A/N: Behold! Chapter three of my incredibly spooky tale of Halloween horrors! Okay...so it's a humorous PG rated Danny Phantom fic. :-P At least it's entertaining, right? blinks -- That's the last time I let 'the box ghost' write my author's note material. Box Ghost: O.o BEWARE!!!

Restless Teen Halloween

Chapter Three: Wandering Spirits

An eerie fog seemingly appeared out of nowhere, centered on the aging building of Casper High. The mists rolled in through the smeared and broken windows of the old science lab. The room had been sealed off shortly after the explosion. For obvious health risks the shambled classroom was deemed unsafe, therefore everyone—even the school's janitorial staff—was forbidden to set foot in the abandoned resting place of two feuding teens.

The years were slowly taking their toll on the abandoned room. Now all that remained were the remnants of some charred lab tables, a half blown away counter, shattered beakers and test tubes, a few dust cover papers, and a broken mirror hanging over a mildewed sink on the back wall.

An overturned Bunsen burner ignited from its position amidst a shattered lab table. The piece of lab equipment sat upright, its flame soaring up towards the ceiling. Just before reaching the damaged sprinkler system overhead a human-like figure took shape and emerged from the flames. The brightness of the fire gradually died down revealing a teenage looking ghost boy. He stood just under six feet tall. Pausing he scanned the room with piercing mahogany eyes. Running a hand through his well groomed russet hair he let out a frustrated sigh.

"So it's once again the night of the Casper High Halloween Dance?" he groaned, "Great, another year of 'mingling' with the mortals. This is getting a tad redundant. It's bad enough that I'm trapped in the Ghost Zone 364 days out of the living world year, reliving that fateful day when Kate went berserk! Now I get to come out and have her torture me in front of a whole new assembly of students."

Glancing in the back of the lab he noted the broken mirror hanging in its usual spot. A small smirk spread over his pasty features, "Ha! Well at least I've lost her for now."

Music from the Halloween Dance started filtering through the wall by the hallway. Hearing this Jet clenched his fists and struck a determined pose. There was a way to end the cycle of constant degradation and torment. He had almost rid himself of Kate through Monique. What he needed now was a new 'Monique', someone to drive Kate away. "And soon, I'll be rid of her forever!"

With a sinister laugh he flew towards the locked door and fazed out into the hall. This year would be different, this year he would be free...for good!

Suddenly, the dark room was flooded by a ghostly green glow. This strange light seemed to be coming from the busted mirror. The fragments shown as the cracks were filled in by beams of supernatural luminance. The mirror now served as a portal straight into—The Ghost Zone.

Another specter soon emerged from the portal. A ghost girl with electric blue eyes and pale orange hair hovered just above the debris littered floor of the old science lab.

Scowling Kate looked around to find that her traitorous ex-boyfriend had managed to give her the slip. "JET!" she screeched, "You can't avoid me forever! It's all your fault that we're stuck inside the Ghost Zone in the first place!"

There's gotta be some reason why we keep getting transported into the living world then sucked back into the Ghost Zone every night of the Casper High Halloween Dance. she concluded, Well I'm gonna find out what that reason is. And there's no way that I'm gonna let that cretin Jet forget for one minute why we didn't survive that explosion!

Halting her thoughts she listened closely and detected a growing noise coming from beyond the lab's locked door. It almost sounded like...music. The dance must've started. Of course!

"I'm coming Jet Skye! There's no way that you're gonna break this curse first and bail on me again!" with her vow to track down the cheating jerk she soared off through the wall and headed straight for the gym.

"Hurry Maddie, we're almost there!" Jack Fenton urged as the ghost hunters wound through the hallways of Casper High.

"I'd be more than happy to dear," Maddie called, "if someone weren't clinging to my leg."

Glancing over his shoulder Jack saw Jazz latched onto Maddie's leg, pleading with her to give up the search and just go home before anyone saw them.

"Please Mom, I'm appealing to your natural maternal instincts here!" Jazz begged, "Forget the ghost hunting for just one night and leave. The last thing that either Danny or I needs is for you two to stalk around the halls embarrassing us in front of all our peers!"

