A/N: To clarify what I meant in the last chapter regarding a 'partial transformation' on Danny's part, picture the outfit he was in in Micro Management prior to his last two costume changes: Danny Fenton's sneakers and jeans, with a black and white DP T-shirt, but Phantom's white hair and green eyes. And, until he learns otherwise, this is what Jake thinks Danny means by his 'camouflage trick'. Thanks to Moki Hunter for pointing out the probable confusion!

It wasn't an explosion or a brilliant flash of light or anything like that. No whooshing noise signalled their escape. They were just there. One minute, he was alone in the park. The next, a split second later, the moment he'd punctured the Mugwomp Cup, he'd had company.

Company he wasn't sure he wanted anymore.

"Well, look here, boys," the first ghost mused. "We're free, and it's not even sunrise."

Rotwood suppressed a whimper. This…wasn't working out like he'd imagined. The ghosts had surrounded him before he'd even had a chance to reach for the jar of blood blossoms or the containers of salt, and the iron bars were too far away to reach. He recognized Shackles Jack as the one who spoke, and it was easy enough to identify the others. Peg Leg Pat. Solitary Sam. Chain-Gang Chuck. Manacles Mike. Hook Hand Harry. All of Shackles Jack's old gang.

"Are you going to take him?" Peg Leg Pat.

Shackles Jack looked him over. "I can do better than him," he decided. "He wouldn't last long."

Rotwood wasn't sure what to think of that. He didn't know what they were talking about. He wasn't sure what selection process he'd just failed, but he was rather happy he had. If he'd been found suitable, there was no telling what would have happened to him.

Perhaps letting the ghosts out hadn't been such a good idea after all. He'd thought he'd have it in hand. He wouldn't have even considered it otherwise. But his capture of the phantom had gone so well, until Jake Long had intervened. He'd thought he could replicate it when he was prepared.

He hadn't thought he'd be surrounded and cut off from his supplies before he could blink.

If only he'd decided to risk destroying the specimens with immediate exposure to the blood blossoms, this could have ended much differently, but without any knowledge of how stable they'd be in this dimension, far from the prison that had seen them worked to death…. He hadn't been willing to gamble and end up with nothing.

It probably served him right. He knew Jake would have had a good reason for sealing the ghosts in the cup. If he hadn't been so eager, he wouldn't be in this situation.

Then again, if Jake hadn't released his first specimen, he wouldn't have needed to seek out replacements.

"But the others are gone," Solitary Sam pointed out. It was this comment that reminded Rotwood of what Mr. Morton had told him: the ghosts intended to overtake people, to inhabit the bodies of the living. Though the setting had changed, the plan evidently had not. Their little ritual, their spell or whatever it had been, was not void for having been interrupted.

He should have known better than to assume it would be.

"We'll find more bodies," Shackles Jack replied simply, "once we get rid of this one."

Rotwood squeezed his eyes shut. He really didn't like the sound of that. "I think I made a major oopsie," he whispered.

Fun family bonding time in the Long household was a great thing, Jake figured—if you were Jonathan Long. Otherwise, it was more of an embarrassment.

Especially when they had company.

"Dad," Jake said, "can we not go over the childhood stories again?" He shot Haley a look that meant she'd better pipe up and support him right now or he wouldn't be doing her any favours in the future. Whenever Little Miss Perfect happened to need a favour from him.

Haley got it. "Yes," she agreed quickly, probably realizing that however many embarrassing Jake-centric stories their dad could tell, there actually wasn't an endless supply. "I'm sure we don't need to bore Danny with those."

"Oh, it's not that bad, Haley-hoo. Remember the time you—"

"It's really not the best time to reminisce, dear," Susan said, laying a hand on her husband's arm. "We do have company besides Dad."

This still didn't seem to faze Jonathan, Jake realized. Probably because Trixie and Spud had been all too eager, in their own time, to get some dirt on him. Hearing childhood stories was always great when you weren't the child they were about. He and Spud had been happy to listen to Trixie's grandmother, and he and Trix had been happy to hear the tales about little Arthur Spudinski from his mother. But it was different with close friends. They'd already been through enough together that any other stories were just for a good laugh and a few jibes.

At least Danny had the grace not to openly laugh out loud. Jake even thought he could detect a hint of a sympathetic look behind the grin at what would be, were it about someone other than him, a very funny story rather than a horrendously embarrassing one.

