The journey thus far was almost completely silent. The speeder's engine had its usual low rumble, mingled with the fumbling through the bag of potions by Trixie, Spud, and Lao Shi. They worked to figure out which were necessary to bring and which to leave behind. Sam and Tucker were up front driving and navigating. Tucker seemed to be plugging his PDA into some slot in the Speeder with all sorts of cords and buttons that Howard, who was watching, did not recognize.

Howard turned his head back to the potion bag and then he withheld a sigh and used his hands to support his head, elbows leaning against his thighs. The boy had a deep-set frown, and his legs idly swung back and forth as he sat on a bench in the back of the speeder. The bench was nailed to the sides, a green seat cushion beneath his rump. His eyes locked onto the cold steel floor of the speeder.

Feeling uncomfortable, Howard looked backed up and peered out a round side window, revealing to him the Ghost Zone in all its glory. He couldn't help but have his jaw drop again, as it did when he left Clockwork's tower. Beautiful, yet...creepy. Howard watched blobs of green ectoplasm rise, contract, and fall among darkness for a few moments, until a green glob with a mouth and eyes flew by. It looked at Howard straight in the eyes and screeched horribly.

He yelped and immediately recoiled from the window to his seat and shuddered. He didn't like this place; he didn't like this place at all. He crossed his arms and again looked to the others, who didn't seem to have even noticed what happened. A thought crossed his mind to mention it, but he decided against it when Sam looked out, saw the ghost, rolled her eyes, and chose to ignore it. Howard returned to his silent vigil, swinging his feet and this time twiddling his thumbs. The frown returned to his face, this time more deep-set.

The boy had no idea how in the world all of them could seem so calm! His best friend for life, forever, the one he shared every single one of his classes with was kidnapped! Not just his best friend, but two of whom were now his friends as well. Not just that; they were best friends to many of the occupants of that speeder.

Finally he let a deep sigh that had been held in for quite some time. Seeking some sort of distraction from his terror, he looked towards Jake's friends and grandfather. They were almost done with picking out all the potions they'd need for whatever would happen in the citadel. Howard then looked at Jake's grandfather, and he raised an eyebrow. He hadn't met him until now, and they had hardly said a thing at all to each other upon meeting. He cleared his throat. "Uh, sir? Are you Jake's grandfather?"

Lao Shi looked over to Howard. "Yes." he said simply, and then turned his head back to his work, utterly disinterested in talking. Howard turned away and said nothing more, but sent one final look over to the man. Finally, Tucker stood up and came in the back, tapping on his PDA.

"Alright, everyone, I've downloaded a map of the place into the Speeder. This is how we're going to get in." Tucker clicked a few buttons on the side of the Speeder, and a hologram of the castle appeared in the middle of the back. Trixie, Spud, Lao Shi, and Howard gathered around. Howard in particular gazed at it in fascination, and as he waved a hand through the side, the inside rooms became visible. He retracted his hand in surprise. The walls of the hologram closed up again, and it glowed slightly.

Tucker spoke again. "Danny's parents upgraded this Speeder recently, so I managed to pull this up. Clockwork was generous enough to show us where our friends are being kept, so I looked around the layout and I found a way in through some vents." He knelt down to the bottom of the hologram and pointed out a vent on the left side of the castle. He poked it and the vent system became clear. "This will lead us down the vents of their prison. It should be large enough for us to crawl through. From there, we need to figure out a way to find and defeat William the Forgotten. Danny can probably phase through and quietly scout the place to find him. Then we all launch a surprise attack. Together, we should be able to stop him once and for all." Tucker proudly grinned and folded his arms. "A presentation by Foley."

"Sounds good. Good job." Spud complimented.

"Impressive," Lao Shi added, "for a youth. At least Daniel Fenton's allies are clever."

"Just one problem," Sam called from the driver's seat, "how are we going to get near the place without being seen?"

"We got that, girl." Trixie replied. "We've got just enough invisibility potions for all of us, but they don't last long. Should only last as long as it takes to get to the boys."

"We'll work fast, then. One other problem," Howard interjected, "I have no combat skills. What am I going to do?" He blushed a little upon asking, feeling a bit out of place. Spud held up a red vial that glistened in the light.

