There are no ghostly vultures that night in desperate need of directions, and Danny isn't late getting home that night. Parents are parents however, and they would not be letting their teenaged children spend the weekend alone while they're away at their college reunion.
Danny wakes up in the middle of the night when his ghost sense goes off, it takes him a minute to realize where he is, a lavish bedroom in the mansion of one Vlad Masters, Affluence Magazine's so called "Billionaire of the Year". Wondering just what kind of ghost could be wandering this far from the Ghost Portal of Amity Park, he mumbled something about a working vacation, and transforms himself into his ghost half. He finds his dad first, wandering the halls half asleep looking for a bathroom, but as he's in no trouble, Danny's contented to let him wander as he goes in search of the ghost that woke him.
His ghost sense goes off again, and he turns around in search of the threat only to come face-to-chest with the one he was searching for. He flies backwards quickly, ready to attack as he takes in the ghost in front of him. His skin is blue, his eyes solid red, his teeth are fanged, and his hair, hilariously, reminds Danny of The Wolverine.
"Danny Phantom? What are you doing here?" asks the ghost harshly, accusingly.
"Wait, you know me? How?" Danny asks, dropping his defensive stands, hovering a little higher to meet the other ghost's eyes.
"Of course I know you, you've made quite a name for yourself in the Ghost Zone, Dear Boy. Hunting ghosts makes ghosts very angry, so I'll ask again. What are you doing in my home?"
"You're home? Uh, dude, this is Vlad Master's home." Danny laughs. This is the wrong thing to do Danny finds, as the Ghost growls and descends upon him quicker than lightning, grabbing him around the throat.
"Ah, so you do know you're trespassing. What? Come to shove the infamous Vladimir Plasmius in your little thermos? Now that's just not going to happen!" He threw Danny through a wall.
They battle for several minutes, and while the boy has clearly been dead less than six months-judging by his over use of the ecto-energy blast and little else- Vlad has to admit he's doing well to keep up. Until of course Vlad grows bored of the little pest invading his mansion, and finally deliver the blow that sends the boys to the ground unconscious.
Vlad only has a second to process how young the child is before two white rings envelope him and Danny Fenton lays before him.
"The Ghost Boy is Jack's son?" He says aloud in his astonishment. Then worry takes over as he realizes easily what must have happened to the boy, remembering his own years in the hospitals after his accident. The boy seems alright enough, likely due to a more competently build ghost portal, however he managed to get past his parent to it, being the cause of Daniel abilities, or maybe it was just dumb luck.
Either way Vlad is is more worried that Daniel is not as fine as he seem, and carries the boy, passing through several floors, to his lab in the basement, intent of having his personal doctor check him over. His personal doctor is of course a ghost, as he would trust no living human with his secret, nor does he believe a living doctor would be able to fully diagnosis any ghostly ailments.
Danny waked up before the Vultures have returned with doctor. He looks around in confusion, as he is no where he knows, but this is instantly forgotten as he spots Plasmius several feet away, whose attention is held by a large computer monitor, which has Danny's name and picture on it.
"What do you think you're doing you Creep?!" Danny shouts firing an energy blast toward Vlad in blind panic. He's up in the cot he'd been laid on and ready to fight in an instant. But Plasmius does nothing but block his attack without turning to look.
"You do sound so like your father, Little Badger," Plasmius turns to face him. "But please, let's not continue our little brawl, especially when it's founded on nothing but misunderstandings" he smiles and to rings of black circle him.
"Mis- Mister Masters? You're a Ghost?"
"I am, now I really must ask if you're all right. Had I known who you were, Phantom-" his says the name with a hint of amusement "- I never would have fought you at all?"
Danny's stance relaxes, and he gracelessly plops down to sit on the cot "yeah I'm alright. A little sore, but nothing major. So how'd be become half ghost? I was inside my parent's ghost portal when it turned on-well when I turned it on. I think it electrocuted me half to death."
"Your father blew up a proto-portal in my face back in college. Sent me to the hospital for a few years, but as I said earlier this evening I wouldn't be half the man I am today without him."
"That right, it did send you to the hospital!" Danny exclaims, "God, I got lucking then. That could've happened to me! Are you okay?!"
"Now I'm doing very well My Boy, but it's precisely why I've called in a doctor to look you over. She should be here soon, but you know how ghosts can wander."
"Your doctor's a ghost? Is she coming from the Ghost Zone? Do you have Ghost Portal?"
"Yes, I do. Would you like to see it?"
Vlad takes Daniel to another part of his lab, chatting with the boy pleasantly all the while. Vlad's portal is rarely open (unlike the one at Daniel house which is almost always open he's told), as Vlad does not want any unwelcome guests ransacking his mansion. But when it stands open as it does now, Vlad has little shame in saying its magnificent.
Unlike the one in Daniel's home, he's told, which looks more like a simple glowing mist behind solid looking glass, but Vlad's appears more like a lava-lamp with green globs of the Ghost Zone drifting into the lab for several feet before drifting slowly back to where they came. It can't be seen from this side, but Vlad tell him that bits of the Human World are drifting into the Ghost Zone as well.
Danny's still in awe, watching the globs float back in forth when a woman steps through the portal. Her skin is pale grey, her eyes a solid sickly yellow. Her hair is made of flames, but rather than rising skyward, the fall down her back.
