Author: JH24

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. This awesome show and all of its characters are property of Butch Hartman.

Rating: Rating: T

Genre: Action/Adventure

The story takes place after season 3. In this AU "Phantom Planet" never happened and Vlad is still the mayor of Amity Park.

Pairings: No Pairings

Main characters: Danny Phantom/Fenton, Vlad Plasmius/Masters, Skulker.

Outside characters: Jacqueline (human, small role), Juukka (animal ghost, important role) and several citizens of Amity Park.

Bluemoonalto and Pearl84, I want to thank you both from the bottom of my heart for all your beta-reading, help, advice, support and patience. Without you both I would never have been able to post this fanfic or even finish it. I'm really grateful for your help. Thank you for everything!

Author's Note: An old story I wrote back around 2006/2007. Every chapter of this story has been reworked.

Chapter 1: On the hunt

"Target locked. Firing now!"

The panicked creature looked up and saw two missiles coming straight at him. He jumped high into the air and watched the missiles go underneath him; he made himself into a ball and spun several times before landing on all fours.

His relief didn't last long as he heard the sound of the missiles becoming louder. He turned around and discovered that the projectiles had changed their course and were coming for him again. His eyes widening in panic, he darted forward and started running, the missiles hot on his tail. He headed across a large empty parking lot belonging to an office complex.

Just before reaching the exit of the open lot, he dashed towards the right, running for a few more seconds and then jumping over a high, chain link fence separating the company parking area from a thicket.

Illuminated by a full moon, two figures were standing on the top of a nearby office-building, observing the events taking place.

"Skulker, he's hiding himself in those bushes."

"Not a problem."

At the last moment, just when it appeared the missiles would hit the fence, they went straight into the air, over the obstacle and once again moving towards their target.

"Impressive."

"Let's just say I've made a few changes."

The creature let out a scream in panic and jumped out of the vegetation; he now found himself on a four-lane road, looking around desperately for a new hiding place. He quickly realized he didn't have enough time. Trying to keep enough distance between himself and his pursuers, he decided to follow the road, running as hard as his body would allow.

"Skulker, he's in the open now. People will soon notice his presence."

"Don't worry, Plasmius," the hunter said in a reassuring tone. "I have everything under control."

The creature began to close on two cars directly in front of him. He jumped on the roof of the car that was closest to him.

"What was that, Eric? It sounded like something landed on our roof."

"I don't know, honey, but—"

The man couldn't finish his sentence as his wife started to scream. "Eric! There's a large tail on our back window, a devil's tail! There's a monster on our roof! Do something!"

"I'm driving, I can't just— MELISSA!?" His wife had just fainted in her seat.

Making sure there were no other drivers behind them, he slammed on the brakes. So far the creature had been holding steadily to the roof of the vehicle, but the force caused from the car's sudden halt made him lose his grip. He was thrown off the roof, landed with a hard thud face-down on the hood of the car and then slid forwards onto the road.

"What was that? What in the world was that?"

The creature, who was lying on his belly on the cold road, quickly came to his senses and jumped into the air again. The two projectiles that had been following him flew over the car, still hot on his tail. He made a second, even larger leap into the air. This time, while still in mid-air, he turned around and fired a green ecto-blast from his right hand directly into the sky. The two projectiles changed their course and went after the just released ecto-energy. Their diversion gave the creature a few valuable seconds.

"Skulker, those missiles..."

"Just watch."

Plasmius was getting tired of this game. It was around 11:00 PM and they had been chasing this 'Juukka' for hours already.

Just before impact, the projectiles diverted their course, avoiding the energy-blast at the last moment. For a few seconds the missiles made circles in the air, as if confused; after that, the two weapons went after their original target once more.

Vlad frowned as he observed where Juukka was heading. "He's running towards that crossing. I don't want him causing any accidents."

