Sam hugged against the cold fabric, her eyes closed. The wind brushed against her body as she was carried rapidly across the sky. Every now and then she would feel her center of gravity shift slightly as he gently tilted to the side, changing direction. The bright light of the sun shone down on her, warming her skin, compensating for the low temperature of the surface she clung to.

However hard she embraced her friend, she felt no comfort; in his presence, she could only feel pity. What he had attempted back in the orchard wasn't just her best idea, it was her only idea. She could think of no other method that would possibly work. Perhaps he was justified in believing that he would be stuck that way forever. And yet, there was no way she would be able to bring herself to tell him; he was probably looking to her as a beacon of spiritual strength, and to say something to let him down would be the end of everything. She didn't want him to lose hope, but eventually she was going to have to tell him the truth... She sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be soon.

She felt her body begin to lean forward, and she could tell that he was on the descent. Brushing her face against the back of his collar to dry her tears, she turned her head to look down upon the cityscape below. They were over the rows of houses that lay within the Casper High district, and directly below them was the Fentonworks building with its tall metal structure. They passed by it in a matter of seconds, heading instead towards a different house on a different street.

Tucker sat down on the front steps of Sam's house, placing the Fentonfinder next to him on the concrete surface. He looked up at the sky, as if expecting to see them coming. Turning his attention to the moving dot on the device, he was surprised by a strong gust of wind from the street that nearly knocked him over. Grabbing his cap before it could get blown away, he looked around, and nearly jumped when he saw Sam appear on the sidewalk, seemingly right out of thin air.

"Jeez! Couldn't you two at least give me a warning?"

Sam held up a hand and opened her mouth to reply, but a second gust of wind caught her off guard, and she looked back toward the street even though she knew she would see nothing of Danny's departure. After a moment, she turned back toward Tuck.

"He's coming back here after he checks on his parents. He wanted to go alone."

She walked up and sat down beside him on the steps, watching the Fentonfinder's display. She remained silent for a while, watching the glowing dot as it moved across the screen. Tuck looked at her, noticing her gloomy expression.

"Something on your mind?"

Sam sighed.

"Have you had any bright ideas lately?"

Tuck looked down, shook his head.

"Sorry, none. I was hoping you'd have some."

She became silent again, turning her gaze to the sidewalk in front of her. After a while, she bowed her head and closed her eyes.

"Then there's something I need to tell you."

Danny had to hover for a moment before he could find a place to land outside his house; the side of the house that had been damaged was now roped off with police tape and sawhorses, not to mention surrounded by a small crowd of people who had come to stare at it in deliberation. That side of the house had been manually patched up with boards and metal panels, quite possibly by his parents.

The thought of that gave him some sense of relief, which then began to fade when he realized that the spot he had chosen to land in put him in a position where he was about to block traffic. He stood in the street in front of his house, invisible, with his wings folded and his long tail curled around him so that he wouldn't accidentally touch any buildings; however, as long as he had his feet on the ground, someone might run into him. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Almost instantly he began to feel a tingling sensation all over his skin as he gradually lost tangibility. He couldn't look at himself to tell if he had gone completely intangible, so he performed a test on a nearby stop sign. He moved his tail to push against the metal post, and found that the sign did not give under the pressure; his tail went right through it as though there was nothing standing there to block it.

He turned his attention to the crowd gathered around the side of the building. Not only would they not see him, neither would they be able to touch him; in a matter of speaking, he was nonexistent to them.

Unfolding his wings and tail for balance, he carefully stepped up to the front door, moving slowly and treading lightly so as not to call attention to himself. Getting down on his knees, he put his head and part of his neck through the wall, looking into his parents' upstairs bedroom, alone. Craning his neck downward, he looked into the living room and kitchen, which were also empty. It was strange to see the inside of his house from his current perspective; it was like looking into a dollhouse.

He finally leaned into the building and turned his neck straight down, like an ostrich burying its head in the ground, and found the interior of the basement laboratory. There at one of the many tables that lined the walls was his father. Danny blinked. He looked just fine. He was sitting in a metal chair, prodding with a screwdriver at some kind of device on the table in front of him, whistling as he did so. There were no signs of bodily injury, nor did it seem like he was in pain or suffering in any way, mentally or physically. Danny smiled, happy to see his father alive and well.

There was movement in his peripheral vision; he turned his head to see his mom walk into the room. Like Jack, she seemed unharmed. She was carrying a cardboard box full of papers, which she then set down on a table across the room from Jack. Neither of them seemed concerned about the slightest thing, except from what they were busy doing. It looked like Bertrand had done nothing to them after all. After the Ghost Dragon escaped from the lab, Spectra and Bertrand must have left right along with him, leaving Jack alone and unconscious.

Danny continued to watch them, confused. Why would Bertrand threaten to kill his dad, then leave him alone? Did he only do so in order to make him angry and trigger the amulet's spell? If so, then Bertrand's only reason for attacking his father was to use him as bait with which to unleash the Ghost Dragon. Somehow, his and Spectra's plans revolved only around getting him to transform into the Dragon.

But then, why bring the Dragon out? All it ever did was attack and destroy things in a blind rage. Spectra and Bertrand were perfectly capable of causing enough damage to the neighborhood on their own, seeing as how Bertrand could fire ectoplasmic beams as well as transform into what seemed like any creature he wanted. There had to be a reason as to why they would want Danny to end up being the one to cause that damage, aside from the fact that he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop himself...

As he watched his parents, it began to dawn on him. He wasn't able to stop himself from hurting anyone, either. He probably would have killed all of his classmates at Casper High if the dragon felt like it. And if the dragon had noticed Sam and Tuck standing there, he would have gotten them, too. In fact, if the dragon hadn't busted out of the house in the first place--

"Jack... Did you turn the thermostat down? All of a sudden, this place feels like a freezer."

Bertrand really had planned to follow through with his threat to murder Danny's entire family.

Yet, neither he nor Spectra were planning on being the ones to take the blame for it.

"Tuck, look..."

Sam picked up the Fentonfinder. On the screen, the dot was moving. What got Sam's attention was the fact that it wasn't moving toward them, but instead toward the commercial district of the city, where the taller buildings stood.

Tuck leapt to his feet and grabbed his backpack.

"Something must be wrong. We've got to follow him. Come on, I'll call a cab."

"And I'll pay the fare."

Sam got up, still carrying the device. Tuck ran inside Sam's house to find the phone. As he disappeared through the front door, Sam turned to look toward the skyscrapers in the distance.