Danny wasn't sure how it happened. One second he was chasing a dire wolf across the rooftops of his neighborhood and the next he was caught in a glowing blue net. His cheek burned where it had scraped across rough roofing tiles and the fibers of the net dug painfully into his skin as he tried to wriggle himself free, to no avail. But who could've shot him? Even if his parents had somehow realized what was going on there was no way they could've gotten high enough. And their nets were green, not whatever this blue was—

"Hello, ghost child."

Danny tensed at the unfamiliar voice. Smooth, masculine, practically a purr, yet more menacing than anything he'd ever heard in his life. Grunting, Danny managed to flip himself onto his back, and looked up into the face of his attacker. At first glance, it was some sort of giant angry robot, but its mane and goatee were made of vicious green flames, the same color as its pupil-less eyes, and its entire body radiated a faint glowing aura, just like every other ghost. Except unlike every other ghost, this one was attacking him deliberately and without provocation.

"Wh—who are you?!" he snapped, hoping he sounded braver than he felt. "What do you want?!"

The ghost's answering smile would have made a normal person shiver. "I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, and a collector of things rare and unique. And you, ghost child, are that and more!"

"Uh, thanks?"

"Pity, though. As the alpha male of your little group, I had hoped you would put up more of a fight, at least more than the female would."

Danny's breath hitched. There was a lot to unpack in that sentence but there was only one person he could be referring to. "What did you do to her?" he snapped.

"The female? Rest assured, child, I have done nothing to harm her. But, in case you're entertaining any hopes of a rescue, I've sent her on a merry chase. Her and that weakling. By the time they realize you're missing, you'll already be in your new home, ghost child."

Well, that didn't sound concerning at all. He could feel Sam and Tucker off in the distance and, if he focused, he could tell they were both in motion, but neither of them were calling out like they'd described so he could only assume they were okay for the moment.

"My name," he growled, "is Phantom!"

He turned intangible and dropped through the roof. Re-orienting himself before he was even in the room below, he gauged roughly where Skulker was, and shot back up through the ceiling. The ghost was still there, baffled, and Danny's fist collided with his chin with enough force to send the other ghost flying.

"And I'm not going anywhere with you!"

He didn't wait around to see what happened next and sped off in the opposite direction.

Sam, Tucker, he thought as hard as he could. We have a problem. We have a serious problem! Help help help!

Behind him, Skulker roared wordlessly.

Danny let out a yelp and turned himself invisible. Hopefully that would be enough for now. He had to get to his friends. The ghost hadn't come after him until he was sure they would be alone. That had to mean something. If he could just get to them then—then he'd be safe and they could go from there. Right? Right.

He called me the alpha male, Danny thought and then shuddered at the implications. That ghost, that hunter, had been watching them long enough to read their dynamics. Not that he thought himself to be any sort of 'alpha male,' but with Tucker being so new to things, he might seem that way in comparison. But he knew where Danny lived. He probably knew where Sam and Tucker lived, too.

He risked a glance over his shoulder. The ghost wasn't anywhere in sight but that meant absolutely nothing, but he could feel Sam coming closer so his call must have worked. Tucker didn't seem to be coming towards him but he wasn't moving further away, either. He exhaled in relief and steered himself towards Tucker. Sam would catch up in no time.

As he neared the park, Danny realized that Tucker must have tried to lure the 'distraction' away from people. Smart idea, especially now that this big ghost was here. Danny glanced over his shoulder again. Skulker still wasn't visible but he could see Sam as a smudge of darkness against the setting sun. He wanted to signal her somehow but he couldn't risk becoming visible. Not until he got to Tucker.

He found him in the middle of the woods grappling with a bright green eagle the size of a Great Dane whose shrieks could wake the dead. On the ground, his arms locked around the eagle's neck, and his legs around curled around the eagle's. The eagle was trying its best to dislodge him by flapping its ridiculously huge wings.

"Tucker-I-mean-Specter!" Danny shouted in a rush, reaching for the thermos on belt. "Fly up!"

Tucker's head whipped from side to side in confusion but then Danny's words registered. He released the eagle, shoved its body away from his own, and rocketed into the air. The eagle righted itself far too quickly to be natural and its beady red eyes locked onto its prey once more. It didn't see the blue beam until it had already been enveloped and it screamed the whole way in.

Capping the thermos, Danny let go of his invisibility and landed on the ground, looking up into the sky for either of his friends or Skulker. No sign of the ghost or Sam, but Tucker was floating about thirty feet above him.

