**AN: Bah, so I just double checked where Amity Park actually is, and apparently it's not actually in Michigan like I thought. I checked the Wikia and David Kaufman approximated that it's actually somewhere in Minnesota. I got my reference from Phantom Planet? Where it zoomed out of Amity Park and showed the rest of the country, and I felt like the city was somewhere along the western coast of Michigan near Lake Michigan. I apologize for screwing up any information for you guys, but for my own consistency's sake I'm going to leave it in Michigan because I know that's where I had it in other stories. Anyway, enjoy the rest of the chapter.**

Tucker struggled to keep his eyes open. He and Jack had been driving for six hours and the Boo-merang still hadn't reached Danny. But Tucker was reassured as the beeping was sped up to a nice pace of three beeps per second. He watched the number indication the distance drop from the five-hundreds, one hundreds, fifties, the distance closed itself to zero. Though the Boo-merang was completely out of sight, the screen flashed with the message, "Target Found" and the tablet rang out with a long, continuous beep.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked, not knowing his own device well enough to know what a certain sound meant.

"We found Danny!" Tucker exclaimed, studying the map for a moment, "It looks like he's in... the..." he pulled his eyebrows together, "The middle of Minnesota."

"Who the hell does he know that lives in Minnesota?" Jack asked.

Tucker scoffed, "I dunno, he's not even in any major cities, he's in the middle of nowhere."

Static rang from the tablet, making Tucker jump and flinch, almost throwing the tablet out the window, "What the?"

"What happened?"

Tucker watched the screen go from 'Target Found' to 'Signal Lost'. He sank, staring at the screen for a while.

"Tucker?" Jack called.

The signal was lost, Danny was in the middle of nowhere, and they still had a couple hours until they got to the spot that the Boo-merang had tracked him too. His teal eyes stared at the screen in horror.

"Tucker Foley, answer me!" Jack snapped.

"It's a lost signal." Tucker laughed in denial, "We lost him."

"Wait- lost signal, what-"

"Danny's alive, but he must've trashed the Boo-merang." Tucker added, "Like he doesn't want to be found."

"He'd do that?"

"He destroyed his phone, didn't he?" Tucker asked.

Jack sank. He pulled over and sat in shock. "Wh- What now?" he asked. "It's more than likely that he's flying..."

Tucker thought for a while, staring emotionlessly at the dashboard. His heart palpitated and his lungs tried forcing him to take a deep breath with the emotional pain that he may never see his best friend again. He didn't even flinch when Jack's phone began ringing.

Danny sat on his blanket, staring wide-eyed at the shattered remains of the Boo-merang that had hit him in the face not five minutes before. His mind raced, repeating thoughts like 'Oh god, they found me,' and 'Theyr're coming, they know I'm here.' His heart pounded in his ears almost to the point of blacking out, and his breath quickened to near hyperventilation. He stared unblinking at the Boo-merang. Several different scenarios played out in Danny's head like a 'choose your own adventure' story. Images of his parents hunting him like the ghost like he was, or studying him like some lab rat, reporting him to the GIW, mostly.

With that mentality, Danny scrambled off his blanket and rolled it up, quickly shoving it into his bag and picking up the Boo-merang that he had shot with an ectoplasmic blast. He jumped at the sigh of James, who actually laid right behind where he had been sitting. The panicked teen make a quick hop over him and trotted away, tossing the Boo-merang noisily behind a bush. After looking up into the sky, he decided it was too light out to change forms. If his parents were on the road now, they'd be able to see him in broad daylight. He didn't run, but he was walking very quickly.

James jumped at the clatter from the discarded tracking device. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, hearing receding footsteps and noticing that they were missing someone in their group. He turned around and jumped up out of his bundle and ran after Danny. "Danny!" he called out.

Danny flinched at the sound of his name. He pretended not to hear and kept walking along the edge of a very steep hill that they had passed on the way to their resting point.

"Danny!" James grabbed his shoulder, "Dude, if you're making a head start to Amity, it's in the other direction." He informed him, "Come on, get away from the hill," He pulled him away from the edge, "You're not thinking clearly." he said, almost afraid that Danny might try and jump of and even hurt himself.

