"Will you put that thing down and help me out with this?"
"I can't, Maddie... Not until after I put these last few finishing touches on it."
"Jack, you've been putting those finishing touches on it for over an hour now. I need help clearing away all this wreckage. And in case you haven't noticed, there's a ton of it sitting here in the corner of the lab that needs to be moved!"
"I'm sorry, but right now, the most important thing is that I complete this device so that it will be ready for testing--"
"Apparently you also haven't noticed this gigantic HOLE in the ceiling, much less the one in the side of the house! This might not apply to you personally, but I believe the most important thing right now is that we figure out just exactly how they GOT there!"
Sam and Tuck reached the downstairs lab. Sitting in a chair up against the far wall, with an icepack on his head and a screwdriver and some device with wires dangling from it in his hands, was what seemed to be a well alive Jack Fenton. Standing next to him with a banged-up metal panel in one hand and a broken microscope in the other was an equally if not better conditioned Madison Fenton. They both took their attention off what they were doing and looked at Sam and Tuck as they entered the room. The room was silent for a moment, then Sam was the first to speak.
"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton! Um, Mr. Fenton, we wanted to see your new Fentonfinder..."
Jack's ears perked at the sound of enthusiasm about one of his inventions. He leapt to his feet, the icepack falling to the floor along with the screwdriver and near-finished device, and seemed to leap to the nearest table, taking a metal box about the size of a toaster in one hand and holding it up.
"Samantha, Tucker, I present to you the new and improved Fentonfinder! It uses radar and satellite signals to not only locate ghosts, but also to track their movements and exact positions by reading atomic signatures from bits of ecto-matter the ghost leaves behind! It can even calculate the exact distance between your location and that of the ghost you're tracking..."
Jack paused in his speech, giving Sam and Tuck a suspicious look.
"Wait a minute... How did you two find out about this thing?"
"Oh, we heard about it from Da--"
Sam slapped a hand over Tuck's mouth, grinning sheepishly at Jack.
"Sir, we just knew you had to be working on some new gadget, and we felt like helping you give it a test run... You know, to make sure there weren't any bugs in the system and that it worked fine. We just guessed that it might be a new Fentonfinder, and if it wasn't, we thought we'd inspire you to try and build a new one."
As Jack stopped to ponder Sam's response, Tuck nudged her with his elbow.
"Nice save."
Jack smiled and approached Sam, handing her the device.
"Great idea! I know I can count on the both of you to make sure the new Fentonfinder will perform in top condition when I go to use it in research later this month. How much time will you need to test it?"
Sam and Tuck looked at each other questioningly.
"Um, uh... Maybe a week? Is that okay, Mr. Fenton?"
Jack stroked his chin in thought for a moment, then nodded.
"One week. Report back to me as soon as you find any bugs, though, so that I can update the system. Now, go! Send the Fentonfinder on its maiden voyage in the world of ghost-hunting, and make me proud!"
He grabbed Sam's shoulder and struck a heroic pose, pointing up the stairs with one outstretched hand, even though the outside of the house was much more visible through the hole in the ceiling. Sam thanked Jack and Maddie, having to wrench herself free from Jack's grip, then she and Tuck went back upstairs and into the living room, the shiny, metallic Fentonfinder resting under Sam's arm. Tuck breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks for covering for me, I owe you one."
"I'll just add it to your tab. Anyway, Mr. Fenton said that this machine needs a bit of the ghost in order to tell us exactly where it is. Do you think that Danny--I mean, the dragon might have left any ecto-matter at the school when it breathed fire on the building, or maybe when it clawed the walls?"
"Maybe we don't have to go all the way to the school for that. Let me check over here..."
Tuck walked over to the wall in the dining room in which the large hole opened up into the street. He knelt down, inspecting the edge of the torn wall, as if searching for something miniscule. Finally, he reached down and picked up something Sam could not see, then lifted his arm up in the air, holding up a small object that glowed bluish-green.
"Eureka! Look, Sam, one of the dragon's scales! It must have been scraped off when the dragon brushed its side against the edge of this hole... We can use this to track where Danny's going!"
Sam felt around the Fentonfinder until she found the compartment where the ecto-matter was to be inserted for the machine to check its molecular composition. Tuck then placed the glowing blue scale in the tiny drawer, which slided back into the machine. A small monitor screen on top of the box displayed the message "Loading" and showed a colored bar underneath that marked how much information it had processed. After a short while, the display changed to an image of the dragon, and Sam and Tuck could hear a computerized voice coming from a speaker on the side of the device.
"Subject: Dragon Ghost. Length: 40 feet. Weight: 8 tons. Current Position..."
