Danny Phantom Post Planet

Chapter 5

Danny woke up early the next morning to get a hard start on his investigation into the ghost zone. He ate breakfast and went downstairs to basement. He was surprised to find that he was the second one in the lab. His dad was already in there working on what Danny assumed was the thing he had been working on the day before.

"Hey Dad. How long have you been up?"

His father looked up from this work. He looked like he had been there for days. They all knew that he could get obsessive about his work so this wasn't really out of the ordinary.

"Morning Danny. I've only been up for a few hours. What are you planning to do today?"

"I'm going into the ghost zone."

His dad froze on what he was doing and stood up to face his son. Even with the extra height Danny had gained over the last few months, he was still nowhere near the height his father was. It would have been pretty intimidating but Danny had ghost powers and Jack didn't.

"Why are you going to the Ghost Zone?"

"I'm going to chase down a lead on Vlad."

"Danny, you know your mother and I don't like you going to the ghost zone on your own.

Danny sighed. This was the reason he wanted to wake up early and get to the ghost portal before his parents were up. They had this conversation over a dozen times in the last six months. He knew that they would worry about him but they really had nothing to worry about. He had proven that he could handle himself in the ghost zone and real world. Before he could respond with this though his mother came down the stairs into the lab.

"Hey Jack, I had an idea last night. I'm thinking we should calibrate the sensors for Danny's…" She stopped midsentence when she realized Danny and jack were staring each other down. "Everything ok boys?"

"Your son wants to go into the Ghost Zone on his own today."

His mother looked at him. "Danny, you know we don't like you going in there."

"Yeah, I know. But I've been in there myself plenty of times and I'm chasing down a lead on Vlad."

That got his mother's attention. Both his parents wanted to catch Vlad as badly as he did.

"What kind of lead?"

"I'm not really sure it is one." Danny admitted. "But I know that Vlad had plenty of contacts in the Ghost Zone, I'm gonna spend my time tracking down a couple of them and try to get some info."

His mom studied his expression for a few minutes. She was clearly thinking it over. Hopefully he looked like he wasn't going to back down from this and they would just let him go and do what he needed to do. His mom stopped looking at him and walked over to a cabinet and unlocked it. She reached in, grabbed something and then walked back to Danny.

"Here," She said, tossing what she grabbed to Danny. It was a communicator. "It's 7 right now Danny. I want hourly updates on the hour and I want you back within 6 hours."

Danny transformed and put the communicator in his ear. Six hours wasn't going to be anywhere close to the time he would need to track down Vlad's old contacts. But it was honestly better than nothing. And he could always come back if he had to.

"Ok, I'm setting my watch. I'll be back in 6 hours." He walked in front of the portal and his father opened it for him. He waved goodbye and dove through. He wasn't even in there 5 minutes when he heard his mother's voice in his ear through the communicator.

"Testing, 1, 2, 3. Danny can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Mom. I'm doing fine and I'll check in at the first hour mark."

"Roger Danny and good luck."

Danny began floating through the Ghost Zone thinking about where he was going to go first. He had a couple of options so he went with the first and most obvious one. He flew off towards the Fright Knight's castle.

A little over a year ago, Vlad had made some sort of deal with the Fright Knight to help take down the Ghost King. It was possible that they kept in contact after the Ghost King was locked away again. At least that was what Danny was hoping for. Within half an hour he was at the castle and pushed his way through the doors. At first he thought the Knight wasn't home but then he found a figure sitting by the fire. The only sound he heard besides the crackling fire was a sword being sharpened against a stone.

"Hello Ghost Child." It said. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, well you haven't come out to my world so we haven't had much contact."

"To what do I owe the visit?"

"I'm looking for information."

"On what?"

"Have you had any recent contact with Vlad Masters?"

The Knight stopped sharpening his sword and stood up from his seat to face Danny. He looked angry.

"I don't see how that's any business of yours Ghost Child."

"Vlad has threatened both our worlds before. That makes it my business."

He sheathed his sword and walked back towards his throne. "The affairs of either world hold little concern for me. All I care about is having the opportunity to spread as much terror as I can."

"So you haven't had any contact with Masters over the last couple of weeks?"

"No. Now get out of my castle."

Danny flew out but he wasn't really convinced. Fright Knight could have easily been in contact with Masters at any point and pointed him to a portal. He wouldn't have put it past him. But since he didn't have any proof there was nothing he could do. Danny checked in with his parents and made his way towards his next stop; Walker's Prison.

In the 6 months since saving both worlds, Danny's relationship with Walker was easily one of the ones that changed for the better. As a favor to him, Walker had lifted the charges against Danny's friend Wolf and in return, Danny would keep Walker apprised of any wanted ghosts that showed up in his world. This didn't stop a lot of ghosts from escaping Walker's prison but at least Walker didn't want him in jail anymore.

