THEN: Two months after meeting the Fentons, Sam and Dean find out that there is a large ghost infestation in Amity Park that is apparently being dealt with by a lone teenaged boy that the media has dubbed "Inviso-Bill". The Winchesters decide to investigate while they await news of the yellow-eyed demon.

NOW:

Danny had been having a busy day. He'd been having a lot of busy days lately. Really it had been a busy few months. Ever since that day in his parents' lab where he had half-died, he felt like he'd been fighting for his life -- or his afterlife? He didn't really know -- nonstop. He didn't know what it was about bullies, but they seemed to be unable to stay away from people who tried to fight back. Take Dash Baxter, for instance, one of Danny's human bullies. Danny had stood up to him one time after becoming part ghost and now it felt like he was getting shoved into his locker -- or a toilet -- every day.

This trend apparently continued even after people died. Since his parents' portal had started working again after Danny's, er... half-death, ghostly bullies had been plaguing the city of Amity Park. Like with Dash, he had stood up to each of them one time and now they couldn't seem to haunt the human realm without making trouble for him.

No rest for the wicked, Danny thought, resignedly, as he shoved his homework back into his backpack and ran to the restroom of the Nasty Burger. He and his friends had been hanging out there a lot more recently since it was safer for him to go ghost there than it was at home. As he pushed open the bathroom door, Danny released the breath he had been holding, allowing the little blue wisp that indicated the proximity of a ghost to escape. He had developed a habit of holding his breath every time he could feel his ghost sense about to go off, which wasn't very often, unfortunately. There had been a few close calls at home where his parents had thought he had been possessed. Although he'd managed to convince them he was just cold, he didn't know how long they would buy that sad excuse, hence the move to the Nasty Burger and his nascent habit.

Making sure the bathroom door was locked, he said, "Going ghost!" and transformed. Sam and Tucker had criticized him relentlessly for saying something so cheesy, but it really did seem to help him trigger his transformation into his white-haired alter ego: Danny Phantom.

Sam and Tucker had teased him about the name too. In his defense, he'd had about 5 seconds to think of a suitable name when he'd come up with it. Despite being a full-time ghost fighter with an endless supply of snarky banter, he wasn't great at thinking under pressure sometimes.

Knowing that his friends would take care of his backpack, he zipped through the ceiling and into the sky, turning invisible until he was a good distance above the ground.

"Now..." he mused to himself, "where are you, oh ruiner of study time?"

The range in which his ghost sense would be activated was a complete mystery to Danny. With no real way to test it, he had to depend on his sharper-than-normal senses to track down the offending ghost whenever the little blue wisp made its appearance. He started flying in expanding circles, looking out for anything that could indicate the presence of a ghost. He really hoped this was a false alarm. Some small, inconsequential ghost just passing by him on their way to harmlessly rattle a few trinkets in someone's attic before disappearing back into the Ghost Zone.

But then an explosion sounded a block away and his hopes were dashed.

Johnny 13 zipped by below Danny, his shadow not far behind, heading towards the park. Danny grimaced and pursued. Johnny seemed to be on a joyride on a new motorcycle, and the explosion Danny had heard was the backfire of the engine. Probably not the greatest thing to hear from a motorcycle, but then again, it was a ghost motorcycle.

Danny dipped down so he was at Johnny's level and shouted over the racing wind, "Yo! Rides that dead belong in the Ghost Zone. Why don't you take it back before I deliver it there in a scrap heap?"

"As if you could, punk!" Johnny flicked a finger and Shadow charged towards Danny, who just barely managed to dodge the swiping claws.

"I don't know Johnny," Danny said, "I'm getting a real sense of deja vu here." Keeping his attention on the shadow, Danny reached back a hand and fired an ectoblast into Johnny's back tire, which promptly blew out.

As the bike slowed down, Johnny screamed, "THIS IS A NEW BIKE, YOU--" but whatever he was going to finish his sentence with was drowned out by the wind as Danny charged at Shadow who was coming back for a second pass. Putting his fists together in front of him, Danny fired another ectoblast straight into the shadow's leering face, sending it careening backwards.

"New bike, but still the same old moves, Shadow! You need an upgrade!" Danny yelled as he closed in. "Let me help with that!" And with a few well-placed punches, Danny quickly dispatched the shadow. As it fell to the ground, Sam and Tucker, who had finally caught up to him on their motor scooters, sucked it into the Fenton thermos.

Danny turned back to Johnny just in time to see him run towards Sam and Tucker. Instantly Danny was diving, but he was too high up to intercept Johnny in time. His stomach plummeted as Johnny reached his friends, but instead of grabbing them or otherwise injuring them, he just shoved them aside and hopped onto one of their scooters, zooming off. Relieved, Danny landed near his friends.

"Are you guys ok?" he asked, keeping one eye on Johnny as he zipped around a corner and out of sight.

"Just peachy," Sam said, giving him a thumbs up as she pushed herself off the asphalt, grabbing the Fenton thermos from where it had been knocked out of her hands.

"My scooter!" was all Tucker replied.

"Don't worry," Sam said, brushing herself off, "If he breaks it, I'll buy you a new one."

"I keep forgetting you're loaded," said Danny, sniggering. He knew Sam hated to be reminded of how rich her family was, but that just made it more fun to tease her about it.

"Danny!" Sam's yell made him jump. "What are you doing?!"

He rubbed his head, nonplussed. "Uh, checking to make sure you guys are ok?"

"What about Johnny?!" she asked, waving wildly in the direction the other ghost had gone.