Danny's eyes didn't meet James' darting back an forth on the ground as he opened and closed a fist, "N-no... I'm not going."

"Danny-"

"They know I'm here, James." Danny snapped, "And considering how fast my dad drives, it won't be long before they find me."

James paused, "H-how did they find you?" He looked up, looking for a drone or anything of the sort.

"It's... It's complicated, you wouldn't get it-" Danny stammered, "Anyway- I... I'm not ready to go home just yet- I need more time to think."

"Are you scared they might hurt you?" James asked, "I mean- I get that, but-"

"Yeah- no-" Danny groaned in frustration and held his head, "I don't know." he panted, muttering unintelligibly.

"Danny- Danny!" James snapped and grabbed Danny's shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eye, "Listen, whatever it is- my folks and I will not let them hurt you, understand?"

Danny looked at him with terrified, ice blue eyes. At the moment, they occasionally flickered green. James noticed the slight glow they gave off and was even able to see Danny's breath. James took a deep breath, "Take a deep breath with me, okay?" He breathed in though his nose, feeling Danny's trembling body forcing him to do the same. James then let it out through his mouth, "Okay, can you do a few of those with me?" He repeated the process. Gradually, Danny's shaking stopped as he closed his eyes, his exhales coming out in long even flows of mist. James tilted his head and rose an eyebrow in confusion, then regained his focus on Danny's mental state.

After five deep breaths, James nodded and spoke again, "Better?"

Danny sighed, "N-not really..." he said, his voice had grown very quiet. "I'm..."

"I know- you're anxiety levels are through the roof right now and you were starting to freak me out." James cut him off, "You're scared." he said, "Whatever you've got going on with you is a big deal." he said, "And you're afraid your folks won't accept you, and worse yet- you're afraid that they may even hurt you, right?"

Danny nodded wordlessly, looking down at Jame's ripped hiking boots.

"Look at me." James' tone hardened, inkling Danny to do as he said, "I understand what you've been though." He said, "Trust me." He sighed, "Running away is the coward's way of handling the situation." His hands lowered to Danny's upper arms. "And in the end, it'll only make things more difficult." He explained. "If..." He sighed, then he swooned, gripping Danny's arms for balance, "Whoa..."

Danny held onto James' arms, "Dude, are you okay?"

James shook his head, "He knows..." he stepped aside and leaned against the closest tree and vomited. He coughed and spat, "He's here..." he panted.

"Who?" Danny asked, "Wait- who's here?" Danny looked around. A sudden chill surged through his body, causing his to shiver in response.

"We gotta get-" James gagged and threw up once more.

"Dude, what's going on?" Danny commanded, "Who's here?!" he demanded and turned around again.

Behind him he heard James yelp. When he whipped around, there was only a cloud of dust.

And no James.

Danny rushed to the ledge, "James!" he barked. All it took was a glimpse of James rolling down the steep hill for Danny to try and jump after him. But he was grabbed and brought face-to-face with Carson, who seemed to have snuck on them. "You shouldn't have come here..." he snarled, "And now you've sealed his fate, too." he hissed, clearly referring to James, who was now screaming in pain at the bottom of the hill.

Carson's breath no longer smelling like nicotine, but now it just smelled of death. This man had sent a new lever of fear rushing though his body. "Goodbye, brat." Carson growled before pushing Danny down the hill.

While hitting every possible rock and bush on the way down, Danny's injury on his left side had reopened and begun bleeding again. Upon his landing, he landed into a final bush, but bounced off James before coming to a full rest.

His body burned, but not from the fall. He forced himself to his hands and knees and took a deep, wheezing breath, looking up at the bush he'd landed in. "No..." he grunted. The bush he had fallen in looked strangely familiar. The flowers on the bush resembled roses, but the roses were a deep red with a tinge of pink. For him, it was a bad sign. He forced himself to his feet and took a step, realizing that James was lying in the bush and that he was in an unimaginable amount of pain. Danny lunged forward and pulled James out of the bush, the sudden adrenaline allowing him to ignore the searing pain scraping against his arms and hands. Once James was pulled out of the bush, Danny formed a ball of ice energy in his hand and shot it at the bush, then shot it with an ectoplasmic ray, shattering the bush and destroying every blood blossom that had bloomed on it. He turned around and looked back at James, who laid on the ground, shaking violently in pain, struggling to breathe and staring at the sky with eyes half-lidded.

