"I said no ghosts in the school! What happened to that?"

Vlad Plasmius raised an eyebrow at the skinny little girl before him. With brown-blonde hair and a spattering of freckles across her nose, she was hardly an intimidating presence. Even with spikes of power arcing about her, she still barely registered a blip on his "beings to watch out for" radar. However, when the room temperature started to soar until even his ghostly chill couldn't protect him, he backed down. "She was acting on her own."

"Well stop her, if it's within your powers to do so, and if not, let me." She flicked her hair over her shoulder and glared back down at the papers in front of her. "Or did you not hear me the first time I told you that Summers was hired as school counselor?"

Plasmius rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, and she's the Slayer. Terrifying. How exactly were you planning on destroying Jack Fenton again?"

"Ending the world should work," she muttered.

He stared. And stared. Then, suddenly getting it, he burst out laughing. "Ha! Ha ha ha! What a kidder!" Still smiling, he tossed a relatively weak ball of ectoplasmic energy into the air. "Now really. How are you going to do it?"

For a moment she made no response, merely scribbling down a few notes and flipping the page she was working on over. She frowned and signed her name on the back. "The Anagogic demons are refusing the treatise… Remind me to kill them later." She shrugged and shuffled the paper under several others. After another moment of silence, she looked up. "Oh, you're still here?"

He nodded, trying hard not to roll his eyes again. He wasn't sure he succeeded.

She continued, "Questioning my ability to hold up on my end of the deal?"

"You haven't been very forthcoming with the details, you'll have to admit, Angela."

Said girl stood, eyes narrowing. The paper in her hands furled up and developed quite a nice tan. "Could you maybe, I don't know, trust that I know what I'm doing?"

"You may be a witch, but that doesn't mean your plans are fail-proof," Plasmius said, completely unfazed. "I just need to know the details behind this plan of yours. In return for the full cooperation of the ghosts of Amity Park, that's a small price to pay."

The temperature hovered there at just under the point where the paper would have no choice but to combust for a few more seconds then dropped back down to normal levels as she returned to her seat, sighing. "Of course. But, I have not had the full cooperation of the ghosts of Amity Park, now have I, Plasmius?"

She smiled. "And, without that cooperation, how can I be certain that my plans will go… well… according to plan?" Eyeing the glowing purple orb in his hands, the smile melted into a smirk. "And, of course, the whole threaten me thing would work a lot better if I didn't have that spell around Mr. Fenton protecting him from attacks, both direct and indirect. You kill me, you kill your chances of ever killing him, figuratively or literally. So think of it this way – even if I don't ruin him when I'm done, you'll be able to again. Isn't that enough?"

Vlad considered killing her anyway. She was impertinent and rash, and her secrecy was merely a hunk of poison topping on the cake. On the other hand… She wasn't entirely stupid. As long as he didn't have to spend much time in her company, aiding her might not be such a bad idea. And, of course, as she'd already pointed out, it couldn't hurt. He only stood to win. He cast one last longing gaze at the ectoplasm in his hand and let it dissipate. "Very well then. I will speak with Miss Spectra about today's disruption." He offered her a quick bow and swept out of the room.

Outside, he blasted a hole in the wall, startling a waiting representative Polgara demon,. That is, assuming startling it meant causing it to skewer him through where his heart should have been, had he not gone intangible. He glared at the demon and shot another blast through the demon's heart. Unfortunately for the demon, it was not a ghost, so the sudden absence of part of its heart caused quite a bit more damage.

"Bloody demons."

Once sure no more jumpy demons would stab, skewer, or otherwise perform moves that might incapacitate a human, he concentrated briefly. In barely a second, he was once more Vlad Masters, billionaire extraordinaire. He whipped out his cell phone. "Hello? Yes. Bring me to the school. I want to request a meeting with Miss Summers, the school counselor. And let Maddie know I'll be stopping by for tea." He closed the cell phone with a snap and stepped into the waiting limo. Time to see what was so scary about this 'Slayer'.

Across town, in Casper High, one Tucker Foley removed his hat, smoothed back his hair, and replaced the hat carefully. He kissed his PDA good luck and stepped into the room.

Buffy glanced up at her latest student – Tucker, if her file was correct – and smiled. Outwardly, that is. Inwardly she groaned. His record was much like Danny's. Suddenly during the beginning of your freshman year, grades dropped, absences increased, and something noticeably changed. Her job, should she choose to accept, was to find out what that something was and fix it.

She looked over Tucker's file again – no trace of family issues, no genetics… The symptoms of the something were less noticeable in Tucker's case than in Danny's. Maybe that was something to start on. Buffy gently dropped the file to the desk and folded her arms over it. "Hey, Tucker. Congrats on being my third customer today."

Tucker grinned and sat down in front of her desk. "It's nice to meet you, Buffy."

She blinked. "First name already? Jeez – and here I thought it'd take at least a run-through of the old 'please call me' routine."

Tucker laughed nervously. Was that good or bad? Did that mean she wanted him to keep calling her Buffy? If he switched to Miss Summers now, it'd be definitely noticeable and definitely awkward. Asking would work, though only a loser would do that. No one as suave and debonair as Tucker Foley would ever resort to asking.

He asked. "So by that, you did mean you wanted me to keep calling you Buffy, right? Because I'm totally cool with it if you don't. Just let me know."

She smiled. "Buffy's fine. Anything with my last name makes me feel like I'm back in high school."

