It was early in the morning when she got the call. Sixish. The other numbers on the clock didn't register to her.

"Hey," said Tucker, "guess what government agency I just hacked."

Sam sat up, all traces of sleep gone. Her hand curled around the wing of the nearest stuffed bat. "You found him?"

"Sort of. Ever hear of SHIELD?"

"No," said Sam. "Is it part of the GIW?" Ever since the Fentons came back without Danny and locked themselves in Fentonworks, that had been her biggest fear.

"I found them through the GIW, but they seem to be partitioned pretty well, along with something called HYDRA…"

"What, like World War Two HYDRA?"

"You know them?"

"They were one of Hitler's science divisions," said Sam. "They… My great-grandparents were rescued from one of their camps by Captain America."

Tucker paused. "Funny you should mention Captain America," he said, the words almost tumbling over each other. "Because apparently, he works for SHIELD. Or with SHIELD? It's a little unclear, actually. I'm not sure he's getting paid."

"Focus, Tucker," said Sam. "How is Danny involved?"

"He's been mind controlled by an evil clown."

"What? Freakshow?"

"No, this one's green and Norse god themed. Loki. Has a scepter, too, though, which is a weird coincidence. And he's from space."

"An evil green clown from outer space is mind controlling Danny?" That was… an eclectic bundle of traits, even for them. Like someone had thrown darts at a board of character concepts. Or took Freakshow, swapped his palette and made him an alien.

At least it wasn't the GIW.

"And making him fight Iron Man and Captain America in… Germany. Stuttgart, Germany. Oh, this is live."

"You have eyes on him?" She swung her feet over the side of her bed and reached for her laptop.

"Electronic ones, but yeah. Gotta love the body cam trend. I'm sending you the footage on a secure link, but I'll have to delete it, after. I don't want to show up if they investiga—"

Sam, having just clicked on the link, swore. "He's human, Tucker."

"Yep, I know."

"He's fighting them as a human. That means they know who he is."

"Yeah."

Clearly, the problem with that wasn't clicking for him. "That means they know who we are."

"Crap," said Tucker. "Plan?"

"Not much we can do to help Danny, but… He didn't hurt anyone in that fight. Not seriously."

"I think Captain America cleared thirty feet on that throw, so…"

"Captain America's abilities are well documented. He'll live. I think Danny is fighting this, or at least working around it. We can't trust SHIELD if they're associated with the GIW and HYDRA, even a little bit, so… We need to find out where they keep prisoners, in case they catch Danny, and figure out how to stay away from them. They're going to come looking for us eventually."

There was a tapping sound from the other side of the line. "Ghost weapons will only get us so far."

"Yeah," agreed Sam. "Secret government agency versus two teens armed with weapons that only hurt dead people. Three, if Jazz gets back soon. Not much math there."

"Objection. The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick can hurt a wide variety of people."

"It's just a baseball bat with the name Fenton painted on it in phase-proof paint. Not much good against bullets." She knelt on the floor and reached under her bed. After a moment of groping, she pulled out a thermos. "I have an idea, but I don't think you'll like it."

"Is it some variation of sneak over to Germany and hit Danny with the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick until he snaps out of it?"

"We don't even know if that will work," said Sam. "It didn't with Freakshow."

"We couldn't even hit him when he was with Freakshow."

"You think that's changed? No. Even if he can't go ghost for some reason, he actually knows how to dodge now. I was thinking about a trip to the museum."

"You're right, I don't like it."

"It's the best weapon we have access to, and I trust you."

"I don't trust me. Besides, do you really think that a second mind control scepter is the thing we need right now?"

"We need something."

Tucker sighed. "How are we even going to get it? It's in a museum."

"I haven't been able to empty the thermos since Danny's parents came back. It's almost full."

"Oh, no," said Tucker.

.

Releasing the Box Ghost (among other sundry minor animal and blob ghosts) into the museum caused a predictable amount of chaos, especially when the staff sprinted into back rooms and downstairs to protect the archives. They still used boxes and crates for that, here. Rookie move.

"Come on," said Sam, making sure her hoodie was on and her blaster was primed. Tucker, with his PDA and 'ghost noise' generator, followed behind. With all their precautions, they'd hopefully wouldn't be identifiable on the security cameras.

Duulaman's Scarab Scepter sat in the display case in front of them. She raised her blaster and fired. The glass broke.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Tucker, hand hovering in front of him.

"Yeah, but we can try something else if you're really worried about it. You stopped yourself last time. You controlled it."

"Yeah," said Tucker. He swallowed. "Okay. I've got this."

He picked up the staff, and the museum dissolved in a whirl of sand. They were standing on top of a dune, pyramids in the distance. Tucker's fingers looked bloodless from the stress of his grip.

"Tucker," said Sam, cautiously.

"It's okay," said Tucker. "I can do this. Just. Give me a second."

The sand swirled again, and they were in Tucker's bedroom. He dropped the staff with a gasp. A fine layer of sand drifted to the floor.

"That was," he said, "something. I could." He covered his mouth with one hand. "I could take us to Germany," he said, voice harsher than usual.

"We don't know if Danny is still there," said Sam.

"R- Right," said Tucker. "I need to—I need to sit down."

Mrs. Foley's voice rose from downstairs. "What agency did you say you worked with again, Mr. Coulson?"