"See, since you're not good yet at using magic stuff or those wrist rays, we're going to give you a special potion." he explained.

"Special how?" Howard asked as Spud handed it to him. He held it carefully, one palm supporting the bottom of it, the other grasping the vial. The teenager cocked his head to the side, observing it.

"It's a strength and endurance potion. It'll give you a temporary boost to make your skin rock-hard to attacks and give you super strength, but it only lasts a few hours." Trixie explained. Howard's eyes went wide with awe, blinking at the potion and swishing it back and forth a little.

"Wow." he stated, unsure of what to really say. Lao Shi walked up and popped the cork off of it. It bubbled slightly and smelled foul, like gym socks. Howard coughed and covered his nose, grimacing at the foul stench.

"Take it now," the dragon master ordered, "we should be there soon."

Howard slowly nodded. He looked at the concoction and wrinkled his nose. "The things I do for my best friend..." he thought to himself warily as he pinched his nostrils, closed his eyes, and gulped down the mixture. Even with nostrils closed, the taste was awful. It was like a mix of bad milk, hot sauce, and some other tangy, foul taste he couldn't place. He coughed and gagged, sticking his tongue out. "Holy cheese, it's bad! What the juice?! Ugh!" he complained as he rubbed his tongue, trying to somehow remove the bad taste.

"What did you think it was gonna taste like, chocolate?" Trixie said, rolling her eyes. Howard finally gave up his futile attempts to rub the taste off his tongue and paused, as if waiting for something.

"I don't feel any different." he said after a moment. Lao Shi pointed Howard's arm.

"Hold your arm out for a moment and hold still."

"Okay...why-" Howard stopped short as the short, elderly man quickly transformed himself with blue smoke into a wingless dark blue dragon. Howard's jaw dropped, and Lao Shi pulled back his head and unleashed a plume of fire on Howard's arm. He yelled and the dragon master stopped. It was then Howard realized his arm had not taken a single burn (aside from slightly singing the shoulder of his shirt.) The fire quickly faded, and not a lick of pain had come from it or mutilated his skin. His eyes seemed to have a gleeful glint to them, and he finally smiled.

"Oh, that is so totally bruce!"

"Hmph." Lao Shi was about to change back into his human form when Sam whistled.

"Stay like that. We're a little ways away, and I want to park far enough from the place so we're not seen. I see a few ugly guards hanging out around there. We're moving soon." Sam carefully parked the speeder behind a large, empty, floating rock island, hiding it from view. The citadel could be seen around the edge of it. She stood up from her seat and walked towards the group. Sam was playing with some of her hair, her other arm hugging her torso. "In the Ghost Zone, we're the ghosts. We're capable as humans, or dragons, or just generally not ghosts, to float, fly, and pass through objects here. Still, this place is dangerous, so we have to stick together. We have our ghost weapons and thermoses; have you all got what you need?"

"Potions and some of Fu Dog's magic stuff. We're good." Spud said, holding up the bag and then slinging it over his shoulder.

"Alright. Howard, for whatever reason you need it, I'm assigning you a wrist ray, even with your temporary strength." Sam grabbed a wrist ray from the front of the Speeder and strapped it around Howard's wrist while explaining how to use it. "That button on top there? That fires shots. Don't shoot more than three per ten seconds, because you'll overheat it. Understand?"

"Uh-huh."

"Right, then. Let's take those invisibility potions and get going."

The potions were passed around and ingested. Within seconds their bodies were completely invisible, save for the bag of magic. Everyone but Howard was fairly unfazed by it. Howard was poking at skin which he could not see in utter amazement. He had little time to revel in his new invisible state when Tucker thrust open the doors and everyone piled out, himself included. Moments later they were flying past a castle; the imps guarding the outside of it did not see them or hear them or even smell them. Thankfully, they didn't notice the seemingly floating bag, either.

They found the grate Tucker had talked about earlier. Howard, not feeling comfortable with the idea of passing through solid objects, pulled off the bars of it using his temporary strength. Everyone flew in and he went in last, squeezing in tightly due to his thick frame. The frame was pulled back on from the inside, and with one last look behind, they began their trek through the castle.