I'm so sorry its been so long, but I've been messing around with new projects and rewriting quite a bit of this story. A lot of things have changed, but none of them really affect the story plot wise. But just to be safe you should probably go back and reread at least the first few chapters because I will reference things that I recently wrote in this chapter.

Though, I guess just to be on the safe side I'll explain the most obvious change: Danielle's appearance. When Vlad was first transformed, his hair in his human form became white, so I wanted to give a nod to that by giving Danielle a white streak in her hair, especially since her experience in becoming a half ghost is the most similar to his.

Anyway, sorry again. I will try to do better next time.

Chapter 12: The Most Dangerous Game

Danny brushed his teeth over the bathroom sink. To his right he heard a frustrated growl and glanced over at Danielle, right as she bumped him with her hip.

"I hate this so much, and you're not making this any easier. Frickin' move over," she grumbled, as she squeezed in beside him to get a better look at herself in the mirror.

She was re-dying her hair, this time with a more legitimate type of hair dye meant specifically for head hair, not facial hair. Sam, who dyed her hair on the regular, bought it for her and gave her instructions on how not to get it everywhere. Though, why she had to do it at nine o'clock at night while he was trying to brush his teeth was a mystery.

Danny quickly moved out of the way to avoid getting the dye on him. Sam might have given Danielle some tips on how not to get the stuff everywhere, but Danny didn't trust her to follow them.

Suddenly, Jazz opened the door. She paused in the doorway for a second before saying, "What are you doing?"

"Brushing my teeth," Danny said through a mouth full of toothpaste.

She gave him an unamused look. "I was talking to Danielle."

"Uh, I bleached a part of my hair white, and then I didn't like it, so I'm dyeing it back," she blurted.

If Danielle were anyone else, that excuse might not have worked, but she was just impulsive enough that her impromptu explanation was believable.

Jazz rolled her eyes and sighed. "Of course you did. Just hurry up I need to take a shower. Also don't make a mess."

"But it has to sit for an hour."

"Then take it to the kitchen," Jazz said as she walked away.

"'Take it to the kitchen,' meh!" Danielle mocked.

"I heard that," Jazz called back down the hall.

There was a beat before Danielle said, "So, did you get anything for Sam's birthday tomorrow?"

"No," Danny mumbled around the foam in his mouth. He waved his twin out of the way and spat into the sink. "You know how she is about her birthday."

Danny rinsed and put his toothbrush away.

"Well, I got her something," Danielle said.

He made a face as he dried his hands. "She won't like it."

"I made it for her, so she'll have to. Besides it's from me. She could never be mad at me—except maybe if she's transformed into a dragon by an enchanted necklace."

Danny snorted. "Well, me and Tucker don't have that kind of leniency with her."

Suddenly, he felt the ball of ice in his chest pulse and frigid air billowed from his lips.

He groaned. "Now? Really?"

"You've got time. It's only about nine-thirty," Danielle said.

"Yeah, if it's something easy like an ectopuss."

"Welp, I guess you'll find out."

Danny reached out, closing the door that Jazz had left slightly open, and transformed.

Danielle let out a hiss and blinked her eyes rapidly. "Could you give a girl a little warning next time?" she grumbled.

"What? Should I yell out 'going ghost'?"

"Maybe."

"Yeah, I'll do that—when I want the whole house to know that I'm a ghost."

He went intangible and flew out to find the other ghost. It was close, but it felt pretty weak. Danny followed the signal to a house a few doors down from his. When he saw the moving truck parked in front of the house, he let out a groan. He already knew exactly what ghost it was.

He flew into the mostly empty house. Thankfully, it seemed like the people that once lived there were mostly moved out at that point. There were still a few boxes of their stuff, however.

"I am the Box Ghost!" a high pitched nasally voice said behind Danny.

Danny sighed and turned around to behold the blue skinned ghost. "I already know your name," he said unenthusiastically.

The ghost ignored him and continued. "I am the master of all things square and cardboard!"

"Are you done?" Danny said, checking his imaginary watch.

The boxes began to levitate with a ghostly green glow around them. "Oh, no," Danny groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"Behold the power of my corrugated cardboard of doom!" The ghost then flung the boxes in Danny's direction. Danny simply went intangible. The boxes passed right through him and crashed into the wall behind him. Danny winced as he heard something glass break, and cursed under his breath.

"Hey, these are people's things!" Danny said.

The Box Ghost laughed. "I do not care of these puny humans possessions. They are in boxes therefore they are mine!"

"That's literally not how any of this works," Danny said, taking out the thermos.

With a noise of alarm, the ghost tried to fly away at the sight of the Thermos, already being well acquainted with the inside of it, but Danny caught him in the beam before he could get away. With a pained yell the Box Ghost was sucked into the Fenton Thermos.

Danny was about to fly back to his house until he felt something else trip his ghost sense. He tried to follow it, but it quickly got weaker, as if it knew he was searching for it and was actively avoiding him. What ever it was, it felt weak, weaker than the Box Ghost even, maybe even weaker than an ectopus.

He stopped in his tracks when he suddenly lost it. He shouldn't have been surprised. The lower level ghosts were hard to track simply because there wasn't much to track in the first place, but they also usually didn't have the sense to run away.

He shook it off and tried not to worry about it. It probably wasn't worth his time anyway.

He phased into his bedroom and transformed. Danielle came into his room about a minute later, dye still in her hair.

"That was pretty quick. You catch it?" Danielle asked.

"One of them," Danny said. "The other one got away. I'm not worried about it though. It seemed like it was pretty small. It probably won't cause too much trouble."

Danielle shrugged. "If you say so."

...

The next day at lunch, Danny walked with his sister to their designated table. Both of them had packed a lunch that morning.

Ever since the lunch lady incident, they both preferred packed lunch over cafeteria food (not that they didn't anyway), but whether or not they brought a lunch really depended on if they got up early enough to pack one. With ghosts becoming more of a thing, though, they found it harder and harder to get up early enough.

Sam was already at the table, looking a little more irritated than usual due to it being her birthday, and Tucker soon joined them.