"Dude!" Tucker yelled. "What's going on?! Are you okay?!"

"NO!" Danny replied then hooked the thermos back to his belt. "Get down here now!"

Something in his voice must've convinced Tucker of the seriousness of the situation because he flew down without another word. Sam cam hurtling into the clearing a moment later with her teeth bared and most of her hair aflame.

"What the hell, Danny?! There's this stupid horse running around and—"

"It's a trap!" Danny interjected, grabbing her forearms, and pulled her down to the ground beside them. "Both of those ghosts were just to keep you guys busy. There's another, a big robot ghost who caught me in a net and tried to kidnap me!"

"What?" they both yelped at the same pitch.

"Sam, were you visible on the way here?"

Sam sputtered incomprehensibly for a moment and then her teeth clicked together and she nodded.

"Crap," Danny whispered. "We have to hide. Grab my hands and go invisible."

They did as instructed, Sam taking his right and Tucker his left, and disappeared. Like this, they could at least see each other despite their bodies being invisible to the rest of the world, at least they hoped. They hadn't had a chance to really test it yet. (Not that it'd do much good if the ghost had heat sensors or something but Danny was trying not to think about that.)

They lifted off the ground and Danny led them through the trees. "We have to stay hidden. He could be anywhere."

"We'd sense him," Sam pointed out but Danny shook his head.

"Not if he doesn't get close enough we won't. He's been watching us for who knows how long."

Tucker shuddered. "Okay, I do not like that."

"It's not you he's after, though, Tuck."

"Didn't feel like it just now."

"That was just to keep you busy. He told me himself."

"Okay, hold on. Time out," Sam interrupted sharply. "You said there's a big ghost robot after you?"

Danny nodded. "He said his name was…. Skulker? I think? Maybe Shulker. But he's a hunter and collector of rare stuff, and I'm pretty sure he knows what we are, and I think he wants to freaking…keep me or something!"

Sam scoffed. "So he knows where we live, what we are, and can stalk us from a distance. Terrific."

"Then we shouldn't be running," said Tucker, surprising them both. "He'll just wait until we're alone and try again."

Danny groaned. He was right. Until they taught this ghost the lesson of his afterlife, they wouldn't have any peace. Best case scenario, he'd keep releasing animals from the ghost zoo or whatever. Worst case, Danny would end up in the zoo himself. They had to fight and they had to make it on their terms this time.


"You kids need anything before we go to bed?" Maddie asked in the doorway, smiling at the three teenagers scattered across her son's room.

Danny smiled at his mother. "Nah, we're good. Thanks, Mom."

"Alright. Don't stay up too late, and no shouting if you start playing video games."

"Us?" Tucker clutched at his chest. "We would never!"

She gave him a look. "Of course not. Silly me." Then she smiled at Danny. "See you in the morning, sweetheart."

Danny's embarrassed expression was only slightly forced. "Goodnight, Mom."

Maddie left, pulling the door shut behind her, and the three teenagers held their breath until the sound of her footsteps faded and they heard the door to her bedroom close. Then they exhaled in unison and it was back to business. Tucker pulled the Fenton Grappler from where he'd wedged it between his leg and the beanbag chair. Sam's thermos returned to visibility on her lap. Danny pulled his thermos out from beneath his pillow.

"Man, I'm glad your mom actually knocks," Sam said, setting the bat on Danny's desk. "My parents just barge in if I don't lock the door."

Danny grimaced in sympathy. It was an absolute miracle she hadn't been caught floating above her bed when she was still doing that most nights. Their intrusive behavior was one of the big reasons Danny and Tucker had never been invited over.

Neither of his friends had stayed the night since their recovery period after the accident. The idea of sleeping in the same house as ghost hunters was unsettling for them, and Danny knew where they were coming from. But with Sam's house completely off limits, and Tucker's parents' habit of engaging with their activities, Danny's house was the only option. At least his parents didn't check on him while he was sleeping.

Not that they intended to do any sleeping for a while.

Ten minutes after Jack and Maddie went to bed, they could still hear Jazz moving around in her room but Danny was reasonably certain she wouldn't bother them. So he turned a movie on and set the volume to low while Sam and Tucker unrolled their sleeping bags on the floor. They shoved their bags inside to make it look like they were in there and Danny stuffed some things under his bedsheets. Just in case.