"Oh. Good. I mean right."

"So, Tucker, your grades, among other things, have been slipping lately. So far I know, it involves either Danny or extreme coincidence, and I don't believe in coincidence. Following that… what are you two up to, and does it involve school rat infestations?"

Tucker struggled to make the connection between rats and his recent ghost-hunting and failed. "Rats? You do mean nasty things with tails, right?"

"Yup, unless you're worried about another kind. I didn't find out which kind it was." She paused. "Actually, I never even thought of that. Is Danny afraid of rat people? Cuz I'm pretty sure that whole conversation before would've made a whole lot more sense in that light. Rat people? Not pretty."

Tucker ran through the possible scenarios in his head and settled on the rats being related to some stupid story of Jazz's. But saying Danny was afraid of rats wouldn't really be lying – there was the whole secret to consider. Danny would definitely not be happy if someone were to let it out. So, conscience assuaged, Tucker nodded. "Danny definitely doesn't like rats, and I'm not too fond of them myself."

"Enough that a rat infestation would make you late to English periodically, drop your grades, and result in heightened secrecy and a definite change in social patterns?"

"What can I say? They're nasty. And speaking of nasty, would you like to get to know me better by having lunch with me at the Nasty Burger this Saturday?"

Buffy stared at him for a few minutes longer before closing his file and standing. "In that case," she started, completely ignoring his question, "I guess I have a bit of hunting to do. Tell you what – I'll go chase down these rats, show them to you to make sure their the right ones, and then you, Danny, and Samantha can all get back to your exciting educational lives."

Tucker was saved from replying by the sudden entrance of one tall, well-built man with white hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Miss Summers, I presume?" he asked, closing the door behind him. "How fortunate that you're in. I was worried I might have to wait." Then, as if only just noticing Tucker, he gasped. "And if it isn't… what was your name again? Well if it isn't one of young Daniel's little friends! I do hope I'm not interrupting."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Am I supposed to know you?"

"Well of course not yet. How silly of me not to introduce myself. I am Vlad Masters, one of the richest men in the world. I'm an old college friend of the Fenton's, and when I heard young Daniel had a new counselor… well, after the last one, I just had to stop by to see for myself."

"The last one?" Buffy thought back to the hiring process. "Didn't she turn out to be crazy?"

"Mentally unbalanced was the way I believe the school administration put it," Vald agreed. He considered pointing out that Penelope Spectra was also a ghost, but that would be insulting the Slayer's intelligence and, on the off-chance she really didn't already know, it would seriously annoy Angela if he went around calling the Slayer's attention to Amity Park's ghost infestation.

Buffy considered the chances that there were two guidance counselors named Penelope Spectras running around, one a mental ghost, and the other just mental.

"So, Buffy – you don't mind if I call you Buffy, do you? – why don't we go somewhere and do lunch? I'd so love to hear about your previous counseling experience, you know, so I can assure myself that I can trust you with Daniel's care." He glanced at Tucker. "Are you still here? Why don't you run along to class – wouldn't want you to get in trouble with your teacher."

Tucker glanced at Buffy, who nodded absently. "I'll see you again next week – don't worry, I won't forget the rats."

Tucker trudged out the door.

Inside, Buffy started rifling through her files. The next student was due in fifteen minutes – her name was Star. Buffy shook her head – someone didn't like their daughter. A name like Star was like a death warrant – be pretty, popular, and brainless, or be the butt of every joke for your entire school career. Based on the problems – low grades, depression, and a severe lack of original thought, Star seemed to have gone with the former.

Vlad coughed.

Buffy glanced up. "Oh, you're still here?"

"Well, yes. It would seem so."

She smiled. "Look, it's sweet that you'd come all the way out here from… wherever it is you live, which I'm hoping isn't just around the corner or that wouldn't sound nearly as good as it should have, but I think that if you don't trust the school enough to hire a good counselor, you should talk to his parents, not me."

He frowned. "I thought lunch would be a good place to discuss Daniel's current lack of attention and his future."

"Sorry, Mr. Masters, but that's something I can't discuss without the student's permission. And since I'm not currently looking for a boyfriend, fifty years older than me or otherwise, I think I'm going to say no." She turned to the files on her desk. "Now, since you've already sent one student out of here before the session was up, why don't you leave before another one comes and has her session wasted too. I do have a job, in case you haven't noticed."

Vlad glared at her. "Very well then, Ms. Summers. I'm very sorry to hear that."

Danny stretched before taking his place across from Tucker and Sam in their booth at the Nasty Burger and eyeing his friend. "I take it she said no?"

Tucker sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Worse. Vlad showed up and asked her too."

Sam cut in, "Wait, this Buffy's going on a date with Vlad?"

Danny and Sam's faces twisted with disgust, but Tucker only sighed again and hugged his PDA. "At least I can always count on you, baby."

Author's Note: Erg. First chapter to be forced out. I haven't been watching much Buffy lately, which makes the writing a bit harder… I should probably throw in some more Danny Phantom to my TV schedule too… sweatdrop So what have I been watching? House! huggles He's so hot! happy swooning sigh But… ah well. I'm not writing House fanfiction, now am I? Back to the Danny Buffy stuff. But yeah – so I apologize if this chapter completely sucks. I hope it doesn't, but since I'm the author and tend to be biased in a "Gah, I suck" direction, I can't tell if it really does or not.