Mr Davis was in Madison for a work conference; it had been an exhausting day, and as his eyes were dropping as he pulled into the hotel parking lot. He shut off the car, and gave a big yawn as he opened the door. Bedtime.

Stepping out, he made his way into the lobby; a sleepy receptionist nodded at him as he passed through to the elevators. He yawned again as he waited for one to come down; a ding, the doors opened, and he made his way inside. The fifth floor - he pressed the button, and up he went.

When he got to his door, he was surprised to see the lights on. Even stranger was the noise - he didn't leave the TV on this morning, did he?

He double checked the room number, frowned, and fumbled for his keys. Then he opened the door, mouth open to ask who the hell was in his room-

-and he stopped dead at the sight of a glowing figure digging around in the mini fridge. Its head popped up, and two eerie green eyes fixed on him.

"Huh?" It said, and the tinny echo made his blood go cold. "Oh, hey man. You don't mind if I put this on the tab, right?"

Mr Davis dropped his briefcase, stumbled back, and ran screaming down the hallway. Danny couldn't help but smirk as he turned back to the fridge.

"Huh, I guess you don't mind." He reached his hand through a diet soda to get the regular one. "Man, people here are just so nice to me."

Still, he did wander over to the TV and shut it off. It was routine by this point; housekeeping was gonna be up in a few minutes, see nothing was wrong, the guy would argue about it until they let him switch rooms, and then he'd have the place all to himself for the night. He was pretty sure he'd given a couple hotels a haunted reputation in the week he'd been here.

Danny smiled as he picked up a green flyer on the end table. A week of waiting, and finally, the experiment was tomorrow. If his parents had really made a working ghost portal in college… he might really, finally be going home.

That thought always sent a shiver down his spine, but he knew it was a stretch; they talked all day and night about their portal before it even worked. If they'd pulled it off before, he definitely would've heard about it.

Danny's smile turned a little wistful at that; god, what he wouldn't give to hear his parents go on and on about one of their new prototypes. He carefully folded up the flyer, and tucked it into his backpack. Then he lifted it up, turned it intangible, and inserted it into the wall by the bed.

No, he thought, the portal probably won't work at first. But hey, if they do eventually make a working one, and he's actually seen them build it, maybe they could team up, build the real thing together!

And then… some voices in the hallway brought Danny out of his thoughts. Going invisible was second nature by this point; he watched the lock turn, and couldn't help but wave as the man and a tired looking attendant walked through him into the room.

"So, you say someone else was in your room?"

"Yes!" The man shivered. "Oh, I just got a chill as I walked in - I'm telling you, this room is haunted!"

"Haunted?"

"Yes, haunted! Look at my bed, someone's been on it!" He stalked over to the soda cans on the end table. "And this! Look at this! You think I drink this much pop? I'm not a damn college student!"

"Mmhmm…" The attendant walked past him into the bathroom. Danny popped the tab on his can.

"Wh-!" The man whirled around. "Did you hear that?!"

"Hear what?" The attendant walked back. "I don't see anyone in the bathroom-"

"Of course you don't see anyone, it's a ghost!"

"I don't… I'm very sorry, sir, but I don't think we can do anything about ghosts. You can certainly call me again if you hear anything else-"

"Call you again? I'm not staying here!"

"I-"

"I want another room!"

Danny stepped past them, taking a sip of his soda.

"I… I'll have to call my manager-"

"Then please, do that!"

"It's…" the attendant hesitated for a second, and then sighed. "Okay. If you come down to the front desk with me, I'll see what I can do."

"Great, then let's go!" The man grabbed his bag. "Let's get out of here, come on!"

The man hurried out of the room, turning off the lights on the way, and Danny rematerialised with a grin.

"And he's gone," he said, taking another sip. "That went-"

It went down the wrong way, and he broke into a coughing fit.

"Per- per-fect-ly! Ugh!" With a grimace he set the can down. "Okay, maybe I deserved that."

And then it was quiet. He looked back at the TV… but he didn't feel in the mood. There was a balcony on the other side of the room, the door framed by thin curtains softly swaying from the ventilation. With the lights off, the city glow spilled into the room, like a portal to another world.

Danny wandered over and tried to slide the door open - it was locked, so he stepped through, stepped out. Immediately a hundred different sounds filled the silence; beeps and honks, the chirping of a crosswalk, chatter from two passersby down on the street. And looking straight down… the fifth floor didn't sound that high up, but he could see the tops of the trees lining the street.

