Jazz stared at the spot on the stairs that she had just watched Danny fall through with horror. Sam and Tucker had texted her a bit ago that they were on their way home with Danny, and she had been feeling so relieved that he was safe, but now… he was gone. Again.
Their mom burst out of the kitchen, massive ecto gun in hand, wearing a flowery apron over top of her HAZMAT suit. Her hood was down.
"Is everyone okay?" she shouted, scanning the room for ghosts. Jazz felt a little numb when she met her mom's eyes. "Where's Danny?"
"..." Jazz opened and closed her mouth for a moment, before coming to a decision. "... he just fell through a portal." She said quietly. Her mom's gun dropped until it was aimed at the floor. "I couldn't… I wasn't in time to pull him back."
"Oh, Jasmine, sweetheart," Mom dropped her gun as she gathered Jazz into her chest. "It's not your fault. You tried. We'll get him back from those nasty ghosts, just you wait and see!" Jazz nodded into her mom's chest, bringing her arms up to return the embrace.
"We'll have to tell Sam and Tucker." she said. Her mom hummed in response. "They're his best friends. They deserve to know." Maybe they could help find him. Maybe they could use the boo-merang. She was pretty sure that Sam still had the thing. They would do whatever they could to get Danny back, all of them.
She didn't know what she would do if they didn't succeed. She tried not to think about it.
Sam and Tucker both stared at Jazz in horror. "But we just got him back!" Tucker said, voice desperate and cracking. "He can't have just… What if it's the Guys in White? What if they figured out how to hack his signal?"
"Don't you still have access to their systems?" Sam asked. Tucker paused, then nodded.
"I do! I'll check right now!" Sam nodded, and Tucker pulled out his PDA and started tapping away. Sam turned to Jazz.
"In the meantime, I suppose you want the Boo-merang?" Sam said, and Jazz nodded.
"It's possible that he just fell into the Ghost Zone. Mom is setting up a search incase he's in there, but it would be a lot more effective with it."
"Of course it would. And if that doesn't pan out, then we make contact with Danny's supporters." Sam was starting to sound more confident, and Jazz relaxed a little, feeling put at ease now that they had a more solid plan. Tucker made a frustrated noise.
"He's not there." he said, when both girls turned to look at him.
"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Jazz asked.
"Sure, except that we already know how to get through their systems, and if it was them then we could have had Danny back within the hour." Jazz frowned.
"What about Vlad? I wouldn't put it past him to try something like this." Jazz asked, but Sam shook her head.
"Vlad tries to do thing's subtly, but he always ends up projecting that he's planning something. He's not declared anything as Mayor yet, and that would likely be the first thing he'd do." Tucker nodded along as Sam spoke.
"Plus, he would be more careful about making sure no one noticed him taking Danny. And he hasn't really tried to kidnap him in a while." He added.
"Still," Jazz said slowly. "We can't count him out just yet. Someone should at least check to see if he's got him." Sam pursed her lips.
"Well, why don't you do that, and Tucker and I can use the Boo-merang to scout the Zone." Jazz nodded.
"That sounds reasonable. Don't get caught by mom, and be careful."
Sam stared at the Boo-merang in confusion as it's screen flashed a message, which read: "Ecto signature not located. Try again?" She'd thrown it several times, and the only result she'd gotten was that it would fly as far as she could throw, and then it would hover, and start flashing that damned message again.
"Do you think it's faulty?" Tucker asked, as he looked at it over her shoulder.
"I don't see how. Has it ever done this before?" Tucker shrugged, then pulled another piece of jerky from his backpack and shoved it in his mouth to chew. Sam wrinkled her nose at him. "Can you not do that right now? This is kind of important." she snapped. Tucker shrugged again, and kept chewing. Sam grit her teeth.
"Look, this clearly isn't working, we should try something else." Tucker said.
"Like what? This is usually our best option, what else are we supposed to do?" Sam let her frustration bleed into her voice. Danny was out there somewhere, who even knows where, alone and probably injured.
Sam knew Danny could take care of himself. After all, he was the one with the ghost powers, but she also knew how reckless he could be if no one was there to stop him. He did stupid things all the time. All teenage boys did, his were just even more stupid because he had powers.
"I was thinking that we visit Wulf, since he fell into a portal." Tucker said, interrupting Sams thoughts.
"Huh. That's actually a good idea. How do you propose we find Wulf though, since he is a fugitive, and all." Tucker frowned.
"I can't do all the thinking!" he protested. Sam snorted.
"You barely do any thinking anyway." she muttered under her breath, but Tucker still heard her anyway.
"Hey!" Sam ignored his protest.
"We'll start with the Far Frozen, then. Maybe they'll let us borrow the infi-map, despite what happened last time."
They continued bickering the entire way there.
Authors Note:
This Bonus Chapter is a gift for my favourite person in the entire world, my sister and live in beta reader! Happy Birthday, I love you so the most! (And now the whole world knows that!)
apologises for any inaccuracies or awkward phrasing, this chapter has not been Beta read by anyone before posting (that would defeat the point). Your regular chapter will be posted tomorrow, and there will be no more authors notes until this arc of the story is finished.