"Jazz honey, we weren't even noticed by your friends." Maddie tried to reason, "And since the doors to the most the halls were unlocked for bathroom access and all the teachers busy chaperoning no one's gonna notice if we take a quick look around."

"But...but-" Jazz objected.

"Rats!" Jack exclaimed upon rounding a corner to find a dead end. "I was almost sure that this was where the old science lab used to be."

"Oh Jack," Maddie scolded, "now you know that your sense of direction and long-term memory isn't all that sharp sweetheart. Why don't you just use the Fenton Finder to lead us straight to the haunted lab?"

"There is no haunted lab!" Jazz protested.

"Now Jasmine," Jack argued, "you were the one who told us about the rumor of the ghost teens in the first place."

"Yeah, I heard from Dash that his substitute English teacher read them some ghost story about these two sophomores getting caught in a lab explosion or something. They supposedly come back every night of the Halloween Dance as part of some curse they're under." Jazz reiterated, "But it's just a stupid made up story!"

"Actually Jazz, I went online and did some research. Apparently there was an incident about twenty-one years ago where two teens were killed in an accidental lab explosion." Maddie explained, "Therefore, there may be some truth to this supposed fiction."

"And we're gonna find it!" Jack declared, "But uh...not with the Fenton Finder."

"Why not?" Maddie asked.

Scratching the back of his head Jack replied sheepishly, "I um...seem to have misplaced it."

"Maybe a ghost took it." Jazz muttered sarcastically.

"You think?!" Jack gasped, "Why those thieving apparitions! That settles it! C'mon Maddie, we're going to track down those ghosts and get our equipment back!"

Jazz slapped a hand to her forehead. Just perfect, this is gonna be a long night.

"Well at least they didn't get the Fenton Sealer." Maddie stated optimistically.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Jazz groaned, "What's the Fenton Sealer?"

Snatching the object and holding it up over his head for emphasis Jack answered, "This little baby will ensure that those ghost kids aren't going anywhere! Right now they're free to pass between the Ghost Zone and the living world until midnight, when the dance officially ends. But once we seal up the portal they're traveling through they'll be trapped in this world!"

"Then we can catch them with the Fenton Thermos and send them straight back to the Ghost Zone before any damage is done." Maddie finished.

"Actually..." Jack mumbled, "...they took that too."

"Okay," Jazz sighed, "let's say—hypothetically—that I buy any of this ghost nonsense for a minute. If these two troubled teen spirits keep getting spit back out into the living world every year then wouldn't the portal just reopen next fall?"

"Nope!" Jack replied proudly, "The Fenton Sealer has a permanent elimination effect upon all supernatural portals!"

"We were originally gonna use it as a means of sealing off the Fenton Ghost Portal in case of an emergency but in this case it can come in handy too." her mom smiled.

"Question number two," Jazz began again, "how does sealing off their portal then shoving them back in the Ghost Zone help them rest in peace? I mean, these two ghosts must have some serious unresolved issues to be trapped in such a hopeless cycle. What they need is counseling, a means of understanding exactly why they're stuck in a loop and a chance to rationally sit down with someone sincere about helping them to get on with their afterlives."

Freezing Jack and Maddie exchanged bewildered glances. It almost seemed as if Jazz was asking to help.

"Ha! I knew she'd warm up to the ghost chasing business eventually!" Jack beamed.

"Well dear," Maddie suggested, "why don't you come along with us and see if you can't help these two put their past behind them?"

"M-me?!" Jazz stammered, "You want ME to come ghost hunting with you? What if someone sees me?!"

"Come on Jazz," Jack insisted, "you're the Fenton family member with the most up to date advice and um...psychiatry stuff."

"Hm..." Jazz thought, There's no way that the old science lab is haunted. But...if I tag along with Mom and Dad the chances of them doing something to utterly humiliate me are reduced by at least thirty percent. "...all right, you guys talked me into it!"

"Great!" Jack and Maddie cheered.

With that, three members of the Fenton family household were off to the old science lab. And with Jazz leading the way they were finally headed in the right direction.