A gulp. There was… there was something about his powers Danny had been thinking about for a while, now. He'd been able to go invisible and pass through things for a while now, but there was something else he was working on, too.

With his hands firmly on the railing, Danny took a deep breath. He picked one foot up off the ground… and then another, and seemed to sit back in the air. That was, that was good - he was getting better at controlling this.

But if he could float like this… he could fly, couldn't he? Danny stared at the patch of air just beyond the railing, and felt his heart starting to hammer in his chest. It should be… it should be simple, right?

"Okay, okay…" Danny let himself float up a bit, hovering atop the rail. "Come on, flying, it'll be, it'll cool! I'm not gonna fall, I'm not gonna…"

But he glanced down then; glanced down, and the sight of the hard ground far below his feet was primally terrifying - in a flash he was back on the balcony.

"Nope, no- ah!" Danny's feet took a moment to stop floating. "Okay, haha, okay. Okay. Oh-kay."

His heart slowly returned to normal, and he laughed a little to himself as he let go of his death-grip on the railing.

"Next time. Yeah, uh, next time!" He fingered the eight divots he'd left in the metal, and stepped back. "Maybe from a lower room, too. Yeah."

He walked back into the room, turned on the lights, and flopped into bed. Silence again… it had never been silent at home.

He really couldn't wait for tomorrow.


It was really here. Danny looked from the flyer, to the door before him. Room 101. His heart was beating a mile a minute; he hefted his backpack, tried to smooth out the rumples in his shirt, and took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, okay, okay. I can do this. Just act normal… I can act normal!"

There was a cough from a passing college student, and Danny cringed. Well, whether he could or not, it was time.

He pushed open the door. Two figures were standing by a strange machine in the centre of the room; one - was his name Vlad? - was leaning towards the other.

"-wanting to tell you for a long- yes?" He stood up quickly as Danny came into the room, and shot him a glare. "Oh, you actually came."

"Uh, yeah?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "Was I interrupting something?"

"No, no," said the other figure, and her voice sent his heart into his throat. "Sorry, just let me…. There!"

Then his mother turned around and smiled at him, and for a moment Danny could almost think he'd just come home from school, and she was going to ask him how his day had been, give him a hug, tell him everything was going to be alright…

And then she said, "It's nice to meet you!", in that light, pleasant voice she used for strangers, and she kept going while Danny tried to keep the wobble from his smile. "Jack was talking about a kid who wanted to see our experiment! Is he with you?"

It took a moment for Danny to hear the question. "Um… I… "

Vlad crossed his arms. "Yes, he wouldn't shut up about it. He was so worried you wouldn't know where the science building was he stationed himself outside… and yet somehow he managed to miss you."

Oh. Danny made a face. He knew how: he'd phased in through the wall. "I-"

"Aw, it was sweet of him!" Maddie playfully slapped Vlad with a clipboard. "One of you should go and get him; we're nearly ready! I just need to review these calculations."

Then she turned back to the machine, and Vlad and Danny stared at each other for a moment. Danny gave his best clueless stare; eventually Vlad huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Well, don't jump out of your seat," He muttered, making for the door. Once he was gone, Danny turned back to his mother.

It was weird, to see her younger than he'd ever remembered her. She wasn't in a jumpsuit, and her hair was much longer - like Jazz's, but curlier. She actually did look a lot like Jazz… and great, suddenly he felt like he was gonna cry again. He looked away, tried to get ahold of himself.

The Ghost Portal. He knew it wasn't going to work, but he was disappointed at just how different it was - it was tiny! And it was running off a weird generator thing he'd never seen on the modern one, and what did this remote do?

"Oh!" His Mom reached out. "Don't touch that, please."

"Right, right, sorry." Danny stepped back. "Sorry… Um, so, how does it work? The Ghost Portal?"

She didn't seem to hear him. "That's not right," she muttered, crossing out something on her clipboard. "We'll have to recalibrate that… oh, do you mind standing back a bit? You can sit over there."

She pointed at a seat over in the corner of the lab, and Danny gave a wistful smile. How everything around his parents could just disappear while they were working on something… it really did feel like he was back home.

So he took a seat, and for a moment he just watched her work. It wasn't long before the door burst open again.

"-hahaha, noogie noogie noogie!"

"Jack!" Vlad stumbled in trying to smack him away. "Seriously, Jack, this isn't funny! Let me go!"

"Alright, alright," Jack grinned as he let him go; he laid eyes on Danny, and it stretched even wider. "Hey, hey, you made it! You ready to see the biggest discovery of the twentieth century happen right in front of you?"