At this point Juukka made a jump over the second car, which was now waiting for a traffic light. He dashed forward, running through the intersection on all fours as fast as he possibly could. It wasn't fast enough. A car approached from the right; the creature became blinded by the headlights and used his right hand to shield his eyes. But he couldn't run as fast on only two legs, and that proved to be his undoing.

"What is that thing!?"

"Dad, STOP! You're going to hit it!"

"I'm trying! Hang on!"

With a heavy sound the car collided with Juukka at full force. The creature let out an agonizing scream as the impact threw him backwards.

"What in the... What was that?" The man stammered from behind the steering wheel while looking at the strange thing, beast, or whatever it was, lying motionlessly in front of the headlights. His face was pale and his body was trembling. "Jacqueline, are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine. You?"

"Thank goodness you're okay." He let out a sigh of relief. "I'm alright as well."

She smiled at hearing her father's reassuring words, but that smile quickly disappeared when she realized what had just happened. "Dad, I think we've just hit an animal." She opened the door and raced outside towards the creature.

"Jacqueline, come back to the car this instant!" He then stepped out of the vehicle and caught up with his daughter. "We don't even know what it is, but that's definitely not a normal animal."

Jacqueline had sat down next to the creature, slowly stretching her hand towards it.

"Keep your hands away from that, that, whatever that is, and get back into the car! I'm not going to say—" her father didn't finish his sentence as he got a good view of the creature that was lying there. "I've... I've never seen something like that before. What is it?"

Plasmius pinched the bridge of his nose. Could this get any worse? "Skulker, would you finally do something about those missiles?"

"Oh, right." He pushed a few buttons on the small remote he was holding. Both missiles flew away from the intersection and higher into the air.

Plasmius didn't say anything else, as his attention was drawn to the accident that had just taken place. At this point more people were stepping out of their cars and gathering around the motionless creature.

Jacqueline was still sitting beside it. What is it? An animal? A ghost?

The being was not very tall, she estimated that he was somewhere between 5 to 6 feet in length, not including his long tail. His skin was covered with a black fur, grizzled with grey and patches of green, and he had powerful claws on both his feet and hands. His chest, as well as the end of his legs and arms was covered with dark green armor parts outlined with a blood-red edge.

The creature was wearing a dark green helmet that seemed to resemble a wolf of some sort, with a mask attached to it covering his snout except for the eyes and lower jaw. There were four grey spikes extending outwards from the top of the helmet. They were flat, had a wide base at the bottom, were long, pointed, sharp and jagged along their length. Furry, pointy ears were visible at both sides of his head, sticking out of his helmet through two holes.

There was a strange symbol in the center of his chest plate, reminding her of a capital 'J,' giving off an eerie golden glow. She also noticed a pulsating red line that was visible between the small openings of his light grey, bony tail.

"Who are you?" She stretched out her hand and carefully clasped its right hand.

Jacqueline's father, who had been staring at the beast up until now, came to his senses again. "What do you think you're doing! Let go, don't touch—" His sentence was interrupted as the creature moaned weakly.

"Dad, he's waking up!"

"Alright, enough of this! You're coming with me right now!" He grabbed his daughter's hand.

"Dad, look! He's opening his eyes!"

The man began to tremble. The creature had indeed opened his eyes, and was now looking directly at his daughter who was still holding its hand.

"Hi," Jacqueline spoke softly. "Don't be afraid, we're trying to help." She noticed that the creature's eyes were light green, giving off a weak glow. Strangely enough, and something she couldn't explain herself, she didn't feel any fear at all.

On the roof of the office building Plasmius became visibly frustrated. "What an utter disaster. It's a good thing I'm now the mayor of this city so I can handle the public relations nightmare myself, but this is getting way too much attention. I wanted to handle this discreetly." He sighed irritably. "Maybe using those missiles wasn't such a good idea—" Plasmius let out a gasp. "Skulker, what's the meaning of this!?" He pointed at the two projectiles which had now left their holding pattern and had begun flying towards the intersection.