Even Gramps had that telltale twinkle in his eye that meant he found the stories hilarious, even though he already knew them.

If this was anything that remotely resembled what he'd have to sit through when he brought a girlfriend home to dinner, it was never going to happen.

Jake was almost happy when his phone rang. His mom shot him a look that meant she was really not happy about the interruption, even though they'd finished actually eating hours ago, but she let him go answer it anyway, which he did the minute he was safely in his room. He thought, for a moment, that it might be Trixie and Spud calling in for an update, but to his surprise, it was Fu.

"We've got a problem, kid. Grab the old man and meet me in the park."

Jake knew which park Fu meant—it would be the one they were almost always in—but he really didn't like his tone. It wasn't a good one. "You sure we need Gramps on this? Why don't you think I can handle it?" It would be hard enough to sneak away, let alone come up with an excuse to take Gramps with him.

"Because experience might trump luck this time. Bring Danny, too."

This wasn't good. "Danny? Fu, what's the problem?"

"Rotwood. And the ghosts that you used to have in the Mugwomp Cup."

"'Used to'? Whaddaya mean 'used to'?"

"I mean they're out. Quit asking questions and get down here."

"How much time have we got, Fu?"

"You should've been here fifteen minutes ago."

Jake grimaced. This wasn't going to be easy. He'd had enough trouble defeating these guys last time, and then he'd been able to get them into the cup because of the spell….

"Aw, man. Fu, is that spell still active? Can they take over other people's bodies? Even though—"

"I don't know, kid, but we better not wait to find out."

"On my way," Jake promised, hanging up the phone before running back down the stairs. He skidded to a halt in the doorway of the kitchen, smiling apologetically. "Hey, uh, Mom, Dad, I forgot that I've got to, uh—"

"Did you not close the shop before you left?" Gramps asked.

Okay, that wasn't the excuse he wanted, considering the lecture he was going to get from his dad because of it, but he'd take it. "Uh, kind of." He winced. "Spud called and apparently I left my keys with him. He'd go, but he's—"

"It is not his responsibility," Gramps said. He stood up. "Perhaps it should not be yours, either. I will go."

Susan opened her mouth before Jonathan could argue. "We'll have to do this again next week," she said quickly. "I'm sorry, Dad. Jake, you better go with him. He can set your punishment."

"I'll keep Danny entertained," Haley offered brightly, scrambling out of her chair. "May Danny and I be excused, too, Mom?"

"But—" Jake sent a desperate look at her, but she just smiled at him. Danny didn't look like he was entirely sure what was going on, though he probably had a better idea than Jonathan did.

"Of course, honey," Susan said, giving Jake a knowing look as Haley pranced out, Danny in tow. "You'd better get going," she said to him.

"And when you get back," Jonathan added, "you can finish the dishes. You're on dish duty for two weeks, Mister! On top of whatever punishment Gramps has for you."

Jake groaned but didn't argue. He just followed Gramps out of the room and started explaining the minute they were out the door. It didn't take long, since Fu hadn't had much information to give him, but they didn't lose any time getting on their way the minute Jake said they needed to get to the park.

He just hoped they'd be able to do something.

Spud was just glancing over the blueprints for that Fenton Thermos thing Jake wanted for Danny when his cell phone rang. He answered it without looking at the display and wasn't really surprised to hear that it was Jake. "What's up, Jake?" he asked.

"How far did you get on that thermos, Spud?" There was anxiety in Jake's voice. No doubt about that. Spud could pick that up even above the background noise. Sounded like wind. Jake might be flying.

It probably wasn't the time to make a crack about soup. "Well, I built something," Spud admitted, glancing at his handiwork. "I mean, I found the blueprints, or at least the blueprints to something similar. Have you ever heard of the Guys in White? Apparently they're a ghost-hunting division of the government that's, like, top secret. Except they've got this online database that's easier to crack than the Huntsclan's secret code, and—"

"Great, Spud. Look, I'm a little pressed for time. Give me the CliffsNotes version?"

"I found the blueprints to what I figured was the rip-off version," Spud explained, "and I built it, but I must've gotten something wrong, because it doesn't work." When there was longer than a beat of silence on the other end of the line, he added, "I mean, I was improvising materials, so I guess one of my substitutes couldn't hold up to the real thing."

"It's okay. You tried. Just…. Call Trixie, and meet me at the park if you can. Bring that thermos thing you built anyway. I don't know if you guys can help, but I'm gonna need whatever I can get. Shackles Jack and his gang got out."