She introduces herself as Dr. Markey and gets rather quickly down to business once Vlad explains the situation to her. She's fascinated my Danny, and asks his so many question, both the sort any doctor would ask to gauge the health habits of their patient (does he exercise regularly, eat poorly, is he allergic to anything, and so on), and the kind anyone ask someone they're trying to get to know (what's his least favorite subject in school, does he have any pets, does he like Ember's music when she not being insane about it (Dr. Markey does)), as she claims she'll be making a multitude of house calls to him if his bounty hunting keeps up.
She writes down all the relevant information on the profile page Danny had seen Vlad looking though earlier, which turned out to be a medical profile created for Dr. Markey herself to document her notes. Danny's just a little stunned to watch ghost type so casually at a computer.
After her question she subjects him to a basic physical, of both his human and ghost form, doing everything from checking his pulse to having him levitate off the ground. Fortunately she have him do nothing too taxing, as it's nearing four 'o'clock, and he's about ready to sleep down in the lab on the cot in the corner. In the end she printers out her notes for her briefcase, claims him well enough for a reckless teenage ghost boy and schedules a private appointment with him next Saturday to properly inspect the his glowing abilities, saying the only precedent she has for half-ghost power growth is Vlad, and she needs more information.
"But whatever, I'll figure it out."
She finishes with a joking warning to Vlad to eat less sweets she flies back through the lab to the portal.
"Be careful when she comes to visit. Her obsession is biology, not necessarily doctoring, and once she gets studying you it'll be hard to stop her."
"Yeah, but she wants to study me whole and half-living right? Probably the safer bet than my parents."
The next day finds Danny loitering around the reunion's buffet in the white button down and blazer he'd brought without the intention of wearing standing awkwardly next to Vlad and his parents as they greeted the guests. He feels like an idiot, he'd put the stupid shirt on to look nice because Vlad always looked nice in his suit, but all Danny had was a pair of dark jeans and his red converse, and Vlad had barely said a word to him all evening.
"Your collar's uneven Little Badger," Vlad says when Jack drags Maddie off to dance, turning to fix Daniels collar himself.
"Uh, thanks, I'm not really used to this kinda clothes, you know?" Daniel says. Vlad knows exactly what he meant, the boy is so easy to read, but Vlad finds the boys dawning idolization of him reasonable enough given the boy has just learned not only is he not the only half ghost in existence, but that said half ghost is not one of the many, many obsessive and destructive ghosts out there. Daniel himself likely didn't even know yet how excited he truly was yet to have someone with whom he could share his secrets that would truly understand on a level even his two closest friend never could.
"I didn't know you had a son, Vlad," says a woman in green.
"Hello Harriet, it's nice to see you again!" Vlad says with an enthusiastic smile and shaking the woman's hand. "Actually this is my nephew, Daniel, he's Jack and Maddie Fenton's son. Daniel, this is an old friend of mine, Harriet Chin."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Danny offers his hand the same as Vlad and continues, smiling "you can call me Danny by the way. My Uncle's the only one who calls me Daniel." Danny can't stop himself from beaming.
The three of them chat pleasantly for a while before, Harriet and Vlad catching up on all the gossip of their colleagues, with Daniel interjecting every now and again, until the woman is dragged off to catch up with some other old friends. Her original words had sparked a bit of a thought in Vlad's head, one that kept circling back to the forefront on his mind throughout the conversation. He'd never thought about having children. The only obsession he'd ever had had been Maddie, and he'd spent so a great deal of time building up his empire that by the time he thought himself finally go enough, she'd gone and been married to Jack with beautiful little girl of their own. He'd had to let her go, and for the better part of the last twenty years he'd never found anything else that held his interest.
No, he'd never before wanted children, but as he thought of Daniel, and all the thing the boy needed now- training in the development of his powers, guidance in the form of a respectable role model, a true and trusted confidant to run to if he ever got himself too deeply buried in a situation- Vlad thought having Daniel has a son would have been a wonderful thing. Yes would be good for the boy too, if he were to at least be Vlad's protégé, and so the billionaire starts the ball rolling.
"Daniel, I've been thinking and would you like me to help you learn about you powers? I could teach you all-"
He's cut off when Danny says "Wow really are you serious?! Yes! I'd love that! Can you teach me how to duplicate myself like you did, that was really cool!"
Danny had been trying to figure out how to broach the subject all day. Having Vlad teach him would be great. He was probably going to learn all sorts of thing, not to mention have someone in his life who fully understood what it was like to lead a double life (or half-life)! Because, sure, he could vent to Sam and Tucker, but they never had any good advice for it. And maybe it was just a little hint of the fact Danny hadn't realize how lonely being the only half-human-half-ghost hybrid had been until he learned he wasn't the only one. He couldn't stand the idea of not being friends with Vlad, it would just ruin everything.
Vlad chuckles at his excitement. "Of course I can teach you that, though not quit yet, is there anything you'd like to know maybe?"
"Well, sometimes I wonder if I was going to keep aging, or if I'd died enough not to, but-" he stops, worried he'd just offended Vlad by saying he looked old.
"Oh, so I'm an old man am I?"
He doesn't seem offended so Danny chances the answer of "yeah, I thought you we're a living dinosaur when you answered the door yesterday." He smiles into his punch refusing to meet Vlad's eyes, lest he break into a giggle fit.
"Yes, I think you'll grow up just fine Little Badger." Vlad answer the question finally placing a hand Danny shoulder.