They hadn't even sat down a minute before Danielle pulled out a small box from her backpack. It was a reused box from Christmas and was wrapped in wrapping paper that was probably from the twins tenth birthday. Its bright purple bow was slightly crushed from being stuffed in her bag for a few hours.

She handed it to Sam with a bright smile, who simply eyed it warily from across the table.

"What is that supposed to be?" Sam said flatly.

"Your birthday gift!" Danielle said, extending her arm out further.

"You know I don't accept gifts on my birthday—or at all really," Sam deadpanned.

Unwrapping his sandwich, Danny said, "See? I told you Danielle."

"My mom ruined birthdays for me," Sam said. "Thanks for the thought but—"

Danielle's face pulled into a pout. "Sam, please, I made it myself..."

Ah, yes, the dreaded puppy dog eyes. Danny knew their powers. Sam didn't stand a chance.

The goth girl rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine. Just stop looking at me like that."

She took the small package form Danielle and unwrapped it carefully, when she had all the paper off, revealing the reused box underneath, she looked up at Danielle with a raised eyebrow. "A word of the day calendar?"

Danielle smirked. "That's just the box. Open it."

Sam did as instructed. Opening the top of it, she held it upside down with her hand under it. A black hemp bracelet slid out. Several purple glass beads were woven into it along with a crescent moon charm in the middle. Sam inspected it with a glare. "Danielle, damn it. This is fucking cool, but you broke the rules."

Danielle smiled deviously. "You're not going to do anything about it."

Sam sighed and slipped the bracelet around her wrist. "You're right. Thank you."

"Hey, that's blatant favoritism!" Danny cried. "Danielle broke the rules. She should be punished, or the rules should be changed!"

Sam rolled her eyes again and huffed. "Alright, fine. You can give me gifts if they're as cool as Danielle's, but otherwise it's death for you. So don't even try."

"Challenge accepted," Danny said.

Tucker just held his hands up in defeat. "I'm not even gonna try. I know I won't get a fair trial. If you're smart Danny, you'd do the same. You've only got half a life left to lose anyway."

Their good spirits abruptly came to an end when cold fog suddenly billowed from Danny's mouth. He looked around the cafeteria frantically, Sam, Tucker, and Danielle all joining in on the search. There were no ghosts in sight, but there was still the nagging cold in his chest.

He looked down at his sandwich. Over half of it was left. Screw it, the ghost could wait for another freaking second. Danny tried to cram a few more bites of his sandwich in his mouth before he had to get up and find a place to "go ghost".

"Is it the same one as last night?" Danielle asked.

"Dunno," Danny said through a mouthful. "It feels real weak like it though."

"You can sense what level they are?" Tucker asked as Danny continued to scarf down the rest of his lunch.

Danny mumbled something incomprehensible through his mouthful of food, and Danielle attempted to translate.

"He said it's like a radio signal. It also weakens the farther the ghost is," she said. She looked to Danny. "Was that about right?"

He nodded and held a thumbs up. He swallowed the huge wad of food in his mouth and said for himself, "Its also like a literal game of hot and cold, if that makes any sense at all."

Tucker shrugged. "Little bit, I guess."

"Cool, okay, gotta go," Danny said in a rush. Danielle just caught him before he jumped up from the table.

"You got the thermos?"

"Yes."

She gave him a tight look. "You know you don't have to go after it. It didn't cause any trouble last night, it might not now."

Danny shook his head. "I don't know. I'm starting to think this might be something weird. I'll try to get back before lunch ends, though."

With that he was off.

...

Danny, of course didn't find the ghost, but he did manage to get to Mr. Lancer's class on time.

"Please open up your textbooks to page four-twenty—"

"Blaze it," Danielle mumbled beside Danny, loud enough for him to hear. Danny snorted.

"— to the beginning of The Most Dangerous Game."

"Russian roulette?" Danny mumbled.

"More like, 'Is It Edible or Not?' with Mom's cooking," his twin replied.

Danny chuckled quietly attracting the teacher's attention. "Is something funny, Mr. Fenton?" he asked with an unimpressed expression.

"Uh, no, sir," he responded quickly.

Mr. Lancer began playing the audio version of the short story. About half of the class began reading along, and the other half drifted off. They were only about three minutes into the book, and Danny could tell Sam was already on the verge of throwing her textbook across the room.

"I've never before in my life hated a character so early in the story," she hissed, glaring down at the pages. "Sport hunters are the scum of the earth."

"Maybe he'll get eaten by a jaguar or something. That would be fitting," Danielle added.

"Miss Manson, Miss Fenton," Mr. Lancer said, shooting each of them a reproachful look.

About thirty minutes in, the pit of ice in Danny's chest once again made itself known. Right when things finally started to get interesting in the book, Danny timidly raised his hand. "May I go to the restroom?"

Lancer frowned, but instead of a flat out denial he said, "Can't it wait?"

"It's an emergency," Danny answered.

He caught the glances of his friends and Danielle. They all instantly knew what was up.

Mr. Lancer glanced at the clock on the wall. When he saw that it was only ten minutes before the bell rang, he sighed. "Fine. Be back before the class ends," he said as he stopped the audiobook.

"Yes, sir," Danny said as he got up from his desk.

He nearly jogged out of the classroom, and as soon as he was out, he sprinted for his locker. He took the thermos out and made for his second stop at the bathrooms.

Danny searched invisibility around the school again and found nothing in any of the halls or classrooms, except for a couple making out in a utility closet. He phased through the roof, hovering over it to get a full scope of the campus. Again, he saw nothing, yet there was still a faint sense of a ghost nearby.

Danny groaned. "Would you show yourself already? Just fight me and get it over with," he grumbled more to himself than anything.

Suddenly the cold at his core became frigid.

"Well, in that case…" a deep voice said behind him.

Danny whipped around. His eyes widened comically as they landed on a huge mechanical man. Its face articulated into a grin and its glowing green eyes shined maliciously. A mane of green fire billowed from its head and neck, stopping at the collar of its black muscle shirt.

"Alright, whelp, here I am."

Its hand shifted, rearranging itself into a cannon. Danny didn't move in time and the blast from the "hand gun" hit him square in the gut. Danny went flying, the thermos falling out of his grip. Earth flew up in clumps as he touched down in the center of the football field.

