Jazz sighed as she leaned against a tree, her hair frazzled and untamed. Her fingers running down her hair in an attempt to brush it, but more so to help calm her nerves.

She loved her little brother. She did. So much. She was even going to stay home the next year or two, to make sure he had a choice to do what he wanted in life. It was her secret plan.

She smiled at the thought, her own little secret.

Jazz had realized the only way Danny could get his grades up, was if someone took over so he could sleep or stay in school. She would recommend online learning, but then he would have to deal with their parents more.

Although their parents cared for them, and she really believed they would accept Danny if he told them, they were too dangerous to be left alone with Danny.

Sam and Tuck were great at helping him. They helped him keep up in classes, fought along side him, and were his support system too. Even so, they were just teenagers.

But so was she.

Jazz felt tears prickle her eyes. The stress of the situation was getting to her. She hated it.

Danny needed a pillar. One she had been building up these last several months in secret, her plans, scheduling of who took what shift. Jazz wanted so desperately to be the right person for the situation, and perhaps she was... for what she had planned.

But this? This scared her. Worse of all, she had to pretend things will be ok. Ok, no she didn't, but Danny was breaking down. He needed the pillar she been desperately trying to build for him. But it wasn't ready. She wasn't ready for this.

Jazz wiped at her face, as tears she been trying to keep back spilled.

She was scared. Mom and Dad were in danger. They didn't know what other tricks Plasimus had up his sleeve. Yeah, she had back up plans for if they died, but that didn't mean she was ready to enact them.

Jazz also knew, she couldn't plan everything. She never planned on Danny dying, or well half-dying. But she adapted. She never planned on ghosts being real, she adapted... after having a mental breakdown, but still adapted. She never planned being lost in the woods with an injured Batman while her brother is without his powers and her parents could be dead and/or dying, either.

But She had to adapt. She had to be the pillar. She was the older sister. Danny needed her.

Jazz sniffed, pulling in her tears. "Ok. Jazz, pull yourself together."

She looked up at the stars through the trees. The ghost shield was just a few feet away, her brother and Batman just some more.

"A plan. We need one."

Danny was working on getting contact, or she assumed. Even though she was the one to propose the idea, he thought of the solution.

Jazz couldn't do much more to help Batman's wounds. She might be proud of her first aide capabilities, but they worked more for Danny. Someone who could heal fast.

That left her with a couple of options. She could go back to Batman's plane and grab things they could use, but she hated to go through his things without permission. After all her psychoanalyzing of heroes and people in general that privacy was important. Plus he did mention the reason he was here was classified.

More importantly, that was in the direction that Moose-wolf ghost went flying. A complete nope on that. At least for now.

Her other option, was that she could follow the GAV tracks and see where they lead. This seemed better in her opinion. Especially since it gave her an easy way back to camp.

She would have to sneakily follow them from the woods until she was far away from Danny. He would never let her do it alone. He was worrying himself to death(Full death) about their parents and Batman. Didn't need to add herself to the list.

It be easier if she did this now than later, when it was time for action. Who knows, she might find her parents and convince them to come back. It was an option. One Vlad (Plasmius) wouldn't consider.

Vlad's eyes were only on her mom and Danny. Recently more so Danny. He only wanted Jazz for leverage. She wasn't going to allow that. Not on her watch.

Jazz quietly walked through the trees, getting close to the edge of camp. She peaked around them, squinting in the dim light of the crescent moon. Danny looked focused on something, sitting close to Batman.

She wish she could take a picture.

Jazz smiled, then looked back to where she remembered seeing the tracks of the GAV. They cut through trees, heading towards body of water. She frowned, her Dad was a reckless driver. The damage from the GAV alone showed. This was a national forest. Not that it mattered to them, when ghosts were involved.

How many times have they blown up their house or anything in town because of ghost? Bills showed far too many.

She took one last look at Danny, making sure he didn't spot her, before following the tracks from behind trees.


Danny was glad to know the communication device Batman had, seemed similar enough to the Fenton ones they use for traveling in the Ghost Zone. Which meant, theoretically he could replicate it.

He tried to recall what the blueprints looked like, and when they took one apart to look at it. Danny wished he had Tuck their to help. He probably could have gotten it to work a lot faster.

Tuck fixed up a lot of equipment their parents had. He remember sitting up in Sam's room. Parts spread across the floor.

"Eureka!"

"What you eureka-ing about, Tuck?"

"This!" Tuck showing the inner parts of a phone.

Sam and Danny sharing looks, confused.

Tuck huffed offended, "These, the transmitter. I figured out how to replicate it to my own phone! Danny touch this and give it some juice." (Translated to put ectoplasm in it. )

Danny did so skeptically. Tuck then put it together while explaining, "Your parents devices not only ran on ectoplasm, but the main transmitter and receiver was infused with it. So theoretically, if I can infused the parts with enough ectoplasm, I could connect to the internet ANYWHERE! We could be rich too! Think about it. Man your parents should stuck to making phones, you would be a millionaire!"

"Being rich kid isn't all that's cracked up to be Tuck." Sam huffed.

"Would be nice if they focused on something other than ripping my other half apart molecule by molecule."

