It was a relatively normal morning at Casper High. Chattering students filed into the building as close to the late bell as they could get without actually being late. Most had learned to simply ignore the occasional ghost battle as long as the combatants didn't get too close. The one that raged as they found their way to class was no exception, spectacular though it was.

The fight had started as a duel between Danny Phantom and the heavily armored spook a few students recognized as Skulker. That was hardly unusual, and very few people paid any more attention than it took to determine that they weren't in danger. Then the mysterious ghost hunter showed up. Suddenly, everyday drudgery had become fun and exciting, but it still wasn't anything they hadn't seen a few times before. A three-way battle royale involving two of Amity Park's most infamous celebrities still wasn't worth having detention later.

"Would you just leave this to me, already?" Danny yelled peevishly.

"Not on your afterlife, ghost!" Valerie shot back, directing blasts at both of her foes.

The ghost boy ducked out of the way and nearly collided with Skulker, who took the opportunity to jab him with something. He countered with an energy blast and might have demanded to know what just happened, but Valerie's jet sled smashed into him. Apparently, she still cared more about defeating him than any other ghost.

"My work here is done!" Skulker announced, although he lingered for a few minutes to watch his favorite prey grapple with his second favorite prey. When it became apparent that the boy was too preoccupied to respond, he flew away, pouting. After he judged a suitable distance had passed, he pressed a button on his wrist unit and said, "Phase One is complete."

"Oh, excellent!" announced the voice of his partner in crime. "Then I, Technus, shall proceed to Phase Two!"

Skulker shook his head, half amused and half annoyed, as he continued on to the temporary base. Vlad would be waiting for a status report, and the sooner he gave it, the sooner he could get back to more important things. Like his own plans to capture the ghost boy after this one failed.

He didn't have much faith in it.

The two sometime enemies trudged to class side by side. The fight had finally ended when the late bell rang. Danny had used the distraction to escape, and Valerie had been only too happy to let him. The last thing she needed was to get grounded again. "So what happened to you?" she asked, noticing that her friend was in much the same condition she was.

Danny cringed slightly. "Oh…uh, Dash…?" He refrained from a sigh of relief when she only nodded. In a sudden burst of impishness, he asked the same of her.

Valerie cringed as well, and berated herself for not already having an excuse. "Um, just not feeling great today," was her lame reply. She did not manage to hold back a relieved sigh, but the boy pretended not to notice as they parted ways.

He snuck into class amidst snickering and stares and actually made it to his seat before the teacher intoned, "Nice of you to join us, Mr. Fenton." He grinned sheepishly as the man reached over to mark him as late instead of truant. The lecture resumed, and everyone returned to falling asleep.

Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn't remember hitting his head, but that's what it felt. His side, right below the ribs where Skulker jabbed him, was horribly sore. It almost felt like his last flu shot, except that it burned. He surreptitiously reached down to brush his fingers across the area and wasn't very surprised to feel a knot just under the skin.

Suddenly, he was very, very scared. It was all he could do sit quietly in his seat and not run home. He couldn't trust his parents to help; he'd have to tell them what happened, and there was always the chance that they would turn on him. He would have to wait until he could talk to Jazz. With a sigh of complete misery, not that out of place considering the teacher's subject matter, he settled back to wait.

By the time his first class with both Sam and Tucker rolled around, his head felt like it was about to split open, and the knot had started to go away. Considering that meant that whatever he'd been injected with was being dissolved in his bloodstream, it did nothing to ease his mind.

"Mr. Fenton!"

Danny jumped and looked up. He was vaguely aware that Mr. Lancer had been calling his name for some time, but he couldn't seem to muster the energy to care. He was, however, surprised that the teacher's expression was one of worry and not anger. "Perhaps you should go to the nurse's office, Danny," Lancer said quietly. The boy nodded and instantly regretted it, but he managed to get to his feet and stumble out of the room. He didn't remember much after that.