"Really now, the biggest?" Vlad snipped; he was trying to smooth out his hair. "More than penicillin?"

But Jack didn't seem to hear it, and Danny hardly took note; he smiled back at his Dad. "Believe me, I'm ready. You know, uh, I'm actually really interested in ghosts-"

"You are?!"

"Yeah! You know how I said I'd heard of you the first time you met? I actually, heh, I came all the way from Oregon to see this!"

"You did?!" Jack's smile stretched from ear to ear. "From Oregon, I can't believe it!"

"I can't believe it," Vlad frowned at him. "Your parents really let you come all this way to see this?"

"Yep! Let's just say they're ghost fanatics." He looked back to Jack. "But, uh, you know, I'm something of an inventor myself, and after the experiment, uh, I'd love to collaborate on some stuff, some portal stuff!"

"Already an inventor, huh?" Jack dropped a heavy hand over his shoulders and led him over to the portal. "I love it! Mads, you met this kid? He's like a mini me!"

"Hmm, yes…" Maddie walked up with the clipboard. "We're just about ready, but I had to drain the filtrator and recalibrate some things - can you fill it for me, please?"

"On it!"

Jack ran off towards the generator. Danny stood there for a moment, and felt a presence come up behind him.

"You want to collaborate with us?" Vlad stood there, arms crossed, eyebrow sharply arched. "You are aware you have to be a college student to join a college club, aren't you?"

"Um…" Danny stepped back. "I… graduated early! Top of my class. I'm, um, older than I look."

"So you're starting next semester, I assume?"

"Uh, yeah!"

"Hmm." He looked unconvinced. "You're an inventor, you say? I'd love to hear what you've been working on lately."

Danny blinked. "I, uh…"

"Because you have been working on something, you being top of your class and all."

What was something his parents had been working on? "Oh!" Danny snapped his fingers. "Right, so, um, you know fishing rods? What if the wire was, like, you know, ghost proof? So… so you could fish for ghosts in the Ghost Zone?"

Vlad's eyebrows drooped, but before he could respond Jack cut in.

"Oh my god, that's genius! Write that down, Maddie!"

Maddie was nodding. "You're right, that could be useful once we have the portal up and running! Did you refill the purifier?"

"Yeah, I got it!" Jack was holding a soda and a steel can; he frowned at both of them for a second before putting the purifier back on the shelf. "We're all set! Hand me the remote!"

Danny knew to stand well back at those words. Vlad lingered by the portal, arms crossed, glowering through the opening.

"Yes, we'll be fishing for ghosts in no time, I'm sure." He rolled his eyes. "You know, I've never been convinced this 'Ghost Zone' really exists. What are we going to do when this thing turns out to be another dud?"

"Not this again." Maddie rolled her eyes. "Can you at least let us turn it on before you tell us how much it won't work?"

"Yeah, V-man, it'll totally work, just you watch!" Jack hefted the remote. "Ready to go!"

"Ready to go," Maddie set down her clipboard; her eyes flitted up to Vlad still standing in front of it. "But-"

"BANZAI!"

Jack slammed it on, and the machine immediately began to glow. Danny saw it like in slow motion; the glow brightened, sharpened, smoke started pouring out of the fissures, and Vlad took a half-step back but he didn't have time to do more than gasp before-

Before Danny dove for him. He pushed him down just as the portal fired, and suddenly he was dying again. His face was on fire, his whole body was clenching up, and for a moment he wondered if this was how it was going to end, far from his home, far from his time, and no one would ever know what happened to him…

"Stanford! Stanford!"

Danny didn't respond at first, because they weren't calling his name. But someone picked him up and shook him, and the pain that shot through him made him groan.

"Wha…?"

"Oh my god, Jack…"

"Is he dead?"

"He's not dead!" Cracking his eyes open, Danny saw his father's face looming over him. "Hey, look, he's not dead! He's waking up!"

"Da- ugh…" Danny's head swam; he closed his eyes, and he reached out to grab his Dad's jumpsuit. "You need to…"

"What? Need to what?"

"Don't crowd him, Jack." His mother's voice. "Um, don't worry, sweetie, w-we called an ambulance-"

"Yeah, Vladdie's getting help, you're in good hands!"

"No, no, you… you need to do it again!"

"What?"