"James, James!" Danny called, going to pat James' face, but stopped at the sight of burned, near-blistered skin. He hesitated, carefully watching James' hazel eyes flicker red occasionally. "No way..." he breathed. If he knew blood blossoms as well as he did, he knew that they didn't affect humans, but for ghosts...

Ghosts were heavily affected by blood blossoms. Like holy water to a demon, or garlic to a vampire. The bush shouldn't have done the damage that it did to James. Things were beginning to make a little more sense now. He shook his head, "James!" he called out again. He arched his back as something wet seeped down his back. He grumbled and took his bag off his back. "Shit..." he swore. Some of the water bottles in the bag had burst, soaking everything. "Damn it..." he growled, then looked back down at James, who'd passed out from the pain and shock. "Who knew you'd be a ghost, too?" he asked him, knowing that he was unconscious. He threw his bag onto his back and pried his arms under James' shoulders and legs, carefully picking him up and starting along the hill. Danny had made it twenty feet before dropping to his knee, the adrenaline wearing off. He looked around, looking for anything to use as a cover.

Off to the right, was a small cave in the hill. Danny took the opportunity and pulled James to the cave, laying him down in the shade and looking over his injuries. "What the-" he looked down at his stomach. The white fabric had turned a deep red. "That's not-" he checked his stomach, being sure that he himself wasn't injured. "Wait-" He rolled James to his side- his side was soaked in blood. "Oh no, no, no, no..." he took a deep breath and dug through his bag for his first aid kit. After fighting a literal wet blanket for the first aid, he gutted his bag and dumped its contents onto the ground. He grabbed the first aid and lifted James' shirts to see the wound. The bandage that had been there before had fallen off and was now stuck to his undershirt, the stitches that closed the wound were ripped apart, seemingly by force. "What the hell...?" Danny whispered. He took one of the only two water bottles remaining and looked around, wondering what he could do for a rag. He sank, everything they had was crusted in either blood, sweat, dirt, or all three. He hummed in thought and looked at the blanket. The material it was made with could rip easily if one were to try hard enough. Fortunately for him, his enhanced strength allowed him to rip the blanket almost effortlessly. He poured water onto the piece of blanket and carefully cleaned out the wound. James' face twisted in pain, faintly hissing.

"James?" Danny called out. "Hey- can you hear me?"

James remained silent. He only breathed heavily in wheezing puffs.

Danny shook his head and kept cleaning the wound as best as he could. "This is going to need stitches..." he murmured, carefully picking out the thread that was supposed to hold the wound closed in the first place. The skin had ripped unevenly from its original break, meaning closing the wound was going to be a lot more difficult than it probably was before. What happened?

He finally ripped another strip of the blanket off, "James. Hey, man, I'm going to need you to try and sit up." he encouraged, like trying to wake up someone who was just sick.

James didn't respond. He was more than just sick. It made sense to Danny now why James' stomach had been upset; it had to have been some sort of ghost sense of his. James' body only trembled with pain, most likely to be still feeling the burn of the blood blossoms. Danny's body still burned, that's for sure.

Danny sighed shakily and set the strip on his lap, leaning over to try and shake James awake. "Come on, James..." he urged. Eventually, James was no longer trembling. He seemed to grow completely lifeless. "...James?!" Danny's body ran cold.

The older halfa hovered over the lake- Lake Michigan. The last place that had Danny's phone signal. He dove underwater and found himself flying at the bottom, making yet another attempt at finding the teen's phone. "Ah- ah-" he argued with himself, "He's not even a teenager anymore... He's an adult now." He reminded himself. The family had celebrated his eighteenth birthday about a month ago in April. He looked around the bottom of the lake, searching for the device that seemed to have camouflaged with the rest of the lake. After a few minutes, he surfaced again, "Damn it all!" he growled and landed on the pier. The same pier that Danny had stood on just the other night. "It stayed here for a few minutes..." he said, remembering what the GPS tracking had told him, "Then it flew in that direction..." he said, looking up for a moment at the sky, then back down at the water. He shook his head of the dark thought nagging at the back of his mind. "He wouldn't-" he trailed off. He growled, "Stubborn punk." he took a few steps back and took a running start before diving into the water, swimming as straight as he could. He had a good feeling this time around, "Daniel...?" he asked himself. A small, slick surface surrounded by a thick case caught his view, causing him to stop abruptly. He picked up the cell phone and checked the back of the case, confirming that it was decorated with the NASA logo. "Well..." he hummed, allowing himself to float gently up to the surface.

