Scene 2

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Jaz yelled from the basement. "The door's open." The door swung open and Tucker Foley walked in, followed by Sam. "I'm in the basement," Jaz called. Sam and Tucker joined her downstairs. Jaz was stooped over something on the counter, and without even looking up said "Hey guys" when she heard their footsteps on the metal floor.

"Hey Jaz," said Tucker. "What'cha working on?"

"It's one of my da-… it's an old gadget from a long time ago. Remember the Boooomerang?"

"How could we forget," Sam smirked. "That thing was causing Danny trouble from the first time it ever locked on to him. It would follow him everywhere, even to school!" Sam paused a split second, "So let me guess- you're going to use that to-"

"I'm going to find Danny," Jaz stated. "But first I need to give this thing a tracking system. It won't help if I don't know where it goes."

"I can help with that," Tucker spoke up, "It sounds like all you need is a GPS tracking chip."

"I actually already have one," Jaz replied, "I just can't figure out how to get the darn thing connected."

"Here, let me see that." Tucker hunkered over the device, and began fiddling with its many circuits. "Ah, here's the problem! All you've gotta do is hook up the defibrillator to the motherboard, and…" While Tucker worked on the little machine, Jaz and Sam went back upstairs. Sam put on some music, and Jaz made herself some coffee.

She sat down across from Sam and buried her head in her hands. "Sam, look at me. What have I become? The very thing I never wanted to be: my parents. What am I gonna do?"

Sam was used to Jaz's mental breakdowns. If she wasn't putting all her anger into training, obsessing over finding her mom and brother, or doing some school-related extra-curricular activity, she was usually doing some self-contemplation. And since Danny had been the linking factor between them, she'd taken to hanging out with Sam and Tucker recently. Sam usually just let her work it out for herself, and then she'd be good to go for another day or so. She'd been like this ever since Jack's funeral.

"And I mean, I could have saved him!" Jaz blubbered on, not noticing that Sam wasn't listening. "But no, all I did was hide in the closet, right when he needed me most! And to think I could have saved him, if only I hadn't been too proud to- to- be like hiiihiimmmm!" Jaz broke down sobbing.

"Hey, uh…" Tucker came upstairs. "Am I interrupting something? 'Cause I got the Boooomerang ready."

"Oh good!" Jaz brightened up immediately. "I knew I could count on you Tucker! You're so good at what you do, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to." Tucker grimaced.

"Rrright." Tucker stepped outside the front door, turned on the Boooomerang, and gave it a good toss. It went slicing through the air, in a westward direction. "All set. We're on our way to finding Danny."

Several hours later, in a patch of woods outside Vlad's mansion, Danny and Vlad were putting their powers to practice in a sparring match.

"Alright, Danny, see what you can do to fend this off!" Vlad shot a powerful ghost ray at Danny, who easily blocked it with a shield. He then retaliated with a ghostly wail. Plasmius tried to shield against it, but his barrier was broken after a second or two. Flying above the range of the sonic blast, he quickly split his image into four. All four Vlads then swooped down upon Danny, and began pummeling him with their fists.

Danny tried to block the punches, but there were simply too many. He could feel the hits landing, one by one, all of them nearly hard as rocks. But then- clang! Something hit Danny's head that felt more like metal than a fist. "Ow! Hey, no weapons!"

Vlad stopped his assault and congealed his forms together again, folding his arms over his chest. "That was not my doing."

"Well then what was it? That really hurt!"

"It sounded like something metal."

Danny rolled his eyes. "No, really? Well where did it go?"

"Don't take that tone with me, young man. I didn't even see anything. Come, let's go inside. That's enough for today." Vlad floated down several feet, then changed to human and dropped the rest of the way, landing easily on his feet. Danny followed suit. Vlad straightened up, and with an expression of pain, clasped his hand to his back. "I'm getting too old for this," he said pitifully.

Danny said nothing and followed him in.

Several hours later, in Amity Park, Jaz was resting in the living room, reading a magazine when she heard a clang at the door. She set the magazine down, and went to open the door. There was no one there, but on the doormat rested the Boooomerang. When she picked it up, the sensor light was blinking and the screen showed a map with two blinking dots. One of them was in Amity Park, and the other… was in Wisconsin. Jaz slapped her head. "Why didn't I think of this before?"

She tossed the Boooomerang onto the couch, then hurried to the phone and dialed Sam's number. After a ring or two, the line picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Jaz Fenton. Is Sam there?"

"Sure," her mom answered, "I'll go get her." Jaz could hear her yelling in the background at Sam.

Sam came to the phone. "Hello?"

"Sam, the Boooomerang came back. You have to call Tucker and come over."

"Wait, it came back already? What's it say?"

"Call Tucker, then come and see!" Jaz hung up.