Tuck powered up the phone, making Danny take them somewhere secluded to test it. It worked for about 3 minutes, then became sentient and tried to kill them. He had to put it out of its misery.

Danny lightly chuckled at the memory. Tuck was so upset about it, that they didn't try it again. Later, with help from Jazz, Danny had found out why it did that. Apparently Danny put too much juice in it.

Unlike their parents equipment, normal devices weren't able to properly contain ectoplasm without shorting out or growing sentience. So they needed far less ectoplasm.

Now the question for Danny, was how much? All they needed was for it to work for one call, really. Though he hate to ruin Batman's device after being entrusted with it, but in the end that wouldn't mattered if it worked.

What would matter, is if he accidentally short circuit it before they could get help. That's the issue.

Luckily, since he couldn't use his own ectoplasm, he could measure how much. He took out the thermos, he had laid next to him and hit the release latch.

When Batman had passed out, after Danny stopped panicking, he sucked up any residue ectoplasm. He knew he needed more of it when he thought of his plan. He didn't want to break another weapon.

The residue ectoplasm wasn't as pure or refined as the stuff in his parents weapons, but maybe that was a good thing. He needed it to be weaker. And who knows, maybe it being from the same type of ghosts that were causing the problem would help too. It was something he would have to test with the team, once he got back to Amity.

The ectoplasm was spat out of the Fenton Thermos and dropped with a plop onto the ground, next to Danny.

"How to infuse it.. hm." Danny wondered as his eyes glanced around at the parts, Batman's device was lying on his lap as the rest was strung around him.

He could try what Tucker did, and put the ectoplasm directly on the transmitter. His parents did infuse ectoplasm in their transmitter and receivers, but they did it in the metal itself. It wasn't concentrated.

Danny didn't have an ectoplasm battery, either. Only one small enough would be in the lipstick blaster, and well.. that didn't seem like a good idea. He hated to think he blasted Batman's eardrums with ectoplasm. Wonder if that would make him have ghost hearing? Or a bats?

Danny. Focus. Think. Think.

His fingers twirled with a piece of wire that he had. Danny's eyes widen. Duh! Of course, simple solutions. You don't have to be Tuck, or your parents.

Danny dipped the wire into the ectoplasm, wiping it off and dipping it again. He still wasn't sure how much, but he knew better than anyone that ectoplasm was a good conductor of electricity.

He shivered at the memory of the portal.

It was why electricity worked on ghosts, and why ghosts with electrical cores were terrifying. Good thing Technus loved to rant.

So if he could ecto-fy the electrical current running to the transmitter, it should work. Or worse scenario it be similar to him.

Ha. Half ghost communicator. Maybe then he could actually understand Vlad's fruitloopiness. Or maybe he could use it to tell ghost to let him sleep for once. Who ever said you could sleep when your dead, obviously weren't talking about ghosts.

He stifled his chuckles as he worked, with a smile on his face.


Jazz was walking along the tracks, her flashlight in one hand and the anti-ghost roasting stick in the other. A blaster hooked to her belt. She wasn't sure how long or how far she was from camp, just hoping Danny was too hyper-fixated on whatever he was working on to notice.

She wondered if Batman was up and awake. She hope he wouldn't point it out either.

The tracks had swerved and curled, but by looking at the stars remembering what direction the Big Dipper was in, she could tell she was heading Northwest from the campsite. Instead of Northeast like when she started. A circle-ish.

Thanking Danny for that one. She would have forgotten to use the simplest of navigational tools, if he hadn't used it earlier. She was normally bad at directions. Even with a map and compass.

The tracks followed up around the lakeside, before stopping at the edge of the water. Jazz rushed to the side of lake. She used her flashlight to peak in to the water. Sliding to the edge, she dunked it under the water in hopes to light up. Something. Anything. But She saw nothing.

Jazz scrambled back up, dropping whatever was in her hands once back on solid ground. She nervously kept running her now soaked and muddy hands through her hair, counting her breathing in her head as she tried to keep from panicking.

Dad isn't THAT reckless of a driver. So they couldn't have... Oh man!

She wasn't ready to financially take care of Danny! Emotionally yes, she did it all the time, but she never had an actual job before! (Well, she tutored other kids, but that wasn't the same.) And the battle for custody against Vlad, she had that all piled and ready, but he was rich and played dirty! He could possess the judge so easily.

BREATH JAZZ. She smacked herself out of it.

Even if the GAV was underwater, that didn't mean her parents were. Vlad Plasmius probably got frustrated at how impenetrable the GAV was. So he tricked them out of it. Yeah. That might be it.

Jazz took a big breath and released it. Pulling in her resolve, she let go of her hair and picked up her flashlight. The anti-ghost stick she dropped a bit farther away, she would pick that up on her way back.

Jazz inspected the tracks and the area around it. It didn't look like a big fight happened, at least not outside of the GAV. Some areas on her way up had ectoplasm and traces of fighting, but here there was none.

That was odd. If her parents were tricked out of the GAV, then she would at least see her Dad's footprints. The ground was softer here. But no the only footprint she found was a deer's.