He finally sighed, "Good to know." he said, then landed back onto the pier. He sat down for a while and retrieved his own phone- which he'd kept in a zip-lock bag to keep it from getting wet. He turned the screen on and dialed Maddie.

"Vlad!" Maddie's voice answered with high hopes, "Any luck?"

"Yes, and no, Maddie- I'm afraid... I found his cell phone." He started, "It was at the bottom of Lake Michigan." he said.

Maddie gasped on the other end, "He's not..."

"No." Vlad cut her off, "I didn't find him with it- He wouldn't go and drown himself, he's not stupid."

Maddie sat at the table in her kitchen, one fist clenched and shaking with anticipation. "Th-that's good, I guess..." she murmured. "But.." she rubbed her face, rubbing her burning eyes and taking in a trembling breath, "Wh-why?" she asked.

"Perhaps he just... needs his space. You called him before you called me the other night, am I correct?" He asked.

"Yes..." She nodded.

"My guess would be that Daniel panicked when you called and hastily threw his phone in the lake. Had he said anything to his Samantha and Tucker?"

"He didn't say anything to anybody." Maddie answered the question for the fifth time. Jack was the last one to be closest to Danny, and that was after he had shot him out of the sky. Maddie let out a quiet sob, still in shock and disbelief that they'd been hunting their own son. That she'd captured him one time and tried to cut him open to see how 'Phantom's' body functioned as a ghost. Vlad's voice distracted her.

"Don't worry, Maddie... I will keep looking." Vlad confirmed for her- her request didn't have to be said. "Might I suggest checking his credit card history?"

"He doesn't have any money." Maddie sighed, "I mean-" she nodded, "Yeah-" she nodded, she wasn't a hundred percent sure on that. He might.

"I would recommend that." Vlad said, "I will call you later if I find anything. He's going to be okay."

"Please do." Maddie whispered, "Thank you, Vlad." After hearing Vlad end the call, she set the phone face down on the table. She buried he face in her hands and sobbed. She hurt him, said awful things, threatened his afterlife, and completely disrespected him. She didn't see that he was being a hero. Danny had done so much. How did they pay him back? A few well-placed shots of ectoplasm that could've very well killed him. Insult him, morally put him at the same level as garbage.

She took a deep breath and started upstairs for Danny's room, hoping to find anything about his bank information. With him trying to find jobs recently, he'd opened a bank account so he would get direct deposit. In the meantime, Jack and Maddie had been giving him allowances of fifty dollars a week. She cracked open the door, hating to dig through her son's room, especially when he wasn't home. She took a deep breath and checked his desk, stopping a moment to see the bulletin board he had on his wall. Photos of him, Sam, Tucker and occasionally Jazz littered within the frame, very few of them included Jack and herself. Only a couple of them featured Sam and Tucker with some sort of ghost hunting equipment and an arm wrapped behind Danny's shoulders. That made a lot of sense now. Before, Danny had always seemed distrusting of her and Jack with the equipment. If any of their equipment locked onto him while they were hunting, they could've hurt him. Plus, with Danny in his ghost form, she and Jack never knew, so they shot at them anyway.

Sam and Tucker knew. They were there.

She let out a deep, sentimental breath.

Sam and Tucker always knew. They were always there for him. On top of the computer box on Danny's desk, was a stack of papers and folders. Notes and old schoolwork that Danny had never gotten around to throwing away. A few books on astronomy, pamphlets collected from the science center in regards to astronaut training. underneath it all was a box for a model rocket he'd never had the chance to build. She sighed and moved the rolling chair out, accidentally bumping the desk and knocking over the stack of papers. She scrambled to try and catch some, but they slid passed her arms and flopped onto the desk, handing on the mouse. "Shit..." she swore under her breath as the computer hummed to life, only being on sleep mode after all this time. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment and turned on the monitor with the intention of shutting down the machine. When the computer came to life and the screen faded on and showed a window.

