If Mr. Lancer's topics got boring in English, then Ms. Yearling's algebra class was even worse. She droned on forever, giving more examples then was needed and explaining everything, even if it was something her students had known for years. If you had had a good day, the second you walked into her classroom, you were bored, frustrated, and on the verge of shouting it out for all to hear. If you had had a bad day, when you walked in it was about to get worse. Danny barely heard that they were dealing with graphing compound inequalities before he was half-asleep. Sam, who usually prodded him and Tucker awake in other classes, was almost as bored as he was. Danny was about to completely doze off when blue ectoplasmic smoke drifted from his mouth. Green mist was again pouring through the ventilation, filling the room. Through the window on the door, Danny could see it spreading out into the hallway. It wasn't just affecting students now; Ms. Yearling's eyes flashed red, and she gained as nasty a grin as any of the kids had.

"Sam," he elbowed her, nodding to the mist. She was still wearing the Fenton Phones. Danny grabbed the one Tucker hadn't managed to get in and put it in his ear. He had a feeling he needed more than his ghost powers to overthrow the spell this time around.

----

Mr. Lancer looked over the notes Danny and Sam had taken over the story he had read. He'd grown used to Danny failing all of his assignments, but he had actually done a pretty good job here. Sam's grade was excellent; of course, she usually passed anyway. He still didn't know why they cared so much if he was fired or not; he was also wondering why they were the only ones that hadn't been possessed or whatever it was Winterburg was doing; but he found he didn't care that much. With his situation as grave as it is and likely to grow worse, he was grateful to have any help.

He finished grading their papers and let his eyes look around the desk. They fell on a picture off in the right corner. It had been taken four years ago. A grinning Lancer was surrounded by three students; a girl with black hair, one boy with a hat, and another boy of rather generous proportions. They had been a trio, impossible to separate in school. The girl was the brainiac, the large boy the class clown, and the one with the hat an average student, but the leader of the group and a good-hearted person. It was amazing how similar they had been to what Danny, Sam and Tucker were now. He should get a picture of them like this one, Lancer thought. That is, if he could convince them; it had been hard enough talking in the other trio; and if he had enough time left at Casper High.

Just as Lancer was thinking the last thing he needed was for the entire school to erupt in chaos, the sound of glass shattering came from outside his room. He ran outside into the halls.

"What's going on out…" his eyes almost came out of their sockets. The hallway was in ruins. Locker doors had been ripped from the walls and door windows were in ruins. Students of every grade ran about like this was a breakout at Arkham Asylum, and it wasn't just students. Ms. Tetslaff, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Weiderholt…the teachers had joined in!

"Hound of the Baskervilles!" Lancer exclaimed.

"LAN-CER!" a screech filled his ears. Principal Ishiyama came charging towards him, white in the face and seething with rage.

"What's going on here!?" she spat, "DO SOMETHING!"

"I was about to!" Lancer shouted back, "In case you haven't noticed, the rest of the staff's gone mad like the students!"

"You're the only sane one left then, so do something!"

"I told you, I was about…"

"That's it, Slade!" she screeched, "You're through! Finished! Fi –" she couldn't finish those last words. Ms. Tetslaff came charging at her, tackling her down the halls. Lancer stared after them for a moment, then headed in the opposite direction to break up the mess the students were causing.

----

Ms. Yearling's room was now as insane as any place in the school. The aged algebra teacher had thrown her papers everywhere and was river dancing on her desk. The students were cheering, fighting, throwing chairs, or running all over the room. The only people still behaving normally were Danny and Sam, who were becoming increasingly worried.

"Now would be a real good time to phase out of here and go for help," Sam commented.

"LOOK OUT!" Danny grabbed her and pulled them both under the desk. One of Dash's jock friends had thrown a chair and it had come close to hitting them right in the head.

"We'll go with your idea," Danny said. He phased them through the floor and down to the first floor, keeping intangible and invisible. Here it was just as chaotic as in the algebra room, students and janitors using the carts for cleaning supplies as skateboards down the hall. They finally came by Danny's locker; one of the few parts of the hall still deserted. Danny and Sam landed, becoming tangible again. Danny phased his hand into his locker and pulled out the Fenton Thermos.

"Winterburg's probably infected everyone in the school except Lancer and Principal Ishiyama," he said, strapping the thermos to his back, "No matter who else is going crazy she's sure to blame Lancer now," as if to confirm their story, Principal Ishiyama came skidding towards them, Ms. Tetslaff and a senior running away and snickering.

"THAT'S IT!" the principal screamed once she was on her feet, "No more! This is it! I've had it! Slade Lancer, you're going down!" as she raved on, blue ectoplasmic smoke drifted from Danny's mouth. He just caught sight of green smoke drifting into an air vent. Principal Ishiyama showed no signs of finishing her rant any time soon. Sam stepped in front of Danny, letting him go ghost without her seeing. Giving Sam the thermos, he turned into blue smoke and floated into the vent himself.

