With Jack's keeping them busy setting up his lab for most of the day, Danny and Sam never had time to get upstairs and check out that room. After setting up the lab came dinner (cold waffles and canned soup), and then Danny's dad had a speech to give to the family.

"We've lasted four hours in this old mansion and have yet to find a single ghost," he began, "and the night approaches. Therefore, we must assign shifts for all of us to watch out for any paranormal activity. Bedtime is the same as it is at home, 10:00 sharp. Alarms go off at 7. Each of us therefore can have shift of," he thought for a moment, "1.8 hours. I'll take Shift 1. Maddie, you relive me. Jazz takes Shift 3, Danny takes Shift 4, and Sam has Shift 5. Keep this ghost tracker and the Fenton Thermos" he held those gadgets up, "with you and if you see anything, sound the alarm."

"What's the alarm?" Jazzed asked, extremely annoyed.

"Simple," Jack said calmly before freaking out, "Ghosts! Ghosts! GHOOOOOOOSTS! I'll be ready for 'em with the Fenton Fisher. Everybody clear on that?" everyone nodded, "Excellent!" the grandfather clock struck 10, "Maddie, set your alarm for the right time to relieve me 1.8 hours from now. I've got a ghost to find," turning serious, Jack armed himself with the Fenton Weasel, the ghost-tracker and the Fenton Fisher and moved out.

"Well, I'm beat," Jazz sighed and headed upstairs, "Danny, if you or Sam want my shift, it's yours."

---

Each bedroom in the house had two beds, two dressers, and a bathroom. By proper standards and reasoning, Jazz and Sam should have gotten one room, Danny his own room, and Jack and Maddie their own room. But as the Fentons aren't exactly a normal family, it didn't quite work out like that. Jack and Maddie got their own room, but there the conventions ended. Jazz ended up with her own room and Danny and Sam shared the other. However, Danny and Sam weren't asleep. Knowing Danny's dad, they stayed up until his shift had been over for a couple minutes.

"I think it's safe to move out now," Sam whispered.

"Yeah, but we've gotta be quiet," Danny said, "My mom's more alert than my dad. She picks up almost every single noise," going ghost, Danny grabbed Sam's arm. They both phased through the wall and remained in that state as they floated down the hallways. Unfortunately, Danny's mom happened to be upstairs at that moment with the ghost-tracker. They had to avoid her twice by quickly phasing into another room and going out of ghost form. The third time was close. Danny's mom hadn't seen them, but she'd figured out that they were always going to the next room. As soon as they had gone into the next room, the door started to open, and they had to phase through the floor and head downstairs, just barely avoiding being seen. They could tell when Danny's mom had left the room, but waited downstairs a bit before going back up.

"That was close," Sam said.

"Let's go," they headed off to the room that Danny had seen the ghost in. Once they found it and had phased in, Danny went back to normal. The room was full of gadgets and technology. There was everything from dead, broken batteries to a car engine...even the kitchen sink was there.

"Well I think it's safe to say whoever lived here liked mechanics," Sam remarked.

"And I think that ghost might have been looking for something. Look around and see if it looks like anything's missing," they started searching. There were some large, indefinitely shaped places that had no dust. Some drawers looked like they had been opened recently since the dust on the hinges was loose and partially gone.

"Well there's no way to tell what he took," Sam stood up from looking at one of the drawers, "but you're right. He was looking for something."

"Shh," Danny said. He looked nervous.

"What is it?" Sam whispered. Danny moved over to the window and peaked out. There were 30-something men dashing about the bushes and tree trunks behind the house. They were dressed in strange clothes that looked like a cross between a S.W.A.T. team and commando squad and were armed with strange guns made of the same things that Danny's parents used for their gadgetry. Some lights shining through the breaks in the bushes and tree branches showed that there were cars around. The men began forming irregular lines to the left or right, leaving a few feet of space between them. A familiar face walked up between the lines.

"It's that Frost lady that was giving my dad a hard time."

"What's she doing here?"

"Major?" they heard Frost say. One of the men came out and saluted.

"It's in the house, ma'am, just as we thought."

"Good. Prepare to fire," she started to walk away calmly.

"Yes ma'am. Alright, everybody stand back!" he whipped out his own gun, "Ready!"

