That afternoon the ghost hunters arrived at five on the dot. Maddie invited them in and said, "Jack is downstairs. Our daughter, Jazz, is helping him prepare some scanners we'd like to take."
"EMF or temperature?" Joe asked.
"Neither. These should measure the ghost's energy and give us some idea whether it uses negative or positive energy."
"Cool!" Adam blurted out. "You can do that?"
"Theoretically, but we haven't had an opportunity to test them on a ghost yet."
"If you can measure the polarity of a ghost's energy, can you detect human emotions as well?" asked Kate. "The frequencies seem to be very similar."
"Yes, but only in the most general terms. I couldn't tell you if someone was experiencing anger, grief, or pain, only that they felt a strong negative emotion."
"Still, that's amazing!"
Still talking, they walked down the stairs to the lab. The ghost hunters were very impressed with the lab. Gabby and Joe began discussing how psychology could be applied to ghosts with Jazz, while Kate and Maddie compared notes on the technical aspects of ghost hunting. Rick and Adam were admiring the Specter Speeder while Jack explained how it worked.
"This is our ghost portal," said Maddie, gesturing toward the device.
"Ghost portal? You mean you have a trans-dimensional doorway?" Kate said with enthusiasm.
"Yes. We bought this house because there was a weak point here in the barrier between our world and the Ghost Zone. We built the portal around that weak point."
"How did you turn a weak spot in reality into a stable, two-way portal?"
"When activated, the portal used a surge of energy and focused electromagnetic fields to force the tear in reality a little wider so some of the energy from the Ghost Zone could leak through. That ectoplasmic energy was focused back on the tear, widening it further in a cycle of positive feedback. In minuets the portal was full size, but it wasn't completely stable until several hours later."
"Amazing! How did you keep the machinery from being torn apart by the stress?"
"That was the hardest part. All our prototypes burned out or exploded, until Jack had a brilliant idea. We designed this one so that, shortly after the ectoplasmic energy began coming through, the inside of the portal changed phase! It isn't completely in either world but partially in both. This prevents it from being destabilized from either side, and makes it easier to affect the tear. Of course, part of the machinery is unreachable from either side..."
Kate stared in awe. The science behind this portal was unbelievably far ahead of what she had considered possible and this brilliant scientist was explaining it in a rather matter-of-fact way. Kate knew that if she had been involved with the creation of something like this she would have been anything but calm. She probably would have tried to tell the world and scheduled press conferences.
She turned to ask Maddie another question when something moving caught her eye. A faint wisp of green wavered in front of the closed door to the Ghost Zone. As she watched, it grew thicker, then the doors slid apart slightly. Alarms went off as a humanoid form began to take shape. It was a sickly grey-green, indistinct and translucent with no clear features. It was almost as tall as Jack when it stopped growing and opened its red eyes. Those eyes were mad in every sense of the word, angry and insane. It looked at them, opened it's featureless black gash of a mouth, and shrieked, causing everyone in the room to drop to their knees and cover their ears, though that didn't begin to dim the pain in their heads. When the noise stopped, everyone was still too dazed to react in time as it grabbed Jazz and flew through the wall.
"JAZZ!" Maddie screamed, grabbing an ecto-gun and running out of the lab right behind Jack. Everyone else followed her.
When they got outside they saw Jazz crouched on the ground. The ghost boy stood over her. He had formed an ectoplasmic shield and was using it to protect them both from the ecto-blasts the other ghost was throwing at them. The other ghost wasn't quite so formless now: it was tall and gaunt and the features of its face were twisted into an expression of hate as it battered at the shield and tried to get at them. Jack and Maddie immediately fired at the ghost. It dodged most of the shots but was distracted enough that Danny Phantom was able to drop his shield and begin throwing his own ecto-blasts while Jazz ran towards her parents.
The ghost flung a large blast and knocked Jack into the side of the house, stunning him. When Phantom saw that, he yelled something that no one quite heard and tackled the ghost, knocking it out of the air. As soon as they touched each other though, Phantom screamed, sounding like he was in terrible pain. The other ghost didn't let go. As they struggled it turned intangible and pulled him into the house. A moment later it flew back out and dove for Jazz and Jack only to be knocked aside by a green ecto-blast as Phantom followed. Before it could recover, Maddie fired her weapon at it. While it dodged her, Phantom landed near Jazz.
"When he pulled me through the lab, he was a lot weaker when we were near the neutralizer things," said Phantom
"Of course!" said Jazz. She turned to the five ghost hunters nearby. "Have any of you ever fired a gun?"
"A paintball gun..." said Adam meekly.
"Close enough." Jazz handed him Jack's ecto-foamer. "Here's the trigger. It won't hurt humans but don't hit Danny. The rest of you come with me!" She led them inside to the lab and had them grab all the Negative Energy Neutralizers they could find and a large bundle of extension cords.
Adam, Maddie and Danny stood over a dazed Jack, fending off the ghost while Jazz directed the other four ghost hunters inside the house in the preparations for her plan. When they had everything ready, she ran back outside and began taunting the ghost, daring it to attack her. As it flew towards her she ran back into the house.
Maddie made a move to shoot the ghost before it could reach Jazz but Phantom stopped her.
"Wait!" he said. "She's got a plan!"
That moment of hesitation allowed the ghost to reach the open door where it flinched and tried to turn around but it was too late.
"NOW!" Jazz yelled from inside the house.
The ghost shield came down, trapping the ghost inside. At the last minute, Phantom flew under the edge of the shield and trapped the clearly weakening ghost with an ectoplasmic shield as Jazz, Rick, Kate, and Gabby carried Negative Energy Neutralizers, plugged into the extension cords, and set them around the ghost. It grew weaker and soon was little more than a grey-green shadow with red eyes.
"Here," said Jazz, handing Danny a thermos.
He dropped his shield and sucked the ghost in before it could react.
Everyone took a deep breath, relieved that it was over. Phantom looked nervously at the weapons they still held and at the active ghost shield.
"Okay," Jazz yelled, "turn it off!" The Ghost shield shut down a few seconds later and they heard Joe coming down from the Ops center.
"Why'd you do that?" asked Jack.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Dad, Phantom saved my life and helped protect you after that ghost hit you. I think he deserves our trust, at least enough to not trap him here when he's only here because he was helping us. Now, since all of you were planning to try to find him for a talk, why don't we all put the weapons away and sit down?" She herded them into the living room before anyone could argue.