"Do you think it'll actually work?" Sam asked, looking up from the Ecto-Entrapper to Danny.
Danny shrugged. "It's one of Dad's inventions. It either works, or it has the complete opposite effect. It'll definitely do something. The only thing I can remember them inventing that didn't immediately have some effect was the thermos, which is probably some sort of twist of fate because that's what's most useful to me."
When it had started to work, though, thanks to his own ghostly powers somehow doing something to it, he didn't question things. He didn't really understand what he'd done to make them work; he just knew the sort of special touch they needed to work and had made sure he'd treated all of his parents' thermoses accordingly. Besides, his parents hadn't questioned why all their thermoses had started working, either, which was all the better for him.
Still. They'd had to scamper pretty quickly when it had become clear that Jack was too busy blathering on about ghosts to notice them leaving. Not that they'd actually left or anything. They were still inside; they were just hiding. His parents had brought in a bunch of boxes, too, when carrying in all their weapons, and since the Box Ghost was safely contained in the thermos, the bit of space between the stacks and the wall turned out to be an ideal option.
"I think there's some kind of goo in there," Tucker said, taking the device from Sam and peering through the vents in the back. "How that isn't affecting the circuitry is beyond me."
Sam shrugged. "It's probably supposed to be like that. The goo probably enhances something." She glanced at Danny again. "Do you know anything else about it?"
"Not besides what he told us," Danny admitted. "I know you said to keep an eye on what my parents are doing, but the last thing I remember Dad working on was something to get rid of a ghost's powers."
Tucker and Sam exchanged glances. "Isn't that what the Ecto-Stoppo-Power-ofier does?"
"Well, yeah, but this was supposed to be some sort of stuff that makes a ghost shrivel up or something like that, too. I dunno; he hasn't gotten it right yet. He probably stumbled on this stuff in his experiments. Dad might usually have a one-track mind, but he knows a good thing when he sees it. He would've followed up on this before it got mixed up in all the rest of the samples that didn't work."
"So chances are good this works, then," Sam surmised.
"With my luck it does," Danny muttered. "Dad found something that has some effect, at any rate, or he'd still be working on that other stuff."
"Well, knowing your dad, he'll keep at it until he gets something like what he wants," Sam said, "so at least you'll know his next project."
"Yeah," Tucker agreed, carefully putting the Ecto-Entrapper down on the floor between them. "Then all you need to do is worry about what your mom's going to invent next."
Danny groaned and buried his head in his hands. "It'll probably be something more damaging than a new cookie recipe."
"Look on the bright side," Tucker said. "The only ghost hunters left at this convention are us and your parents, and you deal with them every day anyway."
"Yeah, well," Danny said, raising his head again, "I'm not sure that's a good thing, either. I mean, yeah, it's great that no one else is here and potentially hunting me, but we still don't know why they left." Tucker opened his mouth again, and Danny hurriedly added, "I know it looks like Desiree, but I already said, my ghost sense didn't go off."
"Well, maybe Desiree did something that grants people's wishes so she doesn't have to be here," Sam suggested.
Danny shook his head. "If that would've worked, don't you think she would've tried it before this?"
"Well, she's not as thick as Technus," Tucker said, "but…."
Danny shot his friend a look. "There's a very easy way to test that theory, you know." As loudly as he dared, he said, "I wish I knew what was going on here!"
"No, huh?"
"No," Danny confirmed.
"Well, maybe you can't wish for information," Sam reasoned. "Try something else."
"Fine. I wish…I wish…. Oh, I dunno. What's something harmless that I can wish for in case it is Desiree?" Danny peeked out from behind the boxes and scanned the room. "Okay," he said, spotting his sister, "I wish Jazz's hair band was black instead of turquoise."
Tucker and Sam looked out beside him, but nothing had changed.
"Okay, scratch that," Danny said. "It's not wishing."
"Maybe it's something you really want, then," Sam said. "Even if you don't say it aloud."
Tucker snorted. "Man, it's so not that. I think we would've noticed if people just got whatever they wanted without even saying it. It's got to be wishing. You're just not wishing for the right things. Me, I wish we were all at home playing Doomed—"
Danny blinked.
Sam and Tucker were gone.
"That is so not fair," Danny muttered. At least Sam and Tucker would probably realize what happened and come back, but that wasn't the point. Whoever had set this up clearly hated him. Not that that should surprise him. Half the ghosts in the Ghost Zone hated him. Of course, he hadn't exactly given a lot of them many reasons to like him, but they were the ones who kept attacking Amity Park, not him. He was just trying to protect his town. And sometimes the planet, whenever one of them got it in their heads to try to take over the world….