He raised his head with a groan and looked down at himself. Danny's eyes widened and the air stalled in his throat at the sight of the injury. A hole the size of a softball and about an inch deep marred his stomach right below his rib cage. For a second he thought he saw his own charred guts, but it was quickly covered up by webs of bright green sinew re-knitting itself.

Then someone screamed beside him. He turned his head to see several of his fellow students out on the field. They started owlishly at him.

"Um, hi," he said with a strained voice.

Suddenly, a hulking shape loomed over him. He moved just in time to miss the mechanical man from plowing into him. Danny shot up past the ghost, high above the field. The ghost stopped just before taking a nose dive into the ground and turned to him, still grinning.

"What's your deal, man?!" Danny cried, already slightly out of breath.

"I am Skulker, the Ghost World's greatest hunter!" he boasted.

"And you're hunting me?!" Danny's voice was little more than a squeak.

"That is correct, ghost child."

Skulker raised his arm again and shot another blast at Danny. Danny managed to dodge out of the way that time only to get caught in a glowing net. It dragged him back to the ground, and he landed in the field with a painful thud.

Almost immediately he tried to phase out of it, but he found to his horror that it wouldn't work. The mechanical ghost loomed over him. "What a shame. You weren't that much of a challenge after all," he lamented.

"I promise I'll try to be more of a challenge if you let me out," Danny said with faked bravado. His voice wobbled ever so slightly, no matter how hard he tried to keep his unease out of his voice.

The ghost gave a bark of laughter. "That would be fun wouldn't it? But no. I'm going to take you back to my lair and add you to my collection."

"W-what?" Danny whimpered, thinking of the book he had just read in Mr. Lancer's class.

As if sensing what he was thinking, Skulker said, "Don't worry ghost child. You're too unique of a prize. You'll simply live out the remainder of your existence in a cage."

Danny's stomach lurched. That honestly sounded worse than death. "A-as tempting as that sounds I-I think I'll have to pass."

The ghost let out another loud bark of laughter. "You don't have a choice in the matter!" He reached to pick up the net.

"No!" Danny screamed. "No! Somebody help, please!"

His heart thudded in his chest and something else seemed to rev. He struggled to move away from Skulker's hand, but the ghost of course caught him and slung him over his shoulder.

Just as the ghost was getting ready to take off with Danny in tow, someone yelled, "Hey!"

The ghost turned around, eyebrow raised. Sam shot him in the face with an experimental new weapon Danny's parents had developed. They called it the Wrist Ray. It managed to stun Skulker enough that he dropped Danny. Sam continued to shoot at the ghost, and Tucker had found and picked up the thermos, but neither of them had any luck hitting the ghost. They did however manage to drive him farther from Danny, allowing Danielle to rush to his aid.

"Are you okay?" Danielle asked, wide eyed.

"Yeah just help me out of this thing!"

She began pulling open the cinched end of the net. Suddenly, a bright green blast hit her in the center of her chest, hurling her several feet away.

"Danielle!" He turned to the mechanical ghost grinning down at him. "You bastard!" he screamed and ripped out of the net.

The ghost's eyes widened as Danny rocketed up towards him. Skulker tried to doge, but Danny rounded on him and caught the ghost's arm, the one that had shot at his sister. Doing a lightening fast maneuver he'd probably never be able to do in a more calm state of mind, he ripped off the offending appendage and let it fall to the ground.

Skulker yelled and shot away from Danny. The ghost looked at the sparking stump that was left of his arm, his face arranged in an expression of surprise.

The mechanical ghost turned back to him with a grin. "Very good, ghost boy. I underestimated you, but for that I will have your pelt."

"Cool, now how about I continue kicking your ass?" Danny growled.

"You'll get your chance soon. For now, this is good bye," the ghost said and he disappeared.

"No!" Danny snarled and shot forward.

Skulker was already gone, though. The muted signature he put off was impossible to track very far.

He floated back down to his friends where they were huddled around Danielle's prone form.

"Ugh, fuck, that thing sure packed a punch," she groaned as Sam helped her to sit up. "Also, did that guy actually say he wanted your pelt, because that's disgusting."

Danny made a face. "Yeah, I think he did, and it is. But that's not important. Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I think so, but it felt like a ball of lead hit me in the chest."

Danny knelt down beside her, noting that the front of her coat was somewhat scorched. He grabbed her hand and helped her to her feet.

Letting go of her, he said, "We need to get the hell out of dodge."

"The school's in lock down," Sam said. "We got out of there right before they started locking doors."

"We can regroup at our house," Danny suggested. "We'll figure everything out there."

He took back Danielle's hand, and she took Tucker's in her other. Sam finished the link. Danny made them all invisible and flew off with his friends and sister in tow.

….

Danny phased through the roof, dumping them all in the attic.

No one went up there except for when Vlad and Dan came over for the holidays.

Steal beams pierced the roof and ran into the floor. It was the beginning of a project his Dad was working on. Jack wanted to build what he called the Command Center on top of the house, but the bizarre renovation had stalled until just recently. Danny's dad had gotten renewed interest in building the monstrosity on top of the house for some reason. Still, the attic was rarely disturbed.

"Hang tight for a second. I'm going to see where Mom and Dad are," Danny said, before sinking through the floor.

He checked the basement first. Upon finding the place devoid of one Maddie and Jack Fenton, he checked the rest of the house. They were nowhere to be found. He checked inside the garage then and saw that the RV was gone.

He flew back up to the attic to report his findings. Tucker jumped when he suddenly reappeared.

"Dude!" He exclaimed, holding his chest dramatically.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, Tuck. Anyway, our parents are gone. I'm not sure where. They couldn't have heard about the attack that fast."

"What if they remade the Fenton Finder?" Danielle said quietly.

Danny pressed his lips together in a thin line. "That's not a good prospect."

He changed back into his human form with a flash of light. Wordlessly, he went up to Danielle and enfolded her in a hug. She immediately hugged him back.

