Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom! Butch Hartman does! Enjoy!

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Friday. December 23rd, 2004. Fenton RV. 2:36 a.m.

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Dani's eyes shot open.

Her cell phone was vibrating.

Dani quietly got up and quickly glanced at her watch.

2:36a.m.

She headed towards the door, trying her absolute best not to wake her mother, father, or brother. She grabbed her expensive wool and cashmere coat that her mother insisted she'd take and quietly headed out the door. Once she was safely outside, she quickly ran away from the RV. She had to find a safe spot to answer it and make very sure that she was not spotted with her phone by any of her family members. She shuttered to think what would happen if her mom saw her with it. Oh God she could just hear her now 'Danielle Fenton you brought a cell phone!? After I specifically warned you not to!? Where did you get that cell phone anyway!? You don't have a job! If you think I'm going to raise a thief in my household young lady-!' On and on she would go, only pausing for breath. Not to mention she would absolutely kill her just for being outside at night after she warned her a million times not to. And to spare herself that kind of humiliation, she had to make double sure that it was a place her mother would never even think about checking.

There might have been a million ghosts in the area and she would never know. It was freezing outside and it caused her breath to mist all the time. Not that it mattered to her, the cold never bothered her anyway, no matter where she was at. Not since she got her ghost powers last Halloween. Finally after bypassing car after car, she made it to her destination. It was perfect! Her mother would never even think to find her in there!

.

"He did what!?"

"Yep." Her friend anxiously answered and Dani could just imagine her nervously biting her fingernails. "Bought out his whole company right from under him and kicked him right on out. And that wasn't the first time he's done something like that. Vlad Masters is known as the biggest snake in the business world. If he sees something he wants he gets it through any means necessary."

"Paulina." Dani could hear the fear in her voice and it disgusted her. "What do you mean 'by any means necessary'? Are you talking like…murder?"

"I don't know." Paulina quickly answered, a hint of worry in her tone. "There have been some incidents-"

"Incidents!?" Dani questioned completely alarmed by that statement. "What kind of incidents?"

The eerie silence on the other end of the line disturbed her beyond words.

"There was this one guy a few years ago." Paulina started but then hesitated for a few moments.

"Go on." Dani urged.

"Well," Paulina continued, "There was a man named Alex Steffins that once owned one of the biggest communications technology company in the entire country before, of course, Vlad took over. But for years Vlad was trying to buy him out but Alex just wouldn't bulge. He said and I quote 'Never will I sell a single stock to the douchbag Vlad Masters.' "

"He said that!?" Dani asked in shock.

"Yep." Paulina responded, then added. "Said it at a press conference too. I'm telling you this guy hated Vlad Masters. Wouldn't even stay in the same building if he was there, much less a room. He actually fought him once."

"What!?"

"Yeah it was all over the papers. He and Vlad were at some company party when BAM! Alex decks him out."

"He just hit him like that? I mean didn't Vlad have security or something?"

Paulina let out low laugh. "Of course he had security! That's what made it so hilarious!" She said still chuckling. "He had at least ten big and burly guys all around him and Alex still managed to come out of nowhere and give him a shattered jaw."

Dani let out a low whistle. "Damn."

"I know right?"

Dani was almost afraid to ask but she had to know what exactly it was she was getting into.

"So how'd Vlad managed to take over his company?"

"His private jet crashed over the Florida bay." Paulina cooly stated and Dani gasped in horror. "He and the pilot were instantly killed. The Investigators wrote it off as engine failure but it was a brand new plane! And Alex was the type of man who was really into security so it came as a real shock that something like that could have ever happened to him."

"Well planes crash all the time." Dani nervously responded, terror slowly creeping through her entire body.

"Yeah but they didn't even signal for a distress! No call! No nothing! And there were at least four parachutes on board and not one of them used it!? Even if you have engine trouble it still buys you more than enough time to get the hell off the plane!"

"Paulina-"

"I mean come on!," Paulina interrupted, not really noticing her friend's apprehension. "He suddenly kicks the bucket with no wife or kids to leave his company to and, get this, the will was gone! It's like it just vanished into thin air! What are the odds of that happening?"

"Paul-"

"And Vera Rivera!" Paulina continued on a roll. "She owned practically all the fast food restaurants in the nation! She was another one that hated Vlad's guts. Refused him every single time. She was incinerated when her house blew up. Police said it was a gas leak. A gas leak! Can you believe that? And again they never found a will!"

"P-"

"And Fiero Martilini! He owned practically every jewelry store in the continent! Used to curse Vlad out in every language he knew (Which was quite a lot mind you)! Vlad took over his company when he died bungee jumping because his parachute never opened-"

"Paulina please."

The desperation in Dani's voice caused Paulina to stop dead sentence.

"Oh my God Dani I'm sorry." Paulina apologetically said. "I'm so sorry! I just thought-I'm sorry-"

"It's O.K." Dani interjected, trying to get her breathing under control. Unwanted images of her family being slaughtered in their sleep or poisoned as they ate swarm past her. She really shouldn't have asked. Nightmares would definitely be visiting her tonight.

'We'll be fine.' She tried to tell herself to keep calm. 'My family is under the protection of the Baxters.'

But then again Dash had broken his word before, just yesterday, and there was no telling what he was willing to allow now that he was majorly pissed off with Dani. She would definitely be fine from his wrath, of course, but the rest of her family could be up for grabs. Maybe Dash thought that by allowing one of his human puppets (Rich mortals unaware of the magical realm or the Ghost Zone and who really pulls their strings) to kill one of her family members, it would set an example to her. The Baxters were notorious for doing that and Dani knew that oh too well. Dash had always told her Dani's family was completely safe from them but now she wasn't so sure. Dash might be angry enough to allow one of her family members to perish and she knew Susan would be oh too happy to see it through.

Suddenly Dani heard Mr. Sanchez's loud, booming voice in the background, snapping her out of her morbid thoughts.

"Paulina! Paulina who are you talking to!? And why is this door locked!?"

Dani could hear loud, insistent banging over the line.

"No one dad! God can't a girl have some some privacy in her own room!?"

Even louder shouts and banging followed that statement.

"You have 10 seconds to open this door missy before I break it down!"

"Gotta go Dani. But remember, you're Dani Phantom! You can do anything!"

"Eight seconds!"

"And don't let Vlad know you're on to him unless it's absolutely necessary! He's very rich and very dangerous, it's best just to play it safe for now until you gather more information."

"Five seconds!"

"And most importantly, keep your secret safe!"

"Two seconds!"

Dani heard Paulina let out an aggravated sign.

"Alright! I'm coming!"

Dani heard a sound like the door was being teared off its hinges. Mr. Sanchez was no joke.

"Call me if anything!"

Click.

Author's Note: Review please! Pretty please?