Well, if any of them were stupid enough to try to attack him now, there were more than enough weapons in here to do some damage and weaken them enough so that they could be sucked into a thermos. He wouldn't even have to go ghost. Hopefully. So, he shouldn't need to worry about them. But despite the clear correlation between wishing and weird stuff happening, he'd been left out of the equation somehow, and he wasn't sure how Desiree had pulled that off. Assuming it was her, of course, but he hadn't run into any other wishing ghosts.
At least he could hide this Ecto-Entrapper thing his dad had—
Or not. It wasn't in front of him anymore, where Tucker had put it. It was gone.
Danny tentatively peeked out from around the boxes again, just in time to see his dad pick up his latest invention. He scrambled out of his hiding place and started off, calling out, "Dad! Wait!"
He was too late. Danny skidded to a stop, watching in horror as Jack pushed the button to turn on the Ecto-Entrapper.
Jazz looked up from her book when she heard Danny's cry. Unfortunately for Danny, Jack hadn't heard him. Fortunately for Danny…. Well, she couldn't see any ill effects from here. Setting the book aside, Jazz walked over and put a hand on her brother's shoulder.
He cracked open one eye and looked at her. "Uh, hi, Jazz." He opened the other eye and glanced at their father, who was looking around expectantly. When nothing happened, Danny relaxed and shook Jazz's hand off. Then he sneezed, and she rolled her eyes because he didn't have the decency to cover his mouth, but otherwise ignored that. It was chilly in here, and she had other questions for him.
"Where are Sam and Tucker?" Jazz asked. She'd seen the three of them sneak behind the boxes, and she would've thought that Danny's friends would've tried to stop Jack from turning on the Ecto-Entrapper in case there was any effect on him.
Danny rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and shot another nervous glance at Jack. "They, um, had to go."
"Danny…." Jazz crossed her arms and fixed her brother with a look.
"Okay, okay, fine, we'll talk." Danny held up his hands in surrender. "Just…not now."
Jazz glanced over her shoulder and spotted their mother coming towards them, smiling. She remembered her mom had volunteered to check outside for Danny and his friends after she'd told her father she'd seen them go out. Jazz had been watching, though, and Maddie, reasonably thinking that the three couldn't have gone far, had hardly done anything more than stick her head out the door and call for them.
"Oh, there you are, sweetie," Maddie said to Danny as she joined them. "Jazz had thought the three of you had gone outside."
"I just went to see Sam and Tucker off," Danny said quickly. "They had to go, um…. They had to go. They said they'll come back when they can, but, uh, I kind of thought you might want me to stay here to, you know, help with stuff."
"That's very sweet of you, honey," Maddie said, giving her son a hug. "I'm glad you aren't regretting coming."
Judging by the look on Danny's face, he was regretting it a lot. But he hadn't had a real choice, and Jazz knew it as well as he did. She was just surprised that he hadn't made some excuse to slip out after Tucker and Sam.
That must be why he wanted to talk to her, and she intended to find things out sooner rather than later. The minute their mother had turned to console their disappointed father about the lack of instant success on the part of the invention, she snatched Danny's arm and dragged him away from their parents.
"Jazz!" he squawked, trying to bat her arm away.
She ignored him.
Danny started muttering to himself, but she knew he wouldn't try anything in plain sight of their parents—or within easy range of any of the FentonWorks inventions that could detect a sudden spike in ecto-energy of any sort, meaning he wouldn't dare just go intangible and leave her clutching air. When they were safely hidden in the wings of the stage that occupied the front of the auditorium, well out of earshot, Jazz let Danny go.
"What was that for?" he grumbled, rubbing his arm.
"What's going on?"
Nothing.
"You said you'd tell me," she chided. "I just want to help, and I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on."
"I don't know what's going on," Danny snapped. "That's the problem." He sighed. "Sorry. It's just…. I don't know. Things aren't making any sense."
"We'll figure out what drove the others away."
Danny shook his head. "It's worse than that. Look, Desiree's not here—my ghost sense hasn't gone off since the Box Ghost turned up—but when people make wishes, they come true. Except for me, for some reason. I'm immune."
"So Sam and Tucker got caught on the wrong side of a wish?"
Danny nodded glumly. "Yeah, Tucker wished that we were at home playing Doomed, and the next second, they were gone."
"So not only are your wishes not coming true, but you also can't be affected by other people's wishes."
"I guess," Danny said, though he sounded like he hadn't figured that one out until she'd pointed it out.
Jazz looked at her little brother for a moment. He looked tired. She wondered what time he'd gotten to bed but figured it wouldn't do her any good to ask. "Any effects from Dad's Ecto-Entrapper?"
"I don't think so. I mean, all it's supposed to do—"
"—is draw ghosts to it like moths to a flame and keep them there," Jazz finished. "I know; he told me this morning at breakfast." She bit her lip. "But Dad wouldn't have brought it here unless he'd gotten some response in the lab to show that it should work. You know that."
