Danny Phantom belongs to Nickelodeon, Viacom and Butch Hartman or whoever else. I just know for certain that it doesn't belong to me and I don't make any money off of it.

Deception

"Crud! Late for school again," Danny said, slipping on his coat as he ran out the door. "Darn it! Jazz already left! She must have thought I was sick or something,"

His older sister had taken to doing that lately. Ever since the "shot" incident, she'd been a little more cautious regarding his physical health and had been giving him more time to himself...in his opinion, a little too much time.

"I'm goin'--" he paused when he saw some children on the sidewalk about 15 feet away, staring at him with wide eyes as he yelled, "--to school. Yeah. On my way to school...that way," Danny tried to cover for his almost-slip-up.

The wind was blowing in his face and Danny pulled his collar up to help shield himself from the cold. He glanced at his watch. Ten minutes into first period. Lancer was going to have a fit. Danny muttered under his breath, cursing the fact that there seemed to be so many people on the roads. Normally, he would go ghost and fly to school, but that would attract a little too much attention today. It was still pretty dark and he had to squint into the wind to see where he was going. That's when he heard the sound of a car coming up behind him. He waited for it to pass by, but it never did. He kept walking, nonchalantly glancing back a little at a time to see where it was. He didn't see it, but he still heard the slow rumbling of its engine.

"What is going on?" Danny mumbled, beset by curiosity. He finally turned a 180 and stopped to see a limo parked right behind him.

"Why, hello, Daniel," said a voice Danny had come to recognize, unfortunately, so well.

"Plasmius? What are you doing here?" Danny said as the man got out of his car.

"Just thought I'd give my favorite little 'adoptive nephew' a ride to school...is that so much to ask?"

"No, thanks. I think I'm better off walking," Danny said, as he immediately turned back around to start jogging to school. He was 20 minutes late already.

But Vlad caught him by his up-turned collar.

"Oh, Daniel, I really do think that you should hitch a ride with me."

With so many people around, Danny couldn't go ghost. He was about to scream when Vlad put a hand over his mouth and shoved him into the car.

'No one noticed a fourteen year old boy just get shoved unwillingly into a limo...I could have just gone ghost and apparently no one would have noticed anyway!' Danny thought bitterly, cursing retrospect.

Vlad got in behind him and the driver continued on their route to Casper High.

"What do you want from me, Plasmius?"

"I already told you, Daniel, nothing," said Vlad as he rummaged through Danny's book bag. He seemed to have found what he wanted when his eyes grew wide and he grinned.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked, yanking it back.

"Looking for blackmail. Where ever did you get this picture of you and your friend Tucker hugging?"

"Hey! Give that back! I stole it from Sam. I don't need more blackmail." Danny mumbled.

"I think I'll hang onto this, Daniel. You never know whose fingerprints I might need..." Vlad said smoothly.

Danny glared, his eyes flashing an angry green.

"Oh, I do so love it when you give those 'angry eyes', Daniel. You become more like me everyday."

Danny was about to retort when the limo came to a quick halt in front of Casper High.

"There you go, Daniel. No harm done," Vlad said, his eyes brimming with wicked glee.

"No thanks," Danny said, stepping out and slamming the limousine door shut.

He watched, ever suspicious, as Vlad's limo went careening down the street. He furrowed his brow, wondering what his interest would be in a picture of he and Tucker. He heard the bell to second period ring from outside the school and he decided now was not the time to dwell on such matters as he ran up the stairs and into the school building.

Yep, he was right. Lancer did have a fit, but only one day's detention was administered, as that was the maximum penalty for an unexcused tardy.

"Dude, are you okay? You've been late for school 2 days this week...and it's only Tuesday!" his friend Tucker said, meaning to sound concerned.

"I'm fine. Just still a little shaky from the whole 'shot' incident," Danny reassured.

"But that was a month ago, Danny," Sam said. "Are you ever going to get over it?"

"Yeah! I mean, I'm over it now. I just need to catch on some missed sleep, that's all," Danny said, hoping that was the truth.

His friends exchanged nervous glances, but said nothing more about that subject, allowing Danny his personal space. He'd been more prone to moodiness lately and they really didn't want to bring that side of him out again.

Danny eyed his soup as he pulled it out of his lunchbox in the cafeteria. He sighed. Why did he have to be so lazy when he packed his lunch this morning? Oh, that's right, because he slept in and didn't have time to pack anything but soup. At least he hadn't used the Fenton Thermos on accident, he thought with a slight smile. This soup seemed as though it was slightly tinted green. He wasn't a big fan of his mom's home cooking. Neither was the rest of his family, which was the reason they often ordered out. Well, nothing he could do to change it now, he thought bitterly as he shoved a spoonful of the vile-looking soup into his mouth.

He winced at the taste. It was like eating chicken...with extra snot. He nearly gagged as he began to push the thermos away, but Sam stopped him.

"Not today, Danny. You haven't been eating anything for lunch these past few days. I'm worried about you. You need to eat to keep your strength up."

