Amity Park, that very moment
As Ace had said, Danny was showing several of his teammates around his hometown.
"This is a great place to live" Danny said, "well, except for the frequent ghost attacks."
"Did you say, 'ghost'?" Ron asked "Oh man, look at the time, I need to get Rufus home for his feeding."
"Relax Ron, Danny's half-ghost, remember?" Kim said.
"Yeah, and besides, he puts the smackdown on ghosts all the time, don't ya Danny?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, so there's absolutely nothing to worry about" Danny replied. "Anyway, I can't wait for you guys to meet Sam & Tucker. They're my best friends and you're going to love them."
"Any friend of yours is a friend of mine" Jake said.
"Do we get to meet your family too?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, but I want you to know ahead of time that they're a little eccentric" Danny explained.
"After all the crazy things we've seen, they can't be that bad" Kim replied.
"You'll see" Danny replied.
-----
Langley Falls VA, 2:15 p.m.
Over at the home of CIA agent Stan Smith, Hayley's father, trouble was brewing.
Or not.
"What was the deal with ALF?" Roger asked Stan, as both sat on the couch "he gets to be on Hollywood Squares and had his own talk show and he's not even a real alien. Lucky puppet bastard."
"Ah ALF" Stan said wistfully "you weren't ready to compete with the Lenos and the Lettermans of the world."
Then the phone rang "Francine, get the phone!" Stan shouted.
"She went out grocery shopping, remember?" Roger said, "you should try it once in a while, since you eat like a pig! Ya ever heard of dieting, fatty?"
Stan ignored him and picked up the phone. "Hello, Stan Smith" he said.
"Listen up Mr. Smith" came the voice on the other end "we've got your daughter and if you ever want to see her again, you'll do exactly as we say."
"Who is this?" Stan asked "are you those AmWay people again?" and he shook his fist "cause if you are…"
"No, we're not with AmWay" the man said "now listen carefully. You are going to use your government connections to release a criminal named Freakshow. If you don't, you'll never see your daughter alive again."
"Uh-huh, yeah, got it" Stan replied nonchalantly.
"You have three hours to comply" the man added, then hung up the phone.
"Who was it? The Dish Network people?" Roger asked "please tell me you said yes!"
"It was some weird guy telling me he'd kidnapped Hayley" Stan explained "and I need to free a criminal or he'll kill her."
"Oh" Roger replied nonchalantly.
Stan said nothing and went back to watching his show. Suddenly, the conversation dawned on him.
"Sweet Ronald Reagan, Hayley's been kidnapped!" he exclaimed "well whoever did this isn't going to get away with it! I'm going to show them when you mess with the bull, you get the horns…of death."
"Except that you don't know who kidnapped Hayley or where she's being held" Roger added.
"Oh yeah" Stan replied "but I know how to find out. To the Stan mobile!" he said, running outside.
"If he thinks I'm going after him, he's crazy" Roger said, turning back to the TV.
-----
WOOHP HQ, CA, 2:25 p.m.
"Ah, the pride and joy of my hated brother" Terence said upon observing the building "too bad we can't trash the place, but we have a job to do."
"What are we here for again?" Drakken asked.
"This" Terence replied, showing Drakken a blueprint "this is a new shapeshifting device my brother's working on."
"Now all we have to do is get in" Drakken said "I don't suppose you know a way in?"
"Of course I do" Terence said "I escaped from here, didn't I?"
Soon Drakken & Terence were travelling through the vents of the large headquarters, making their way towards the lab.
"Are you sure you know where this place is?" Drakken asked.
"Unless they moved it since I was here last" Terence replied, "ah here we are, as I suspected."
Terence melted the vent with a mini-laser, and both he and Drakken dropped into the lab.
"Pretty lax security for a high-tech lab" Drakken commented.
"That's because my dear brother doesn't know we're here" Terence explained " so let's grab the device and bolt before he figures out."
"Do you think we could take some of this other stuff too?" Drakken asked hopefully, "I'm in the market for some new technology."
"Later" Terence shouted, then approached the table containing the device, which resembled one of the girls' X-Powders.
"I can't believe this is what we came all this way for" Terence replied "oh well."
He grabbed the device, but suddenly, alarms began to go off.
"Ahh, they're on to us!" Drakken shouted "what'll we do, I didn't bring any weaponry!"
"And you don't need any" Terence replied, "we can just teleport out of here, remember?"
"Oh yeah" Drakken replied, before both men disappeared. Moments later, a number of WOOHP agents appeared in the room, weapons drawn.
