Hello all! This is a small story that popped into my head during my Spring break. It's not the most original idea, but I couldn't stop myself! Just a fair warning. It takes place after "An Eye for an Eye" so their might be some spoilers here and there.
Summary: After a rash move, Danny finds himself with a very peeved Vlad Masters who quickly decides to teach his young rival a lesson in respect by the only way he knows how: Humiliation. In what Vlad believes to be a well calculated revenge scheme, the fiery teenager soon finds himself to be a fiery badger! Vlad however soon realizes his decision was as rash as Danny's, leading them both to a lesson in karma.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom; Butch Hartman is the sole owner of this awesome show, hence all its characters.
Title: My Little Badger
Chapter One: Cats and Dogs
Danny flew at top speed through the park, swerving to avoid the various trees and a very large ghost right on his tail. "Ugh! I'm so late!" he exclaimed, before yelping in surprise at almost getting caught by his pursuer.
Danny looked down at the large growling dog chasing after him. "Why is it always the crazed up ghosts that are attracted to- Ah!" The ghost dog flew up in the air and pounced on the teen, sending him crashing painfully to the ground.
Danny groaned in annoyance as the large dog changed into a puppy. It barked and yapped happily at him, a squeaky toy in its mouth. Danny tiredly sat up, taking the toy from the ghost's mouth. "Cujo, I can't play with you!" he said with frustration.
Cujo simply slobbered him in kisses, the teen's words not understood. Danny half heartedly threw the toy, causing the ghost to grow in size and run after it. The very miffed teen sat there, his hand sliding across his face.
Cujo not only woke him up an hour before his alarm clock went off- meaning he was still in his PJs and had not eaten anything- but had kept him out for almost three hours now. He didn't like using the thermos with the ghost dog unless he was endangering others, but the fact that the dog was endangering his Friday hang out night, with the sure detention he was going to get for being late to school was enough to get him to use the thermos…unfortunately Cujo decided it was another chew toy and completely crushed it.
So here he was; school had started a good fifteen minutes ago and no matter what he did he could not lose the hyperactive dog. He had thrown the canine's toy so many times in an attempt to get away from him that he had lost count. The dog kept tracking him down no matter how fast he flew, how far he threw the toy, or how many times he hid, the dog kept finding him.
"Ruff!"
The sulking ghost boy broke away from his thoughts at seeing the dog had returned and placed the toy down next to him, his tail wagging expectantly. "Maybe I can lure him into the ghost zone." He voiced to himself, throwing the toy once again. "But mom and dad are home; I would risk becoming their guinea pig for that new ghost weapon they made."
Danny cringed at the mental image, before standing up. "Darn it! I can't go to school with a 10 foot tall green dog following me!"
Danny flew up, ignoring the large dog on his heel who wanted him to throw the toy that it held in its mouth again. "I have to get him into the ghost zone, but-"
Danny halted, a pondering expression appearing on his face. "Doesn't Vlad have a portal?"
A mischievous grin spread on his lips. "Maybe having that crazed up fruit loop around here isn't such a bad thing."
Danny spun around, wickedness dancing in his eyes. "Cujo" the teen cooed causing the dog to fly up to eye level and change into a yapping puppy once more. Danny grabbed the slobbered toy from the dog's mouth. "Catch me if you can!" he taunted, flying away from the dog. The puppy quickly turned into its intimidating form and chased after the ghost boy.
Danny flew high in the air to avoid the dog from destroying anything in its path, before he spotted what he was looking for. He glanced back to make sure the ghost dog was still following him, before he dove into the Mayor's large mansion.
Danny landed quietly in a large dinning room, but the sound of footsteps made him gasp. Without hesitation he turned invisible and tossed the toy on the table, knowing its owner would be coming to find it at any moment.
Vlad walked in wearing a white rob while caring a cup of coffee and a paper in his hand. Abruptly the man froze, causing Danny to pale.
"Can he sense me?" he wondered with dread, before two things broke both half ghosts from their stupor.
One, a soft meow from a small white cat next to Vlad's feet and two, a vibrating growl emitting from a large ghost dog that had just materialized in the room.
