"Smile!"

"Sam, it's a camcorder and this is a video. You don't have to say that. Besides you're making Danny look like an idiot."

"Hey!" Danny let the white hazmat suit he was holding up drop till it dragged on the floor.

"Oh, get over it. This is for 'science'!" Now everyone say your names. I'm Sam Manson, fourteen, and holding the camera." As she said it Sam turned the camera on herself and waved, letting future lovers of teen 'science' everywhere look at her short cropped black hair and goth make-up. She turned the camera on her red-hated friend and let the camera see how horribly his yellow shirt clashed with his dark skin tone. "Your turn."

"Fine." He moved his hands to his hips. "Tucker Foley. Fourteen. Technological genius." Tucker moved his hand to his face to adjust his glasses but the camera was already back on Danny. Behind him was a gaping hole in the wall. Yellow and black striped doors were held open by two blocks to protect the cables that ran out from inside. On top, a red light bulb sat uncovered and unused. The hole was easily the most notable thing in the underground lab where it sat across from rows of tables covered in beakers, gadgets and papers. It was a wonder a room almost as big as a basketball court fit under the city home.

Danny sighed and lifted the suit again. "Danny Fenton. Fourteen. Going to be in deep crap when his parents" - Danny pointed to the picture of his dad's face plastered to the front of the suit - "get home."

"Tuck, catch," Sam tossed the camcorder towards Tucker. Tucker looked like he was about to have a panic attack before he caught it and let out a huge breath.

"Sam, this is the best camera I have!" Tucker readjusted his barete and pointed the camera towards her. "It's the best a Wal-Mart employee discount can buy!'

Sam ignored him and stepped next to Danny. She placed her hands on her hips and looked in at the circuits covering the interior of the hole. "Wow..." she sighed.

"Ok, I showed you the portal, can we get out of here now?" Danny asked his goth friend, but she didn't look toward him. "My parents could be back here any minute. Besides, they say it doesn't work anyway."

"C'mon, Danny, a ghost zone! Aren't you curious?" Sam spread her hand out toward the portal. "You gotta check it out!"

Danny bit his bottom lip and seemed to be thinking as he looked at the hole in the wall. His parents had obsessed over the thing for as long as he could remember. They were always dead set upon breaking into the world of ghosts. But ghosts were dead people, right? Breaking into there would be just like breaking into the realm of resting souls. Breaking a hole between life and death...and how cool is that?

"Y'know what...you're right," he told Sam, a smile growing on his face as he gazed into the portal. "Who knows what kind of awesome, super-cool things could lie on the other side of that portal..."

"Well then," Sam turned to Danny and pulled the hazmat, still in his hands, off the ground. "Suit up, Ghost Boy."

Tucker zoomed the camera in on Danny as he slipped the suit on over his white t-shirt and jeans while Sam jogged to the cabinet to get him boots, gloves, and a belt. When Sam came back over, Danny was shoving his hand into the camera lens, and telling Tucker to turn it off already. By the time Danny had strapped the rest of the suit on and zipped it, Sam had thrown the camera battery into a hazardous waste bin.

"Hang on," Sam grabbed the picture of Jack Fenton's face and ripped it off Danny's chest. "you can't go walking around with that on your chest."

"Thanks." Danny brushed off the spot on his chest where the face was, as if to get rid of any bad luck his dad would bring.

Danny ruffled the giant poof of black hair on the top of his head out of nervousness. He spared a glance at the stairs leading back up to the kitchen, almost as if to will someone to come down the stairs. But looking back at the dormant portal the feeling completely evaporated. He wanted to see a ghost.

With one last look at his friends - Tucker gave him a reassuring double thumbs up - he took a deep breath and stepped inside the portal.

The inside was surprisingly cold, almost like walking into a refrigerator, but the hazmat suit seemed to block out most of the cold. Looking down at his suit, Danny wondered what the pouches and clips on the belt would be used for when he spotted a cord on the floor between his feet. Following it with his eyes, he traced the cord as it took a sharp right and came all the way across the ceiling, over his head, to where it hooked into a box with two clearly labeled buttons: Off and On.

Only his parents.

Only his parents would forget to turn it on. But could it really be that simple?...Of course it could, these are my parents, he thought, lifting his hand.

The last thing he remembered was pushing the button.