"Ghost Database?" she read the window. On the window were several tabs with different names along the side, "Skulker, Technus, Desiree..." she read down the list. Then she looked at the ghost on the screen labelled 'Lunch Lady'. On her screen was a picture of the ghost that had been uploaded, as well as a few other photos on a bar toward the bottom. The program used for this 'database' was nothing like she'd ever seen before. It was more than likely that Tucker made it. Above the row of photos, was a flashing red box reading 'Escaped'.

"Escaped?" she asked. She sat down and moved the paperwork off the mouse, completely forgetting why she was in there in the first place. She clicked on another name- Skulker.

After a second of lag, photos of the armored ghost occupied the page, giving a brief explanation of his weapons, armor and skills. On the bottom of the page, the box was yellow and read 'Unknown'.

"Interesting..." Maddie read the information about the hunter, which she found ironic. After reading his page, she went down to the next few ghosts, recognizing a good majority of them. Some ghosts she didn't recognize however, like Frostbite, or Clockwork. Some of them even threw her off. She had no idea that the school counselor three years ago, Penelope Spectra, was really just Spectra. She then wondered where the one named 'Freak Show' was. After finding his page, she found herself surprised that he actually wasn't a ghost, just a human with something 'Jazz always referred to as ghost envy'. She chuckled at the reference. A smile grew on her face, proud of these four children- these four semi-professional ghost hunters- that had even went as far in their ghost hunting interests as to document each one they encountered. Danny seemed to stay on top of keeping the program up-to-date.

Then something caught her eye, a small triangle with an exclamation point had been bobbing on the alerts tab on the top of the window. She clicked on the alerts tab and checked the newest alert; "DF_THERMOS DISCONNECTED" in flashing red and white text. Below it, were labels like "DF_THERMOS: POINDEXTER RELEASED" as well as several other names that she read and hadn't read before in red text..."DF_THERMOS: POINDEXTER CAPTURED" in white text, "GHOST ZONE: POINDEXTER ESCAPED" in red text, "PORTAL 1: BOX GHOST RETREAT" in white text, "PORTAL 1: BOX GHOST ESCAPED" in red text.

"Portal one?" Maddie asked and scrolled down, eventually seeing "PORTAL 2: PLASMIUS ENTER". She recognized the name. She tried clinking on the name, seeing it was attached to a link. It was one of the few names she happened to skip.

Photos of Plasmius popped on the screen and she began reading.

Plasmius, like Phantom, is something ghosts referred to as a halfa, a human-ghost hybrid..

"Phantom..." she thought for a while, noticing that it was the one name that wasn't attached to a link. She clicked on the home option, then it showed four icons; Danny's logo on his jumpsuit, a black spider on a purple background, a green android on a black background, and a pink flower on a blue background. Respectively, the labels were "DF_THERMOS", "SM_THERMOS", "TF_THERMOS", and "JF_THERMOS". She noted that this was where the kids did their own personal documenting. She paused and remembered the flashing red and white letters that had read "DF_THERMOS: DISCONNECTED". All of the names that had followed and escaped. Danny released every ghost he'd captured that night and lost the thermos. It then dawned on her, "So, that's where all of our thermoses went." she said. She'd have to make five of them and each one of them disappeared on her. Granted Jack still hadn't figured out how to use one. She didn't blame them, neither of them knew how to get them working.

She clicked on Danny's icon. At the top-right corner, she was greeted with the reminder that the thermos was disconnected in flashing red letters. She sighed and looked at the options on the plain black and green window. "CHAT", "RECORD", "THERMOS HISTORY", "JOURNAL", "NOTES"...

She clicked on the journal option. The latest entry opened with several links to older entries. The latest entry was labelled 'graduation'. She couldn't help but to read it.

Graduating tomorrow night. So... I guess I finally made it, huh? Sam and Tucker grounded me last night... like Mom and Dad did... They said absolutely NO ghost hunting until I passed the finals today. So now I'm not grounded!

...