Vlad's eyes widen at seeing a 10 foot tall ghost canine in his dinning room, but what made his blood leave his body was the fixed way the dog stared at the small, slim cat beside him.
"Meow" the cat voiced pitifully at the imminent danger.
In an instant Cujo lunged at the cat, destroying everything in its path, its toy long forgotten.
Danny observed with broaden eyes as Vlad transformed in a flash and produced a large shield to stop the dog, but all the man did was cause himself to be propelled into a wall behind him, doing nothing more then buying his cat a one second head start.
Vlad stood up with a growl and flew after the dog, pulsing red energy in both his hands.
Danny stood there for a moment, trying to process everything that occurred in a span of a few seconds as well as trying to determine how to react to it.
"Ah! You stupid mongrel stay away from Maddie!" the teen heard Vlad exclaim.
That helped him decide.
Danny burst into laughter, which was muted by swearing, yowling, growling, and things breaking.
In his fit of laughter the teen lost his concentration on remaining invisible, not that it mattered since he was alone in the destroyed dinning room.
Danny floated up to leave, only to hit his head on the ceiling at forgetting to turn intangible.
Forcing himself to stop laughing for a moment, he phased out of his arch enemy's home.
Danny flew towards school, the fact that he was severely late, had not changed out of his sleepwear, and did not have his backpack completely left his mind from what he had just discovered.
Danny landed in one of the school bathrooms and changed back. He leaned against a sink, trying to take in air and calm himself. "I can't believe it" he said, trying not to crack up again. "He actually got himself a cat!"
Danny laughed full heartedly once more. He was never going to let his arch enemy live this down. Just the thought of all the things he could say to him was making it harder to stop laughing but he slowly managed it. "Wow, that came out better then I thought." He said, finally heading to his class. "Nothing can ruin this day." He told himself with a smile.
"Mr. Fenton!"
"S-Sorry I'm late, Mr. Lancer; I overslept." Danny explained rubbing his neck, while wondering why Sam and Tucker were looking at him, wide eyed.
"Yes, Mr. Fenton, I can clearly see that. What I fail to understand is why you decided to attend the remaining five minutes of my class in your sleep wear, bare feet, and with no books!" Mr. Lancer reprimanded, with a peeved look.
Danny's eyes broadened, the entire classroom exploding with laughter. "Well, at least I have clothes on" he thought with embarrassment, not knowing that his friends were thinking the same thing.
Vlad stomped out his lab, the portal shutting behind him. "Filthy beast." He growled, kicking a large piece of debris (which was once a large, expensive vase) from his path and heading towards one of his rooms.
The half ghost billionaire changed to his human self. His torn and slobbered jump suit was instantly replaced by his clean white rob, but his disheveled hair and the dog smell emitting from the man's self were still evident.
Vlad leaned down, looking under a half destroyed bed. He could see his cat's blue eyes glowing in the darkness of her hiding place, a warning growl emitting from the very frightened cat. "It's alright, Maddie." He said gently, but it did little to calm the white cat.
Vlad sighed angrily at what had just occurred, before standing up and turning the bed intangible and moving it out of the way. He picked up his cat which hissed a couple of times before Vlad's strokes finally assured her that it was safe.
As he walked back to the dinning room, he took in the sight of his half destroyed home that only served to anger him further.
Vlad placed the meowing Maddie on the only chair that had not been reduced to pieces of broken wood. His eyes flashed red as he grabbed what he had come to get.
The man studied the dog toy with disgust. "Foolish little rat." He hissed. "Does he actually think he is going to get away with this?"
The older hybrid did not have a visible ghost sense, but he did have one. It was an inner feeling that he had developed over the years, so much that he could differentiate between signatures and could determine how strong a ghost was by it alone.
Vlad had felt the boy's unique and strong signature the second he stepped into the dinning room. He knew he was there.
Vlad walked off towards his bedroom to shower again. He placed the dog toy on a small table, but that did not mean he had pushed the incident aside. On the contrary, he was currently trying to decide how to punish the over confident younger half ghost and so far nothing sounded better then beating him to a pulp.
Tucker and Sam stared with raised eyebrows at their smiling male friend as he ate a very greasy burger. Throughout their classes the half ghost kept snickering out of nowhere and Tucker and Sam were sure they had seen his eyes glow green with mischeif a couple of times.