The image display changed to that of a map, with latitude and longitude lines, topographical features, and cities marked out in neon green on a black ground. The map was greatly zoomed out, showing Amity Park only as a small dot on the waters' edge, north of which were a large forest and a mountain range. A blinking dot in a crosshair showed the dragon's position. Sam and Tuck noticed that the dot was already far into the forest and was still traveling north at a rapid pace; the dragon was on the move. If they were going to catch up with Danny, they would have to find a way of getting close to where he was in the least possible amount of time.
"Tuck, we're taking the bus. I can cover the fare, but before we leave, I'm going to need you to gather up a few of your communication devices for the road. We might not end up having to use them, but we can't be too sure... I'm going to have to go back to my house in order to get the money we need, too, so let's arrange to meet back here around a certain time..."
Tuck nodded, and the pair walked to the foyer, Sam still carrying the Fentonfinder. Since Sam's hands were full, Tuck reached out to open the door for her. Pulling the door back, he and Sam saw something that pretty much made them freeze in their tracks...
Jazmine stood there, out on the sidewalk, staring in awe at the hole in the side of the house. Sam and Tuck remained standing in the entranceway, watching her, who after a while noticed them standing there and turned her attention to them. She saw the large metal contraption in Sam's hands, and it was apparent from her facial expression that a conclusion was forming in her mind. Before he could allow her to start asking questions, Tuck stepped forward to explain.
"Uh, we thought we'd come over and... drop Danny's homework off for him. Then your dad let us borrow one of his gadgets to check for bugs..."
Jazmine blinked, then raised a hand as if in protest.
"Wait, wait, wait... Danny didn't come to school today?"
"Well, he--"
Sam interrupted once again, to prevent Tuck from saying something he shouldn't.
"He was busy doing extracurricular activies to raise his grade in, um, Biology, so he ended up missing a couple of classes."
Jazmine raised an eyebrow at Sam's explanation, considering the fact that the school had been closed for the week due to reconstruction and repairs resulting from the strange attack earlier that day. Since students weren't expected to be in class for a while, the teachers had chosen to cancel their homework assignments. It was obvious that both Sam and Tuck were lying, probably trying to cover for Danny being absent for some reason. On the other hand, she didn't want to try and pull the truth out of them; she didn't want them to know what she knew about Danny that they didn't want anyone to know.
"Okay... I see. Well, thanks for doing that, I'm sure he'll appreciate it."
Sam and Tuck nodded, then quickly ran past Jazmine and down the sidewalk, turning the corner and leaving her sight. She sighed and walked in the house, heading up the stairs toward Danny's bedroom. Upon entering his room, she spotted an important article of evidence that showed proof that Danny never left for school; his backpack still lay on the floor, next to his desk. She leaned against his doorframe, deep in thought. Then, she grabbed the backpack, along with a few sets of clothing out of Danny's drawers, then walked out of his room and into her room, and finally stuffed the backpack and clothes into her closet, underneath a pile of winter clothes.
Later that day, as the sun was setting in the red sky, Sam and Tuck sat together on a bus bound for a tourist area far north of Amity Park, up in the mountains. Outside the windows, the landscape had gradually changed from houses and farms to trees and more trees, and now the road was beginning to curve more as it wound its way over and around large hills. Sam held the Fentonfinder in her lap, holding it close. She leaned forward in her seat, her forehead resting on the back of the seat in front of her, her eyes closed. Tuck lay back in his seat, looking out the window, as if hoping that perhaps he would catch a glimpse of the Ghost Dragon flying overhead; even if it did end up swooping down and attacking them, at least he would be able to speak to Danny one last time...
The reflection of the giant winged monster passed over the surface of a secluded lake, far up in the mountains where clouds of mist hung just inches over the forest floor. Danny looked down at the image of the dragon, once again reminded of the creature's fearsome appearance; however, he did take notice into how this dragon was much leaner and better built for speed than any of the other dragons he had seen the amulet turn people into before. He wondered if the physique of the resulting dragon depended on the physical qualities of the person going under the amulet's spell. The first dragon he encountered was of a ghost maiden who had a rather reasonable body shape, and her dragon form could just barely fit through the Fentonportal as it entered the lab from the Ghost Zone. The second dragon, whom he realized was actually Paulina, was much more heavier built. He knew for a fact that Paulina had a very attractive figure, so maybe it wasn't the person's physical appearance that ended up being reflected in the body of the dragon; the last dragon, which took over Sam, had a much slimmer shape than any of the other dragons before it, but then again, Sam was a vegetarian, so that may have determined how her dragon would look, since dragons were apparently carnivores.
