Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or related to it, just this plot

The Master Plan

Uric Igi Shelps

Chapter 1:

Capture

In most towns, people tend to keep their eyes on the ground, usually because there isn't anything of interest up in the sky. But in Amity Park, the supernatural, the paranormal, and any thing that is just plain unnatural goes on all the time.

So the people of Amity Park tend to look up and all around them, and on most nights this would help them, but not tonight. Curiosity is a dangerous thing, and that's something that Danny Fenton would most certainly agree with. But that is another story for another time.

On this cold night, high above the streets of Amity Park's business district, two figures flew, engaged in a well-rehearsed fight, between two beings who knew each other well. Flashes of green and red flared erratically, with unpredictable cries of triumph or pain.

Down below them, a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. The sidewalks were lined with people who were craning their necks, looking on in wonder at the two locked in combat. Above the crowds, late-night workers gawked from their office windows, choosing to be briefly entertained rather than doing their jobs.

A red ectoplasmic beam sailed just over the young ghost's shoulder, flying past him and blasting an ancient stone gargoyle's head off of its perch atop one of Amity Park's tallest buildings. The head sailed up and over the buildings spire and disappearing into the twilight. Spinning around, the ghost fired his own ectoplasmic blast back at his pursuer, and without pausing to see if it connected, became intangible and disappeared through the brick building.

Valerie Gray skidded her hover board to a stop inches from the building. Cursing in frustration, she spun around; resigned to finishing off her night shift at the Nasty Burger, where she should have been at the moment anyway. She hadn't descended more than a few feet when a pair of surprisingly strong arms hit her from behind and grabbed her around the waist.

Valerie looked up in time to see a small office building across the street engulf her field of vision. Throwing her arms up in front of her face, Valerie closed her eyes and waited for the painful death she expected.

Suddenly, the arms loosened their hold, and instead grabbed a hold of her arms and tossed her on top of the rooftop lazily. Hitting the ground hard, nevertheless, Valerie stumbled to her feet and spun around, waiting for her attacker to show himself, though she was already pretty certain who it was.

Sure enough, Danny Phantom floated above her, arms crossed and looking particularly cranky. "I am not your enemy, Valerie," he said in a dangerously calm voice. "I have never purposely done anything wrong, to you or to anyone!"

Clenching her teeth, Val tried to subtly withdraw a small weapon from a back pocket as she spoke, "What about when you held the mayor hostage, oh yeah," she mocked "How about how you ruined my social life!"

Danny rolled his eyes, thoroughly annoyed with what was fast becoming a chronic problem, namely; Valerie Gray and her almost "Jack Fenton-like" obsession with ghosts. "Oh, please — I'm a ghost — how much of a social life do you think I have!"

"Probably no life to speak of," Valerie answered succinctly.

Danny, surprised at her frank response stuttered, "Well — yeah —"

Valerie finally drew her ecto-ray and fired at the confused and unprepared ghost. The blast connected, sending Danny tumbling end over end, up and over the side of the building and across the street, where he slammed into already smashed gargoyle. Shaking his head to regain focus, Danny looked up in time to see Valerie flying up to meet him, this time with her cannon shouldered and charging.

Danny managed to become intangible right before the blast would have hit him. Phasing right through him, the blast slammed the already damaged building, jarring loose the headless gargoyle and an innumerable amount of loose bricks, which all tumbled over the side, directly above the dozen or so people watching the fight from below.

It took a moment for Danny to realize what had happened, but as soon as he did he sprung from his little nook in the corner of the damaged building and dove towards the streets below, leaving a puzzled Valerie above him.

Flying flat out as fast as he could, it wasn't long before he could hear the screams of the frantic people below him, running away and taking cover. A moment later he passed the falling debris, all the while conscience of the fast approaching asphalt. Rolling onto his back, but still flying down headfirst, he looked up at the debris and closed his eyes in concentration.

Gathering strength, he flung out both arms and gritted his teeth while simultaneously doing a mid-air back flip and righting himself. Hovering there, with his arms still held out and continuing to concentrate, Danny opened his eyes and looked up.

Just above him, and only ten feet above the ground, was a semi-transparent ceiling, on which sat the large pile of debris, among it, the now nearly completely demolished stone gargoyle.

Below him, a dozen or so people still stood, looking at Danny with an odd mixture of curiosity, gratitude, and even a little awe. With his energy quickly draining, Danny looked at them in annoyance. "Get out of here!" He yelled through his clenched teeth, desperately holding his mental grip on the barrier.

The remaining people didn't need to be told twice, and quickly scrambled out of the way and down the road to safety. Once he was sure that everyone was safely out of harms way, Danny let the shield drop, and he floated down to the ground, where he fell to his knees and tried to catch his breath.

Panting heavily, he didn't notice Valerie fly down and pause, hovering just above him. She hesitated for just a moment, wondering if she should take advantage of this moment of obvious weakness. The ghost-kid did just save all those people, one part of her mind said rationallyl, maybe he's not so bad.

But another, stronger voice in her head screamed at her that it was just a ploy, an excuse for him to escape, and that he'd only done it because he was to scared of her to actually fight.

After another moment's hesitation, Valerie made up her mind and fired a red tinted net at the ghost boy, who never even knew she was there.

The net caught Danny completely by surprise, and he looked up at a very smug looking Valerie. "Yes!" She screamed in triumph, "I've finally got you ghost-kid, you'll never ruin someone else's life again!"

Annoyed, and still panting, Danny went intangible and tried to phase through the netting. As soon as his intangible form touched the side of the netting, the whole net lit up in bright red, and a horrible jolting went through Danny's body.

Losing his focus, Danny became solid once more as he screamed in pain. A moment later, the jolting stopped, and Danny slumped to the ground, groaning in pain and barely conscious enough to hold onto his ghost form, knowing that if he let himself go, he'd be exposing his secret to the world.

Above him, Valerie was laughing cruelly as she secured the net to her hover board and took off, laughing all the while, as Danny Phantom struggled to hold on to consciousness, and a ghost by the name of Vlad Plasmius watched from above, with a smile.

Author's Note: I know it's still short, only like 3 pages in Microsoft Word, but the next chapter is something like 9, which I think is a major improvement