"You don't think they have the same equipment as my dad, do you?" Danny asked.

"AIM!"

"Well..." Sam looked out the window again.

"FIRE!" every member of the squad released a blue ectoplasmic laser from their weapons. They passed through the walls and Danny and Sam barely avoided being hit by them.

"Yes," they both said together. Danny went ghost. He managed to dodge some more laser fire coming through the walls, but one bolt he couldn't move away from fast enough. He attempted to phase through it, but once it hit him, he was knocked upwards, hitting the ground hard and going back to normal.

"Danny!" Sam checked his pulse; he was still breathing.

"Next round!" the major shouted again. The noise woke Danny up. Going back to ghost form, he charged out the window and knocked the gun from the major's hand with a kick, sending it flying up into the room Sam was now alone in. The troops now all tried to hit Danny, who was moving from soldier to soldier knocking them out. They ended up firing blindly into their own men, but since these lasers were meant for ghosts, no one really got hurt. With it being dark and one of the privates having been stupid enough to leave their night-vision goggles at home base, Danny wasn't really having that much of a problem. The noises from the fight, however, had gotten Maddie's attention. She went off to her room.

---

Jack was sleeping peacefully with his teddy bear, talking in his sleep.

"Hmm..." he mumbled while he slumbered, "Ohyeah, niiiiice...two ghosts togo,please..." he started snoring.

"Jack!" Maddie barged in.

"Huh? Whose..." Jack slowly woke up. Realising his wife was looking at him holding a teddy bear (he only took it out once she was asleep), he quickly hid the bear under his sheets, "Yes, what is it, dear?"

"There is something going on outside!" she pointed out the window, "I think it might be..."

"Ghosts! Ghosts! GHOOOOOSTS!" Jack jumped out of bed, showing he was still dressed. He grabbed the Fenton Weasel and ran out the door (not noticing it was closed, he actually broke it down and nearly plowed over his wife.)

---

Sam watched Danny from the window with a look on her face showing pride in her best friend. This night was being won too easily.

"This shouldn't take too long," she said to herself. Then she suddenly noticed a change in the room. The air seemed colder and more eerie. Turning around, she saw the ghost of a man in a blue jump suit, a shaven head, and a nasty smile.

"Hello," he said menacingly. Before he could strike, Sam dove out of the way and grabbed the gun Danny had knocked into the room. It had a ghost- tracker mounted on it that served as a targeting computer; all she had to do was pull the trigger. The ghost dodged three shots before flying through the floor. It still showed up on the tracker. Sam fired some more shots before jumping to the side in case he flew up and attacked. He was sitting right in front of her, and the signal didn't change after she fired two shots. What was he waiting for?

The ghost suddenly flew up from right under her and flew into her head. Sam dropped the gun and let out a half-moan, half scream. She couldn't see. She couldn't hear. All her senses could do was feel the terrible pain surging in her mind. Scenes started to flash before her eyes. Vague images. Painful images. Everything started to get worse. Sam began shaking, and it grew more and more violently by the second. The pain continued to surge through her mind, the worst experiences of her life beginning to turn up. There seemed to be no end in sight...and with a snap, everything stopped and an unconscious Sam got blasted out the window. Danny saw it.

"Sam!" he was about to help her when someone grabbed him from behind and used a nightstick to start choking him. Danny. Fortunately, Sam landed on a gargoyle high above ground. Seeing this, Danny ripped the nightstick away and threw the soldier over his shoulder before re-joining the fight. The ghost who attacked Sam was watching all this, grinning ear to ear. Turning away from the window, he went to one of the machines...

---

"Jazz!" Jack broke down the door to Jazz's room, abruptly waking his daughter.

"Huh? Dad! What do you think you're doing!? It's still Mom's shift!"

"GHOSTS!" Jack grabbed Jazz and started shaking her, "They're outside! We're surrounded! Danny and Sam should be able to defend themselves since they actually let me talk to them about ghosts. But you! You never listen to me! You're defenceless! Here," he handed Jazz the Fenton Fisher, "Your defence. Let's head out, Maddie!" Jack ran out again. Once they had been gone more than a few minutes, Jazz leapt out of bed and followed.

---

Since Sam had landed on the gargoyle, she got saved the longest possible fall from a window of the mansion. However, as she was still unconscious, she started to slip off the stone creature. Only a quick save by Danny kept her from a catastrophic collision with the ground.