Jazz narrowed her eyes and focused where the tracks met the lake. That was odd too. They stopped dead before it. There was no sign it went into the lake, at least not straight through. The GAV would have to have been picked off the ground.

She walked closer to the edge again, this time examining it closely. Then she noticed something reflect back in the water. She bent over and reached out. She wiped her hand over the item, feeling it. It was flat and smooth.

Jazz tried to brush some of the dirt off, only to reveal a metal sheet.. Wait no. A path. But it ended a couple of feet from where she stood. Unless...

Jazz looked out into the lake. Seeing if there was anywhere it could go to. There was a large rocky mass with a tree in the middle of the Lake. She turned off her flashlight, and peered into the dark water.

Jazz gasped seeing green lights. They were faint and would normally be mistaken for distorted reflection of stars or the moon, but she could see it. Her parents were lead there, wherever there was.

She turned her flashlight back on, wiping it on her shirt before sticking it in her mouth. She crouched down and crawled a bit on the metal path. Her hands feeling around the edges.

She reached the end of the sheet, and felt under it. She felt it, the path could raise. Either it raised into a tunnel, or the rock island rose up too. Jazz stood up, taking the flashlight out of her mouth with a spat.

"Gross. bleh."

Jazz dusted at her clothes, (despite them being soaked and not dusty) and took one last glance around. Everything else looked normal. Which meant that Plasmius must have led them there. Probably was a secret lab, the reason for the ectoplasmic levels in the area.

Jazz frowned, crossing her arms. For someone who taunted her brother about not being a threat, he was going through extremes to make sure he couldn't interfere. That seemed a bit odd for Vlad though. But with his increasing desperation to get what he thinks he deserves, it wasn't that out of character. People broke under less pressure.

Either way, she felt a bit better knowing where her parents went, even if she didn't know exactly what happened to them. Ok. Now the hard part. Getting back to camp, without looking like she just jumped into a lake.

Danny couldn't see her like this, or maybe she make up a story about needing the cold water on her face- Everything BUT her face was wet.

Jazz looking back down at the water, then sighed. Things she does to make cover up stories. At least she had practice.


Batman had been watching Danny, silently. He was curious about the boy's thought process. Whether it was a sway, a jolt, or a switch of his hands, Batman could pinpoint a new route of thought.

But he kept his silence. Despite being curious, he rather not interrupt Danny's train of thought. He didn't want the teen to think he was questioning his trust in him. After all, Danny seemed genuinely shocked to be trusted at all.

Batman frowned. Now that he had been watching him, he noticed that the boy was anxious by nature. Maybe some part of it was from stress, they were in a stressful situation. No doubt some large part of it was because of him.

Not because of his intimidating nature, or silent brooding for once, but because he kept them from finding and fighting along side their parents. They had to stay put for help, because of him. He wasn't sure that was a good thing or a bad thing.

It made his blood run cold. The thought that he, who swore to fight crime to prevent others from experiencing what he had as a child, would be part of the reason their parents might...

Cruel irony, either way, he would fight for them if it came to that. Bruce would do whatever was in his power to make it up to them. Because it sounded like whoever was the man behind the mask of Plasmius, wanted to control them.

He do anything to keep that from happening. It was the least he could do.

Of course Damian be upset, but perhaps he could sway him with a trip to a petting zoo? Tim and Dick would groan, but would warmly welcome Jazz and Danny. Maybe Duke could find comfort in not being the only meta in the manor. Stephanie would call for an all girls night, whisking Jazz away with Cass and Barbara.

Jason. Jason would disapprove, give him the cold shoulder. But he would watch over them, especially once he knew why.

But that's only if they wanted to come to Gotham, Amity Park did sound like it had its own world of problems. He would have to get the League involved. Replicate some of Fenton's weapons. Setup a zeta tube near the area.

Batman shook out of his train of thought, that was if their parents weren't alive. They didn't know. If they fought ghosts like Danny and Jazz, then there was a high possibility they were fine too. He hoped. Just for their kids' sake. They were worried.

Point he was trying to note, was that Danny in front of him and the Danny he met, felt completely different. One he was observing, was nervous and awkward. He held his body curled and shrunken, appearing smaller than he was. This Danny wouldn't be seen in a crowd, or if he was its because of how frail he appeared.

But Danny carried Batman for what he could assume was at least a mile if not two, by himself. That wasn't normally possible for an average teenager.

Perhaps he had some kind of super strength too? How could he get information about it without making them shut down.. Might be something he have to get the kids to help with.

Danny's strength wasn't just physical. Danny's voice held confidence, whether it was mock or not, and a bit of cockiness, when it came to fighting ghosts. Danny's body language changed too, his stance more firm, his shoulders broad and his chest puffed out.

To the average person, it would be hard to assume this was the same kid. But Batman knew people were never just surface level. Both of these Dannys were Danny.

Considering his secret meta status and his skills in battle, Batman would have to guess he was a vigilante too. Another thing to remember to look up, if there was any heroes in Amity Park.


"I got signal on Bat's communicator!"

"Uh.. h-hello?" Young male voice came through the light static.

A kid? Oh no.

"20 bucks he has black hair and blue eyes."