They left the attic, walking single file down the narrow staircase. Once there, they headed to Danny's room and huddled together silently. Danny wanted to talk about what they were going to do—what story they were going to make up, but words refused to form in his throat. The hush remained. Refusing to let it win completely, Danny turned on the TV to fill the silence. Unfortunately, he had left it on one of the local channels before he went to sleep last night, and it turned on to the news.

"—nother strange attack, the third in only a few days and the second one to happen at Casper High School," a blond female reporter said. "We're taking you live with the chopper view. As you can see the two entities that were reported to be fighting with one another are both gone but they sure left a mark in the field, just like last time."

Danny scrambled to change the channel but paused when the chopper camera caught what looked like his parents RV in the shot.

He sighed and flicked the TV off.

"They're at the school," Danielle stated.

"Yep," Danny said in a tired tone.

Sam's phone suddenly rang. She cursed under her breath and picked it up. It was obviously her mom or her dad.

"I'm at Danny's," she said. "…'Why'?" She glanced over at him a little nervously. "We didn't really know where else to go. We got caught outside when it all happened and just started running when we saw it."

The rest of the teens listened awkwardly to Sam's exasperated half of the conversation until she finally squeezed in a good-bye and hung up.

"My driver is going to be over here in a little bit," she stated.

"You think you could take me home, too?" Tucker said. "When my parents eventually hear about it, their going to freak out if I'm not there."

Tucker's parents were sometimes left out of the loop. They were both the complete opposite of their son, usually leaving the TVs off and rarely carrying their phone on them.

Sam nodded. "Sure."

Only a few minutes later the twins saw their friends off. It was then their turn to get a call from a worried parental unit. That parental unit being Jazz.

Danny picked up the call, immediately hearing, "Oh, thank god!" on the other end.

He quickly clicked the speaker button so Danielle could hear.

"Is Danielle with you?" Jazz asked.

"I'm right here," Danielle said, shouldering her way in.

"Is that them?" the muffled voice of their mother said in the background.

"Yeah," Jazz answered. "Hold on I'm gonna put my phone on speaker…. Okay there."

"Where are you, kiddos?" their father asked. "We looked all over the school for you two."

"At home," Danny answered, not seeing any reason to lie.

"Why on earth are you at home?!" Jazz asked incredulously.

"We, uh, got stuck outside when it happened. We didn't know what to do so we ran home," Danny answered nervously.

"Why were you outside?" Danny could almost hear her eyes narrowing suspiciously through the phone.

"We were walking Sam to her botany class in the green house," he lied quickly. Sam did have botany but not for seventh period. He didn't know if Jazz knew that, but he really, really hoped she didn't.

The twins exchanged pensive glances hoping Jazz wouldn't say anything. Jazz stayed quiet and it was their mother that spoke next. "Well, we'll be home in a little bit. We have to finish up here first. The reporter said something about an interview."

There was a muffled groan, likely from Jazz, before the call ended.

They shared a look. "Mom and Dad are going to be on the news," Danny said in a horrified whisper.

…

Jazz came home almost immediately after the call. She came right up to Danny's room, and gave them both a look that demanded further explanation.

"Stop with the stink eye, Jazz," Danielle said.

"Why were you really outside?" their older sister asked, bluntly. "Don't try to tell me you walked Sam all the way to the green house just for fun."

The twins shared a look. "Well," Danielle said, taking the lead, "Sam probably wouldn't want us to tell you. She seemed kinda embarrassed about it."

Jazz placed her hands on her hips. "What is it?"

Danielle looked away sheepishly "There's a guy that's been messing with her. He's been waiting outside for her lately. She didn't want to deal with him alone today."

Jazz's brows creased with worry. "A guy? Who is it?"

Danielle shrugged. "Just another student. I can't remember his name now. She only just told us about him."

"I think it started with an 's'," Danny chimed in.

Danielle looked up in mock though. "Sss…Scot maybe?"

"Sean? Anyway, we didn't even see him. We were too busy running away from the 'whatever it was'," Danny said.

Jazz sighed. "Well, you're both good friends for doing that for her, but she really should talk to a teacher or a counselor about this other student."

"We'll talk to her about it as soon as we can," Danny said.

"Alright, I guess that solves one mystery," Jazz said as she turned to leave the room. "Also, don't turn on the news anytime soon unless you want to see our parents make fools out of themselves."

Danny held a thumbs up. "Got it."

Once the door had closed behind her, the twins breathed a sigh of relief. "She bought it," Danielle said quietly.

"Yeah, nice story, by the way."

...

Their parents came back a couple hours later. As soon as the front door opened, excited chatter loud enough to hear throughout the house spilled in.

The three kids in the kitchen looked up with varying degrees of annoyance. Jazz had taken the initiative to make dinner, and they were already gathered around the table, ripe and ready for the lecture about ghosts that was coming. Jazz angrily twirled around her pasta, as if it was the source of all her problems.

Sure enough, their dad barreled into the kitchen a second later with an almost manic grin on his face and a large, vaguely cylindrical thing loosely wrapped in a towel under his arm. Their mother wasn't far behind. She looked excited, as well, but not quite as much as their dad, only because it was impossible for anyone but Jack Fenton to display that much emotion.

"Hey, kids, look what we found!" he bellowed. Jack swept off a place on the table, nearly pushing the salt and pepper shakers to the floor, and laid the object on the clean area. He undid the towel and let it fall open, allowing its dirty ends to drop dangerously close to their plates of food.

The bite of pasta in Danny's mouth turned to sand, and he felt like he was hit with a jolt of electricity as soon as the parcel was unwrapped. It was Skulker's arm. He had almost forgotten that he had ripped it clean off. He hadn't even thought of what might happen if someone found it.

"We think this's the metal ghost's arm! The other ghost some kids say the saw probably ripped it right off when they were fighting!" Jack nearly shouted in his excitement. "This is typical territorial behavior!"

Danny swallowed. "Did, um, anyone see that happen?"

In other words, did anyone see him with his sister and friends.

"No, everyone had either evacuated or hidden inside before the fight concluded," their mother said. "While it's a bit frustrating that there's no real evidence for this encounter, it's also a relief to know that in another event like this, most would have the sense to run away," she said with a small wry smile.

