Vlad smirked darkly as he stared at the screen within his lab, currently in his ghostly form, the screen showed a female ghost with silver hair wearing a jump suit.
"Skulker may have failed to bring me my child but at least he managed to inform me I have a daughter…now to bring another pawn into play and perhaps this one will be able to bring me what I want" Vlad declared as he set about typing upon the keyboard, going through school records.
'Come on there has to be a classmate I can use, it will make things so much easier, after all little Dani won't go all out against a classmate and will be easily captured' Vlad mused before coming to a stop upon a single record.
"Ah, Ms Valerie Gray you would make the perfect pawn…somebody on the inside, academically strong and not lacking in the physical areas of the curriculum, all she's lacking is money, let's see…personal files" Vlad muttered and opened the file, unable to believe how easy it was to hack into the school records of Casper High.
"Let's see…mother died in a ghost attack when she was young, funeral and damage costs from the ghost crippled their finances…why she'll hate ghosts more than anyone in Amity Park…she's perfect" Vlad said with a sinister smirk before heading back up to his office and making a call, which Valerie's father answered.
"Hello" the voice greeted.
"Yes, I'm looking for a Valerie Gray" Vlad replied.
"What do you want with my daughter?" he asked, his tone a tad threatening.
"I want to offer her a job" Vlad replied looking over his nails as if they interested him, moments later he heard the phone move to another speaker.
"Hello" came a feminine voice.
"Yes, is this Valerie Gray?" Vlad asked.
"This is her can I help you?" Valerie asked.
"How would you like hunt a certain ghost?" Vlad asked, his dark smirk returning.
"Why would I?" Valerie responded.
"Because I can pay you a nice amount of cash if you can bring me the ghost I want" Vlad replied.
"Why me?" Valerie asked.
"Because you have motivation, I've done my homework Valerie, ghosts cost you everything and now I'm offering you everything back if you can capture a ghost" Vlad replied.
"How can you promise that?" Valerie asked, it was then Vlad told her how much job was paying, Valerie nearly fainted there and then.
"That's a lot of cash…but how can I catch a ghost and how can you even afford that?" Valerie asked.
"I will provide the equipment free of charge as long as you can bring the ghost to me unharmed and as for how I can afford it my name is Vladimir Masters" Vlad replied.
"Vlad Masters…the BILLIONAIRE" Valerie almost screamed into the phone.
"The very same…now I trust you'll do the job" Vlad replied
"What's ghost?" Valerie asked, growing her own smirk.
"I believe she was dubbed herself yesterday as Dani Phantom after she got rid of that octopus ghost" Vlad replied.
"Yeah I know her, consider it done, the minute I get the equipment I'll get her" Valerie responded.
"Good to hear it, the equipment will be there in a few days, bye for now" Vlad replied before hanging up, completely unaware that Dani wasn't his daughter and that Valerie was after the wrong ghost.
The Next Day…
Valerie was in the library, looking for books on ghost hunting when she froze in her tracks when she saw who was on the other side of the book case, she felt her cheeks tinge red as she watched the older boy through the book case, her heart rate increasing as on the other side was Danny Fenton, the boy she'd had a crush on since she was in sixth grade, she'd always been too timid to approach him.
Then again nearly everyone was too timid to approach Danny, especially after he beat the crap out of Dash the other day, the teachers still hadn't caught him for it thanks to his disappearing acts.
Danny came out of the corridor of books, one in hand and began to head towards the desk to check the book out, Valerie just watched him from behind, admiring his physique.
'Come on girl…if you don't ask someone else will' Valerie thought to herself, silencing the voice in her head that had been screaming sarcastic remarks about everyone been too scared to do that so she had all the time she needed.
"Err...hi" Valerie greeted once she was behind Danny, he glanced over his shoulder and looked her over, taking his book back from the woman behind the desk.
"You want something?" Danny asked as he raised an eyebrow, it was rare that anyone approached him.
"Err...yeah...are you...busy...tonight?" Valerie stammered nervously. her gaze averted.
'Oh great...she's trying to ask me out' Danny moaned within his mind.
"Valerie you seem like a nice girl, you don't want to go messing with the wrong sort" Danny replied.
"Wrong sort?" Valerie questioned, her voice still a little shaky.
"Yeah that's me" Danny muttered, noticing Lancer enter the library out of the corner of his eye "And that's my cue to leave" he muttered.
"What?" Valerie asked, Danny nodded towards Lancer, once she saw him her eyes widened and understood, Danny did a quick once over of the library before smirking.
"Mr Fenton!" Lancer called, Danny turned to face him, slowly beginning to step backwards.
"Sorry teach, gotta run" Danny replied before turning on his heel and bolting, Lancer began to jog after him, Danny made a quick turn into one of the endless columns of books and ran straight into a dead end, glancing back he didn't see the teacher and so turned invisible before turning intangible and walking through the wall.
Lancer rounded into where he saw Danny run.
"Ha got ya Mr..." Lancer drifted off when he saw the youth was nowhere in site.
"What?...how does he do that?" Lancer asked, eyes wide, whenever he got close to Danny he'd pull a disappearing act "That's it I'm calling his parents" he muttered angrily before storming out of the library.
Meanwhile...
Danny was walking about the campus, once again visible and smirking "Well that was fun" he sighed, he opened the book.
"Ghosts spotted in Amity Park" Danny read, he wasn't too surprised someone actually wrote a book on this considering how many ghosts turned up in Amity Park, within it detailed ghosts detailing their abilities, weaknesses and even their obsessions, it had been provided to all schools near Amity Park for student safety.
He flicked to the contents, tracing down the list with his finger, before tapping it on 'Skulker' he flicked through the pages until he found it.
'Skulker, ghost worlds apparent greatest hunter, blah, blah, blah...ultimate bounty hunter and only goes after the rarest of prey, all ways working alone...but he said employer, so he's now working for someone and from this information, if it is accurate, the only reason he would work with another is either if it benefits him or the employer is more powerful than him and or has some form of leverage...so chances are a stronger ghost is behind the scenes manipulating everything' Danny mused, placing the book into his bag.
A/N Sorry I took so long, getting writers block, reason why it's so short but at the moment my better update would move this fic way too fast so it may be a while before I update this fic, man I hate writing these short chapters.