THEN: Danny has adapted quickly to life as the nascent superhero, Danny Phantom... even if everyone still calls him Inviso-Bill... and even if everyone still thinks he is a menace to society. Although he finds joy in his ghost hunting side job, his misunderstanding about the Axion Labs incident with Valerie Gray and her father has resulted in Valerie becoming Huntress and Sam Winchester finally gaining a foothold in the quagmire of mysteries that is Amity Park. Neither of which look great for Danny who, even though he almost caused Dean to wreck the Impala, is blissfully unaware that the Winchesters are back in town. That might change when they visit his parents, though...
NOW:
When Dean and Sam woke up the next morning, Sam told Dean all that he had seen and heard the day before. Even though Dean thought it was very interesting, he still teased Sam about the sticky notes on the motel wall.
"What are you, a private investigator?" Dean chuckled when he saw the triangle of post-its connected with yarn. "Look! You even have yarn connecting them! So cute! Do you always carry yarn around with you, ya big grammaw?"
Sam's sigh was answer enough. Dean took a swig of the vending machine canned coffee he was substituting for breakfast and studied the sticky notes more carefully. "So are you thinking we should head to the school first or to the Fentons'?"
"I think the Fentons' first, then the school. We still need to confirm whether or not the portal is working and I'd like to get Maddie's take on the ghost infestation. If we could somehow talk to Inviso-Bill himself, that would be a big help, but every time I've seen him he's been in the middle of fighting someone or chasing something."
Dean nodded, then pointed to the sticky note with "Ghost?" written on it. "You really think this is something we should check out? Everything we've heard so far says he's just got some weird mojo that's letting him use his weird powers."
Sam sighed again, crossing his arms. "Yeah, Huntress called Inviso-Bill a ghost multiple times, so I thought I'd at least allow for the suspicion. No matter how far-fetched it seems. I mean, we've done more for less."
"Good policy," Dean said, plucking at one of the strands of yarn.
"Hey!" Sam batted his hand away. "You'll mess it up!"
Dean sniggered, but relented. "Grammaw PI..."
After a light breakfast of coffee and pop tarts, courtesy of the vending machine, the Winchesters piled into the Impala and headed over to the Fentons' house. Although it was a Monday, they had decided to plan on visiting the school on Tuesday just in case the Fentons wouldn't let them go before school got out. Sam had made sure to call the Fentons the day before, asking them if the brothers could visit, but he honestly doubted whether this would make any difference in the way they were received.
When they pulled onto the street where the Fenton residence stood, the first thing they noticed was that the huge Fentonworks sign was fully functional, lighting up a perfectly sunny morning. Dean wondered how much they were spending on electricity with that monstrosity running all the time. As they approached the house, Dean noticed several For Sale signs on the doors of houses across the street.
Sam knocked on the Fentons' door while Dean kept watch for ghosts. There hadn't been many out this morning, but Dean was paranoid after almost crashing the Impala multiple times the day before. A harried looking Maddie opened the door after a good minute of knocking. Despite her haggard appearance, she smiled widely before inviting them inside. Dean looked forlornly at the bright blue sky, knowing he might not see it again for many hours.
"Good morning, boys!" Maddie said, shutting the door. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"We're fine, Dr. Fenton," Sam replied, settling himself on the couch. Dean sat down beside him.
Maddie sat across from them in a purple arm chair. "It's so nice to see you again! How have your ghost hunting endeavors been going?"
"Pretty good, actually," said Dean, deciding this was a great point at which to segue into the main reason for their visit. "We heard about your ghost problem here and came to see if we could help out in any way."
Maddie seemed a little miffed by this comment, but quickly composed herself. "We are handling the ghost 'problem' -" she did air quotes "- quite well. Our capturing technique has gotten much better over the past few months. We have..." She trailed off as a ghost zipped up the basement stairs and through the front door. It greatly resembled the ghost that had first gotten the Winchester brothers to go to Amity Park: a blobby head with long tentacles streaming out behind it. Maddie stared at her front door for a second longer before another ghost zipped up the stairs, following the first. "JACK!" she yelled, startling the brothers. A third ghost zoomed by, cackling.
"Yes, dear?" came the faint reply from the basement.
Maddie jumped up and ran towards the stairs. After a second, Sam and Dean followed. Several yards ahead, Maddie burst into the basement, already on a tirade.