"Wow," Sam remarked staring at the locked door barricaded with chains and boards, "when the school board declares a classroom 'condemned' they mean business."

"Great, I'm just gonna have to faze you two through." Danny griped.

"Better hurry Danny," Tucker said glancing around nervously, "I think Mr. Lancer might have noticed us missing by now. He does like to keep an extra close eye on us ya know."

"Disappearing all steak buffets, split personality dads, and chronic pants-dropping," Sam listed, "I wonder why?"

Staring at the old science lab door determinedly Danny crouched down and let out his typical battle cry, "I'm going ghost!"

In the blink of an eye Danny was in his phantom form. Grabbing Tucker and Sam he fazed through the wall and sat them down amidst the rubble.

"All right guys," he whispered, "start looking around for anything out of the ordinary. We have to track down those ghosts before they ruin the dance."

"Got'cha Danny," Tucker gave a quick thumbs up before dashing over the broken down counter where the chemical spill had taken place.

Sam searched along the back wall for any signs of ghostly activity. She was currently prying the doors open to a large dented metal cabinet.

Danny flew up to the old blackboard and tried to make out any weird inscriptions a spirit might've made. But all he found were some vague remains of basic chemical equations and scientific formulas.

"It's so strange that they'd chain up the door and construct a new lab instead of just rebuilding this one." Sam spoke to no one in particular.

"That must have been one heck of an explosion." Tucker agreed.

The three kept searching the remains of the old science lab until finally every nook and cranny had been inspected. Still, there were no signs of the ghost teens.

"Now what Danny?" Tucker asked, tired of wasting time on a hopeless search.

Disheartened by their lack of progress the halfa turned to his awaiting 'sidekicks'. "Now...we wait."

Back at the dance...

The ghost boy Jet fazed through the hall entrance to the Casper High gym unnoticed by the students inside. Scanning the room he smirked slyly. This was perfect! A whole gym chalked full of unsuspecting, boy-crazy, high school girls!

Concentrating on his appearance he shifted into the costume he would have worn to the Halloween Dance twenty-one years ago. Taking a comb out from the loose-fitting vest of his pirate costume he ran it over his bangs which just barely stuck out from beneath his red bandanna. With one last expenditure of his ghostly powers he managed to go from transparent to opaque.

One good thing about the curse, on the night of the Halloween Dance he and Kate gained the ability to resume their human forms. Of course, like some kind of cheesy fairytale magic, the effects of their transformation only lasted until midnight.

Slowly making his way into the crowd he couldn't help but chuckle to himself, "Ladies, this is your lucky night. Well...mine anyway."

No sooner had he disappeared into the partying mass than the ghost girl Kate fazed into the gym intent on giving him another earful about what a despicable loser he was.

Taking a moment to observe the dance she sneered. "I HATE Halloween dances!"

Nevertheless she knew the routine. If she wanted to find Jet she'd have to search the crowd. The only way to do that without arousing his suspicions was to blend in.

Grudgingly she called forth her ghostly powers and prepared to shift into her all too temporary human form.

When she was finished she stood, hands on her hips, beneath one of the basketball goals in all her mortal glory. Her midnight blue Arabian princess attire accented her gorgeous features perfectly. Folding her hands across her chest she growled as the gold bracelets jingled together and whipped her braided pony tail behind her head. In life she'd own an entire split level walk-in closet full of the most stylish, trendiest clothes money could buy. But now she was reduced to wearing the same outfit out in public again and again. Well, two, if you counted the school clothes she'd been wearing the day of the accident.

Stomping across the gym in her curved toe, gold-colored shoes she kept a sharp eye out for her ex. "He won't get away with escaping this nightmare before me! I'll get that two-timing cretin if it's the last thing I do!"

Amanda/Artiste: The third chapter is now finished. I haven't updated this fast in over a year! It's nice to set deadlines, keeping them is even better! Next Chapter: With the ghosts loose Danny now has to attend the dance, avoid getting caught by Lancer, keep his parents from ruining his already unpopular life, and stop the combative teen apparitions from using one or more of his unsuspecting classmates to break their curse. Whoa...who's that new guy talking to Sam?! Review and find out!