Finished, the three half-ghosts transformed across the room from the windows, just in case anyone happened to be looking up. Danny couldn't help but note, and not for the first time, that the moment Sam's ghostly form took hold she rose a few inches off the ground. It wasn't something he did, or Tucker, now that he was actually able to transform. He wasn't sure if she was aware of it, but considering how often she'd floated while sleeping, it wouldn't surprise him if she wasn't. For all that she was the most pragmatic of their group, she almost never had both feet on the ground anymore.

Tucker hooked the Fenton Grappler to his belt and Sam attached her thermos to hers then reached up to adjust the strap of her new holster on her shoulder. A recent acquisition though he had no idea from where, it was black and held her bat securely against her back.

Danny shook his head to clear it, looked between his friends, and exhaled. "We ready for this?"

"To kick the butt of a ghost who captures sentient beings for his own personal menagerie?" Sam scoffed. "Danny, I was born ready."

Tucker raised his eyebrows at her. "I don't think I'm that ready, but let's do this."

"It's time for the hunter to become the hunted," Danny declared, going intangible. The others followed suit and they slipped out of Danny's house entirely unnoticed.

Sam figured those ghosts from before were still loose in the city, assuming Skulker had not simply caught them himself, and Danny was prepared to bet that he hadn't. They were the perfect bait after all. They were all sure that if the ghosts had been causing havoc that it would've at least made the nightly news, which meant that if they were still loose, they were somewhere they weren't going to be noticed. Namely, the park.

Danny knew Skulker was probably watching his house already, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. If he thought they were just going out to hunt the other ghosts, he would probably follow, lest an opportune moment pass him by. They just needed to make sure he didn't strike until they were well away from Danny's house. Preferably away from people altogether.

The moment they phased through the walls, they were off like a shot towards the park. They kept close, practically on top of each other, in case Skulker tried to pull anything while they were commuting. So close, in fact, that when a Casper High senior smoking on his rooftop saw them and snapped a photo on his Nokia to show to his friends the next day, they looked like a single glowing blob.

They had barely entered the park when their ghost senses went off and it didn't take them more than a few seconds to spot the ghost horse galloping across the lawn like it was free on a prairie.

"Careful," Sam warned and they slowed. "That's not even half as fast as it was going earlier. We need to surround it if we're going to have a chance."

Danny pressed his lips together thoughtfully and tried to remember what his Aunt Alicia had told him about the hunting the last time they were in Spittoon. Most of it was where to aim if you were trying to bring down a deer or coyote but there had been some useful in her brutally blunt lecture.

He folded his arms and eyed both his friends critically. "Sam—"

"Code-names," Tucker reminded him.

He sighed. "Wraith, you're the fastest. You think you could herd it?"

Sam quirked her lips and mirrored his position. "What are you thinking?"

"If you can herd it towards Specter and I, we could capture it in a thermos."

She narrowed her eyes at the horse and said nothing for a long moment, then nodded and unclipped the thermos from her belt. "Yeah, I can do that. Here catch." She tossed it at Tucker. "But where am I herding it to?"

"Well, assuming it doesn't leave the park, it has to turn around at some point, right?"

They chose the playground, figuring the ghost would see it coming and swerve to avoid the gravel and twisted metal contraptions in favor of open grass. And if not, well, then they could pincer it in the middle. Danny hid on one side of the park under a seesaw and Tucker on the other, half-intangible beneath the merry-go-round. They knew the moment the horse spotted Sam by the enraged neigh which pierced the night without warning. Then silence.

They waited. Sam was coming closer.

Danny's ghost sense went off, and he tensed, bracing himself for action.

The horse came galloping over the hill faster than a race car, with Sam hot on its heels. Hooves? Even from a distance, Danny could tell it was pissed. He flipped the cap off the thermos and coiled to spring the second the horse chose its path.

It turned intangible and barreled onto the playground without any sign of slowing. Danny didn't wait, he launched himself off the ground, his hand already on the trigger. The horse swung its head towards him and brayed, a deep, ugly sound and to Danny's great surprise, it skidded to a halt right then and there and reared into the air. If it was trying to intimidate him, it worked. Danny yelped and swerved upwards. Ten feet into the air he remembered what he was supposed to be doing and squeezed the button on the thermos for dear life. The blue beam exploded outwards towards the horse —

Hold on why is it coming at me—

"WHAT THE—"


"—HELL DID YOU DO, TUCKER!?"

