This is a one-shot and NOT up for adoption.

There was about a second's warning.

Danny Phantom had just been flying freely through the sky, enjoying the purity of the moment and the absence of any ghosts to fight. It was dusk, and the top edge of a dark orange sun had just melted beneath the horizon leaving behind a sky half-painted with darkening blues and the other half a haze or red, orange, a gray-ish yellow, almost green, and bleached blue. The far end of the sky, where the blue was swiftly turning black, held a few of the tell-tale sparkles of the star-scape that would soon overtake the entire sky. A few thin strips of cloud were also present, on the orange side, and they were painted lavender in near-perfect contrast to the orange background.

Blue mist, brighter than the sky above, escaped as a wisp from the halfa's mouth, signaling the presence of a ghost. Phantom stopped immediately in mid-air and looked around for any ghosts or evidence of one.

"Calm down, little badger," came a well-known and unwelcome voice from behind Danny just as he was hit in the back with an ecto-blast.

He spun around and managed to spit out, "Vlad-!" before his ghost form short-circuited and darkness overtook his vision. Danny realized that perhaps the blast hadn't been just a normal ecto-blast when he saw Vlad holding something vaguely gun-shaped, metallic, and pointed at him; when he noticed that a white ring had appeared and he was transforming back; and when he realized he was blacking out. Then he lost consciousness.

An unknown amount of time later--at least half a day, because the sky was light again, signaling night was over--Danny woke up somewhere unfamiliar.

After a minute of waking up and mental processing, Danny realized that he was in the back of a car, laying down full length on a narrow albeit comfortable seat. The car had that new smell, as well as that smell that permeated everywhere in Sam's house; the smell of wealth. Then Danny remembered he'd been attacked with Vlad and realized that all of Vlad's stuff had that same smell: he was in Vlad's car!

Abruptly the kidnapped halfa sat up and got a better view of the car. He was currently on the back seat--he shifted around until he was sitting upright in the center, though he didn't put on a seatbelt--and Vlad was driving.

"What's going on!?" Danny shouted as he tried to access his ghost powers--the ring appeared and then disappeared again as if it had hit a wall.

"I've temporarily shorted out your powers, Daniel," Vlad said as he glanced back, trying to cover the fact that the boy's voice had surprised him and he'd jumped slightly in his seat. "Don't bother trying to transform."

"What's going on!?" Danny demanded again, leaning forward in his seat and gripping the front passenger seat for anchorage in the moving vehicle.

"It's rather convenient that you chose now to wake up, little badger, because we have arrived," Vlad said, ignoring the question.

"What?" Danny couldn't help himself. He looked out the side window and saw what appeared to be some kind of store with animals displayed. "Where are we?"

"It's called a pet store, boy, and since you are always the one telling me to get a cat, I decided to bring you with me."

This information very nearly floored Danny--mentally that is--and it took him a moment to say, "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Daniel, I am serious." At this point, Vlad got out of his car and walked around to the other side of it to glare at Danny through the tinted window, blocking his view of the store. "Are you going to get out or do I need to drag you?"

"I'm getting out!" Danny shoved the door open, hoping it would hit Vlad--no such luck as the man merely stepped out of range of the door's swing--and roughly exited the car, almost slamming the door shut behind him.

Danny followed Vlad into the store, mumbling as he went, "I can't believe you kidnapped me to get a cat..." The store's extravagance, as he took notice of it, stunned him.

Vlad gave him an amused glance as they headed towards the feline section. "You didn't think I would buy something second-hand, did you?"

Danny's only response was to continue gaping at everything pedigree. Then he shook himself to clear his head. "What about my parents? They'll notice I'm gone..."

"They already know you're with me, and won't expect you back for the day. They think we're at a football game."

"..." Danny could only sigh in frustration. "How big is this store, anyway?" Aren't we there yet?

Almost as if Vlad had known what Danny was thinking, he said, "Look, we're here."

And then Danny could see the cats, as Vlad moved away a short distance to speak to a waiting attendant. All of the cats that Danny could see acted as if they knew exactly how ridiculously valuable their pedigrees were worth. Which basically meant they acted like cats, who nearly always had a self-important air hanging across their furry shoulders.

I always knew he should get a cat, but who knew the pet would be so fitting? Danny couldn't help but think of the comparable arrogance of pet species and Vlad Masters.

"Danny, where have you been!?" Jazz couldn't help but ask as she stared at her brother who had finally showed up, seemingly unharmed, after spending a whole day with his halfa arch-enemy. She, Sam, and Tucker were all up in Danny's room; Danny was standing in the middle of the floor, Tucker was sitting in the computer chair, and Sam and Jazz were sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Some ridiculous rich-people pet store."

"A pet store!? Why? What did Vlad do to you, Danny?"

"He shorted out my powers for a while-"

"!"

"-calm down, they came back fine--and he dragged me around this pet store and kept discussing different cats with me."

"Cats?"

"Apparently, since I've told him to get a cat so manny times, he decided to finally get one and forced me to come along for it."

"..." His friends and sister stared at him like he'd grown a second head. No, not true; there was that time he actually had grown a second head after trying to duplicate himself and that wasn't the same expression.

"That's it."

"He didn't do anything else? He didn't try to hurt you, or make you his son, or take your mom-" Danny cut Sam off; the rant was familiar enough and didn't need to be repeated.

"No, he didn't do any of that. He just...bought a cat."

"Named Maddie?" Tucker spoke up.

"...actually yeah, he did name it after mom..."

Tucker snorted.

"And your powers are back to normal?" asked the ever-concerned sister.

Danny transformed to Phantom as a demonstration, then back. "Absolutely normal."

Sam got a strange, amused expression on her face. The trio of friends all looked at her for explanation. "What?" Danny asked.

"You realize that you were catnapped, don't you?" Not kidnapped, not ghost-napped; catnapped.

Jazz smirked, Danny face-palmed, and Tucker burst into uproarious laughter.