I was thinking of telling Mom and Dad... Everything... I might even show them this program and let them in on it... If... they take the news well, at least... I don't know if I can do this. If I can keep this a secret for any longer. They're going to find out sooner or later. Whether it be me confessing it, or them finding out the hard way. Man, I don't know if I could handle it... Dad's a fanatic, he'd lose his mind. He wouldn't believe me and just think I'm possessed, and try and get rid of the ghost in me anyways. That'll hurt. He's modified that Peeler so much it terrifies me to think about how painful it'll be if I get hit by it.

And Mom... oh god, Mom...

I love my dad and all, but Mom's the smarter one of the two. If she doesn't believe me, I'd be dead for sure. I KNOW what she'd do to me...

...Like it hadn't happened already a year ago... that was a bad day...

The entry stopped there. Maddie grew horrified, "Hadn't already- what did I...?" she scrolled through the journal entries and found one dated almost a year prior labelled 'bad day'. She opened the entry and began reading.

I can't go home right now... I just can't... After what happened yesterday, I can't face Mom and act like I'm okay. I spent the night at Sam's last night while trying to sleep off the nightmare of what could've been my death. My chest hurts...

Maddie furrowed her eyebrows, then it hit her like a brick wall.

Sam had to close the incision with stitches. She was shaking the whole time. It only made the cut hurt more. She wasn't just scared, she was pissed... I seriously owe Tucker one for coming in when he did. He almost fainted yesterday when he saw the cut. He probably would have if Sam didn't yell at him and make him hold me down. I was out before anything else happened. The cut was maybe about four or five inches long going down the right side of my chest. My wrists and ankles were chaffed from the stupid bands keeping on that table. If Tucker didn't come in with that lie about Jazz... and if Sam didn't get me out of there using the thermos... I'd be dead right now... Such...

Such a shitty way to find out...

I'm staying the night at Sam's for a little while longer. Jazz knows, she's gonna cover for me and tell them that I'm doing a group study and won't be home for a couple of days.

Maddie covered her mouth, "Oh my god..." she whispered. She remembered the whole event. Tucker had scared her half to death by saying that Jazz was in a car accident. Jazz was fine, but Phantom was gone by the time she had returned to the lab. "God, I'm a terrible person..." she took a deep breath, fighting back the urge to cry.

The computer pinged with two new notifications. She looked up and clicked on the notifications. "GHOST ZONE: BOX GHOST ESCAPED", then "SM_THERMOS: LUNCH LADY CAPTURED".

Maddie let out a weak chuckle. Sam seemed to be keeping herself occupied and distracted. Though the method seemed redundant.

"SM_THERMOS: BOX GHOST CAPTURED"

She knew who the Box Ghost was and couldn't help but to laugh, not being surprised that each time he'd escaped, he was captured just about immediately.

"Mom?"

Maddie jumped out of her skin at the sound of her daughter's voice, banging her knee on the underside of the desk. "Jasmine!" she gasped and turned around.

"What are you doing in Danny's room?" she asked, "And why are you going through his computer?" she asked.

"Uh..." she took a moment, "I was looking for Danny's bank folder." she said, closing her eyes a moment to remember. "I dropped some stuff and his computer turned on. I- um..." she looked down at her lap, twiddling her fingers, "I got curious." she said, "This is incredible." she complimented.

Jazz chuckled, "Tell that to Sam and Tucker. They're the ones who put it together." she said. "Danny fights them and find out what they do, and they put it together in these files." she said. "Tucker designed the program. Sam loaded the information." she sat on Danny's bed, "I just took the pictures."

"The photography is excellent." Maddie complimented. "You kids really put a lot of time and effort into this, didn't you?" she asked.

"We try to keep organized. The program was Sam's idea." she shrugged.

Maddie was quiet for a while, staring blankly at the mousepad.

"Mom...?" Jazz leaned over to look at her better. "What's wrong?"

"I..." she started, "I read a couple of Danny's journal entries..." she started.

Jazz pulled her eyebrows together, "You did?"

"Nothing... Embarrassing..." she started, "But..." she sniffled, her eyes beginning to tear up, "I've done so much to hurt him..." she whispered, "He's been through so much and some of it is mine and your father's fault... No wonder he didn't want to tell us..." she wiped her eyes.