"Jack Fenton, what have I told you about opening and closing the portal?" Sam gave Dean a worried look. So the Fentons had managed to get the portal working.
Sam and Dean emerged from the staircase to find Jack Fenton standing by a big green button set into the wall next to a large door covered in black and yellow warning stripes. As they watched, he pressed the button and the doors slid to either side, allowing the bright light of the portal to enter the dimly lit laboratory. The Winchesters stared at the portal. It was large, taller than Sam, and swirling in toxic shades of green. Jack pressed the button again and the doors whooshed shut. Just before they met in the center, another ghost made its escape. It didn't make it as far as the others.
Scything through the air, a beam of blue light caught the ghost in mid flight. Wailing in an almost annoyed way, the ghost was sucked into a contraption that Maddie held tightly in her hands. Angrily, she capped the gadget, shutting off the beam of light. Chucking it unceremoniously onto a lab bench, she stalked the rest of the way over to Jack and grabbed his hand before he could press the button again.
"Jack, you can't be opening and shutting the portal like that! It lets out the ghosts!" Maddie said.
Jack looked surprised. "Ghosts?" he asked excitedly. And then he was off, "Where are they, Maddie-kins? I'll catch 'em all!" He swiped up the contraption that Maddie had discarded on the bench and started aiming it around the room, apparently searching for ghosts. In a couple wild swings, he was facing towards the stairs and pointing the ghost capture weapon straight at Sam and Dean.
"We have guests?" Jack asked, withdrawing the weapon and looking at Maddie.
"Yes!" Maddie approached and gently took the weapon away, setting it on the bench. She looped her arm through Jack's. "Remember the Winchesters, dear? Sam and Dean?"
"Hi." Dean raised his hand. Jack beamed at them.
"Of course I remember the Winchesters! My ghost hunting buddies!" He detached himself from Maddie and ran up to them, enveloping them in a bear hug. Dean felt the air get squished out of him as he awkwardly returned the hug with a pat on Jack's huge back. Jack let the both of them drop back to the floor, winded.
"Welcome back to Amity Park, my boys! Do you want to see the portal?" he continued, hurrying towards the big green button. Maddie intercepted him, forcing him away.
"They've already seen the portal work, Jack, dear. They saw it just now as they came downstairs! Right, boys?" she looked pleadingly at Sam and Dean.
"Ah, yes, it was quite the light show," Sam said quickly.
Dean was more interested in the strange contraption Maddie had used to capture the rogue ghost. He stepped over to the bench to examine it. It appeared to be a high tech... soup thermos? Made out of what looked to be expensive metal, it had a gauge and several buttons on the side. Dean remembered the video that Ash had showed them back at the Roadhouse of Inviso-Bill using a soup thermos to take down the Box Ghost. Had he gotten his tech from the Fentons?
"Isn't this what Inviso-Bill uses to take down ghosts?" he asked, pointing at the thermos.
Maddie frowned, obviously annoyed. "Yes. We don't know how he got it. We've taken to ghost-proofing the house at night with a ghost shield, but he's still getting in and stealing things somehow. We've seen him use some of our other inventions too. If it weren't for the portal, we would have ghost-proofed the lab full time by now."
"From what I've seen," chimed in Sam, "Inviso-Bill had his own arsenal in his hands. Why would he need this thermos thing?"
Jack answered this time. "Inviso-Bill thinks he's so cool with his ectobeams, but for all he can do, he has nothing that can rival the Fenton Thermos, our most advanced ghost-capturing device!" Jack swept the thermos back off the counter, fiddling with a couple knobs. "All you do is pop off the lid - like so - aim, and -" Jack pressed the button on the side, aiming the thermos harmlessly at a wall. To the surprise of all, the ghost Maddie had just captured, along with several others, immediately whooshed out of the thermos, escaping through the ceiling. The last one spared a moment to give the assembled humans a rude parting gesture. Everyone looked at Jack. "Drat," he mumbled, fiddling with the thermos again, "accidentally reversed the polarity..."
"So, what?" Dean crossed his arms, a little confused, "Inviso-Bill is capturing these ghosts in this little thermos thing? What does he do with them?"
Maddie brightened. "I'll show you!" She beckoned them over to a computer on the far side of the lab.
She searched through the files in a folder labeled "Flagged Security" until she found the one she wanted. Clicking on it, it revealed itself to be a short video, no longer than thirty seconds. She pressed play.