"Sam?" Danny shook her to try and wake her up, "Sam? Are you OK? Can you hear me!?" Sam's moaning showed she was alive. She wasn't injured, but she looked more pale than Danny had ever seen her. He took her up their room and set her down on her bed before flying back to the machine room. A ghost was taking a large piece of a generator with him out the window, and Danny guessed he'd done something to Sam.

"Oh no you don't!" Danny kicked the ghost in the back and grabbed him by his collar, the generator falling towards the ground, "What have you done to my best friend!?" The ghost thought for a minute.

"Oh," he smiled nastily, "yes, that girl. She is attractive for someone her age, no?"

"I..." Danny just realised that the comment on Sam was coming from a ghost who looked like he died when he was in his 40s, "How old were you when you died?" the ghost just laughed.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he said, "Volpe. So you're a human/ghost hybrid?"

"How'd you know that?" Danny tightened his grip Volpe's collar.

"Besides the fact that you still have natural skin colour, aren't completely transparent, and are a mortal? Just a guess. That does give me an advantage, however. As you're half-human you are alive and a mortal, therefore can be killed. As for me, you will find it difficult to threaten one who's already dead. And the generator remains intact," he pointed down. Sure enough...

"What do you want?" smiling at Danny's latest comment, Volpe turned to vapour, re-materialised behind Danny, and with a kick, sent him flying down towards a tree. Some quick phasing kept Danny from injury. He was about to retaliate when a helicopter flew over the mansion and towards the cars of the commandos. From his current position, Danny could see that the cars had already driven away and left Frost standing alone. She calmly climbed into the helicopter when it got low enough and took a last glance at Danny. She motioned down with her head before going in all the way and closing the door. As the helicopter took off, Danny looked down to find a small bomb made with the same technology as the guns that the commandos used.

"Oh no," the explosion sent Danny flying towards yet another tree, and though he phased through it, he skidded a good couple feet before coming to a stop. Shaking it off, Danny slowly got off and knocked the dust off himself. He had landed on his left side pretty hard and his arm didn't feel too good, but there was no time to worry about that. The generator was gone. Danny flew around the premisis a couple times, but there was no sign of Volpe. Still suspicious, he slowly floated back inside.

Sam was twitching violently on the bed and sweating out of fear. She was breathing heavily; trapped in some kind of nightmare. Danny floated back in the room, went back to normal, and immediately went to try and wake Sam up. However, he couldn't get close enough, as she started screaming and kicking around.

"Sam!" she could hear Danny's voice in her head, but it wasn't enough to wake her up. The nightmare was getting worse.

"Sam! Sam..." Danny got past her kicking and started shaking her gently, "Sam!" she finally woke up, panting heavily and still shaking. She tried talking, but it couldn't come out right.

"Just relax," Danny put his hand on her shoulder and moved some hair out of her eyes, "You're alright. Everything's fine," she started to calm down.

"Danny!" at the sound of his dad's voice, Danny opened the door...to find Jack ready to break it down. He went running across the room and out the window.

"Danny, what is going on!?" his mom came in more naturally.

"Frost and those Paranormalics guys were out around the house," Danny was telling the truth...partially, "We got out Dad's device that makes ghost sounds and scared them off."

"Excellent work, son!" Jack had used a grappling hook to climb back in (and hit his head on the top of the window while doing it).

"You OK, Sam?" Maddie noticed how nervous Sam seemed.

"Just...a little shook up," she smiled weakly.

"Well I'm going out to inspect the premisis," Jack said, "Maddie, keep watch inside and wake Jazz when it's her shift. Well done, you two!" he ran off and Maddie closed the door. Jazz ran in right after they had left, and seeing them alright, ran back to her room, looking very agitated.

"You sure you're alright?" Danny sat down next to Sam.

"Besides the fact I almost got killed...yeah," she was being sarcastic, but she didn't sound mad at Danny for asking the obvious.

"You'd better sleep the rest of the night," Danny said, "I'll take your shift.

"No, you don't have to..."

"Sam, you need some rest."

"…Fine," she said. She was exhausted. She laid down and almost immediately fell asleep. Danny set the alarm for his shift and got into bed himself.