"What?"

"Fu figures Rotwood stole and broke into the Mugwomp Cup," Jake repeated. "Gramps and I are trying to figure out our game plan before we meet up with Fu in the park, but this ain't gonna be as easy as last time."

Spud blinked at that, remembering how, last time, he and Trixie hadn't even been able to touch the ghosts and had still gotten walloped in return. "Last time wasn't easy." They might not even have beaten them if they hadn't gotten lucky and been able to add the last ingredient of the spell into the cup, forcing the ghosts' souls into it.

"Exactly."

Something told him this was going to be a long night.

"We're here for you, dude," Spud assured his friend, even though common sense told him he couldn't do anything. "I'll call Trix and we'll be there in ten, fifteen tops."

"Thanks, man. See ya."

The odds didn't look good. Even Spud had to admit that. If Rotwood was there, and Fu, that meant there would be three humans who couldn't do anything, a magical guardian dog who probably couldn't do much, and two dragons, who would be doing most, if not all, of the fighting, against six ghosts that he could only assume were angry and, supposing nothing had changed, bent on taking over people's bodies. And while the ghosts had whatever they could do, they only had a thermos on their side that didn't even function as a ghost-catching device like it was supposed to.

Jake was probably right. The Mugwomp Cup would've been better off left under a pile of rocks in a caved-in mine in the hillside. This is what Gramps had wanted Jake to prevent by retrieving it, and now look where they were.

Oh, well. Maybe Trixie would have a bright idea that would get them out of this.

Haley perched on the edge of Jake's bed, looking intently at Danny, who was sitting on the roll-away cot that had been found for him in the basement yesterday. He was very interesting. She'd never met any ghosts before, of course, and having heard tell of Shackles Jack and the others that Jake had faced, she hadn't really wanted to, to be perfectly honest. But Danny Phantom was different, she was sure. Somehow.

"Uh," Danny said hesitantly, "Jake didn't really not lock the shop, did he?"

"Probably not," Haley agreed. "If he had, and if he had left his keys with Spud, Spud probably would've locked it for him. Jake gets in trouble a lot, so his friends sometimes have to cover for him so he isn't always grounded whenever a dragon emergency comes up."

Danny winced. "So he, uh, has to run off often, then?"

Haley nodded solemnly. "Like he says all the time, he's the American Dragon. It's his responsibility." She pointed at Danny's clothes then, her curiosity overruling her politeness at last. "Where did those come from? They're not Jake's."

"Oh. Right." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "They're, uh, mine?"

It came out like a question, but Haley was nearly certain it was a statement. "Then why not wear them before?"

A half-shrug and an unintelligible mumble was her response. She decided not to push it. "Jake went out with Gramps," she explained carefully, "so this is important. He might need help." More specifically, she might need to help him. It wouldn't be much help, admittedly, but anything was better than nothing when it came to Jake. Usually, at any rate. He hadn't experienced 'too much of a good thing' too often.

"And you think I should help him?" Danny asked. "I don't really have much experience fighting things besides ghosts."

"But I've got some," Haley said, "and if this is important, then Jake might need our help." Besides, she wanted more practice; though she wouldn't admit it to Jake, she knew she needed it.

"Okay," Danny said. "We can go and help if he needs us. Where's he going to be?"

"I don't know," Haley said. "I don't know what's wrong. But we can phone Fu or someone else or even just go around and check the hot spots for trouble." She made a face. "I'd rather phone. Sometimes trolls and others like to hang out in the sewers."

"What are you going to tell your parents?"

"That we're playing, maybe hide-and-go-seek, and they're not to disturb us," Haley answered. "Then we can sneak out."

"Well, okay," Danny said, getting to his feet. "But if we're going to be fighting, I should probably cha—" He broke off as his breath fogged in front of him. "Oh, crud."

"What is it?" From the look on Danny's face, it couldn't be anything good.

Then again, she hadn't thought ghosts needed to breathe. Danny was, and she wasn't sure it was just because he was a phantom. After all, if his breath had actually been visible, then he really was breathing, not just mimicking it, and there was a definite temperature change to allow for his breath to be seen. Probably cold air fogging in warm rather than the other way around, since the air still felt warm to her.