"Why," Jazz said, holding a hand to her forehead, "would a ghost be made of metal?! This only further proves that this is all just some elaborate hoax! These 'ghosts' are clearly some kind of animatronics someone's using to scare people."

"What do you think?" Danielle said with a smirk. "The town is over an oil field or there's a vein of gold under the school?"

Well, at least she could make light of this.

Jazz narrowed her eyes at her younger sister. "Are you—are you comparing this to a Scooby-Doo episode?"

"Well, obviously. My money's on the gold vein. And by the way, I bet it's the mayor," she joked.

Danny snorted. Joining in, he said, "Nah, I think it's Lancer, he's always been a shifty dude."

"Anyway," their mom said, stepping in, "we think it must be some kind of exoskeleton, or something to that effect. But we know for sure that it's no simple animatronic, sweetie. The ectoplasmic radiation on this thing is off the charts.

Danny was about to ask, 'Then why did you set it down next to our food,' when Jazz abruptly pushed away from the table and stood up. "I'm going to finish my dinner in my room," she grumbled, picking up her plate and walking out.

Their dad didn't seem to be bothered, but Maddie deflated quite a bit. She sighed, closing her eyes briefly. "Jack, honey, why don't you take the artifact to the lab and prep it," she said.

"Oh, okay, Mads." He wrapped it back up and put it back under his arm. Before he left the kitchen he gave their mom a peck on the cheek. She gave him a tired smile in return.

As soon as he was gone, Maddie sat down at the table. She looked between the twins with a worried expression. "I know things are... strange right now," she started slow, "and we might do things that are kind of embarrassing, but trust me when I say we only do this to keep you and everybody else safe."

Danny felt a spark of resentment in his chest. He dropped his gaze and glared down at his half eaten plate of food. "Did you build the portal to keep everybody safe?" Danny heard himself say.

There were several beats of silence. He peaked up through his bangs at his mother.

Her head was drooped, guilt evident in her expression. She blamed herself for the ghost attacks. The realization of it shocked him. He hadn't thought that either of their parents would care whether or not their experiments were to blame for the sudden ghost infestation. They never seemed to give much thought to the repercussions of their work before.

His stomach suddenly clenched. If she ever found out, would she blame herself for what happened to them?

"The portal..." She trailed off for a moment, trying to phrase her thoughts. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a controlled experiment. We thought it all out. We...we thought we had every problem covered..."

"Then why is this happening?" Danielle asked.

That was a good question. Of course, half of it was already answered. The portal was responsible in some way, but how? Danny wondered why neither of them asked until now. Probably because they never had to ask about ghost stuff before; their parents always blathered on about it anyway. But this seemed to be something neither of their parents really wanted to talk about.

Maddie let out another sigh. "You know, Amity Park was always considered America's most haunted town long before we even moved here. When we first checked out the town all the way back in college, it indeed seemed like there was much more ambient ectoplasmic radiation than any other so called haunted town. We think there was already a weakness between the worlds in this place. The Portal only made it weaker, like...cutting a hole in fabric."

There was another beat of silence before Danielle spoke up again. "Is there anything you can do about it?"

"We don't know, but..." their mother's expression suddenly became stern, "if this get worse, and we can't fix this, do not tell anyone about the portal."

They both nodded quietly.

…

Danny couldn't sleep that night, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he slept on Danielle's bedroom floor in an old dusty sleeping bag.

His twin brought up the idea, and he agreed that he really didn't want to sleep alone in his own bedroom while there was a ghost hunting him—not that he would have slept anyway. What little shuteye he did get was thanks to Danielle for simply keeping him company.

Jittery from the lack of sleep and too much coffee, he dragged himself to Mr. Lancer's room first thing in the morning because—oh, yeah, he left his freaking backpack there!

Danny peaked his head in Mr. Lancer's classroom. It was about half past seven, a while before school started. Only one or two people walked the halls. Most students, if they had nowhere to go this early, were stuck in the cafeteria until the bell rang.

The teacher raised his head when he heard the quiet squeak of the door. "Mr. Fenton," he greeted. "I assume you're here for your bag."

Danny pushed into the room, head hung. "Yeah, uh, sorry I didn't come back before class ended."

Mr. Lancer gave a hollow chuckle. "Well, I suppose with the circumstances, I'll forgive you. Anyway, your backpack is over here," he said as he pulled Danny's bag out from under his desk and placed it on the opposite side of his desk chair.

Danny quickly went over to the teacher's desk and retrieved the backpack. "Thanks," he mumbled before turning to leave Mr. Lancer's room.

"Oh, um, and that segment with your parents last night was…quite interesting," the teacher said, making Danny pause at the door.

He turned around with a grimace twisting his face. "I didn't watch it."

Before yesterday nobody but his friends really knew what his parents' profession was. Parent job days at school had always been strategically sidestepped with Jazz, even at a very young age, coaching the twins to say their parents were just inventors and leaving it at that. It was true after all; they invented plenty of ghost weapons, and even had a few patents on some non-ghost related inventions they got royalty checks from every so often.

But still, some rumors about them being mad scientists had circulated around town. And then there were even more distasteful claims. But now pretty much everything was out in the open.

Lancer's brow suddenly furrowed with slight worry. "Are you…okay?"

It took him a second to realize what the teacher was really asking. "My parents aren't crazy," he said with a little more heat than he had intended. It was the first time he had ever said it, and he was surprised he actually believed it.

Mr. Lancer lowered his eyes. "Yes, well," he said clearing his throat, "that will be all, Mr. Fenton."

…

"Hey twin freaks!" Dash shouted from behind them. "I knew you two were weirdos, but I didn't think it ran in the family."

Danny didn't look back. He simply looked through his locker and muttered, "Did he just use a play on Twin Peaks?"

"Wow, that was almost a clever insult," his twin replied from her locker beside his.

"Hey, I was talking to you!" Dash growled, now right behind him. He gripped Danny's arm and spun him around.

"You were?" Danny said, feigning ignorance. Danielle slammed her locker close.

"Don't act dumb, Fentoenail," Dash spat.

"Sorry, I forgot that was your job," Danny shot back.

Dash pushed him into the lockers, the corner of his open one cutting painfully into his back.