Thinking about the dragon's meat-eating nature brought him back to what took place just a few hours ago, when the dragon decided to have a lunch break in some farmer's cattle field. He couldn't bear to watch as the dragon ran about, chasing down individual cows and then tearing them apart for food. Eventually the farmer himself came out of his house, drove across the field in his tractor and stabbed the dragon a couple of times with a pitchfork to drive it away, which the dragon followed along with but not before setting fire to the farmer's tractor. It would be some time before the sound of a defenseless cow screaming out her last breath would cease its echoes in Danny's mind.
He was brought back to the present by another sharp drop in altitude, seeing the trees flying up at him. Somewhere close to the lake, the dragon had spotted something in the mountainside that it liked. Danny turned to look, and saw a number of large cavernous holes near the base of the mountain, a few of them probably large enough for the dragon to crawl into. The dragon wheeled about in the air, coming down for a landing on a rocky hillside close to the caves. A few trees were nearly pushed over by the gust coming off the dragon's wings, and any animals in the surrounding area quickly disappeared once the dragon's body came into their view. Once on the ground, the dragon started inspecting the holes in the rock, checking to see how far it would be able to walk into one on all fours before it had to turn around or walk backward to get out. It eventually settled in one wide, long cave that went in for a distance, then made a turn and came to a dead end in a space large enough for the dragon to lay down and curl up, which it finally did.
Danny, who didn't feel the least bit tired, kept a vigil, waiting for the time when Sam and Tuck or anybody would come and find him there. Inside the cave, he had no sense of time, other than the light from outside hitting the tunnel wall where he could see it. As time ticked by, the light gradually faded away, until finally the sun set and the tunnel was plunged into darkness, pitch black save for the eerie, faint greenish-blue glow given off by the dragon. For a long time the only sound he could hear was the dragon's steady breathing. The sound gradually softened until it was barely audible as the dragon fell ever deeper into its slumber, either that or Danny just became used to it and eventually was able to block it out of his mind. He could hear other sounds, too: outside in the woods, at night, there were owls calling to each other, along with wolves howling. Even among these denizens of the moonlit forest, he still felt alone. As time wore on, the night became colder and colder.
Suddenly, everything became silent. There was the snap of a twig. He shouted out mentally in desperation.
"Sam! Tuck! Are you there?"
A long moment of continued silence; then, a reply.
"Danny! We're outside the caves. Which one is yours?"
"I think it's the largest one. How are Mom and Dad?"
"They're just fine. They don't know where you are, and neither does Jazz. We didn't know what to say to them to keep them from getting worried, but at least now you know they're okay."
Danny felt like a great weight had been taken off his burdened spirit; his parents were still alive, or at least they were when Sam and Tuck last checked on them. That didn't mean much right now, but yes, it was good to know that they were all right, directly following the appearance of Bertrand and Spectra in his parents' lab. That could only mean that their plans didn't really involve killing his parents, and hopefully soon he would have time to think about what they were really up to.
"Uh, Danny... Some of these caves are the same size. We haven't found yours yet."
"I have an idea... Sam, are you using a flashlight?"
"Yes."
"Turn it off, and let your eyes get used to the darkness."
There was silence for a while.
"Is yours the one with the glow coming from it?"
"That's the one. There's a place where it turns and opens up into a larger room. Don't worry about coming in, the dragon is sleeping."
After a while, the sound of footsteps came from inside the tunnel, softly coming closer and closer. Finally, he saw the heads of his two best friends looking around the corner into the chamber.
"Sam! Tuck! You have no idea how badly I've wanted to see you again..."
The pair ran up to the dragon, looking it over. Then, Tuck spoke in a whispered tone that Danny could still hear the same as if he were talking out loud.
"Danny? We can hear you, but... we can't see you, we only see the dragon."
"I don't know why you can't see me, even I can't see me, but somehow I'm still able to talk to you... But quick, can you see the amulet?"
He saw them come closer to where he was, without them knowing it, then they walked past him and stopped at a spot close to the back wall of the cave. Sam spoke in a whisper.
"The dragon's laying in such a way that we won't be able to get to where the necklace comes apart in the back, not without stepping on its head or neck... We might be able to get it off it we pull at it until it unfastens on its own."
"If it sounds like a good idea to you, then go ahead. I can't see what you're looking at, so there's really nothing I can do to help, sorry."
"It's okay, Danny. You just sit down or kick back or whatever it is you can do that we won't be able to see you do... We'll have this amulet off in no time, and soon you'll be just your regular self. ... Well, in a sense."
Tuck shrugged his shoulders. Danny knew what he meant by that last remark; he hadn't really been the same since the day he became gifted with ghost powers. Every day since then, he had ended up in many different predicaments, but neither of them had any place against the one he was in right now.
Sam pointed to a spot directly in the corner of the cave.
"Tuck, you get over there, where you can get at the other side of this thing."
Tuck followed along with the order, stepping sideways along the back of the cave to get to where Sam directed him to go. They looked up at each other, then reached out and grabbed something Danny also could not see but could tell for sure was the golden necklace. At the count of three from Tuck, they began to pull.
