*Welcome back my little Halfas! I typically only write while at work (Don't worry I'm allowed to work on homework and well although it's not technically homework...it's still writingJ) but I don't want to lose my inspiration over the weekend ya know! I did however plan this chapter out, or at least thought of the major things I wanted to happen. So here it is:

Chapter 4

When they had arrived back at Fenton Works, the trio managed to sneak upstairs to Danny's room without being noticed. Jazz was still at school and thankfully, Danny's parents were working noisily down in the lab.

The two best friends lowered Danny down gingerly onto his bed.

"Thanks again, guys." Danny said, looking tiredly up into his friends' faces, trying to ignore the aching pain from his shoulder.

"No problem. Why don't you get some sleep and we'll talk more later, okay?" Sam offered.

"Yeah Danny, get some sleep. There'll be time later to figure things out. Maybe we'll stop by Nasty Burger and get some food and talk it all out." Tucker chimed in.

"Yeah, okay. Sounds like a plan." Danny trailed off quietly, as he got under his blankets, not having enough energy to argue even if he wanted to. All he really wanted was to sleep, maybe through the night, maybe forever. Before he could decide he had already drifted off into sweet relaxing darkness.

He could tell it was evening by the slightly darkened state his room was in when he woke up. He opened his eyes first, not wanting to move in case it hurt too much. Two figures sitting across from him began to stand up. Slightly startled, Danny sat up quickly. "Wha—"He asked, blinking quickly, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Hey, it's us. Its Tucker and Sam." Sam reassured him, walking over to the boy's bedside while Tucker just waved from Danny's desk, focused on the computer screen.

"Good Morning, Sleeping Beauty." Tucker said without turning around.

"Whater you guys still doing here?" The halfa sleepily slurred, swinging his legs out from under his covers and over the bed. "And what time is it?"

"It around four. Jazz got home about an hour ago and was wondering why you were weren't at school and home already, but don't worry, we covered for you." She added quickly, seeing the concerned face Danny had when he heard of Jazz wondering about him.

"What'd you tell her?"

"We told her you needed to come home quick to find an assignment due for last period and that we were helping you." Tucker chimed in, still not turning away from Danny's computer.

"And she believed that?" Danny asked eyebrows raised.

"Seemed to have. She's been in her room ever since with the door shut so she wouldn't have noticed us going back to hand in the 'assignment'. It was the best we could do when put on the spot." Sam huffed, taking a seat next to Danny on his bed.

"Well, thank you, again." Danny said, turning towards Sam and looking straight into her beautiful eyes. He took a hold of her hand because he felt words did not do his feeling of gratefulness justice.

They hadn't noticed that Tucker had finally turned around and was staring at them for several moments.

"Uh…yeah. Still here, still trying to figure out all this ghost business." He interrupted awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"Hm." Danny cleared his throat, a rose blush rising to the surface of his cheeks. "What do you got Tuck?" Danny got up, without nearly as much pain in his shoulder than earlier he noticed. He walked over to his desk where Tucker was and looked at the screen of his computer. It showed several graphs and charts that he couldn't exactly make out.

"These," Tucker started to explain, seeing the confused look on his friend's face, "are compilations of the recent ghost attacks. Which ones are attacking, how often and if certain experience levels of ghosts have an impact on whether they attack more than others."

"And why can't you work this hard on homework?" Sam said, recovering from her mild embarrassment and coming up behind the boys at the computer.

"Because I don't need to do homework to survive, let alone Calculus." He replied coolly,,.

"Okay so what are the results?" Sam asked.

"Well it looks like Danny was right. There's been a 325% spike in ghost activities lately."

"You sure you don't need Calculus to survive?" Sam asked, unsure if such a percentage could be correct.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. But unfortunately that number is correct. Almost all ghosts we have files on have been attacking up to three times as often."

"But we still don't know why…" Danny added. They stood silent for a few moment until a thought came to Sam.

"What if it has something to do with Kitty?" The Goth girl thought out loud, her arms crossed with one hand resting on her chin.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, straightening up.

"You said she was looking for something right? What if more and more ghosts are coming through because they're looking for something?" She said, becoming more and more excited with each word.

"Dude, that does actually make some sense." Tucker said, swirling around in Danny's desk chair to face his two friends.

Danny threw his hands in the air. "Ack! We answer one question only to wonder about another! If they're here looking for something, what are they looking for! And why is it so important that they're using their energy to regenerate faster?"

"Does that answer whether or not there are more portals than usual? It's more likely that the ghosts are coming back quicker even if it does weaken them than there being more portal openings occurring, right?" Tucker added.

"I think you're right Tuck." Danny said, starting to pace. "But we still don't know what everyone's looking for…" He trailed off, concentrating hard on the many questions he faced.

"Only one way to find out." Sam said with a grin.

"Ghost Zone." Both the boys said.

"As long as I get some dinner first. And if we're going for longer than an hour, I'm gonna need to bring some snacks."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Really, an hour?"

"Hey, it's not my fault my stomach demands to be paid attention to, with real food." He added.

Knowing how Sam would start up about how eating meat was wrong, Danny jumped in. "Okay, okay. You guys go home, let your parents at least see you today, grab some dinner, "He added for Tucker's sake, "and meet back at my place. How does 8 o'clock work?" He asked, looking from Tucker to Sam.

They both nodded in approval. As they left his room he heard Sam talking about the innocent animals that were slaughtered yearly just so people like Tucker could get his fill.

Danny affectionately rolled his eyes, thinking how cool it was to have a friend who stuck up for her beliefs, no matter what. He knew he had to gather a few things before their trip into the Ghost Zone. He worked his way passed his parents in the kitchen and down to the lab.

He knew how unexpected the ghost zone could be, but he was not prepared for what was laid ahead of him tonight.

*Hello Hello! I had more planned for this chapter but it's late and I would like to sleep. This is definitely a chapter-before-a-mini-climax-in-a-story-chapter, if you know what I mean. More to come, if not Sunday 4/12 then Monday when I get back to work. Until next time my lovelies!