The brothers looked on a scene of the lab from some ceiling corner. It was mostly dark, with only the glow of a couple instruments full of ectoplasm to provide light. It stayed that way for a few seconds until a human-shaped something popped into existence near the shadowy outline of the portal. This video was much clearer than the one Ash had shown them, and they could immediately see that it was Inviso-Bill.
Just like in the video of the warehouse, he was glowing faintly, illuminating his surroundings. He floated about a foot off the floor, looking around with eyes that burned like viridescent stars. His white hair drifted over his forehead, reminding Dean vaguely of a candle flame, but sticking mostly to the hairstyle of a young boy. After making sure his environment was clear of overenthusiastic ghost hunters, Inviso-Bill landed on the floor and walked over to the big button next to the portal. Below the button was a circular receptacle the brothers hadn't noticed before.
From his belt, Inviso-Bill took a thermos identical to the one still in Jack's hands. Uncapping it, he plugged the open front end into the receptacle and pressed another, smaller button below it. The video was soundless, so the Winchesters couldn't hear the whoosh of the portal opening on screen. Light spilled into the lab, giving the dormant equipment long shadows that reached across the floor like fingers. Inviso-Bill stood back a little, hands on hips as the portal whirled much like water in a flushing toilet, sucking the few unwilling ghosts from the thermos back into the Ghost Zone.
When the last ghost had been flushed back into its home dimension, Inviso-Bill took the thermos out of the receptacle and hooked it back onto his belt, turning to face the camera. Then, he yawned widely. Dean leaned forward, noticing for the first time the large, dull green bags under the kid's eyes and recognizing them from looking in the mirror. Behind him, the portal slid shut again, cutting off the light. The glowing outline of Inviso-Bill rose slowly off the floor, then drifted sleepily upwards and out of view of the camera. The video stopped.
"And he just comes in here whenever he wants?" asked Sam.
"It appears that way," replied Maddie.
"That was a lot of ghosts he flushed back into the ghost zone there..." Dean looked pointedly at her. "No ghost problem, huh?"
She sighed. "We would appreciate any help you can give."
The next few hours were a montage of preparation and training as the Winchesters prepared to enter the spectral battle field that Amity Park had become. Dean was thrilled to be introduced to some of the Fentons' larger weapons like the Fenton Bazooka and the Fenton Foamer. The latter ejected a stream of anti-ghost goo capable of restraining a ghost and nullifying its powers while the former was just as fun and explodey as its non-ghost counterpart. Meanwhile, Sam was intrigued by the Fenton Finder, a device that purportedly used satellite data to locate ghosts.
"This little baby's still a work in progress, unfortunately," said Jack, taking the gadget from Sam and placing it sadly on a shelf. "For some reason it keeps pinging our boy Danny every time we test it."
Sam was disappointed. He had hoped to use some of the technology from the Fenton Finder to upgrade one of Dean's homemade EMF meters. "What's this?" he asked, picking up something that looked suspiciously like a boomerang. Jack's face brightened immediately.
"Why this is the Fenton Boo-merang! It locks onto a ghost's unique ecto-signature and follows it around. Those phantasmal fiends can run, but they can't hide from the Fenton Boo-merang!" Jack wheeled back his arm and hurled the boomerang, making Sam duck. The device zoomed around the lab a few times, forcing Dean and Maddie to dive out of the way, before zipping off up the staircase.
A loud clang came from the ground floor, followed immediately by an "Ow!" and a few seconds later, Danny Fenton made his disgruntled way into the lab, holding the boomerang in one hand and rubbing his head with the other.
"Your boomerang got away again," he said, pushing the device into his mother's hands. It was then that he noticed Sam and Dean. His eyes widened at the sight of Dean hefting the Fenton Bazooka. "Hi," he said hesitantly. "What, um -" he cleared his throat, "What are you guys doing back in town?"
Sam responded first to take away Danny's attention from Dean and the large gun he was holding. "We heard about the ghost infestation and wanted to see if we could do anything to help."
"Tear 'em apart molecule by molecule!" Dean added enthusiastically, parroting a phrase Jack had said at least ten times since they'd entered the house that morning. Sam knew the intended effect was to lighten the tension, but Danny only seemed to become more nervous, although he tried to hide it.
"Uh, yeah. Molecule by molecule..." Danny made a weak attempt at a gungho gesture. "I'm gonna go do my homework. Bye!" He fairly bolted back up the stairs. Sam caught Dean's gaze and nodded. They'd need to talk to Danny later. Was there something going on behind the scenes that they hadn't noticed?