"Trouble," Danny answered grimly. "Go tell your parents something. And I don't want to take you into trouble, so—"

"You're not leaving me here!" Haley cried. "You were willing to take me two minutes ago."

"This is different," Danny argued. "I can't explain right now. I've gotta go."

"Mom!" Haley yelled. "Danny and I are going to play hide-and-seek. Don't bother looking for us!" She turned back to Danny when a flash of light caught her eye, and she was surprised to see him dressed in the same jumpsuit she had first seen him in. "How'd you—?"

"No time," Danny interrupted. Haley recognized the look in his eye—she'd seen it in Jake's often enough before—and grabbed hold of him before he could run off. To her surprise, she must've been right in the nick of time, because then Danny did the most ghost-like thing she'd ever seen him do: he flew through the wall.

With her in tow.

She felt sort of funny, really. Not nervous, with butterflies in her stomach, exactly, but more like she had when she'd first been learning to fly. When she'd finally managed to glide, to just hang in the air—this sort of felt like that. All light and airy and utterly thrilling.

And then they were through the wall and high above the buildings in her neighbourhood, and the strange feeling was gone.

She didn't really fancy changing while dropping through the air, but she was fairly sure she could do it.

Danny grabbed hold of her with his other hand and pulled her up towards him, letting her wrap her arms around his neck. She'd just been hanging off his arm and had to admit that, experience in flying or not, she felt safer when she wasn't dangling. "Sorry about that," he said, "but I need to see if I can spot it."

"Spot what?" she asked.

"My ghost sense went off," Danny explained. They were slowly pivoting in the air, and Danny was scanning the shadows, not looking at her. "That means there's a ghost within range."

"Well, if you put me down," Haley said reasonably, "I can dragon up and follow you."

"Oh. Right. I forgot already." Danny smiled sheepishly and flew down to drop her off on a rooftop. "Just be careful. I can't turn you intangible unless you're touching me."

Haley opened her mouth to reply but heard a shriek before she could even start. And even though she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard that particular scream, she knew who it was. "Mom!"

She had barely transformed before Danny had grabbed her and dove back through the roof, sending them down straight towards the living room. She hardly noticed the strange feeling that spread through her, the novelty of passing through what was no longer solid. She knew that was wrong, of course. She was the one who was no longer solid, not everything she was passing through. But it didn't feel like that. Not really.

Danny stopped just short of the living room, sticking his head through her bedroom floor to check on things. She followed suit. For a brief, panicky second, she couldn't see anything. And then she spotted it.

The other ghost.

"You've done a remarkable job," Jonathan was saying, a grin on his face as he leaned forward to peer at the ghost. "Where do you have the projector set up, Haley-hoo?"

"Da—umph!"

"Keep quiet," Danny hissed, covering her mouth with his free hand. He pulled her back up through the ceiling of the living room—the floor of her room—and released her. "Look, your dad doesn't know what's going on, right? So go with it. Turn back to human or whatever and go down and play your part. I'll take care of this."

"But I haven't attempted to set up a hologram in months," Haley protested weakly, though she obediently changed back.

"So? He still thinks it's you doing this. It's better than my dad, who would immediately realize it's a ghost and go nuts trying to hunt it down!"

Haley blinked at him. "Your dad hunts ghosts?"

Danny cringed. "Never mind that. Just…go and play along, okay? Before that ghost tries anything. And maybe tell your dad you're working on a fight sequence in case things get out of hand."

"But—!"

But nothing, apparently. Danny had disappeared. And she'd thought he hadn't seemed much like a ghost.

Then again, compared to the thing downstairs, perhaps he wasn't.

Haley bit her lip. She scrambled to her feet and flew—literally—down the stairs, wings vanishing before she rounded the corner into the living room. She plastered a grin on her face that she didn't feel, ready to try to convince her father that this was, indeed, only what he thought it was (a demonstration of her brilliance) rather than what her mother thought it was (a ghost).

When she saw the look on the ghost's face, she could only hope that Danny was quick.

"You're too late, kid."

Jake stared at Fu. He and Gramps had just gotten here, with Gramps changing back and going to deal with Rotwood, which left Jake with Fu. And, apparently, the bad news. "Whaddaya mean? Where are they?"

"Everywhere," Fu explained. "They split. Scrammed. Skedaddled. They ain't here anymore. Easy pickings are gone."

"Can't you follow them?" Jake cried.