About half an hour later, Jaz opened the door when Sam knocked on it, and Sam and Tucker came in anxiously. Tucker rushed over to the couch, grabbed the Boooomerang, glanced at the readout, and broke out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Jaz demanded. Tucker couldn't stop laughing for several seconds, but then finally gained control.

"Danny's in Wisconsin," he said finally.

"Vlad Masters." Sam concluded shortly. "He must be holding him captive."

"This is actually a lot better than I thought it would turn out," Jaz stated. "At least he's not stuck in the ghost zone. Or… dead."

"So do you think your mom is there too?" Sam asked.

"If Vlad has anything to say about it, she will be. He's hopelessly in love with her."

"Eeewww." Sam and Tucker both pronounced.

"We have to go find him," Sam said. "But how?"

"Road trip!" Tucker exclaimed.

In the mansion, Danny was getting ready for bed. Walking down the rather long hallway in his pajamas, he was nearly to the bathroom when a door opened on the other side. Vlad came out into the hallway and went to the bathroom, pausing in the doorframe. To Danny he spoke apologetically, "Sorry, Daniel, would you mind going to the bathroom down on the second floor instead? I'd go myself, but my bladder is killing me."

"Sure," Danny mumbled, and shuffled his way down a flight of stairs to yet another hallway. Passing several doors, he finally came to a white door with a crystal handle. He opened it and fumbled about for a light switch. Finding it, he flicked the lights on. There on the toilet seat sat a vulture. A glowing green, balding vulture wearing a fez.

"Kraaak!" the vulture shrieked, "Don't you peoples knock?"

"Ugh," Danny groaned. "What are you still doing here?"

"Vot? A vulture can't even take a crap arvound here visout beink spied on? Vot is sis vorld comink to?"

"No, I meant…" Danny was at a loss for words. "Look, just geddouta here, wouldja? The bathroom upstairs was already taken. I really gotta go by now."

"Votever." The vulture went intangible and floated upwards.

"And watch it, don't go through the-" the vulture disappeared. "-ceiling."

Danny sighed, then took his much needed bathroom leave. After freshening up, brushing his teeth, and turning the light back off, he started his way back up to his room. Passing the master bedroom on the third floor, he could hear Vlad's and his mother's voices having fun together. This had become a common occurrence recently. Danny considered saying something, but decided to simply let it pass and just went on to his bedroom. He laid down under the comforter and was just about asleep…. When he heard a crash come from below.

Danny sat straight up in his bed, now instantly alert. Standing up, he converted to ghost form. (He'd dropped the "I'm going ghost!" battle cry ages ago after Vlad had ridiculed him for it for far too long.) He phased through his bed, dropping through several floors until he reached the basement. This was restricted territory; it was Vlad's personal lab. It had no physical entrance, and the only means of entry was by way of either phasing through the walls… or the ghost portal. This room contained a ghost portal, almost identical to the only other one of its kind, the one that had been shut down and retired for two years in the Fentonworks in Amity Park.

Standing just outside the ghost portal, broken beaker at its feet, was a ghost. Danny had never seen anything like it before. It was unstable-looking, as though it wasn't able to keep a solid form. Or that it didn't want to, rather. For one second, it appeared to be human-shaped, but then Danny rubbed his eyes- now it was cat-shaped. No, now it was bird-shaped, bear-shaped, robot-shaped… the form was unidentifiable. It seemed to be everything at once.

Danny floated to the floor and became visible again. "Who are you?" He said to the ghost uncertainly.

"I am the Changeling," replied the ghost. Its voice was many voices at once, male, female, young, old, deep, high, sterile, tinny… its voice was just as inconstant as its appearance. "And who be you, ghost-child? Friend or foe?"

"Uhhh… I don't know yet." Danny had never actually had the chance to consider a question such as this. He'd always assumed that all other ghosts were enemies. "But why don't you tell me why you're here first?"

"I have ventured far across the ghost zone," replied the Changeling in its unnatural voice, "but never had I seen a portal such as this. I was intrigued, so I investigated further."

Just then, Vlad sank through the ceiling. Dropping to the ground, he turned with furrowed eyebrows to Danny. "What are you doing in my lab? You know this room is restricted." Danny started to answer, but was stopped short. "And who is this most interesting being? And why are you destroying my lab equipment?"

"I am the Changeling!" the ghost bellowed again, this time significantly more annoyed. "I only came through the portal through sheer interest. I was curious as to what was behind a giant football," it said with a bit of a smirk on its ever-changing face. "But now I am here, and I am immediately assaulted with half-ghosts who claim to own what is on the other side of this portal! What have I come across?"

Vlad coolly replied, "This is my personal laboratory. The ghost portal connects here because I built it. Now, if you'd kindly go back where you came from, I'd much appreciate it."

"Now why would I go back to a place I've just destroyed," said the Changeling with an evil grin, "when this new place has so much potential?"