Jim saw Danny fall to the ground, and it felt like he was being pulled out of a fog. The sword in his hands was heavy. What had happened? What was going on? Why did he have his sword out?

"Jim!" He suddenly realized Claire and Toby were both calling his name, loudly, right in his ear.

"Alright, alright!" shouted Jim. He looked around. "Oh. Uh." Floating around them were dozens of figures, none of them completely visible. In front of him, Danny lay on the ground, eyes closed. He was probably unconscious, and he wasn't in his ghost form anymore.

"We're down a ghost expert," said Toby, nervously. "We don't know the first thing about how to tackle these things!" Toby had his war hammer out, but Jim knew all three of them were out of their element here. Claire didn't have a weapon at all, and Toby was more scared than ready to fight.

"Okay, uhhhhhh-" Jim started thinking hard. He wished he'd spent less time talking about trolls with Danny. They weren't even dealing with any trolls here at all.

"Ha!" Shouted a voice, and suddenly Jim noticed a larger, much more present and seemingly powerful ghost. He vaguely remembered seeing him when they'd first gotten down to Trollmarket, but he couldn't remember much else after that. Jim took a really good look this time, trying to figure out if he was familiar in any way. The ghost's long hair floated around his shoulders like he was underwater, and he had a lot of intricate glowing designs all over his chest. Jim suddenly realized - he looked like he was wearing the Trollhunter armor. Or at least, Jim recognized some parts of it. But instead of the engravings glowing blue, they were bright pink.

"What exactly are you?" asked Jim.

"Something … new, I believe," said the ghost. He raised his hand to point at Jim. "But you, James Lake Jr…. I have no need to ask who you are. Trollhunter. Teenager. Half…. troll. Half, just like Daniel. Halfa." His voice was deep, gravelly in a way that would be soothing if it didn't also carry a deep and sharp edge that cut through the darkness.

Jim frowned. "Well… do you have a name?"

The ghost chuckled, ignoring the question. "This is my domain. You children should not have come down here. If you leave now, we will not follow. If you do anything to hurt us, we can move faster than you can armor up. Leave."

"But- how-" Toby started protesting. "Why did you surround us just to send us away?"

"To prove," said the ghost. "We have power. Do not meddle."

Meddle with what, exactly? Jim wanted to know more, but his eyes kept darting to Danny on the floor. It was likely he wasn't used to getting decked like that, and he still wasn't waking up. Jim thought about how much information he could learn if they stayed, but that would almost certainly turn into a fight, and they were very vulnerable. Without the facts, without knowledge about how to fight ghosts, without weapons… It wouldn't be a fair fight anyway. Danny was their weakest link at the moment - they couldn't defend him. And Jim would never forgive himself if he got hurt on his watch.

He sighed. "Okay, we'll go." His two friends behind him tensed, but didn't say anything. There wasn't another option right now. "One problem, though: he was our ticket inside." Jim pointed at Danny on the ground. "We can't get back out on our own, we don't have a horngazel."

The powerful ghost grunted. He pointed into the crowd of ghosts, shouting, "You there! Take them outside. Don't harm them. Yet." A ghost floated out of the crowd, becoming visible. He wore large overalls, black work boots, and a beanie on his head. He looked like he had just come from working on a dock somewhere, or in a cold warehouse overnight.

"Aw… Why do I, the Box Ghost, have to babysit the kids?" He threw his hands down towards his sides in an exaggerated pout.

"Because I said so. Now go." Reluctantly, the Box Ghost ushered the kids forward. Jim quickly scooped up Danny from the ground and carefully put him over his shoulder. Danny was so small...

"Just so you know," said Jim, "We'll be back."

"I expect you will be…" said the powerful ghost, with an expression that almost looked confused. Was he unsure of his own words?

The Box Ghost led them back up the glowing crystal stairs. He was quiet, and stoic. Jim wanted to ask him a question, but he wasn't sure what the question was. Claire and Toby waited in silence as they climbed the steps, the air feeling tense. They were almost out of Trollmarket; none of them really wanted to make their escort mad.

When they got to the top of the stairs, the Box Ghost said, "We're here." As if that wasn't obvious. The kids looked at him expectantly, and he sighed heavily. He gave them a shove, and suddenly they were on the other side of the wall, standing under a bridge in the canal again. The sun was still high in the sky, and it was getting close to lunchtime.

"Okay, so," Jim started. "There's… a ghost. Who knows my name and who I am. We have Danny, who's unconscious." Jim carefully shifted to set Danny down, and propped him as close as he could get to a sitting position against the wall. "The ghost knew who he was, too. How is that possible? Neither of us recognized that ghost, right?" Jim sat down next to Danny, thinking. His armor dissolved, and he held his hand up to his chest to catch the amulet when it fell from his chest.

Toby was quiet, then asked a question. "What happened to Kanjigar?" Jim got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Kanjigar was protecting Trollmarket, they all knew that. He wouldn't go down easily, without a fight. But he was one of the best fighters in the history of Trollkind… one of the best Trollhunters. What kind of a ghost could take him down?

While the kids stood there, under the bridge, experiencing their dread, they heard the school bell off in the distance. Lunchtime.

Claire sighed. She slid down against the wall to sit next to Jim. "It just doesn't make any sense," she said. "I wish we had more information-" She jumped as she was interrupted by the Ghostbusters theme song playing from somewhere.

"Whose phone is that?" asked Toby, who'd started eating his packed lunch. He popped a baby carrot in his mouth and looked pointedly at Jim and Claire.

"Not ours," said Jim. They all turned to the unconscious Danny.