That…was a good question.

Tucker looked at the spot where Danny had been floating a moment before and then at the spot where the horse had been rearing up. Neither were there anymore. He looked at Danny's still-smoking thermos on the ground. He looked down at the smoking thermos in his hands, at the little green light on the side which indicated it was in use. Looked back at Sam. Licked his lips.

"Caught a ghost."

"Oh my god let him out!"

"Uh." Tucker looked down at the thermos. He hadn't had a chance to sit down and play with one of these yet. Danny promised he'd have his own as soon as his parents made more but that wasn't helpful now.

"There's a switch on the side," Sam said, pointing at the underside of the thermos, "that turns it from capture to release."

Tucker flipped it over, located the switch, then pressed the trigger button again. The thermos emitted a high whine like it was priming a charge and then it shuddered in his hands and spat out a monochrome blur. The blur solidified into Danny .2 seconds before he smashed into the ground. Tucker surreptitiously capped the thermos and hid it behind his back while Sam floated over to the undignified heap of black and white limbs that was their best friend.

"Earth to Danny. You in there?" She prodded him with the tip of her bat. "Phantom?"

Danny raised his head and threw her a withering look. "Did I just get thermosed?"

"Yep."

Danny turned his glare onto Tucker who smiled innocently. "Your thermos privileges are revoked."

"Hey! I wasn't expecting you to fly up like that!" Tucker protested. "I was aiming for the horse."

With a roll of his eyes, Danny opened his mouth to retort, but a new and wholly unfamiliar voice cut in before he could.

"You know, for the alpha of your group, you are remarkably easy to capture, ghost child."

Sam swore. Tucker nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around, holding the thermos in front of himself like a weapon. Floating perhaps fifteen feet above them was a giant robot. A ghost robot. With green flaming hair. The hunter.

He balked.

"Perhaps I ought to reconsider," the hunter ghost went on, sounding almost thoughtful. He turned his eyes—the same vicious, ectoplasmic green as Danny's all the way through—to Sam. "The female seems to be the worthier challenge."

Tucker couldn't see Sam's expression but from the acid in her words, he could take a good guess. "Excuse me? Female?"

The ghost actually paused to reconsider. Gears whirred as he tilted his 'head' to the side. "Did I misjudge? Are you not a female of your species? It can be difficult to tell with humans sometimes."

Tucker licked his lips. The ghost was distracted. This was his chance. The thermos was still on release mode but if he could just switch it back to capture…he could get the ghost. The switch was near his pinkie. He couldn't risk turning the thermos around to get a better angle, movement would only attract attention, but if he could play it off as natural shifting….

"Uh, dude," said Danny's voice from somewhere behind him, high enough that he must have lifted off the ground. "It's actually kind of rude to refer to girls as 'females'. Especially to their faces."

"It…is?"

"Yeah, come on, man, even I know that. It's demeaning."

The ghost blinked, processing this, then its strange features which were clearly metallic like the rest of him yet malleable like flesh and muscle, shifted into a frown. "Regardless, I believe she would make a far worthier opponent than you, boy."

"Opponent?" Danny scoffed. "You didn't seem to care about a fight when you shot me with that net earlier."

"Oh, that was merely to get your attention. I expected you to put up a fight but instead you turned tail and fled!" The ghost shook his head. "A pitiful display."

"Was it fleeing? Or was it regrouping? Besides—Shulker, right?"

"Skulker," the ghost snapped.

"My bad, Skulker. You want to talk about pitiful? You lured my friends away and used a trap to catch me instead of facing me head on in a fair fight."

"Yeah!" Tucker agreed and Skulker narrowed his eyes at him. Tucker flinched, shifting the thermos in his shaking hands. It worked, because Skulker's attention immediately returned to the others and Tucker's thumb was now on the switch.

"A fair fight, you say?" Skulker mused. Then he threw his head back and laughed like some sort of cartoon villain. It was almost cringe-worthy but it was also the perfect cover for the sound of the switch flipping back to capture mode.

"Very well, ghost child! If it is a fair fight you want then I, Skulker, Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, will give you one! But know this, boy, should I gain the upper hand, I will not hesitate to subdue you by any means necessary. And if your friends interfere," he threw a nasty look in Tucker's direction, "I will not hesitate to dispose of them with extreme prejudice, and rest their pelts at the foot of my bed."

"Okay," said Sam, "that's just gross."

Skulker only grinned. (Seriously how was a robot doing that?)

