Danny Phantom One Shots

AFTtR Bonus

Vlad Masters was reclining in his imported leather desk chair clicking through the maze of files on his computer when Danny fazed through his roof, hovering barely an inch from the ground on the other side of the desk.

"Ah Daniel, I was wondering when you would show up" he said simply, not taking his eyes off his work, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"As if you don't already know."

Vlad stopped skimming though his files and turned his gaze to the young hero, a satisfied smile taking over his formerly neutral expression. "If you are referring to the field trip that you and your class went on then I think you should be visiting the former city council member who authorized it in the first place."

Danny's green eyes narrowed, "You know as well as I do that's just a cover, how much did you have to pay to sweep this one under the rug Plasmius? A couple thousand? Maybe a million?"

The billionaire chuckled quietly, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk, "Chump change my boy, just chump change. You would think so too if you would only drop that loser father of yours and join me…"

"Not happening" the teen said, "I don't know what your game is sending us into the Zone like that but I can tell you right now that it's not going to work."

Vlad tisked at the ghost hero almost mockingly, "Now, now, Daniel you should know that nothing you do can stop me. Whatever my 'game' is it's already in motion, who's to say I haven't completed my objective already? Who's to say there even was an objective in the first place?"

Danny snorted, "You wouldn't have gone to all that trouble if you didn't have something in mind."

The evil halfa didn't flinch but was mildly impressed at the astute assumption however false it was.

In truth Vlad had concocted the idea a long time ago. It started out as a fleeting thought and he'd bribed one of the city council members to pitch it at one of their meetings in an effort to plant a seed should he ever decide to water the plant. Honestly it was a whim on his part, not exactly something that he ever planned on using, but when he'd found himself debating how best to make the young hero squirm the thought once again surfaced.

Granted that he also wanted Daniel and his nosy friends out of the way while he transferred a few truckloads of DALV tech from one – formerly – secret storage center to another. Honestly the billionaire was beginning to question Skulkers usefulness, particularly after his last confrontation with the ghost boy, which had ended in the aforementioned – formerly – secret storage center. Nothing had been severely damaged but some of the crates had been cracked open in plain view of the teens.

They were too preoccupied containing the hunter to notice and ended up leaving just as clueless as they'd entered but Vlad still didn't like their knowledge of the place. He would never admit it out loud but that Tucker Foley had become quite an accomplished hacker, managing to devastate more than one computer mainframe over the years. Vlad Masters hadn't gotten to where he was in life without a little caution so while he doubted that the boy would be able to crack his firewalls he'd decided to play it safe and move the tech to a more secure location while the trio were conveniently busy.

Though the latter reason was more of a bonus. The main purpose for instigating the trip was to cause that meddling ghost boy to sweat. There were also a few…unexpected bonuses for his efforts.