"Would you give me a minute? Perfection takes time!"

"Perfection also takes patience, which I am rapidly running out of!"

"Should've listened to Katy…"

"What was that?"

"I've only been at this for a couple of hours! This isn't as easy as I make it look, you know!"

Maddie gazed worriedly down her little boy and brushed a few hairs out of his face. She had used the opportunity awarded by his unconscious state to take a few blood samples, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Granted, it was a little hard to tell which strains of ectoplasm were supposed to be there and which ones weren't, but...

Danny stirred slightly and blinked unfocused eyes up at her. "What happened?" he murmured.

"Someone found you passed out in the hall," she answered quietly. "How do you feel, sweetie?"

He thought about that, and was surprised to realize that his migraine was not as bad. There was still dull ache in his side where Skulker had injected him, but it no longer felt like it was on fire. "Better than I did," he confessed.

Maddie appeared completely unconvinced as she felt his forehead. "Well, you're not running a fever..." she allowed. "But I think we'll wait and see how you feel tomorrow morning. I may yet take you to the doctor."

"No!" Danny exclaimed, a note of panic creeping into his voice. "Not the doctor, please?"

"Honestly, Danny! I don't know why you-" Maddie broke off as she realized that she did know why he didn't want to see a doctor, and smiled encouragingly. "Well, we'll talk about that tomorrow. You just get some rest, all right? I'm going to be here checking on you periodically, so no trying to sneak out, either." The boy smiled and nodded, in full agreement. His head may have been better, but it still hurt too much to try. He leaned back again as she closed the door.

As she reached the stairs, a voice whispered next to her ear. "Hey, pretty young thang..."

"He's doing better," she sighed, turning to face the glowing red eyes of the Ghost Master. "I'd still like to know what you were doing there."

"You okay in the head, ma'am?" the ghost scoffed. "I was there to run some fool off my property!"

"Your property, is it, now?" The hunter picked up the Ghost Weasel from the bottom of the steps and displayed it menacingly.

The Ghost Master had an amazing array of facial expressions for a creature that only had eyes to work. Maddie could have sworn he paled as he backed away, the "arms" of his sheet making a gesture of surrender. "In that...it's Phantom's property...and I...I'm going to go now..."

He vanished. A quick check on the Ghost Finder revealed that he had, in fact, left as quickly as he could float, and Maddie gave a satisfied little smirk. Jack would never have stood for it, but she had come to the conclusion that having a team of ghosts nearby could be very useful, indeed. They tended to chase other ghosts away, which let Danny get more of his homework done.

She sighed the longing sigh of a helpless mother and reflected on how strange it was to think of Amity Park as her son's territory. He was the dominant ghost in the area, after all. She wondered if he thought of it that way, too.

The Ghost Finder beeped as it registered a new ghost a few yards away from the house. After it held its position for a few minutes, Maddie dismissed it and set to work on dinner. It was probably just one of the haunters, again. They seemed to enjoy playing "Torture Jack Fenton" a little too much.

Skulker stood on a rooftop, his binoculars trained on his prey's window. He couldn't quite see the boy from there, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was there. He grumbled slightly at the need to abide by Plasmius' plan.

"What was I thinking?" he muttered, not for the first time. Giving the ghost boy to Vlad had seemed like a good idea at the time, and he'd regretted it ever since. He'd had Danny Phantom in his very grasp, and just let it slip away so someone could play some fool game with a poorly constructed ecto-skeleton and two teenagers.

Ah, well. Exist and learn, after all. He certainly was not going to make the same mistake twice. As soon as Technus slipped, Skulker would be there to catch the whelp and ensure that this plan wasn't a complete waste.

"There you are!" Skulker flinched and rolled his eyes before turning. "I'd like you to go find some way to distract those haunters," Vlad went on. It was painfully clear that he was simply coming up with make-work to keep his employee busy. However, the ghost nodded. At least, he was still getting paid.