"Sam. Can I borrow the bat?" Danny asked in a clipped voice.

"Ab-so-lutely."

Tucker heard her toss it through the air and the metallic thump of Danny catching it. "Alright then, Skulker." His voice was like ice. "You and me, right now. You can use whatever you got, I can use whatever I got. If I win, you go away. Agreed?"

Skulker nodded. "Agreed. And when I win, you will spend the rest of your life in a cage on display among the rest of my collection."

Then he dropped into a crouch, legs spread and panels began to open across his forearms, biceps, and shoulders. From them emerged an array of guns, rocket launchers, arrow launchers primed with arrowheads the size of one of Tucker's hands. Skulker bared two rows of white metal teeth in a predatory grin.

"Oh that's bullshit!" Sam shouted.

"Uh…Specter?" Danny called, voice wavering.

"Yep!" Tucker replied and smashed his finger into the thermos's trigger. It hummed to life. Skulker only had a split second to look his way in surprise before the ensnaring blue light shot towards him.

"What the—!"

The light caught him but he must've known what the thermos would do because he immediately ignited some sort of jetpack on his back leaned against the pull. It was enough to resist but not enough to escape. Tucker sucked in a sharp breath and tightened his grip on the thermos as it began to heat beneath his hands. The flames burned brighter, the ghost grunted, and slowly he began to move away from the thermos.

Danny flew over their heads and dove down behind Skulker, beyond the reach of the thermos. "Oh no you don't!" Tucker heard him shout over the roar of the rockets, followed by a metallic clang, and suddenly the robot was hurtling towards the thermos.

"CHEAT!" Skulker howled. "THIS WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN! I WILL HAVE YOUR HIDES FOR THIIIIIIIS!"

Tucker slammed the cap on the thermos and let out and let out a breath of air he didn't know he'd been holding. "Holy—!"

Sam tackled him from behind, throwing her arms around his shoulders. "God I was hoping you were doing what I thought you were doing!"

Tucker grinned proudly and leaned in Danny's direction, extending one arm out beside his head. "I'm sorry? What was that about my thermos privileges being revoked?"

Drifting through the air towards him. Danny rolled his eyes but he was grinning regardless. "Reinstated! Nice job, Tuck!"

"Dude, were you really gonna 1v1 him if I hadn't gotten the thermos ready?"

Danny reached up to rub the back of his neck, sheepish. "Uh, maybe? I thought I could at least dent his armor or something. I wasn't expecting all the guns and stuff. But I figured Sam would at least jump in to kick his butt if things got dicey."

"You bet I would've," Sam growled. "What a prick. And what was all that about our pelts?"

"At the foot of his bed," Tucker added, tossing the thermos lightly into the air and catching it. "Can't forget that part."

Danny and Sam's eyes followed the thermos up and down as he continued tossing it. Without a word, Danny reached out and caught it before Tucker could. "Yeah how about we don't tempt fate tonight?" he suggested and handed Sam both the thermos and her bat.

"So, that's two ghosts down," said Sam as she returned each item to its place on her body. "Now we just have to find the wolf."

Tucker pressed his lips together thoughtfully and flew about ten feet into the air. He spotted the treeline about five hundred yards to the west. Covering roughly half of the entire park, those woods were plenty big enough for a single ghost to hide in, and tempting besides for a wolf. For Tucker, not so much. He'd never been a fan of them and only ever went in when one of his parents wanted to go on a nature hike or something, which wasn't often. If they were lucky, they'd find it quickly.

Sam and Danny drifted up on either side of him and the three of them regarded the woods quietly for a few moments.

"So, how exactly are we supposed to find a wolf ghost in all that?" Danny wondered aloud. "Did we ever figure that out?"

Tucker shook his head. They didn't even know the wolf was in there to begin with. It could be anywhere by now, even beyond the city limits.

"Well, it is a wolf," Sam pointed out. Then she drew in a breath, cupped her hands over her mouth, and let out a long, loud, "AWOOOOOOOO!"

Tucker and Danny glanced at each other, shrugged, and then followed suit. Their voices carried far, echoing through the park—

(and beyond, they would later realize)

After ten seconds of howling, the three teenagers feel silent. Listening. Waiting. And then, not far to the north, came a reply. Sam exhaled a laugh and held her hands out to her sides for some high-fives, which the boys enthusiastically gave.

"Come on!" Danny cried and they dove for the woods.