"My first week on the job, and I loose the stupid ghost," Jazz sighed as she and Sam walked up to the Fenton Works house.

Sam shook her head with a smile. "Danny still does it all the time," she said as she opened the front door. "Like you said, it's your first week. Don't be so hard on yourself. Besides, if everything goes well, you won't have to worry about ever getting used to it."

The older teen smiled, "Thanks."

"No problem," Sam smiled. "I'm just glad your parents are home."

"Now we can remedy the situation," Jazz sighed, not sure wether to be excited or depressed. She didn't have too long to think about it, as Tucker rushed up to them from the Kitchen.

"Boy, am I glad you guys are back," he gasped and turned to Jazz. "Your parents want to take Danny to the hospital, now. I stalled them, but..." he faded off.

Jazz gave him a reassuring smile. "Good Job, Tucker," she said calmly. "I just–" a sudden cold burst through her mouth, cutting into her sentence yet again. Did it always have to do that just as she said something? Were ghosts this inconvenient for Danny? Probably worse, she thought to herself, and turned to make for the stairs, and a safer place to change.

"Jazz?" Her parents voices came from the kitchen.

"Oh no," Jazz groaned.

Her parents suddenly blocked the light from the kitchen door, and looked over at her. "Tucker said Danny's getting better, but we just checked on him. He's still out like a light, so we wanted your opinion."

"Oh," Jazz said, trying not to sound nervous. She sensed the ghost upstairs somewhere, and she had to get to transform and go after them before she lost the ghost again. "I...er...was just going to check on him," she said with a smile. "Be right back!" she yelled and rushed up the stairs before they could say anything.

When she stepped out of sight of her parents, she stopped and took several deep breaths. Then she triggered the transformation as she walked into Danny's darkened room.

"Danny?" her hand reached for the light switch, and felt around in the dark until she found it. Even though she'd only been in the dark for a few minutes, she still had to blink after she'd turned it on. "Danny, we can switch back soon, but there's a ghost that I..." She stopped as she realized that his bed stood empty. "Danny?" she looked around, and then sighed, returning to her normal mode. "Not again," she shook her head, and walked back downstairs.

"So," she said as she began to descend. "Where did you put him this time?"

"What are you talking about?" Maddie looked up, perplexed. "We just checked on him..." she faded off.

"Wait a minute," Jazz held up her hand, her face suddenly going pale. "He wasn't in the bathroom...I just walked by; it was open and dark. He wasn't in his own room either...and you don't know where he is?"

Maddie suddenly looked very angry and opened her mouth to say something, but Jack beat her to the punch. "IT'S A GHOST!" he yelled, straining his neck forward. "He must have taken Danny!" He reached behind him and pulled out several strange looking weapons. Where he'd been able to store that many things on his person without causing a bulge, she had no clue. Maddie followed suit. "We'll track him down!" Jack yelled as he flew out the front door, his wife on his heals.

"Stay here," she said before closing the door. "And don't worry, we'll find him!"

Sam and Tucker blinked after them for a few minutes, before they turned and looked at Jazz, who still stood on the stairs, half dazed, half thoughtful.

"Jazz," Sam said slowly, "Please tell me that you were trying to distract them..." she faded off when Jazz's look didn't change.

"No," the red-haired stared ahead, unblinking. "I felt a ghost, and I'm sure he was up stairs," she blinked several times, as if a realization had suddenly come over her. "I think he's still here, but he went downstairs..." She faded off, and looked at the other two.

As they stood their, for those few brief moments of silence, a faint, weak voice reached them. "Jazz!" They recognized it immediately.

"That sounded like Danny," Sam said, her own face matching Jazz's.

"It came from the basement!" Tucker turned and pointed toward the lab door. No one needed to voice any opinions, or thoughts. They simultaneously started running for the door, each knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt, that something was very wrong.

NEXT CHAPTER

"I'm a ghost!" Jazz breathed as she followed the other two teens into the basement. The ring actually appeared in front of her this time. Without hesitation, she jumped through it, phasing over Sam and Tucker's heads, and into the lab. Her eyes immediately caught on the green, swirling vortex that caused the room to be bathed in an eerie light. Her face paled. She knew she'd closed the door last...she'd had to, to stop the gremlins.

"Tucker," Jazz turned to him, "Did mom and dad come down here, at all?"

He shook his head. "They got home maybe 10 minutes before you did, and I was with them the whole time, even when they brought the Fenton Feeler down here."

"You mean that?" Sam pointed to the floor in front of the porthole. The Fenton feeler lay on it's side, with it's arms sprawled out, as if it had been knocked and left there.