"Leave him alone, Dash," Danielle gritted out.

Danny glanced at her to see she was nearly shaking with anger.

Dash and the rest of his cronies laughed. "So you're gonna get your sister to stick up for you now?"

"I mean it," she spat. "Let him go!"

"Or what, twerp? Are you gonna hit me?"

"It'd probably be like getting hit by a marshmallow," one of the other jocks mocked. They all laughed, but Danielle's stare didn't waver.

"You think you're all big and bad, but you're nothing, and you know it!" she nearly shouted.

The sneer dropped from Dash's face, and he let go of Danny to round on her. "What did you say to me?" he said, getting up in her face.

"You heard me."

His fists clenched at his sides. "You better watch your mouth."

"Or what?" she said throwing his words back at him. "You're not gonna hit a girl are you? That seems a little low even for you."

He sneered. "Nah, I'll just beat the crap out of your brother." He grabbed Danny's shoulder again and shoved him into the lockers hard.

"Mr. Baxter," came a level voice. They all turned to see Mr. Lancer standing to the side with his arms crossed. "What's going on here?"

Dash smiled and let go of Danny. "Nothing, sir," he answered politely.

"That's what I thought," the teacher said. "Now get to class, all of you."

Dash and his goons scurried off and Mr. Lancer went back to his classroom.

Danny let out a sigh and straightened his jacket. "You shouldn't have done that," he muttered.

"What was I supposed to do?" Danielle said with a helpless gesture.

Danny sighed. "I don't know. I'm going to class," he said before turning to leave.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked, sounding both annoyed and hurt.

"No, I'm tired," he said turning back to her. "Both physically and mentally. First there's that metal ghost, and now the whole town probably thinks our parents are crazy."

He sighed again and shook his head. "I'm going to class," he repeated, and turned again. This time Danielle didn't stop him.

...

Danny was falling asleep by lunch until he saw Sam approaching their table. She was wearing a bright pink Peter Pan collared dress, with a cream colored frock coat over it. It screamed her mother's 50's aesthetic.

Danielle, obviously just as startled by Sam's outfit as Danny was, started to say, "You look like—"

"Don't, what ever you were going to say, just don't," Sam snapped.

"Can I at least ask why?"

"My mom obviously."

"Well, obviously," Danny chimed in. "But why did she make you dress up like a fifties infomercial?"

She glared at him. "You look like shit," she stated bluntly.

"We're not talking about how bad Danny looks," Tucker said. "We're talking about how bad you look, Sam."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Me and my mom got in a huge fight last night about your parents," she said looking between Danny and Danielle. "She didn't want me hanging out with you guys any more, thinking that your whole family was crazy, and it would rub off on me." She angrily dumped out her lunchbox onto the table. "Then she offered a bargain, I would wear her 'approved' clothing in exchange for my god given rights!"

Danny sighed and let his head fall into his hands. "I'm sorry, Sam," he mumbled through his fingers.

"Don't be sorry," Sam said. "It's not like you did anything wrong."

"How long do you think she's gonna hold this over your head?" Danielle asked.

"I'll give it a week, then I'll refuse to wear her old fashioned bullshit anymore, she'll threaten to send me to boarding school, ground me, and then within another week we'll all forget about it like it never happened."

Danny opened his mouth to comment, but before he could speak, the lump of cold in his chest intensified, and a cold puff of fog came out instead. Everyone at the table noticed. He curled into himself and fearfully looked around the lunchroom.

"Is it Skulker?" Sam asked.

"Don't know," Danny answered shortly.

He looked up at the ceiling, just catching a glimpse of an ectopus as it phased through the roof. He relaxed just a fraction. "It's an ectopus."

"You gonna go after it?" Tucker asked like he hoped the answer would be 'no'.

"You know what, no, I'm not. With Skulker still around, it could be a trap."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You think he'd try to lure you away with bait or something?"

Danny let out an annoyed huff. "I don't know, maybe?"

"Hey, Danny," Danielle said from beside him.

He glanced at her and saw she was looking at the place on the ceiling where the ectopus had gone through. She only looked away when Danny turned to her.

"Um, what did you say it felt like—the ghost sense, I mean," she said.

"You mean just in general or...?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, just in general."

"Uh, cold, just...the coldness in my chest gets worse, and you all see the puff of fog. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Do you think it could be different for me, because that's not what I feel."

"What do you feel?" Danny asked.

"Like there's an itch under my skin that I can't scratch, but it's...only with my arm that has the scar."

"And you think this is your version of the ghost sense?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know, it just started happening, like only a couple days ago. But definitely before Skulker showed up, so I don't think this is related to him."

"Have you talked to Dan about this?" Danny asked.

"I wasn't able to get hold of him all last week. I even tried calling him a couple times, but he never answered back."

Danny frowned annoyedly. "He never just talked about it in general?"

She shrugged. "He doesn't really like to talk about that stuff, so I usually don't push it."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Figures."

...

"You know, I could probably find that old air mattress if you wanted me to," Danielle said as she watched Danny set out his sleeping bag on her floor for the second night in a row. "It's probably in the attic somewhere."

Danny shook his head. He wasn't going to get much sleep one way or another, so it didn't really matter. "No, I don't want you to get bitten by a brown recluse or something on my account," he said dryly.

"Brown recluses do like to nest in cardboard," she muttered, mostly to herself.

"Exactly. So," he said crawling into his sleeping bag, "don't worry about me. I'm just fine like this."

She leaned over her bed and gave him a worried look. "Do you at least want one of my stuffed animals?"

"Sure, I want the panda one," he said with a smirk.

"Well, first off, his name is Poe, and second, you can't have him. He's my favorite. You can have Otto," she said as she handed him an otter plushie.

"You named your otter Otto. Are you serious?" he deadpanned.

"What else would I have named him?"

Danny held the otter up to his face so he was staring into its lifeless beady eyes. "Hello, Otto, I'm sorry my sister gave you a dumb name."

She leaned over the side of her bed with a glare. "It's a great name, and if you're going to be rude, you can give him back."

Danny hugged the plushie to his chest. "No, I wanna keep him."