"Hey Danny?" Sam called carefully.
"Yeah?" he asked with a bright smile.
"Not that it's a bad thing, but why are you so…happy?"
Danny chuckled. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, taking another hearty bite of his burger.
"I don't know, dude." Tucker continued, sarcasm edging in his tone of voice. "We just thought that having to stay for a two hour detention on a Friday afternoon, being seen in your pjs and laughed at by half the school, having to walk around the rest of the day with your gym clothes and sneakers, forgetting all your homework at home, and having Lancer phone your folks about how late you were would have some effect on you."
Danny stared amused at his milk, before picking it and drinking it. "Nothing can ruin today." He said with another chuckle.
"Why were you so late, anyways" Sam asked, after Tucker and she shared a bewildered look.
"Cujo woke me up an hour before my alarm went off and chased me around all morning." Danny replied with a small smile.
"Dude, that stinks. Talk about a lousy day." Tucker said sympathetically.
"Are you kidding? Today is one of the best days of my life!" Danny replied.
"Why's that?" Sam asked, confused.
Danny smiled at them with mischief and humor in his eyes, before telling them the details of his busy morning.
Danny laughed heartedly. "And that's not the best part. You'll never believe what he named it!"
Tucker cracked up right along with his male friend. "Dude, if you tell me he named it after your mom, I'll die right here!"
Danny grabbed his side, laughing even harder, while nodding his head. "Man! That's as disturbing as it is funny!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Oh, come on Sam; don't tell me you don't find this remotely funny." Danny said with amusement at seeing the gothic girl looking dryly at both of them.
"I find it hilarious, but I think you forgot what happened the last time you played pranks on Vlad." She replied with a raised eyebrow.
Danny rolled his eyes, although he was still smiling. "I haven't forgotten, Sam; believe me, I'm not trying to start that again."
"So leading a bi-polar ghost dog to his house and having said dog trash it and almost eat his cat, isn't starting anything?" Sam asked drolly, with crossed arms.
"Jeez Sam, chill out. Danny already said Vlad didn't know he was there." Tucker intervened.
"Besides, I didn't plan for all that to happen." Danny added. "I just had to find a way to get Cujo to stop chasing me; Vlad was the only option left." He said with a smirk.
"The only option and the worst option" Sam pointed out.
Danny shrugged. "Vlad can handle Cujo and I'm sure Maddie is just fine." He replied, before Tucker and he broke into laughter once more.
"Yeah, Sam." Tucker agreed. "Plus, imagine if Danny would have tried to sneak into his house as the ghost boy while his parents are home."
Sam's serious look faltered at Tucker's words; she could imagine the outcome of that very clearly. It really was her friend's only solution at the moment…plus the man did deserve it and Danny wasn't caught.
Sam smirked at her two male friends, amusement now gleaming in her amethyst eyes. "I suppose the mayor does need to do his part in keeping the ghost numbers down around here."
The trio laughed at Sam's statement, all worries forgotten.
Danny tiredly walked up his front door steps. He had canceled all plans with his friends knowing that Mr. Lancer had already phoned his parents by now and he was probably grounded for the weekend. He had run into Skulker right after his two hour detention and without a thermos in hand or his friends (they didn't have detention), it took a lot of fighting to finally get the hunter to call it quits. Ten minutes later Desiree appeared, although he just wished her back into the ghost zone. He was so glad he had figured out an easy way to make her leave a while back.
Danny frowned, reaching for the front door handle. Now that he thought about it today had been a pretty lousy day…but like he said nothing could ruin today. Not his parents scolding, or being grounded or-
"Hello Daniel"
Danny's eyes went wide at seeing Vlad sitting on the couch with his father, an evil smirk on his lips and a dog toy in one of his hands.
"Okay…maybe that can." He whispered with dread.
For those who are reading Checkmate, I have not abandoned it...er have not left it. It is still my primary story and I will update it as soon as I can. I'm very sorry for the long wait, but just know it still lives. Also know that this story has nothing to do with that one, in other words it doesn't exist here. I'm not planning on making this story as complexed as I have CM, which is why I'm not getting it beta-ed. So please forgive, any errors that you might come across. Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.