Jack took the boomerang from Maddie and scratched his head. "Yeah... still working out the kinks on this one too."
"Do a lot of your inventions hone in on Danny?" Dean chuckled, setting the Fenton Bazooka down.
"Yes," sighed Maddie, "We're not sure why either, although we think it might have something to do with the inordinate amount of ghost attacks that happen at school. We suspect he's exposed to a lot of rogue ectoplasm that way."
"Dratted ghosts attacking children..." Jack muttered darkly.
Ghosts attacking the high school... interesting. Sam thought, remembering his and Dean's suspicion that Inviso-Bill was somehow connected to Casper High. He decided now was as good a time as any to bring up the vigilante.
"Speaking of the high school, do you guys think that Inviso-Bill is somehow connected to it?"
Maddie stopped what she was doing and looked at Sam. "What do you mean, 'connected'? I mean, I suppose he does tend to show up at all the ghost fights that happen at the school, but he shows up at all the ghost fights no matter where they are, really..."
"Oh, no," Sam clarified, "'Connected' as in, maybe Inviso-Bill is attending Casper High as a student."
Jack and Maddie exchanged bewildered looks and then simultaneously burst into laughter. Dean and Sam were both nonplussed, but laughed along hesitantly.
"I mean," Dean said, "What would be so crazy about him being a high school student? He looks to be about that age..." He trailed off as both Jack and Maddie realized the Winchesters were being serious.
Maddie pursed her lips in the attitude of someone speaking to a child. "Dear," she said, "Inviso-Bill is a ghost. There is no way he - it, really - could be attending Casper High. At most, he just hangs around the school because he likes to pick on high school students." Seeing that the brothers were still a little hesitant, Maddie added, "He. Is. A. Menace. He wreaks chaos everywhere he goes and we've seen him in the company of some other very dangerous ghosts. The day we capture him -"
"And tear him apart, molecule by molecule!" Jack added.
"- will be the day the world can rest easy," Maddie finished without missing a beat. She made eye contact with both Sam and Dean, making sure they had gotten the point. Satisfied, she clapped her hands together. "Now! Who's ready to go on patrol?"
Sam and Dean were dubious, but they both grabbed a few of the green and silver weapons and headed up the laboratory stairs to get to the Fentons' garage. As they passed through the kitchen, they saw Danny grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge and Dean had a sudden inspiration.
"Hey, y'all go ahead. I'm going to grab a quick bathroom break. I'll be there in a second."
The Fenton parents barely spared a second to nod before hustling into the garage with Sam. Dean turned back to where Danny was now using a long stick to poke a bag of chips in the pantry. Dean figured that if anyone could figure out what had been bothering Danny down in the lab, it was himself. Sam hadn't really had that much interaction with him the last time they'd been here and, if Dean was really honest with himself, he felt that he had some sort of special connection with the kid.
"Watcha doing?" he asked.
Danny, satisfied that the bag of chips wasn't possessed, grabbed it out of the pantry and opened it. "Getting a snack," he said, popping a handful of chips into his mouth and crunching loudly.
Dean nodded indulgently. "Listen, I wanted to talk with you about all this ghost stuff that's been going on."
Danny swallowed - a little too fast, it seemed, because he immediately started coughing. When the coughing had subsided, Danny looked him up and down with eyes that Dean thought were a little too discerning for someone his age. "I thought you were going to the bathroom..." Danny said, his eyes glinting weirdly in the kitchen light as he tilted his head back to take another drink of water.
"Well, I'm going to in just a second." Dean had forgotten how frustrating it was to talk to teenagers. "I just wanted to check on you. You seemed pretty nervous earlier." He leaned against the countertop to try and make the conversation more casual.
"Nervous? Psh, I wasn't nervous!" Danny said quickly, spilling half of his water on his shirt. He deliberately didn't attempt to wipe it up.
"Yeah? You seem pretty jumpy to me." Dean had an idea what the problem was, so he took a chance. "Listen, it's ok to be scared of ghosts. The ones in this town are weird and they scare the hell out of me too. It's nothing against you that the supernatural is a little outside your comfort zone. Trust me, I've been there."