"Well?" demanded Toby, excitement in his voice. "Are you just going to sit there?" Jim was closest to Danny, so he'd have to answer.

"What if it's his parents?" asked Claire. "What would we even say?"

"More importantly, who keeps their phone off silent these days?" Toby joked.

The Ghostbusters theme was still playing. Jim reached into Danny's back pocket - which in itself was really weird to do - and looked at who was calling. "Someone named Sam?"

"Okay," said Toby, "whoever that is, just tell them we're at lunch and Danny left his phone on the table when he went to the bathroom." Toby was always an expert in excuses.

Jim pressed answer, but didn't say anything. "Danny, I can't believe you've been ignoring us! I mean, I know it's only been a day, but we have to do something about those ghosts and whatever Vlad is planning. I'm in the car, you should meet me outside your campus entrance. I have something, I think."

Jim, Toby, and Claire all looked at each other. What do you say to that?

"Uh," said Jim, "Danny isn't actually at the phone right now?" He was sweating; phone calls with strangers were always so stressful. How do you talk to a person you can't look in the face, who you don't even know, without freaking out about it?

"What," said the voice on the phone, Sam. It wasn't really a question. "Where is he."

"The bathroom?" said Jim. That sounded more like a question than the actual question Sam was asking. Toby and Claire glared at him and he shrugged, panicked.

Sam wasn't buying it, surprisingly. "Okay, what happened? Tell me right now or I'm sending your sorry butt back to the Ghost Zone myself." Her voice was hard, and it was easy to tell she meant it.

"We aren't ghosts," said Toby. "But we know someone who is…!" That last comment was a little cheeky. Jim gave him a look. "Someone who is unconscious, I mean! Or, uh -" Toby stumbled for words.

"Where are you? Tell me right now," said Sam.

"It wasn't us!" chimed in Claire, adding more confusion. "There was a ghost in Trollmarket-"

"Well, it was more than just one," interrupted Toby.

"Tell me where! Where are you? I'll be there in five minutes or less. Danny better be okay or there will be problems."

"In the canal under a bridge," said Jim. "The one closest to Arcadia Oaks High."

"Okay, I'm two minutes away from there. Don't go anywhere. I'll see you soon… whoever you weirdos are." And with that, she hung up.

"What was that about?" wondered Claire. She sighed. "There's so much we're missing here. Do you think we're in over our heads?"

Jim and Toby glanced at each other at the same moment. "Almost definitely," said Jim, slumping where he was sitting. "But we have to try to figure this out. Who was that ghost in Trollmarket? How does he know my name, and Danny's? Where did Kanjigar go?" Nobody had any answers for those questions. Not yet.

Jim rested the amulet gently on the ground, looking up and thinking about the shade the bridge was providing. He was a little scared to go back into the sun, even though it wouldn't hurt now. "I think we should tell him," he said, nodding towards Danny.

"You're sure?" asked Claire. "Most of our closer friends don't even know, not really… Do you really trust him that far?"

"He's shown us a lot of his secrets," said Jim. He had a feeling Danny could tell they weren't telling him everything. As they just demonstrated, they weren't always very good at hiding secrets.

"Yeah, but we kind of stole most of those secrets from him!" said Toby. "What if he realizes he's mad about that and tells on you?"

"To who? Like, the town already knows trolls exist in some way, and everyone else outside wouldn't believe it. Plus… I don't think he'd do that. He might be an angry kid," - both Claire and Toby rolled their eyes at that comment, remembering how Jim just acted back in Trollmarket - "but he seems lonely. I don't think that anger comes from… anything actually bad. Let's give him a chance."

"Give who a chance?" asked Danny, groggily. He adjusted so he was sitting up straight. "What happened? I got knocked out into a human again, didn't I?"

"Yeah," said Jim. "Human." He paused for a minute, trying to think of what to say next. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, though, a voice called out.

"Yo, where are you people?" It sounded like Sam. Her voice echoed over the concrete walls of the canal.

"Down here!" called Toby. "I can come up to meet you!" He got up and started going up one of the sides of the canal.

"There's something we should tell you," said Jim to Danny.

"Oh yeah, that's a surprise," scoffed Danny. He rubbed his eye, and though you couldn't see a bruise, it definitely looked like it hurt. "Wait, was that Sam?"

"Danny!" called Sam, running down the slope of the canal. Sam was wearing the school uniform from Arcadia Academy, which was a black sweater and skirt. She was also wearing black combat boots, purple lipstick, and her hair was chopped short. She was definitely goth, or trying to be with the uniform.

She came over to Danny and knelt beside him. "What the heck's been happening? Oof, that looks like it hurts. Was it these kids?" She turned back around to face Jim and the others, standing protectively over Danny.

"Sam, calm down," said Danny, working his way to a standing up position. "There's been, uh… there's been a lot going on."

"No kidding! We have to find those missing ghosts!"

At the mention of the ghosts, Jim and Claire shared a look, and Sam noticed. "Wait a minute," she said. "Don't tell me… you didn't go find the ghosts with these nerds, did you? Without us? I can't believe you!" Her defensive demeanor melted and she turned back to face Danny with her fists balled.

"Hang on, Sam! Geez!" Danny put up his arms to protect his already injured face, but Sam didn't actually make any punches. Danny relaxed, and took a deep breath.

"Look. Uh. It's a long story. But I teamed up with these guys because they know Arcadia Oaks - better than the average person. They know what goblins are, for starters."

Sam clasped her hands in front of her face. "Okay. I'm going to need you to back up about two days and tell me exactly what's going on here. But we should go somewhere other than here. Let's go to my house, guys. I'll tell my mom I got sent home for breaking uniform again."