Danny gave a typical teenage-boy-who's-irritated sigh. He plugged his nose and downed the soup quickly as Sam watched with narrow eyes, as if to make sure he finished every last drop. Sometimes, he thought, she was more like a mother than a girlfr--er--friend. Just friend.

"Good," Sam smiled as the bell rang for the next class. "Let's go, Danny."

"Yeah, I'm coming," he said as he stuffed the thermos back into his lunchbox.

It was during study hall that Danny told Sam and Tucker about his encounter with Vlad. They seemed worried.

"Plasmius? What's he doing around here?" Tuck asked.

"Apparently looking for blackmail," Danny said.

Sam snickered, remembering taking the photo of Tucker and Danny as they hugged unintentionally.

"Yeah, laugh all you want. It's not so funny that your only copy of that picture is now in the hands of Danny's worst enemy."

"Oh, please, Tucker. Do you actually think I wouldn't make more than one copy of a picture as priceless as that?"

Danny and Tucker gulped simultaneously.

"Anyway, back on topic. This is really weird, first that hair, then this 'fingerprint on blackmail' thing. Vlad's up to something."

That's right, the hair. Danny had almost forgotten about that; it had been so long ago. What would Vlad be doing with fingerprints and hair?

"Well, let me know if you discover anything, all right, Danny?" Sam said.

"Yeah; me, too. We're always here for you, man," Tucker supported.

"Thanks. I will," said Danny, glad he had friends he could count on.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Later that night, Danny sat in bed contemplating his earlier encounter with Vlad. Danny wasn't sure what Vlad would do with his fingerprints...or hair.

Maybe he'd leave them at a crime scene so Danny would be pinned for a crime he didn't commit. No...Vlad was too direct when it came to his evil deeds to do that. After all, it doesn't get much more direct than kidnapping a 14-year-old, shoving him into a limo and rummaging through his backpack.

An unfamiliar sensation all of a sudden went through Danny. It was as though a wave of exhaustion was covering his body from his feet, slowly all the way up to his head. For a brief moment, he felt as though he was going to pass out, but it never happened. His vision returned and feeling came back into his limbs.

"What was that?" he muttered to himself. He passed it off as nothing, just another spell as an after-effect of last month.

He quickly jumped to his feet. He needed Jazz's help on this one. She was smarter (much as he hated admitting it to her, personally) and would know what Vlad wanted with his fingerprints.

"Jazz? We're leaving, okay? Be good and take care of Danny for us!" he heard his parents say as the door slammed.

Go? Where were they going? He slapped his forehead as he remembered; it was their anniversary, and Dad had actually remembered this year. He was planning to take Mom on a cruise for the occasion...that was, his memory working, not their anniversary.

"Jazz?" Danny called into the living room.

"Mmm?" She said, not looking up from her book, So You're the Only Responsible One in the Family.

At first, Danny shook his head at such a long book title, then continued, "Can I talk to you?"

She glanced up. Danny never wanted to talk, so when he said he did...it was serious.

"Sure," she said, putting her book down and scooting over, allowing him room to sit beside her on the couch.

He told her the story of that morning when Vlad had pulled up and driven him to school. Jazz listened intently, soaking in every detail as Danny talked.

When he was finished, she sat analyzing the information for awhile.

"Maybe he needs your DNA or something to finish those clones he was working on."

Danny shook his head. "No, he just needed a mid-morph sample for that. Which, by the way, he is never going to get!"

The effort it took to say that last sentence with certain intensity nearly wore him out and he began to sway back and forth from his position on the couch.

Jazz caught him as he finally collapsed, dazed, but not unconscious.

"Danny, what's wrong?"

"I don't know. It happened a little while ago, too. I feel like I'm going to pass out," he said faintly.

Jazz thought a moment. "Danny, did Vlad do anything else?"

Danny shook his head, mesmerized.

"Now, I need you to think very hard and remember, Danny. Did Vlad do ANYTHING else?"

Danny shut his eyes and thought intently. "I just saw him snoop around in my backpack for a little while, then he pulled out the picture."

"How do you know he didn't do anything else to your book bag?"

"I--I guess I don't," Danny said, horrified.

They both sat thinking before Danny's head finally cleared and it came to him.

"The soup!"

"What?"

Before he could answer, he was up and running into the kitchen, he pulled out the leftover soup still in the refrigerator.

It did not have a green tint.

Danny put the container down and backed up, leaning on the table.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Jazz asked, eyeing her brother worriedly.

"Jazz, I--I think I've been poisoned."

DUN DUN DUN!!!! I decided to post this one in chapters (unlike Ecto-Shot) because I'm not done with it, yet and I thought I would see how people reacted if my stories weren't posted all at once. The other ones were because they were all done by the time I got my account. Blah blah blah. Sorry for rambling. Please send me feedback--REVIEW!!! Thanks mucho!!

Hopefully more chapters will be up soon…but that all depends on reviews, I suppose…