"Mom." Jazz's tone was firm, "If I know Danny as well as I do, he'll come back once he works up the courage to face you guys. He doesn't even hold grudges for longer than a week." she explained, "Vlad was another story, but they have a truce now." she added, "If Dad and Tucker don't find him themselves, they'll end up following him back home. He just gets shaken." she said. "You didn't know. And despite everything that's happened, he still loves you guys. He's just scared and probably needs space." she said. "Danny's run off before. sometimes when he's frustrated, or scared, depressed even... but he always comes back. We're the reason he keeps fighting. He just wants to protect us."

Maddie wiped her eye and managed a smile, "He's got quite the hero complex, doesn't he?"

Jazz smiled and nodded, "Hey- have you heard from Dad and Tucker?" she asked.

Maddie shook her head, "They probably don't have any signal where they're at. Last I talked to your father, he said that they tracked the Boo-merang into the mountains someplace passed Lake Michigan. Vlad knows for a fact that Danny stopped at the lake at one point- that's where he found his phone." she said, "So... we're making some sort of progress."

"I just hope Dad doesn't scare him off." Jazz commented, rolling her eyes. "If someone was the worst at coaxing Danny, it's Dad."

"Your father does seem to know exactly how to make people nervous, doesn't he?" Maddie smiled sheepishly.

"And you guys wonder why I never brought any of my friends over." Jazz jabbed.

Jack pulled himself from the heap of what used to be the assault vehicle, blood dripping down from his temple. His head was pounding and everything in his body screamed at him to lie down and rest for a while. Cuts and gashes ran around his body from the glass. He panted and resisted the urge to throw up. He was fortunate for the restraining harnesses that he'd installed, yet regretful of the severe whiplashes that he'd received. He groaned and propped himself on his elbows, partially lying on his back. He tried focusing his vision, going cross-eyed briefly to make the world stop spinning. "Tucker..." he squeezed his eyes shut. "Tu-" he sat up fully, "Tucker!" he called, "Tucker Foley, are you okay!" he called out, trying to orientate himself and keep from falling over. His body ran cold, "Tucker!" he quickly stood up, immediately regretting the idea after falling to the side and bruising his hip on some rocks underneath him. He panted and squeezed his eyes shut. He had definitely hit his head. He burped and exhaled deeply, feeling his stomach churning.

He looked back at the wreck, "Tucker?" he groaned and carefully stood up. He wandered to the passenger side of the vehicle and peered into the window. "Tucker?"

Tucker remained in his seat, though he hung upside-down while still being held in his seat. His hat had fallen off, letting his short dreadlocks fall free, his arms hung limply above (below?) his head, and his glasses were completely missing.

"Tucker?" he pat his shoulder, "Come on, son, we gotta get you out of there." he carefully released Tucker and pulled him out of the vehicle. "Tucker." he gently pat his face.

Tucker groaned, he was in about the same condition as Jack. He forced his turquoise eyes open and flinched at the light, "What happened?" he asked.

"Rock slide." Jack answered and held his head, "I think..." he held his head, "It's all fuzzy."

"Boulder hit the side of the car." Tucker nodded, remembering vaguely. His eyes drifted shut and he slapped both hands firmly to the ground, as though he were trying to stabilize himself. "Everything's spinning- why's everything still spinning?" he groaned.

"You hit your head too, huh?" Jack asked, then he sat back, wobbling a little bit. There was a loud rumble, "Storm's coming in." He helped Tucker stand up, "Let's go find some shelter." he pulled the fading teen over his shoulder. "Come on, kiddo." he grunted. "We still have to find Danny." he urged. He felt a few drops on his shoulder and bare forearm. He looked around, then he sighed, yanking open the back doors to the van. He pulled Tucker inside and laid him down carefully. "Hang in there, Tucker." he leaned against the wall of the van and let his eyes drift closed, "I'm sorry..." he whispered as the rain picked up.

**WOOOW, okay. So I managed to pump this chapter out quicker than I thought I would. It's the only thing I can think of lately. Surprise halfa! Again- the OCs are going to remain relevant. Leave questions or comments in reviews! Or just... Yeah... tell me what you think. The program was fun to mess around with for the Ghost Database. *dances around* I'm excited for this. No flames, please, just constructive criticism. Stay awesome, folks!**