Author's Note: Ok everybody, I'm really sorry. I thought I could do the update every weekend thing, but my chemistry class is a little more time consuming than I originally anticipated. That and the Olympics have started, and in case you didn't know, I'm a bit of an Olympic nut. And on top of that, I'm getting read for field camp, which I leave for on the 12th of August. Two weeks of nothing but Geology. It's gonna be great, but obviously I'm not going to be able to write during that time. I'll see if I can get the last chapter up before then, but since finals are this week, it's not likely.

Again, I'm really sorry, but then, if you've been following my stories for long, you already knew I was terrible with updates.

Wasting Time

Jimmy and Timmy exited the portal in Tremorton, only to find the streets empty. Granted, it was rather late, but they'd expected some sort of scuffle at the very least. They were walking past the school parking lot when they noticed the blast craters and the bent-out-of-shape flagpole.

"Apparently we missed the fight." Timmy commented.

Jimmy examined a blast crater more closely. "This is from a laser blast, not an ecto blast. I guess Danny was able to find Jenny after all."

"Well, if the fight's over, where are they now?" The boy in the pink hat asked.

"Chances are they headed to the Wakeman's house." The boy genius replied, "We'd better hurry to catch them.

At the Wakeman's House

"Hey, uh, Mom, we've kind of got an emergency." Jenny told her mother when she opened the door.

"Hmm?" Mz. Wakeman wondered before glancing past her daughter and noticing the teenage boy covered in green goo and the battered, glowing hunk of scrap behind her. "Oh good heavens!" she cried, "What happened?"

"It's kind of a long story." Danny said, "And we don't have a lot of time. Do you have anything that could safely trap a ghost long enough for me to go back home and get my own trap?"

The scientist shook her head. "I'm afraid not, but I daresay I could build one, given time."

The ghost boy noticed Skulker's finger twitch. "How much time?"

"Oh, an hour or so."

"Mom, as soon as that guy comes too, he's going to be really mad. Like tear down the town mad. And he wants Danny's head as a trophy or something." Jenny explained, "We don't have an hour."

Mz. Wakeman thought for a moment before poking the goop gluing Danny's arms together. "And what's this?"

The halfa sighed. "This is what started this whole mess. It's trapped my arms, which makes it a lot harder to fight."

She continued to poke at it experimentally. "A sticky trap? Interesting. What is its composition?"

Danny tried to remember what Jimmy had said it was made of. "Ectoplasm and… I don't really know what else."

"Well, if we could get this off, that'd give you a fighting chance against this…" She glanced over at Skulker, who was still lying in a heap on the front step, "…thing when he wakes up. Have you tried dissolving it in ectoplasm? 'Like dissolves like' after all."

"I haven't really had a chance to try anything. Jimmy said an enzyme would probably work, but Skulker attacked before he had a chance to try it."

Mz. Wakeman began wondering out loud again. "I wonder if there are ectoplasmic enzymes? That could work… but where would you get them? Oh, obviously… but it's such a low concentration… oh, but it could be synthesized, theoretically anyway…"

Danny glanced at Jenny for clarification, but she just shrugged.

Skulker twitched again.

"Mom, we're really wasting time. He'll come around any minute now. Can you dissolve Danny's trap or not?"

"Well, of course, all I need is—"

"Hey, there they are!" An excited voice shouted. Cosmo zipped up to the front door with Wanda, Timmy, and Jimmy not far behind.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jenny asked.

"We wanted to make sure Danny is OK." Timmy explained.

"And make sure Skulker isn't causing too much havoc." Jimmy added.

"I just didn't want to miss the fight." Cosmo said.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. "Great, one of you guys can run to my house in Amity Park and grab a Fenton Thermos while we make sure Skulker stays down."

"And while I find a solvent for that trap." Mz. Wakeman added.

Skulker twitched.

"Oh, I was looking into that." Jimmy said conversationally, "It's an organic compound, an enzyme should facilitate the break-down. All we need to do if isolate the right one."

The ghost's hands balled up into fists.

"Ah yes, I think I have the solution to that." The elder scientist replied, "You know the old adage, 'Like dissolves like', and it appears that ghosts have their own proteins and DNA. It would only make sense that they have their own enzymes as well. All we need is a small sample to synthesize more from."

The flames on his head grew slightly hotter.

"Assuming that the enzyme has a simple structure that can be readily replicated." Jimmy added.

His eyes slit open.

"Well, yes, but I do have a rather good protein synthesis dish, back from my rat-cloning days…"

Skulker sprang up without warning, sending a ghost-ray straight into Danny's chest. The ghost boy few back and crashed into the stairs.

They had just run out of time.

Author's Note: In which our heroes stand around talking so long that their enemy gets back on his feet. Way to go guys. (I hope that this was written well, and that I didn't just make everyone look like blathering idiots...)