"Then behave." She disappeared over the side of her bed again. "Good night."

"Good night," Danny said as he rolled over.

It didn't take as long as he thought it would for him to drift off, maybe because he was already so tired.

...

It felt like it was only a second later he was being woken up by a cold metal hand around his throat. He managed to let out a squeak before it cut off his air.

Suddenly, they were both sinking through the floor.

Before he hit the basement floor, he managed to transform, and go intangible. The force behind the hand around his throat predicted this move and went intangible as well. The metal ghost dragged him back up through the house's foundation and held him aloft like Simba from the freaking Lion King—that is if the monkey had been intending to skin Simba alive and display his pelt on the wall instead of just showing him off to a bunch of humanized animals.

Danny struggled, kicking out and landing a solid kick to the ghost's face. Surprisingly, Skulker faltered and Danny managed to phase out of his hold. The metal ghost recovered quickly, however, and landed a solid right hook to Danny's stomach. Danny flew into the basement wall and overturned a lab table as he came crashing down.

...

Danielle woke from a dream of bugs crawling under her skin, only to still feel the crawling sensation in the waking world. Half awake, she scratched her arm, but it offered no relief and almost made itch worse.

She let out a soft sigh and opened her eyes. To her surprise she was greeted with a green cast room. It took a second in her groggy state to realize that that was definitely wrong, and for her body to respond accordingly. Her heart rate quickened and her breathing sped, all the while her skin still crawled.

Danielle tried to move but was paralyzed with fear. She was faced away from Danny and whatever was casting green light over the room. If it was Skulker and she turned over, he'd know she was awake, but if she didn't do anything at all he might do something to Danny. What if he had already done something to Danny? She felt sick with that thought.

She heard a quiet yelp from behind her and finally found the courage to move. She shot up and whipped around only just in time to see Skulker knelt beside her bed before he phased through the floor, presumably with Danny in toe.

Without an ounce of forethought, Danielle immediately jumped out of her bed and ran out of her room. She took the stares two at a time and completely jumped over the last few, landing on the first floor with a thud. She treated the basement stares much the same way, literally jumping onto the scene.

Her eyes landed on Skulker first. He looked both surprised and annoyed to see her—and was leveling a gun at Danny. Danny took Skulker's small moment of hesitation and tried to use it to his advantage, rushing the metal ghost.

Sulker's attention immediately snapped back to him. only to get hit almost directly in the chest. He went flying again, hitting the opposite wall. He slumped. The light went out in his eyes and the white ring appeared around his waist before flickering out again. Danny struggled to pull himself up, and Danielle could see the green gore spattering his chest.

She gasped and ran to his side, calling his name, but before she could reach him the metal ghost intercepted her. "Stay out of this, human," he sneered. With a backhand, like he was just swatting a fly, he knocked her away, throwing her several feet.

The air whooshed out of her lungs with an audible 'oof'. Her back hit the ground first, then her head cracked painfully against the tile floor. Starbursts of color flashed in her eyes, and for just a second, her vision went dark.

She heard Danny scream her name.

She pushed herself up onto her elbows and saw Danny slam into Skulker through the stars still swirling in her eyes. Danny had the upper hand for only about a second. Skulker quickly recovered and rounded on him, punching him squarely in the jaw.

Danielle cringed. She averted her eyes, but in doing so they landed on one of her parents inventions laying on the ground, thrown there when one of the tables were overturned. She recognized it almost immediately. It was a tweaked version of the gun Tucker had messed around with, and had been properly named the Fenton Ghost Gun. Their dad had excitedly shown it to them as he was wont to do, and explained that it shot electrically charged ectoplasm, or something like that. Whatever the case it was good for her. She rolled on her hands and knees and began to crawl for it.

She was only about a yard from it when she heard Danny let out a cry of pain. She paused and looked up. Danny sagged close to the ground, as if he was barely holding himself up. He was holding his arm, ectoplasm seeping through his fingers.

Her scalp prickled and the sensation followed down her back and arms. Something hot began to flicker in her chest, along with the anger and fear for her brother.

Skulker let out a sinister laugh and her eyes slid to him as he reconfigured his suit again, his 'hand cannon' shifting almost imperceptibly. Taking advantage of Danny's wounded state, he shot at him with the new attachment. Danielle's eyes followed it as the charge flew toward her brother.

It only struck his hand, but a band of bright green light wrapped around his wrist. He looked at it confused for a second before a string of light shot from it to his other wrist. His hands were forced together, as if held by handcuffs.

Skulker smirked and readied his new weapon again.

The hot ball of static in her chest pulsed, sending shockwaves through her body, and her scar burned hot, almost painfully. Before she could grasp what was happening, a pale green ring of light appeared around her waist. It split in two, one going down her legs, the other sliding up her torso.

Skulker froze and stared at her. "You're both halfas," he said with an almost anxious tone in his voice.

Danny suddenly flew at him hitting him double fisted (because his hands were still trapped together) in the face. There was a loud crack of metal like something breaking and the lights flickered in Skulker's eyes. The metal ghost quickly retreated, his body jerking awkwardly, and his head hung at a slightly off angle.

"I will have your pelt for that, whelp!" he shouted. He tried to shoot, but his suit malfunctioned. All that came out of the muzzle of the gun attachment on his arm was a green spark.

Skulker glanced at his gun then behind the twins. Danielle glanced over her shoulder at the closed doors of the portal. They both stood between him and it.

He suddenly rushed them, brushing past Danny. Danielle lunged for the blaster on the ground, moving faster than she thought possible. She missed Skulker by a mile, the green blast flying about two feet in front of him, but it made him stop short. Danielle shot again, the second blast grazing him.

Skulker turned his attention to her, a furious glare on his face. He raised his arm to shoot, but before he could do anything (if anything would have happened at all, seeing as his suit was still malfunctioning on him), Danny checked him with his shoulder, sending him into the two feet thick metal blast doors of the portal.

Skulker tried to move for the control panel, but spasmed violently, his eyes flickering again. It gave Danielle enough time to properly aim. With the anger for all the trouble and pain he put her brother and herself through, she found herself aiming for the ghost's head.