"I have no idea," Skulker answered in surprise. He pushed several buttons on the remote. "They're not responding to my commands!"

"Then override the controls! Initiate self-destruct!"

"I'm trying, but it will take a moment. It'll be too late."

"Can you understand me? Are you alright?" The creature hadn't moved since the accident. He was looking at her hand which was still holding his. Suddenly his eyes shot wide open as he turned his head to look the other way, lifting himself up a bit from the ground.

A man from the crowd began to yell. "Something is coming this way! Run everyone, RUN!" Panic ensued.

Jacqueline and her father looked up and saw two green objects in the distance -leaving a green trail of smoke- coming their way. Before they could react, the creature stood up, grabbed the girl and her father and jumped away. Losing their target, the missiles swerved around the few people who hadn't been able to flee, then zoomed away. Juukka then put them both safely on the ground, dropped down on all fours and turned right from the crossing, getting out of sight and into the industrial area of Amity Park.

"Jackie," her father said while still lying on the ground, "please tell me you're alright?"

"I'm okay, Dad," she answered while rolling onto her back, trying to make sense of what happened.

Her father managed to get up first and then carefully tried to help his daughter stand by taking her hand.

"You know, Dad," she softly spoke to him while putting her hand on his shoulder, "I think that creature, whoever it was, just saved our life."

"I've got manual control. Self-destruct sequence initiated."

"Good."

"Sending the missiles into the air, ordering self-destruct, three... two... one... now!"

In a bright green flash of light, the two missiles self-destructed harmlessly in the sky. However, the glow of the explosion illuminated a large area of Amity Park.

"Isn't this great?" Vlad grumbled sarcastically. "More witnesses. Now everyone will know something happened here. This place will soon be swarming with those annoying reporters." He glared at Skulker. "When this is over, I want to know what went wrong."

"I understand," the hunter said before he looked back at his employer with a frown.

Plasmius raised an eyebrow. "Is something on your mind?"

"Well, it's none of my business," Skulker began. "But you are the mayor of this city now. I'm sure you'll be called soon about what just happened, and I don't think it will help your ratings if the mayor was nowhere to be found during an emergency."

Vlad sighed. "I'm aware of that, Skulker, and you do make a good point. But I've already taken care of that. Before I left I made a duplicate of myself in human form, he'll take care of any calls and emergency meetings when necessary. Unfortunately, this has been putting a strain on me."

"I can see that. Are you sure it's wise to continue? We already found out that this Juukka is pretty strong and with your powers weakening I don't know..."

"There's no need to concern yourself, Skulker. I can assure you I'm strong enough to tear this ghost apart piece by piece if need be."

Skulker, not looking entirely convinced, decided to drop the subject. He looked at the tracking device on his left wrist. "Juukka has fled into the industrial district, we can catch up with him quickly if we leave now."

"Excellent, let's—"

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Oh, what now?" the half-ghost said irritably, looking at the noisy device on Skulker's arm.

"The tracker has detected another ghost approaching fast, a half-ghost to be exact."

"Daniel," Plasmius muttered almost inaudibly. "Of course, just when you think things couldn't get any worse."

"You aren't actually worried about him, are you?" Skulker asked with some surprise.

"I'm not," Plasmius replied wearily, "it's just that I have enough on my hands already, but I guess this was to be expected. Is the Ecto-Jammer working? He can't sense us right now, can he?"

"He should not be able to detect us. But in any case, shouldn't we deal with the whelp first?" His expression lit up with a small grin of anticipation.

"No, Juukka is our first priority. If Daniel decides to interfere, and we know he will..." Plasmius clenched his fists, "...we'll just have to deal with him then."

"Understood."

"I don't have to remind you how much depends on this mission, Skulker."

He nodded.

"We must succeed in capturing this ghost. If what we learned about him is true, then..." An evil grin appeared on his features. "I must have him."

With those words both ghost hunter and half-ghost turned invisible, jumped from the building and flew at full speed towards the industrial area, locking in on their prey.