"That's funny," Tucker scratched his chin. "I know he put it on the table...I was right there. He couldn't stop talking about it."

"That sounds like my dad," Jazz said, without thinking. She blinked for a few seconds after words, wondering why she'd say something like that, but brushed it off as a comment Danny would have said in her situation. From the looks on Sam and Tucker's faces, she could tell they thought the same thing.

Sam stepped forward. "Then who was the last one to use the door?" she asked quietly.

"And doesn't it close on it's own?" Tucker pointed out.

"It's locked open," Sam gulped, and turned to Jazz. "Have you used the porthole at all in the last few days? Jazz nodded.

"A few hours before you guys got here. Why?"

"Tucker," she turned to the African-American, "hook up your PDA, and see who opened the door last." Tucker nodded, and brushed past her, sticking an extension chord from his hand-held computer into the lock. After a few seconds of tapping on the screen, his eyes went wide, and the girls gathered around him. Jazz felt suddenly sick, and Sam lost all color in her face. Two words flashed across the screen: Daniel Fenton.

Danny woke up to the sound Jazz talking...she was saying something to him about how they could switch back. He opened his eyes, feeling strong for a few seconds again, only to realize that he had phased through the floor of his room, just as the light turned on.

"Wha..." he blinked as the familiar kitchen opened around him, and he sped towards the floor (although he couldn't turn around to look, and only saw the ceiling). He felt like he was being dragged by the neck, and it hurt. In seconds he remained suspended in the air of the lab, although he felt as if he were hanging once again by his neck, and could barely breathe. Looking down, he could see that he remained invisible and intangible...and he hung by some sort of thick, metal collar. He could feel Jazz come slightly closer, and surmised that she must have come down the stairs... Trying to shake off the fatigue that still threatened his consciousness, he felt at the collar around his neck, and found a chain hooked on in back.

"Well, it seems your awake," said an all to familiar voice from behind him.

"Walker," he breathed, trying not to panic. The adrenalin that rushed through his veins suddenly threw off more of the tiredness, as he spun around to face the large, white-clad ghost...or he tried to. He only really succeeded in choking himself further, and setting himself in a swinging motion.

He heard several loud thumps above him, and felt walker grab him. "Open the door, punk!" he said as Danny took in oxygen with the pressure of the thick collar released. It didn't really choke him badly, but it cut into his breathing enough that he knew it had had an effect on his consciousness, especially in the condition he was in.

"And what if I don't?" he grunted. Walker pulled out a large object that Danny recognized immediately as a remote to the collar that Wulf had worn, and sent a charge through Danny, who yelped in pain.

"Then I make you a full ghost," Walker said with a smile, "And then I'll obliviate that too." Danny gulped and reached a hand forward, pressing his thumb to the genetic lock.

The mechanical voice from the pad spoke immediately. "DNA signature recognized. Daniel Fenton: Please proceed." The door opened, and Walker smiled, focusing on that, and not on the "Lock door open" button that Danny brushed as his hand retracted. He had to let the others know where he was going.

That's when he saw the Fenton Feeler on the table. Walker still held him up by his shirt, so the huge shackle around his neck didn't hurt him at the moment. If he could just nock it off...maybe they'd notice...maybe not...but he had to try. Slowly, he reached a hand out, but fell short by at least a foot. So, he put his hand to the collar, and stretched his foot out. It knocked the strange-looking, metal headband to the floor, causing Walker to turn on him. He didn't care anymore, but looked upward and yelled as loud as he could.

"JAZZ!" He realized that as weak as he was, they probably wouldn't hear it, but he could hope. They were his only hope now. He couldn't break away from Walker like this.

"What do you think you're doing, punk?" the jailer asked, pulling the teen's face close to his menacingly.

"I'm not a punk," Danny gasped, as Walker suddenly let him go. He thumped to the ground, now tangible, and looked up at the ghost.

Walker leaned in. "You are if I say you are," he thrust his finger at Danny, jabbing him in the chest. "Our new human/ghost proof room should be just the thing to keep you in."

"No," Danny whispered, his eyes growing wide. He felt slightly stronger, and knew that Jazz was coming, but before he could say or do anything else, the green, spinning vortex of the Ghost Zone swallowed them, blocking him from any view of the basement. He began to feel weaker yet again as the porthole shrank into the distance.

After that, he could only breathe one word through the despair that started to overtake him. "Jazz," he said, and then the porthole disappeared from view.


I'm sooo sorry it's been so long, so I posted two chapters at once. I'm finally over my stupid finals, and I'm finally done with school. You have no idea how relieved and thankful I am. Anywho, I'll answer questions on my next post (which should be soon).