Her shot was true. There was another loud crack, and the ghost's head tilted back violently. It only seemed to be held on by a few wires at that point. Danielle readied herself to take another shot, but the ghost suddenly lurched forward and fell to the ground, its eyes dark.

There was a beat of silence, and then Danny said, "Woah, good shot."

Danielle let out a nervous chuckle. "I guess all those archery lessons in Wii Sports Resort really payed off."

Danny let out a weak chuckle as well. "Yeah. Um, also, you're a ghost."

She looked down at herself. Her light gray sweatpants had become a darker gray and the white long sleeve t-shirt she had worn to bed had turned black.

"Huh, well would you look at that," she mused.

"And you're floating about a foot off the ground."

She blinked. Wow, she was, wasn't she. Just at the thought, she lifted a little higher. She moved, almost becoming horizontal in air. It was almost like the kind of weightlessness you feel in water.

And then just liked that, she fell face down on the floor. Danny let out a loud laugh. She raised her head with a glare. It didn't really hurt, but it was embarrassing.

"You thought about it too much," he said, still chuckling.

"I did not!"

Suddenly, there was a shrill voice from the inert body of Skulker. "How could this be?! I, Skulker, the Ghost World's greatest hunter, defeated by a mere fledgling halfa?!"

Danny raised an eyebrow and floated over to Skulker's metal body. He leaned down and knocked on the metal head. "Hey, anybody home?"

"Stop that! I command you to stop that at once!" the tiny voice yelled again.

He ripped off the head the rest of the way, and as he held it up, two tiny green legs poked out from the bottom of the helmet. Danny grabbed the creature by the feet and pulled it out, presenting it upside down. It was only about the size of a large bullfrog and vaguely resembled one in appearance, though mostly it just looked like a green blob with legs.

"Unhand me now, for I am Skulker, the Ghost World's greatest hunter!" it shrieked.

Danielle burst out laughing, actually doubling over. Danny quickly joined in.

After at least half a minute, Danielle was finally able to get herself together enough to choke out, "W-what do you think we should do with him?" She wiped away actual tears from her eyes. "Maybe we should just blast him into oblivion." The blob, still upside down in Danny's hold, began to look a little nervous.

"Nah," Danny said, still chuckling quietly. He went over to the control panel to the portal and pressed the 'open' button. The doors slid open and he tossed Skulker in. He closed the doors again.

"Why'd you do that?" Danielle whined. "We had him!"

"Could you really have just...I don't know, blown him away? Would you really have wanted me to hold him up while you shot him out of existence?"

Danielle looked down at the ghost gun she still held in her hands. Her stomach dropped and she knew the answer was 'no'. But instead she said, "Maybe. He hunted you like an animal, Danny. He might try again."

He averted his eyes, something solemn appearing in his expression. "Yeah, I know, but..." he shrugged, "...I just don't think that's our style. That's something our parents might do, but we know better."

Danielle sighed. "Okay, but I'm keeping the gun."

Danny snorted. "Sure, just don't shoot your eye out. Uh, also, are you alright?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I think so. Are you alright? You're the one that got shot several times."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm basically Deadpool now." He showed her his arm. "See? There's not even a hole in my clothes."

Her eyes widened a fraction. He looked...completely fine—tired but fine. The ectoplasm she remembered splattered across his chest, was completely gone. There wasn't even a fleck of green on his clothes to show that he had been injured only moments ago.

"That's not like Deadpool," she said.

He made a face. "Yeah, I...don't really like to think about it too much."

"Okay, so anyway," Danielle said, steering the conversion away from that potentially existential crisis inducing topic, "what do we do with that." She waved a hand at the broken mech-suit.

"Easy," Danny said. He bent over and laid a hand on the suit. His hand and the suit went translucent, and he phased it into the floor, leaving the suit submerged in the foundation. "Like that."

"Come on, we should probably get out of here now," he said.

Danny flew up through the ceiling without waiting for her. She glared at the spot on the ceiling where he disappeared.

Now how did she do it again? She was floating only a moment ago without even thinking about it. Danny said he usually just had to think about it and he could do it. But she tried just thinking about floating up to the ceiling, and she couldn't do it.

Danny stuck his head back through the ceiling a second later. "Uh, Ellie, what's the problem?"

"I can't figure out how to get my stupid powers to work," she grumbled.

"Need some help?"

"No, I want to figure out how to do it on my own."

"Well, just try to imagine yourself floating up," he said a bit unhelpfully.

"Yeah, I'm trying."

He came the rest of the way into the basement, his eyebrows pinched. "I'm sorry I don't know what to say."

She sighed. "It's okay."

She was already starting to feel fatigued, not even using any of her powers. Frustrated was beginning to set in.

She let out a quiet growl, and at the risk of looking like a total dork, she jumped as high as she could off the ground. At least if she fell on her face, they had something to laugh at. But, to her surprise, she actually stayed floating in midair.

She started to look down, but Danny quickly said, "Don't look down, don't think about it, just come on." He flew up back through ceiling.

Danielle tried to follow him but found that the ceiling wouldn't yield for her. She banged on it with her fist. "Damn it!"

Danny's hand phased through the ceiling beside her. "No!" she yelled. "I have to do it myself!"

She tried to strike the metal tiles of the ceiling again, but her hand phased through. She tried to focus on the tingling sensation in her arm, but before she could, she felt another hand grab hers and pull her through the floor, then the second, until she and Danny were both in her room.

She pushed his hand away and hissed in a stage whisper, "I told you I wanted to do it on my own!"

"I'm sorry, I just—"

Before he could finish that though, something fluttered in Danielle's chest. She reflexively put a hand to the spot. Suddenly her anger melted away, and all that was left was tiredness. She didn't think she had ever felt so absolutely down-to-the-bone tired.

A pale green ring of light appeared around her waist again and transformed her back. Her exhaustion only grew. She quickly sat down on her bed. She had to prop her head up with her hand to even stay upright.

"Danielle, are you okay?" Danny asked.

"Mm, don't know," she slurred.

"Maybe you should lay down."

She hummed a reply and pulled her legs up on the bed. The black curtain of unconsciousness had lowered over her before her head even hit the pillow.