"Scared of ghosts?" Danny phrased it like a question, but then continued, his words almost running over each other. "Oh yeah! Ghosts are so scary. I'm so scared of them! They fight dirty and, uh... they destroy so much... property?" Again with the interrogatory phrasing. Dean reflected that if Danny had been an adult, he would have pegged him as a suspect. But he's just a nervous, awkward teenager, he rationalized. And who wouldn't be, with parents like his?
Readjusting the strap of the Fenton Bazooka over his shoulder, Dean turned and started towards the garage where he could hear the sound of a loud engine rumbling. "Well, I'm off to tear some ghosts apart molecule by molecule. Have fun with your homework."
Danny's already pale face paled even further and he gave a forced laugh. "Haha, yeah. Homework."
Man, Dean thought as he piled into the back of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle with Sam, If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was going to blow off homework and go hang out with his friends. Something niggled at him. On a hunch, he interrupted Jack's ghost hunting song and asked, "How's Danny doing in school?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam give him a strange look, but he ignored it.
"Oh, well he doesn't get Jazz's grades, but he passes!" Maddie said. "The ghost attacks have impacted all the kids' grades, though, so we're hopeful that he'll pull them up by the end of the semester."
"Did you know Danny wants to be an astronaut?" Jack joined in. "I've tried to persuade him to be a ghost hunter with his old man, but I guess an astronaut is okay too. Who knows? Maybe there are ghosts in space!"
Dean let Jack take the wheel in the conversation after that, which he drove just as chaotically as he drove the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle. Holding on for dear life in the back seat, Dean mentally started coming up with some questions to ask when they visited the school the next day.
"So Inviso-Bill is a ghost," said Dean as he turned a corner towards a diner they'd seen on their way into town the previous day. Sam noticed that he hadn't phrased it as a question.
"Well, I think our source was a little biased," he hedged, but Dean waved a dismissive hand.
"The Fentons are, without a doubt and although I hate to say it, the people with the most experience when it comes to dealing with these types of ghosts. Their opinion has to count for something."
"What, so we're going to take the word of some self-proclaimed 'professional' ghosthunters and just run with it?"
"Sam, we're self-proclaimed professional ghosthunters."
Sam huffed. "Yeah, but they're a little..."
"What, crazy?" Dean shook his head. "What do you think people think about us when we tell them all this supernatural crap is real?"
"Yeah, but we should at least investigate that a little more!"
"And we will," Dean said, not wanting a fight right before a meal, "Tomorrow at the school."
"How is going to the school going to help us confirm whether or not Inviso-Bill is a ghost?"
"Do you remember what the Fentons said about Danny? How his grades were suffering because of all the ghost attacks at the school?"
Sam sat in silence for a moment before responding. "So, we're going to go to the school and hope that a ghost shows up for Inviso-Bill to fight?"
"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!"
Sam sighed, massaging his forehead. "Ok, fine, but what if he doesn't show up?"
"We can stake out the school for a few days or something. From the number of articles you said you found about ghost attacks at the school, it sounds like they happen at least once a week."
"You have no idea how creepy that sounded."
Dean turned another corner. "What?"
"'We'll just stake out the school for a few days.'" Sam parroted mockingly. "We're two grown men, Dean. We'll get arrested!"
Dean huffed, not wanting to admit he was wrong. "We've staked out places before. We've gotten arrested before. It's not like we actually are creeps. Plus, I don't hear you coming up with a better plan."
Sam waved his hand to both signal defeat and stop Dean's verbal barrage. He was getting a headache. "Fine, fine. We'll sneak some of the smaller Fenton weapons and one of those thermos things -"
"Already done," Dean said, pointing to a duffel bag in the back seat.
"Dean!"
"What? You said we were going to steal them anyway!"
"Whatever," Sam massaged his temples. "So we take the weapons and go to the school. If-"
"When," Dean cut in.
Sam held back his temper, barely. "If Inviso-Bill shows up for a fight, we'll observe him and try to talk to him and see if he's a ghost. If he's not, we can help him out with the Fentons' weapons, and if he is, we can off him right there. But in the meantime we can get information from the students. Wait..." Sam trailed off into uncharacteristic silence. Dean glanced at him.
"What?"
"Danny and his friends have seen us. They know we're hunters - er, they know we're ghosthunters. They'll never buy a cover."
Dean smiled as he turned into the parking lot. "Nah, me and Danny get along really well! I'll just tell him we're investigating the ghost infestation undercover and he won't cause any problems for us. And, by extension, his friends won't cause any problems for us. The hardest part for them is probably going to be containing their excitement."