"No one appears to be here" one said.
"Well search the area" another commanded "the alarms don't go off for no reason. Someone was here and we need to know why."
-----
Meanwhile, at the CIA Headquarters, Stan was pulling up the file on Freakshow.
"Okay Mr. Show, lets find out why you're so important" he said.
"Hmm, he doesn't have any affiliation to any terrorist organizations. Not even to a militia, and those guys will let anybody join. Doesn't have any skills in bomb making or safecracking. What the hell is so important about this guy?"
Stan looked over the file some more "says here he was put in prison for robbery. That's it? Hayley was kidnapped for some douche with a misdemeanor? No, there has to be more to it than that. And there's only one way I can find out what that is…"
So, after using his clearance to release Freakshow, Stan drove the criminal to a far off location, where the kidnappers told him to meet them.
"Thanks so much for the hospitality agent Smith" Freakshow said calmly "I didn't think the government cared."
"Shut your piehole, scumbag!" Stan said, "normally, I'd have left you to rot in jail, but some goons kidnapped my daughter and wanted your release in exchange for her."
"Really?" Freakshow asked "I'm touched that someone out there cares about me. I could cry, but I don't do that."
Stan grabbed the evil ringmaster by his coat "cut the crap" he said "you tell me right now why these goons are interested in you, or so help me…"
"I assure you agent Smith, I'm as confused by this as you are" Freakshow replied.
"Well there must be some reason" Stan replied "and Gun and I are going to learn it."
With that, he pulled out his pistol. "How about it Gun, you ready to kill some scumbags? I thought so."
Having reached the rendezvous point, Stan exited the car, poking Freakshow in the back with Gun.
"Don't try anything" Stan replied, before walking forward with his hostage.
"Hello, kidnappers?" he shouted "I brought that guy you wanted. Show yourselves!"
"Glad to see you could come, agent Smith" a German voice said from the shadows.
"Klaus?" Stan asked, confused.
"Bring Freakshow over here" the voice commanded.
"First show me Hayley" Stan ordered.
After a few minutes, Hayley was brought into the light. Her hands were tied behind her back, a cloth jammed between her lips, and her green bandanna had been used to blindfold her.
"Now send him over here" the German commanded.
"I've got a better idea" Stan said "how about instead, I kill you, and this weirdo" he said, gesturing to Freakshow.
"I'd just like to point out that I have nothing to do with this at all" Freakshow added.
"Game over" Stan said, "you should have played a better game, like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders. Instead, you fell right into my trap…my Mouse Trap. But unlike that game, the trap won't fall apart, causing you to get angry and turn the board over in disgust. Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, eat lead!"
But before Stan could fire, someone knocked him out from behind.
"Thank you, that vas getting annoying" the German voice replied "come vith me Freakshow, ve have much to discuss."
"Who are you?" Freakshow asked.
"All vill be explained in time" the man said "just follow me to the van."
"What do we do with the girl?" another voice asked.
"We shall keep her as a hostage, as a message to her father for trying to take me out" the German man replied, "now let's go."
Carrying the struggling and murmuring Hayley back to the van, the villains took off.
-----
After a few minutes, Freakshow was free of his handcuffs.
"Look, I appreciate you setting all this up to get me out of prison, but I'm sure you didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart."
Dr. Phibes turned to face Freakshow, "you are correct in thinking that" he said, "you see, I need your help vith something. I trust you are familiar vith, the Reality Gauntlet?"
"Of course I know of it" Freakshow replied "but I had heard that it was destroyed."
"It vas" Phibes replied "but not the other one."
"Other one?" Freakshow asked, "you're telling me there's another Reality Gauntlet?"
Phibes shook his head "gauntlets do usually come in pairs, Mr. Show" he said "und since you wrote the book on the first one, you are going to help me find it."
"If I didn't know another one existed, what makes you believe I can help you find it?" Freakshow asked.
"You are reputed to be knowledgeable in the supernatural und magical" Phibes replied "surely you have some idea vere it could be?"
Freakshow thought for a bit: if what he says is true, then I can finally make myself Ringmaster of all reality! But first, perhaps I can take advantage of the situation…
"I think I know where I can find a clue to its' location" he replied "are you familiar with a city called, Amity Park?"
---------------------
In the next chapter, E.V.I.L goes after the next part of the Gauntlet, while Danny introduces the others to Sam, Tucker & Jazz. But their mirthful celebrations are short lived as L.A.M.E shows up to cause trouble.