"When I get my hands on him I'll…" Principal Ishiyama finally marched off. Father up the hall, Sam heard a clang of metal and a shout from Danny's voice. She ran up to find Danny and Winterburg floating in the hall.

"Stay out of the way, boy," Winterburg grunted.

"Then stay out of this school!" Danny lashed out with a punch, but Winterburg caught it, tossing him against the lockers.

"Another kiss-up to the teacher," the ghost grinned mockingly, "Bet you'll end up just like Lancer," something seemed to explode in Danny's mind. No matter how sorry he felt for his English teacher, no one compared them like this.

"I'm like Lancer?" he muttered, floating back up to Winterburg's level, "I'm like Lancer!?" he fired a pure white energy blast into his foe, knocking him all the way down the hall and almost down the stairs. Danny sped up to him, trying to kick him down the stairs, but his foot was caught and he was thrown to the floor. Winterburg pinned him to the ground, and pushed down on Danny's head so far he had to phase it through the ceiling to keep something from breaking. As he phased his head through, he saw Lancer and Ishiyama surrounded by crazed students and teachers with a dangerous gleam in their eyes.

"This is all your fault!" Ishiyama screamed at Lancer. Danny suddenly felt a surge of power. Two ghost-rings shot across his body, keeping him in ghost form but knocking Winterburg off. He flew up, spreading his hands out. Green smoke poured out from them, drifting down the halls and through the ventilation. Danny completely forgot about Winterburg; all he could think of was getting Ishiyama and those crazy students away from Lancer. As his smoke drifted through the building and overflowed the students, their eyes flashed green. They stopped what they were doing. Then, suddenly, every student, teacher, and staff member in the building except Lancer and Sam began streaming towards the exits; even Ishiyama. They all ran from the building, down the road, and towards an old farm at the edge of town.

"Sweet!" Danny looked at his still smoking hands, "I have no idea how I did that, but, sweet!" he felt something heavy ran into him, cutting off his self-congratulation. He went flying through the halls and skidded up to Sam's feet. She hadn't moved at all.

"Danny, what's going…" Danny covered her mouth, grabbed her, and phased them both inside a locker. He waited until Winterburg drifted by before letting go.

"What happened?" Sam whispered, "Where did that smoke come from?"

"That was me," he said, "Somehow I managed to get everyone except us and Lancer to leave. I need you to find Lancer and make sure he's all right. I'll hold this moron off. After you find him come back with the Fenton Thermos and we'll finish this. Got it?"

"Got it. Good luck, Danny," they phased out of the locker and then Sam headed toward the stairs, Danny staying behind.

"Hey, Winterburg!" he shouted, catching the gym teacher's attention.

"Son, you're really startin' to annoy me," he muttered. He fired an energy blast, and Danny raised a shield in defence. He flew up, punching the teacher back, then fired a blast of his own. The teacher-ghost dodged and seemed to become a cannon ball caught on ghost-fire, spiralling into Danny and knocking him through the door at the corner of the hall.

"Ow," Danny rubbed his head as he got up, "Tough. Hope Lancer's not hard to find, 'cause I can't keep this up for long," he looked up. Winterburg was spinning towards him again, and Danny barely dodged in time.

----

Sam sped down the stairs like a cheetah, wanting to get back upstairs as soon as she could. Lancer wasn't that far away. He stood alone, a little dazed, a little confused, but otherwise just fine. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sam turned back toward the stairs, but…

"Samantha!" Lancer ran up, "What's going on!?"

"Uh…" she thought, "there's a ghost! It took over everyone in the school! I'd get out of here if I were you!" it didn't work.

"I know there's a ghost! I told you about Winterburg!" Lancer suddenly noticed something odd, "Where's Danny?"

"Um…" they heard a crash from upstairs. Then it hit Lancer.

"Study in Scarlet, don't tell me he's trying to take on the ghost of Ronald Winterburg!? Where are they, Sam?" Sam didn't know what to do. It didn't sound like the fight was going well, but she didn't want to risk Lancer seeing Danny. Another crashing sound and a yell from Danny made up her mind.

"This way," she sighed. They headed upstairs.

----

Danny missed another punch and felt one connect with his stomach. Things had gone from bad to worse. His gloves were starting to tear up and he had a nasty pain from one of Winterburg's energy blasts still in his side. The gym teacher smacked Danny back down on the floor. His head hit the ground so hard he snapped back into human form. He was trapped.

"Now," Winterburg grinned, charging up energy blasts in his hands, "Time for you to…" a book flew through his head, distracting him. Lancer stood firmly in the hall, a grim expression on his face and Sam right behind him.

"Hands off the student, Winterburg," he spat.