Fu snorted. "What do I look like, a bloodhound? They went that-a-way," he said, pointing in the general direction of Jake's house. "And that-a-way," he added, gesturing now in the direction of the shop, "and that-a-way."

"The school?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow.

Fu shrugged. "My bet is that they don't know which way is best, so they split up to cover all the bases. They've been dead for a while. You can't expect them to keep up to date. But the point is, we need to divide our forces."

Jake frowned, not entirely happy with the prospect of having to fight off Shackles Jack and a few of his cronies on his own but knowing there wasn't any other way. "Okay. You and Gramps cover the way to the shop. I'll take the school, I guess. Trixie and Spud can scout out the way to my place."

"These aren't phantoms, Jake. They're not like Danny. Trixie and Spud won't be able to do anything against them."

"Spud built one of those Fenton Thermos things," Jake said, but he wasn't able to keep the uncertainty from his voice. Fu was right, after all. Trix and Spud wouldn't be able to do anything to help with these ghosts. But he was sorta hoping that, if they went to his place, Danny would still be around and would be able to help out. This was kind of what Spud had said he did back in his hometown, at least.

Besides, if nothing else, they could recruit Haley, but he really, really didn't want to do that. Not because he thought she'd show him up, since he'd already proven superior when it came to Am Drag duties and all-around dragon business, but because these guys were tricky and he didn't want her to make a misjudgement in battle that could be costly. She didn't have enough experience yet.

This might be a good way to get experience, but that was beside the point.

"I will contact Sun," Gramps said as he joined them in the clearing. He was back in dragon form, which was probably the only reason he could comfortably support an unconscious Rotwood. "She will help us search for the ghosts. You can call the police, Jake, and inform them that there has been a mugging. Have Trixie and Spud stay with him."

Jake looked uncertainly at his teacher. "Is he gonna be okay?" he asked doubtfully. Rotwood certainly didn't look good, at least not to his eyes. He was beaten up, bruised and bleeding, with a good crack on his head that had already turned into a pretty big goose egg. With all the scrapes and scratches on him, he looked like he'd been thrown into the bushes and dragged out a few times.

The twigs and stuff caught in his hair, along with his cracked monocle that hung by its chain, made that not an entirely unlikely possibility.

"He will recover," Gramps said firmly. Jake, who still had his cell on him, figured he should phone Spud again to get an update on how close he and Trix were to the park and tell them the plan before he phoned the police as Gramps had suggested. Gramps, meanwhile, turned to Fu and continued, "Come, Fu Dog. We must clean up Rotwood's things. You can take them back to the shop."

Jake may not have been entirely listening to the conversation between Fu and Gramps at this point, but he was surprised that Fu didn't come up with some snappy comeback. A good-natured comeback, granted, but Fu usually turned to humour at times like these. The fact that he didn't was sort of worrisome.

Actually, it was worrisome. This was probably worse than Jake thought it was. Or maybe Fu thought the ghosts would get away with what they were trying, which would be worse than Jake was currently thinking.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Spud. You and Trix are coming, right?"

"Nearly there. Five minutes out, max. What's up?"

"Shackles Jack and the rest of the ghosts split. I've gotta help Gramps and Sun round them up. I need you guys to babysit Rotwood. He's out, and he looks like he took a pretty good beating. Gramps told me to call the police about a mugging or something, but someone should stay with him."

"We've got it covered, dude. We'll phone the cops when we get there. You should head out as soon as you can. Where are you leaving Rotwood?"

"Uh…. North of that pond thing. You know where the trail winds around? He was in the clearing off there, but G brought him back out to the path. There's a bench around the bend if you want to drag him there."

"Will do. You want me to leave this thermos somewhere you can pick it up?"

Jake thought for a few seconds he probably couldn't spare before deciding, "Yeah, sure. I'll grab it on my way out." He couldn't go home to drop it off for Danny, the only one who might actually know how to use it if he could even make it work, without running into his parents and being unable to come up with some excuse to get rid of it, but it wouldn't do Trixie and Spud any good in the park. At this time of night, they'd be better off with a different sort of weapon than a thermos that was, at this point, only good for soup. He could hang onto it instead, maybe pass it off to Fu or Gramps or Sun or whoever was heading closer to his place. Heck, he could even drop it off near his place and phone Haley and tell her to send Danny to pick it up.

He'd come up with something.

He just couldn't help really wishing he'd left the Mugwomp Cup buried under all that rock and rubble in the country now.