The pair strained against the shining metal band, but it refused to give. They stopped, rested for a moment, then began pulling on it again in unison. It remained intact. They stopped and rested for a bit longer.
"Third time's a charm, Danny."
"I hope you're right."
Tuck pushed his fingers further underneath the necklace, as did Sam. They counted off again, then pulled even harder. Sam dug the heels of her boots into the dirt, curving her spine to try and provide more force to her pull. Tuck planted his feet firmly on the ground, curving his spine backwards, applying his force straight up and back. Danny thought he could just barely feel the necklace's fastener giving under the strain.
Suddenly, Tuck's fingers slipped from the band, and he fell backwards against the cave wall. The force knocked his glasses from his face, landing on the ground. Sam also fell back from Tuck's loss of his grip, but she was able to get back up. However, in the darkness, Tuck was having trouble.
"Hold up, Sam... Glasses fell off."
Tuck began groping around for his eyewear. Sam stood up.
"Wait, Tuck... Stay still. You might accidentally bump the dragon. I'm coming around to help you find them."
Sam carefully approached Tuck, stepping around parts of the dragon that, like everything of the dragon, were invisible to Danny. He watched her move, hoping that Tuck would be able to get his glasses back on in time; in the darkness, Danny was also unable to spot where Tuck's glasses fell. He saw Sam pause in front of something, and from the way her eyes were following it, whatever it was, it was moving. He guessed it was the end of the dragon's tail, twitching about in the manner that a cat's tail does when the cat is asleep. Sam stepped back, apparently watching how it moved and trying to figure out how to determine when it was going to stay still.
After a while, she stepped forward. The tail caught her in the ankle on a return swing, causing her to stumble forward, and she fell--but did not hit the ground. Danny's blood froze when he noticed how Sam seemed to be hanging in midair.
There was a deep, low growl, and the room suddenly became brighter from the glow coming off the awakened Ghost Dragon. Sam screamed as the dragon pulled its neck back, raising its head up off the ground. She wrapped her arms and legs around the dragon's snout, which she had fallen across when she tripped. She shut her eyes tightly, and screamed even louder as the dragon began shaking its head, trying to fling her off. Down below, Tuck quickly snatched up his glasses and dove out of the way as one of the dragon's forelegs slammed down where he was sitting a few seconds before. The long tail lashed about, whipping the ground and the walls, sending dust everywhere.
The dragon bowed its head, then swung its neck hard to the side. Sam was thrown off; she slammed hard against the cave wall, then fell to the ground. Her eyes were shut. She did not move.
Roaring, the dragon shook its head about, as if to readjust the skin on its face where Sam's arms and legs had clung to it before. It then turned its attention to Sam's body, turning to face it and approaching it, step by step. Tuck backed up against the wall, eyes wide with terror, mouth open in a silent scream.
Danny, seeing the prone form of Sam and the petrified Tuck, felt a strange feeling welling up inside him; not one of fear, or even of hatred, but one like a fire that began burning brighter deep within his soul, a fire that only responded to a situation where he felt that everything that ever meant anything to him was laid out before him and was being threatened with destruction. He wasn't sure what it was, but it made him feel immensely strong... it overwhelmed him, spreading out to every fiber of his being, or what he knew was left of it... It was the feeling he had every time he was compelled to switch to ghost mode; he knew that for a fact. He immediately summoned the powers within him to convert his entire essence to that of spirit.
Then, something amazing happened.
The dragon stopped in its tracks, distracted by an enormous ring of light that just seemed to burst outward from its center without harming it. A humming sound filled the air, growing louder as the ring began to split in two, forming a pair of rings that began to travel in two different directions; one headed up toward the cave ceiling, while the other headed down toward the floor. The ground underneath and the walls surrounding began to vibrate. Danny felt something tugging at him from the center, but as the rings began to move, the pull intensified, as though he was being ripped out of the center of the dragon's essence in every direction. At the same time, there was an immense pressure on his body, as if an outer shell was tightening around him, creating a barrier where there was nothing between the inside and the outside of himself. The top ring finally disappeared against the ceiling; the bottom one faded into the floor. The humming died down and became silent, the tremors softened and then stopped. The pulling and pushing ceased, and for a moment, Danny felt nothing.
Then it was like all five senses came back to him in full force. Gravity once more had its way with him. There was no strength in his legs, and they buckled underneath him. Danny fell to his knees, suddenly feeling incredibly heavy. He lost balance and fell forward. He tried to catch himself with his arms and hands, but they gave underneath him, offering no support, and he collapsed full-length against the cave floor. The side of his head hit something hard, and he saw a bright, dazzling starburst... then the world became black.