"The portal." Danny gripped him tighter. "Please. Don't give up. Bigger - you need to make it bigger, a-and you build it into a wall-"

"No, no," his Mom was shaking her head. "Don't worry about the portal, sweetie. It doesn't matter now."

"No, it does! Please!" He tried to draw Jack closer, but he was pulling away. "I can see it, it's bigger, and it's got yellow security doors, a-and," He could feel his eyes welling up. "It's got the on button on the inside, and you can build it, you have to build it, please, I-I n-need you to…"

He could feel somebody setting something soft under his head. A warm hand stroked his cheek, and it was somehow so familiar and so alien, it was his mother and yet it was a stranger, and when he tried to grab her hand she gently drew away, she was slipping away from him, they were slipping away from him and there was nothing he could do…

"Poor baby," she was murmuring. "We shouldn't have let him watch."

"You're right, I'm, I'm kicking myself. What can I do? Where's the ambulance? I can-"

"Vlad's already on it." Hands felt his forehead. "I don't know what these spots are, but I think he's okay. They'll look him over at the hospital."

"Yeah… yeah." A nervous laugh. "So, uh…club's dead, huh?"

"Jack-"

"I know, I know, it's not important right now. It's just - agh, what the heck happened? I really thought we had it this time!"

"Me too - I don't know how we could've done it better. Maybe Vlad's right."

"Maddie…"

"I'm just saying maybe, I don't know." A pause, and a long sigh. "Either way… It's going to be a long time before we get the chance to test it again."

Maddie stared at the smoking remains of the portal. Then she took off her coat and made to drape it over the poor kid on the floor… only to find he had disappeared without a trace.

No. No no no. No no no no no!

Danny paid no mind to the gasps and stares as he staggered out of the science building. His foot phased into the ground and he yanked it out and kept going; he had to get out of here. He just had to get out of here. He couldn't see them again, he couldn't bear to be around them, not for another instant.

Distant sirens were sounding. Danny fell through a wall, picked himself up, and saw a bathroom down the hall. He made straight for it, shut himself in a stall, and locked the door.

Then he sank back, shaking his head in wordless panic, tears welling up in his eyes. Oh my god, he was stuck here. He was never going home. He was never going home.

This whole journey, he'd thought he was building to something. He thought he was going to find his parents and they were going to magically know how to get him home - but they weren't his parents. They didn't know him, they didn't love him. And they couldn't help him.

He had no one.

He had no one.

For a moment he just sat with that thought, stunned and horrified and overwhelmed by the enormity of what it meant. Just a few months ago he never considered the idea that he'd ever truly have no one to rely on… but here he was, and it was true.

What if this was just his life now? Making a life in the 1980's… if only he'd memorised a couple lottery numbers, and somehow, in all of this, that thought brought the slightest smile to his face.

If only he brought a, a sports almanac with him, right? Then maybe this wouldn't be so bad. But he hadn't, so there had to be some other way to get back to his time.

And there the smile vanished, because he knew he had only one other lead. All the way back to Oregon, after all he'd been through to make it here, just on the hope that that creepy guy in the shack in the woods wouldn't slam the door in his face again… was that really his only option?

A deep, shuddering breath as he thought it over, and his face hardened. Well, if he was going back, then he wasn't going on a hope. He was done with hope. No, he was going to go there, and he was going to stay there until the portal was fixed and he could go home, and there wasn't going to be a thing that guy could do about it. What was he going to do, try to kick him out?

With a mirthless grin, Danny flashed into his ghost form and walked through the stall door. Somebody yelped and hurried out of the bathroom, but he paid them no mind; first because he was in that kind of mood, and then because what the heck was on his face?

His face had been burning since the prototype blasted him, but this was the first time he got a look at himself, and he looked terrible. Red and blotchy, peppered with little glowing green spots like a ghostly acne… he stared hard at the mirror, and let out a groan.

"Great. Just great." He poked gingerly at his face. "Yeah, I really needed something else to worry about."

After a moment, he turned away. His feet were phasing through the floor again, so he lifted them up - up, and he was floating. He hovered there for a second… and then he let himself float up a little more. A little more, and he passed through the ceiling, up to the next floor, and then up again. Finally he reached the roof, and saw the ground falling away beneath his feet, the building shrinking in his sights until he could see down at the whole university, and he realised, dimly, that he was flying.

Maybe it was just the day he was having, but it didn't come with the rush Danny thought it would have. He saw the road leading out of the university, stretching up, then east, disappearing into the horizon. It drew him like a moth to a flame, and he looked back once before starting the next leg on the long journey home.