Danny reached Walker's jail in close to 20 minutes and spoke to the guard asking to see the warden. After 5 minutes of talking on the phone, Danny was given a visitor's badge and was let in. He made his way to the Warden's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Said a deep voice that could only belong to Walker. Danny opened the door. Walker was standing behind his desk, holding a large rulebook. He even had another copy open on the desk. As soon as he noticed his visitor, he slammed the copy he was holding shut.

"You know making an appointment may not be against the rules. But it is good manners to make one ahead of time."

"Sorry about that. I'm a little crunched for time here. I only have a couple hours before I need to go back to my world."

"No harm done." He said, closing the second book on the desk. "I happen to have some free time. What can I help you with?"

Danny told him all about the confrontation with Vlad the night before and about his theories on Vlad still having a contact within the Ghost Zone. Walker listened to his story intently but Danny wasn't sure of how interested he would be or not. He was hoping that Walker maybe knew something or someone in the ghost zone that had been in contact with him.

"You're sure that Masters has a contact within the Ghost Zone?" He asked.

"Not 100%." Danny admitted. "But he's been known to make contacts here before. Chances are that would be someone in power. I wanted to see if you had any ideas or theories on this."

Walker didn't answer right away. He sat down at his desk and folded his hands in front of him like he was thinking about everything Danny had told him. As far as Danny could tell, this was a good sign. Walker generally didn't give advice but Danny knew he was a genius when it came to criminology. Sam may have pointed him towards Vlad's likely endgame but he still had no idea how he could accomplish it. Maybe Walker did. Nearly ten minutes passed before he spoke.

"I think you're on the right track with this theory of yours. The problem is you have no suspects. Plus how are you even sure Masters is getting help from this side? He could just as easily getting help from yours."

Danny sat down in the chair in front of Walker. He had a point. Why was he so sure that Vlad was using only ghost contacts to accomplish his goals? But that also meant he could be getting help from either side, both or neither. He groaned in frustration. This was just getting worse and worse. Looks like he had no choice but to wait until Vlad showed up again to get more information.

"Thanks for the advice Walker."

"Not a problem. Anything I can do to help? I'd like to have Masters in my high security section of the prison."

"Just keep your eyes and ears open and contact me if any info on Vlad makes its way to you."

"Sure thing."

They shook hands and Danny left. Now he was at a complete loss on where to go. He had no new leads and no ideas. He also had over an hour before he had to be back in Amity Park. He may as well just go home and ponder his next move. He flew back to towards the Fenton Portal and went through it back to his parent's lab. He transformed back into Danny Fenton and landed on the ground. He took the communicator out of his ear and handed it to his mom.

"Any luck?" She asked taking the communicator and putting it away.

Danny shook his head. "I have a couple lines out but I doubt that they'll catch anything. What about you mom? Any luck with the FBI?"

She looked just as disappointed as he was. "No. They keep telling me that they're still studying the equipment and they don't want to have any civilains looking at it until they are sure what it can do."

Danny shook his head. What a productive day this was turning out to be.

"I'm gonna go to City Hall and check in with Tucker. Maybe the police were able to find something related to why he was there last night."

"Ok sweetie." His mom said turning back to her work. "Dinner's at 6."

Danny waved in response and left the lab to go upstairs. He stopped in the kitchen to grab one of the leftover pieces of pizza from his date with Sam last night. He usually wasn't a fan of veggie pizza or veggie anything for that matter. But that had changed once he started dating Sam. Danny wanted to show he supported her vegetarian lifestyle so that meant that he was willing to try some vegetarian foods and restaurants every once in a while. Sam had appreciated it and it was something that brought them a little closer.

Danny finished his pizza slice as he left the house and made his way to city hall. In half an hour he was there and so were the police. They must have decided to continue the investigation on why Vlad was there last night. Danny walked up the front steps. The police officer standing in front of the building smiled at Danny.

"Here to see Tucker Danny?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Alright go in."

"Thanks."

One of the advantages of revealing his secret identity to the whole town was that most of the town was grateful for the work he did as Danny Phantom. They knew that he wanted to help and they were willing to assist, especially since they felt that Danny seemed to know what he was doing. Danny went through the building and checked in at the front desk. The secretary gave him directions and Danny went in to Tucker's office.

"Hey Tuck." He said once he was inside the office. The Police must have just finished searching the office. Furniture was out of place, some drawers were still open and Tucker was filtering through papers.

"Hey Danny." Tucker responded looking up from his work. "What's up man?"

"Not much. I just wanted to follow up and see if the police found anything in their search."

Tucker leaned back in his seat and shook his head. "Not a thing. And they turned this place upside down too. If Vlad had something here, it's long gone."

Danny sat down in the chair in front of Tucker's desk. "Great." He muttered.

"Do you have any plans on how you're gonna catch him yet?"

Danny shook his head. "No idea. Looks like I have no choice but to wait for him to show up again."

"Well, hopefully it'll be another 6 months or more before he shows up again."

Danny smiled. "Hopefully."