Danny shrugged. "So I just won't go ghost and then we won't have a problem."
"It might not work like that."
"How else is it going to work?" Danny returned. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. Now, if you'll excuse me," he added, pulling out his cell phone, "I need to talk to Sam and Tuck."
"Be careful."
Danny glanced up at her. "I'm just calling my friends. It's not like anyone's attacking us, and if a ghost turns up, Mom and Dad can handle it. It's fine. I'm fine."
Jazz watched him go, unable to stop worrying. "I hope so, little brother," she whispered. "I hope so."
It was a moment before Sam realized what had happened, and a moment longer before she realized that Danny wasn't online with her and Tucker. Once she did, however, she lost no time in starting a chat with FryerTuck. We've got to get back to the school! she typed.
I'll meet you there. The response came immediately, and Sam hoped it meant that Tucker was thinking along the same lines. Desiree had to be behind this somehow, and they needed to go rescue Danny. Jazz had covered for him lots of times, yes, but when there were only the four Fentons in the entire auditorium, Danny's parents were going to miss him if he just left without giving a good excuse. Or any excuse, rather. Sam had a feeling some of Danny's excuses hadn't been good ones; she'd heard what he'd told Mr. Lancer when he'd needed to run out of class or when he'd come in late.
But she and Tucker would be great excuses, and they might be able to sneak a few more Fenton weapons to boot.
Sam lost no time in logging off the game, but she paused at the top of the stairs. Her parents had seen her go out once already, and she could hear them in the living room. She'd have to pass by it to get to the front door. Somehow, a rope out of her bedroom window felt a tad too telltale, meaning the back door was the best. Out through the kitchen it was, then.
Sam crept down the stairs, cringing when she forgot to skip a creaky step, but she made it to the kitchen without drawing the attention of her parents. Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to avoid Grandma Ida, who was now looking at her with a knowing sort of smile on her face. "Forget something, bubeleh?" she asked, the smile spreading.
"Uh, yeah," Sam said, jumping on the excuse. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "My phone. Shouldn't leave home without it, right?" She glanced over her shoulder, but her parents were still conversing about something. Probably the next pink monstrosity of a dress they were going to try to force her into.
"Oh, no, no," Grandma Ida said. "Of course, when I was your age, we didn't have phones. If I needed to talk to my friends, I had to go find them in person. I suggest you do the same, while I sit here reminiscing about the old days and forget I ever saw you leave again."
Sam smiled. "Thanks, Grandma," she said, giving her a quick hug. Trust Grandma Ida not to question her. She was the only one in the house who understood her and knew she had some secrets that she had to keep. Maybe wisdom really did come with age. Or maybe Grandma Ida was just cool like that. Either way, Sam was very glad to have an ally in the house.
Her scooter was still at the school, so she decided to leg it. She could take a taxi, true, but Tucker wouldn't have the luxury, and she wasn't sure she could distract both of Danny's parents without some backup. At the very least, she could get Tucker to ask about some of the inventions and, while he was stuck listening to the answer, she could pocket a few choice ones. It was always good to have a small backup supply, since the time inevitably came when one of the ghosts they fought managed to blast a weapon to pieces.
When she did make it to the school again, she waited out front for Tucker. She was, however, also listening intently for any distant sounds of fighting, or screaming, or weapons discharging…. She couldn't hear anything, not beyond the birds and the cars and such in the distance. That was good. Desiree, wherever she was, wasn't causing terror by granting wishes made by unsuspecting townsfolk—at least, not within earshot—and nothing horrible had happened at the school while she and Tucker had been gone.
She was just about to phone Tucker to find out where he was when he came around the corner, panting slightly. "I hate running," he gasped, clutching his side.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "You know, with all the ghost fighting we do, you'd think you'd be in better shape. We spend half the time running."
"Just short distances," Tucker shot back, still breathing heavily.
Sam decided not to comment but figured she might as well wait for Tucker to get his breath back. Danny wouldn't exactly find himself in trouble in five more minutes, would he? Well, actually, with Danny's luck, that might very well be the case, but they could take the chance. Help wasn't exactly far away.
"Come on," Sam finally said, grabbing Tucker's arm and dragging him towards the school. "We need to figure things out sooner rather than later, and we need Danny."
When they burst into the auditorium, however, there was no sign of Danny.
For that matter, there was no sign of Jack, Maddie, or Jazz, either. Everything else was there, still in place: all the tables were set up, the FentonWorks booth was stuffed full of Danny's parents' inventions, and the stack of boxes that they'd hidden behind earlier was still resting by the wall near the stage.
"Danny?" Sam called uncertainly.
