Chapter 1: D-Stabilized

"Dani!" Danny yelled, phasing out of Vlad Masters' mansion. Not seeing his ghost cousin, he called again, "Danielle?"

With still no response, the renowned ghost Danny Phantom flew over to Valerie, a notorious, phantom-hating ghost hunter that Danny had temporarily paired up with, and asked, "Valerie, where's Danielle?"

"BOO!" A young girl wearing a glowing black-and-white hazmat suit and sporting a flurry of white hair instantly appeared in front of Danny, scaring him half to death. Wait. He already was half dead, soooo…..

The girls giggled together at the success of their little prank. Danny laughed, too, and couldn't help but notice the change in Valerie's mood from previously that day. Vlad Masters, local millionaire and mayor of Amity Park, their hometown, had called upon her to bring in a girl ghost known as Dani Phantom (with an "I") that was "out to destroy" him. This particular ghost girl was Danny Phantom's unidentical clone, and had the secret identity of Danielle Fenton, Daniel Fenton's cousin. Valerie successfully tracked down Dani, but couldn't locate the ghost because Danielle was resting in her human form. Her clone status had handed her trouble with maintaining her ghost form, so she was slowly making her way towards her cousin. Danielle became scared by Valerie's ghost hunting equipment and ran into a condemned building. Valerie ran after her in order to protect her from the ghost, and the building began to collapse. Seeing the danger, Danielle went ghost and rescued her. Valerie was shocked that Danielle could be both human ghost, but that didn't stop her from capturing Dani, refusing to free her despite her protests until she mentioned her cousin Danny Phantom. At this, Valerie feigned a celebrity crush and released Dani, if only she would introduce her to him. Dani agreed hastily, and found Danny after an uneventful patrol night of his. As the cousins caught up with each other, Valerie attacked, managing to capture both unsuspecting ghosts. Dani was transported to Vlad, but Valerie trapped Danny in her own lab having a personal grudge against him, and a need for ghost knowledge. When Danny awoke, he was able to convince Valerie that Vlad would destroy Dani, killing both her ghost and human sides. Valerie didn't want to get caught up in murder and freed Danny, and together, they rescued Danielle. However, although Valerie was aware of Dani Phantom's human/ghost status, she didn't know that Danny Phantom was also Danny Fenton, or that Vlad Masters was secretly Vlad Plasmius, evil ghost villain and arch-nemesis to Danny Phantom. After the rescue, Danny confronted Vlad about this and threatened to tell Valerie, to which Vlad in turn threatened to reveal Danny's identity. Danny left to find the girls, which brings us back to the present.

So, yeah, really big change in mood.

Reluctantly, Danny and Dani said their goodbyes, each joking about their time together, and Dani flew off, leaving Danny and Valerie alone. Promptly, Danny stuck his wrists out like he wanted to be cuffed.

"What's that for?" Valerie questioned, forgetting the recent past.

Danny sighed, " A deal's a deal. We rescued Danielle. Now you can have me back."

A guilty look crossed Valerie's expression, "Forget it."

"Really?!" Danny withdrew his hands hopefully.

"Yeah," Valerie drawled reluctantly.

Relieved of being trapped forever in Valerie's basement, Danny started to fly off.

"Wait!" Valerie his foot demandingly, "First, I want some answers."

Danny groaned. He had known this was going to happen, "What do you wanna know?"

"First of all," Valerie began as Danny drifted back down to eye level, " How on Earth is she able to do that? Human and ghost? It's just not possible!"

Danny stepped onto her board, "They're called halfas," he explained, "They're half human, half ghost. They usually start out human, and hang around ghost equipment too much. Pretty soon, there's some sort of accident, and you've got a halfa on your hands. As far as I can tell, there's only three in existence, but hey, I could be wrong!"

"Hmm," Valerie focused on a distant point thoughtfully as she processed this information, "Okay, question two. Why, if I turned Dani in to Vlad Masters, did she end up in Vlad Plasmius' hands?"

"Aw, geez," Danny turned away and rubbed the back of his neck, "You reall know how to put a guy's afterlife on the line, don't you? Can I just not answer this one? I'm kind of not allowed to tell you."

Valerie reached for her ecto-gun, "Answer me, ghost."

Danny sighed and turned back, "Vlad Masters and Vlad Plasmius are the same person. He's a halfa, too. He wanted to melt Dani down and study her remains in order to learn how to clone me. You see, Danielle was originally a semi-screwed up clone of me, but she was able to escape and make a new life for herself outside of Vlad's control."

Valerie almost stepped off her board in shock, "What are you talking about? Vlad would never do a thing like that! For Pete's sake, he's our mayor! There's no way he's half ghost! You're lying, phantom!"

But Danny heard the slight doubt in her voice, and floated over to the mansion. With great effort, he forced all the walls, floors and rooves blocking the view of the basement to become invisible, revealing the dramatic scene inside. Valerie floated over on her board, curious, and watched as Vlad Masters (who she had totally left in a creepy mansion with a crazy ghost. Whoops) approached Vlad Plasmius. They seemed to... chat for a bit? All of a sudden, Vlad M. merged with Vlad P., and they became one ghost. Head reeling, Valerie kept her eyes glued to the basement, staring as a black ring encircled the ghost's middle and split to reveal the mayor.

"No. Way," Valerie whispered, stunned. The Vlad's were the same? How? In one heavy motion, she dropped to a sitting position on her board. Danny saw she understood, and withdrew his hands from the mansion.

"Told you."