Danny sat at the kitchen table, books strewn across every available surface. An hour after his mother had left, he was still the only one home and still no closer to finding anything useful about the Ghost Master. He had so far managed to learn that wights were more like faeries or elves than ghosts, but that the term had been appropriated by Tolkien for his Barrow-Wights. That didn't help.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker, and the little television turned itself on and off a few times. "Kat, knock it off," he said without looking up.

"I'll knock you off, boy!" she exclaimed, appearing across the table.

Danny blinked and gave her a mildly bemused look. "That sounded wrong."

"Oh, bite me. I'm half-tempted to shove you through that portal for setting Jack and Maddie on me." She flopped into a chair and propped her head against her hand. "What are you doing?"

Deciding that it was as good a time as any for a break, he leaned back and stretched. "Do you know what a wight is?"

"Bound ghost," she replied after a moment's thought. "They take the 'unfinished business' thing to a whole new level of obsession, often refusing to leave the place they died until they've buggered some poor soul into completing whatever mission they have. Why?"

"That doesn't make sense…" he muttered, staring at the open book in front of him. "He's here from Louisiana, so he can't be a wight."

"Louisiana?" Kat started to chuckle. "Oh, I see. This is about that team that got displaced, isn't it?"

"You know about that?"

"Only because Walker was so pissed off." She laughed loudly at some remembrance and shook her head. "Apparently, a couple of them like to dance at some nightclub he goes to when he's off-duty."

Danny wasn't sure what was stranger: the fact that Walker actually went off-duty, or the fact that he frequented a nightclub. He decided not to comment for fear of his sanity. "So what about the Ghost Master, then?" he asked instead.

Kat shrugged. "That, I couldn't tell you, but I'll ask around." She vanished again as suddenly as she had arrived, and Danny sighed. Ever since she got to know him well enough to stop being formal, she'd become abrupt to the point of rudeness. He wondered if that was personality flaw or just a result of not being held to human standards for so long.

Either way, he resolved to never let himself get that bad, then began cleaning up the books. It occurred to him to wonder why she was actually being helpful for a change, but his thoughts were interrupted by the phone. "Hello?" he answered.

"Hey, it me!" announced Tucker's voice from the other end. "How soon can you get here? I think I may have found something."

"I'll be right there!" he exclaimed, hanging up. It wasn't until he was sky high and a block away that he mentally smacked himself for already breaking his resolution.

Sam was already there, he noticed as he dove through the roof. "What's up?" he asked, becoming visible again.

It was a measure of how much time they spent in his presence that they didn't jump. Tucker moved over slightly so he could see the computer screen. "Check it out!"

It was a newspaper article, and page one by the look. The screen was mostly filled by a black and white photo of two uniformed men who appeared to be trying to approach an alligator with something sticking out of its mouth. He reached through Tucker, who protested loudly, to scroll down to the text.

"Ted?" he read dubiously.

"Apparently, he used to be some kid's pet," Sam explained, her voice bitter. "I can't believe people do things like that! Get a potentially dangerous animal as a pet and then act astonished and get rid of it the first time it tries to bite your hand off. I mean, it's not like it's his fault!"

"Sam," Tucker interrupted. "It's an alligator."

"Alligators are people, too!"

Danny distractedly shushed his friends, although he wasn't paying much attention anyway. He had just found out that the thing sticking out of Ted's mouth was a man who had been swimming in the swamp on a dare. Ted had as much of the man's lower body as would fit in his mouth. "I didn't know alligators could eat people whole," he murmured, astonished and horrified.

"They can't. It was probably trying to drag him under."

"He," Sam corrected. Tucker just rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's the alligator. I wonder if that's the Ghost Master..."

"Tucker!" Mrs. Foley yelled from downstairs. "Mrs. Fenton is looking for Danny. Is he up there?"

Danny cringed and nodded. "Uh, yeah!" Tucker called back.

"Well, she needs him back home!"

The three friends exchanged glances; Danny sighed and reverted to human form. "Thanks, guys. I'll see you later, maybe."

He considered flying home, but that wouldn't take enough time. As he walked, he thought about all he'd learned and what it could mean. Something about the whole situation had him bothered, and he wasn't sure what. The PS couldn't be held responsible for Ed Johnson's corruption, but Danny just couldn't bring himself to trust them. On the other hand, only a handful of ghosts had ever earned his trust; of them, only three could be called friends, and one didn't even count as a ghost.

Suddenly, he had a very bad feeling that didn't have anything to do with his ghost sense. He'd been aware of the person following him for some time, but whoever it was had just gotten a lot closer. He turned around just in time to have a rag shoved against his mouth and nose. He tried to struggle, but to no avail. It occurred to him to wonder why he didn't think to go intangible, and then it didn't matter anymore.

"Uh huh...no, it's fine, I'm sure. Yes, thank you."

Maddie hung up the phone and sighed. "Honey, I'm getting worried," she joining her husband and daughter in the living room. "It shouldn't take two hours to walk a few blocks."

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine!" Jazz said quickly, as though she knew something they didn't. Maddie had a feeling she might know what that was.

"Now, Maddie," Jack tried to placate. "You know Danny's always late." She had a feeling she knew why that happened, as well. With another worried sigh, she turned her attention to her husband's excited pointing. "Look at that!" he announced angrily. "They caught the ghost kid! I wanted to catch him!"

A quick glance at Jazz's suddenly pale complexion confirmed the woman's fears. Danny had tried to make her forget, and she had been very confused for a long time after. Well, she was still confused as to how he and his alter ego could be in two places at the same time, but it no longer mattered. "Sweetie, I'm going out," she said, standing. As an afterthought, she turned back slightly to address her daughter. "Stay with your father and make sure he stays out of trouble."

"Maddie..." Jack whined in his best impression of a spoiled child. She blew him a kiss and went out to the Fenton Assault Vehicle.

Danny felt like his eyes were sealed shut and his mouth had been stuffed with cotton. A small ghost was apparently hitting him in the head with a mallet, judging by the way it pounded every time he moved. He was in some kind of clear tube in a laboratory that put his parents' to shame. Looking around, he recognized a few of the Ghost Master's team members throwing themselves against similar prisons. The elderly banshee had her mouth open in a scream that wasn't even audible.

They knew. That was the only possible answer. He wasn't sure how, but they did. Maybe Ed had said something; maybe Vlad had said something. What was important was that he figured out how escape before his parents missed him.

Suddenly, a shock passed through him that activated his transformation rings against his will. He gasped and changed back, but one of the scientists hit a button. The shock hit him again, a bit worse than the first time, and transformed him again. "How are you doing that?" he demanded. They either couldn't hear, or they were ignoring him. He suspected the latter, but it could have been either.

He tried to blast the tube a few times, but the walls merely absorbed the energy. After being shocked for a third time, he gave up and tried to figure out something else. Maybe he could reason with them...