Tucker had pulled out his phone, but after nearly a minute of listening to it ring, he put it away. "He's not picking up."
"I don't like this," Sam said, rubbing her arms. "There's definitely something wrong here."
"Hey, I thought I was the one who was supposed to state the obvious."
Sam smacked his arm. "You know what I mean. This isn't normal, even for us."
"Cool it. There's an easy way to do this." Tucker walked over to the FentonWorks booth, picked up the Fenton Finder, and tossed it to her.
She caught it and turned it on. "Welcome to the Fenton Finder. No ghosts currently detected. Please try elsewhere. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder."
"Um, er, well," Tucker stuttered when Sam looked up at him, clearly worried, "there's always the Booo-merang, right? Danny said that's how Jazz found him when he was stuck ten years in the future."
"Yeah," Sam agreed quietly. "It's still keyed into his ecto-signature."
"So we're good, then. We just have to follow it. Like the last time we lost Danny." Tucker gave Sam an encouraging grin, found the Booo-merang in the pile of inventions, turned it on, and threw it.
It soared encouragingly around the room, and Sam finally smiled. This was going to work. Well, she knew it had to; the Booo-merang had an ecto-generated power supply that lasted a heck of a lot longer than a battery. Plus, from what she understood from the last time it had been her turn to listen to Jack blather on about ghosts and his various inventions while the other two took care of whatever problem was at hand, the Booo-merang could draw on traces of residual ectoplasm to recharge itself. And there was a whole lot of residual ectoplasm in Amity Park, so even if the Booo-merang was low, it could easily get its power back up.
The Booo-merang started on its second circle of the room.
"Shouldn't it be going somewhere by now?" Sam asked. "It's passed a couple doors, and it'll usually take those." Or a window, but there weren't any windows in this room.
"Give it time," Tucker said confidently. He already had his PDA out. "If we lose track of it, we'll be able to follow it on this."
Sam leaned over to look at the screen, which showed a rough map of their surroundings—she'd long ago decided she didn't need to know the details of Tucker's technology and how he got all his stuff—and the bright, blinking, moving dot of the Booo-merang. "Hang on," she said slowly as she watched the dot on the screen. "Is it…slowing down?"
There was a clatter behind them as the Booo-merang, losing speed and height, collided with a table. It bounced for a moment, skidding across the floor and finally coming to rest at their feet. Sam looked back at Tucker's PDA. The dot on screen was still blinking, but it was stationary.
She felt her hope crash to the floor.
Tucker picked up the Booo-merang and looked between it and her. "Maybe we can try it again. Just outside this time, so it has a clear path."
"I don't think that'll help," Sam said dully.
"It won't crash into anything there."
"It shouldn't have crashed into anything here." Sam swallowed. "Danny's in trouble."
"He's been in trouble loads of times," Tucker said, clearly trying to comfort her without being too obvious about it. "So we'll just have to go save him like we always do."
"But we don't know where he is. We can't even find him."
"So we'll ask around. Someone's bound to have seen him. Maybe he went looking for us."
"Then what about the rest of the Fentons?" Sam retorted. "And, anyway, Danny wouldn't have left without telling us."
"Maybe he didn't have a choice," Tucker suggested. Sam glared at him, and he hurriedly added, "I mean, look at us. We ended up back home, didn't we? If any of them made a wish—"
"But Danny didn't end up with us," Sam interrupted. "Ghost Boy wasn't online. He hadn't logged into Doomed, or been logged on, or whatever. Not like us." She stalked over to the FentonWorks booth herself this time, grabbing a couple of Fenton Wrist Rays, Fenton Lipsticks, Fenton Thermoses, ectoguns, and a Wraith Wrangler. She handed half the stuff to Tucker, then pulled the Fenton Phones out of her pocket. She put hers on. "We'll split up. We'll see if anyone's seen him or something suspicious." She narrowed her eyes. "Whoever was set on getting rid of all the ghost hunters in this town didn't count on us."
"Or Valerie," Tucker said as he fitted the Fenton Phone to his ear. "I passed the Nasty Burger, and she's working the counter."
"Yeah, well," Sam said, frowning a bit at the mention of Valerie's name, "maybe whoever is doing this doesn't know she's the Red Huntress." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We need to find Danny, and we won't have any luck if we don't get a move on."
Tucker nodded and followed Sam out of the auditorium. Once outside, he tossed the Booo-merang again. Sam stopped, turning back to look at him as it whizzed past her. It slowly started spinning around and heading back towards them, back towards the doors of the school, and then it hit the ground. Sam's gaze hardened. "Come on. We'd better go."
A/N: Step 1: Isolate the Fenton family. Check. Step 2…. Well, we'll get to that. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who takes the time to review. I really appreciate it.