"

The plane flight to Amity Park was luxurious. Much more than Daisy and I were used to.

"A private jet!" Daisy cooed, "We really are on our way up, Chris!" She nursed a drink and leaned back in the seat.

"I don't trust Masters though, Daze. I've just got a bad feeling about him."

"I know, but he's offering us four times our usual rate to do this for him. We get the tests; arrange the meeting, hit Wisconsin, and viola, our money problems are over! Plus he'll suggest us to all his rich friends. We'll be able to send our laundry out!"

I looked out the window at the clouds passing us by. When we had settled down into the detective business, I swore to myself that we'd use our abilities and connections to help people out. By all means, Master's problem seemed nice and simple, and his story tragic, but something about him struck me as wrong. Plus, I don't trust anyone with that much money.

"This is your captain, we'll be experiencing a little turbulence."

I looked over at Daisy, who had a blank smile on her face. Since when had anyone been told about turbulence beforehand?

My question was answered pretty quickly as two figures flew through the wall of the cabin before us and down the isle, hitting the back wall.

I got up, running to get a better look, Daisy calling after me.

A large, green wolf had pinned a white-haired boy against the back wall. It growled, shoving his snout in his face. The boy yelled out, and reached his hand back as if to hit the wolf. Instinctively I grabbed the wolf around the neck to pull it off of him.

The wolf snarled, turning its head back to bite me. I found myself staring through its open jaws at the boy, whose fist was glowing a radioactive green. The green blasted the wolf and I back through the air. We were careening towards the cabin door, and I braced myself for a bone-shattering impact.

There was a strange feeling in my stomach of lightness and I had a moment to see the shocked face of the captain as the wolf and I flew past him. I watched the plane shrink away as we fell through the air.

I let go of the wolf's neck by accident and gravity caught me. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting the last thing I saw of this world to be the ground coming up to swallow me.

I felt an impact against my chest. For a moment I thought that hitting the ground hadn't been that painful. I opened my eyes to see find myself in the arms of the white haired boy. My head got very light and the last thing I thought before the blackness overtook my mind was that this wasn't a very promising start to our case.

Danny cursed himself under his breath. If he'd had his Fenton thermos, he would have been able to catch the ghost long before anyone would of gotten in danger. Plus the tall black guy was heavy, REALLY heavy. Danny was able to carry his two best friends around while flying, battle meat monsters, phase through walls, punch ghosts into the next county and all, but somehow this guy was really putting a strain on his arms.

Danny gave a sigh of relief when he saw that he'd caught up with the plane. Phasing through the plane's floor he went tangible and set the guy down.

He was thanked with what felt like a frying pan to the back of the head.

Danny whirled around, massaging the bump growing just above the neck.

"Hey! What was that for?" he exclaimed, waving off the petite blonde who was swinging a drink tray back and forth like an overexcited batter.

"You get away from him, weird Goth kid!"

"Hey! I'm not a Goth!" Danny dodged another blow from the tray.

"I just saved his life! Give me a break!"

"You put his life in danger in the first place, idiot!" the blonde swung again, this time losing her grip on the tray, sending it crashing into the far wall.

"I'm sorry! My bad!" Danny went intangible as two glasses also went flying his way.

I awoke to what sounded like the proverbial bull in a china shop. As my vision cleared, I saw the white-haired kid dodging Daisy's arsenal of glasses.

"Daisy! Those aren't ours, and I wouldn't put it past the boss man to take that out of our pay!"

Daisy stopped throwing the glasses long enough for the kid to sink through the plane's floor. This of course gave us time to stare at it dumbfounded.

"Chris, what was that kid?"

I shrugged, grinning, "Who ya gonna call?"

"Oh, shut up."