"Oh yeah!" Danny leapt into the air and sped off. He zipped around the corner he had seen Johnny turn around and almost ran headfirst into the windshield of a car. There was a loud screeching of brakes and the blare of a horn as the car swerved to avoid him. Pulling up short, he glanced to make sure the car and its passengers were unharmed. The car, a vintage-looking black model, had stopped, but seeing no broken glass, blood, or deployed air bags, Danny resumed his hurried pursuit of Johnny 13. His highest priority, now and forever more, it seemed, was catching ghosts. He would have sighed as he rounded another corner following the sounds of screams and Johnny's maniacal laughter, but the adrenaline of the chase was in him now and all he could do was smile.

~~~

Dean got out of the Impala to watch the glowing boy fly off down the street and disappear around a corner. He hadn't gotten the clearest of looks as the kid had almost rammed straight into his windshield before zooming away, but Dean was absolutely sure it had been the infamous Inviso-Bill.

On the other side of the car, Sam stood, looking in the same direction.

"That looked like Inviso-Bill," he said.

Dean harrumphed and got back into the car. "That's such a stupid name. Who even came up with that?"

"Probably the kid," said Sam, also reentering the vehicle.

"Well, then he's a dumbass." Dean pressed down the accelerator and the pair continued down the road. Suddenly, a motorized scooter zipped around the same corner where Inviso-Bill had come from and Dean had to slam on his breaks again to avoid hitting it.

The scooter swerved around the Impala and a girl's angry voice shouted: "Hey, watch it!"

Sam whipped around to watch the motor scooter, which he now realized had two passengers, whirr off down the street in apparent pursuit of Inviso-Bill. "I think those were Danny's friends, Sam Manson and Tucker, if I remember correctly. What were they doing following Inviso-Bill?"

Once again, Dean pressed down the accelerator, an extra wariness in his touch this time. "Probably just thrill-seeking. I'm surprised Danny's not with them."

"Yeah..." Sam seemed to be lost in thought. "How long until we get to the motel?"

"I can't read the future, Sam," Dean grumbled, focusing on the road. They cruised along peacefully for a while until Dean turned another corner and had to slam on his breaks again as a herd of glowing green octopi swam lazily down the street. "What is the deal with this city?!" When they started moving again, Dean was hyper aware of his surroundings. Now that he was looking, the entire town seemed to glow faintly green from all the ectoplasm dripping off of everything. Benign ghosts occasionally drifted across the street, paying no heed to the traffic they were crossing.

More astounding to him were the people -- the human people, that is. For the most part, they seemed completely fine with the ghostly takeover. The occasional excitable teenager or high strung adult would freak out and start screaming, but as Dean passed a park, he saw a little kid attempting to share his ice cream cone with the little green ghost of a dog.

By the time the brothers reached the motel, they were completely flummoxed. How had so many ghosts taken up residence in one of the most populous cities in the area without any hunters noticing? When he posed the question to Sam, he found his brother had been thinking along the same lines and had come up with a hypothesis.

"I bet this all happened slowly since we were here. Maybe a few smaller ghosts at first, but then they were so ingrained in the city that people just stopped paying them any attention once they realized that they mostly wouldn't hurt them," Sam said, typing away on his laptop. "If anything, I think this confirms that the Fentons got their portal working. And not long after we left, either" Seconds later, Sam had pulled up article after article of vaguely worded news posts that alluded to the ghost infestation without actually saying the word "ghost". Most of them, surprisingly, were from the school newspaper of the local high school: Casper High.

STUDENTS SAY SCHOOL LUNCH IS MORE UNDEAD THAN USUAL

NEW STUDENT COUNSELOR: MISSING OR DEAD TO BEGIN WITH?

DECEASED ALUMNUS SEEN ROAMING THE HALLS, BUT WHO WOULD WANT TO COME BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL?

Sam noticed these plus many more articles were all by the same person: Westley Weston, an unfortunate name if ever Sam saw one. He wrote it down; he and Dean would have to check out this Westley character later.

"I think we should head to the Fentons' first and then to the local high school, Casper High," Sam said, looking up to where Dean was finishing laying out a line of salt around the entire perimeter of the room. "Uh, didn't salt not work on that one ghost we fought a few months ago?" Sam asked.

"Well, we know it works on at least some types of ghosts, and the fewer ghosts drifting through the room, the better." Dean plopped the mostly empty container of salt on the table, then sank into the chair opposite Sam, rubbing his eyes. Abruptly, Sam remembered that Dean was still recovering from the djinn attack he had suffered a few days ago.

Gingerly closing his laptop, he said, brightly, "Well, I'll call the Fentons and ask if we can go over there tomorrow, but in the meantime we can just relax, have a beer or two and get some rest. This case seems like it's going to be a headache."

Dean looked like he wanted to protest, but in the end, he just sighed and sank a little lower in the plush chair. "Ok," he said, closing his eyes. Before Sam left their room to grab the promised beer, he made sure to leave Dean a glass of water on the table. Then, grabbing the keys to the Impala off the bedside table, Sam headed out, closing the door softly behind him.

The motel they were staying at was called the Nevermore Motel. The doors were all faded black along a building painted in a shade of lavender that was just off. It was run by a couple who were most decidedly goth and had flyers of heavy metal concerts and local death poetry slams littered around their lobby and on the announcement bulletin board outside. Sam idly scanned some of the flyers on his way to the Impala. "Dumpty Humpty coming to AMITY PARK, IL November 17th!" This particular flyer was completely black except for the minimalist image of an egg wearing sunglasses at the bottom. Then, another flyer caught his eye. "Circus Gothica, where your nightmares come to life. Cross over to the dark side." A list of show dates followed. Sam snorted at the dramatic font and verbiage.

Right as he was about to get into the Impala, a loud bang echoed overhead and he flinched, looking up. There appeared to be a dogfight going on a mere hundred feet above the roof of the hotel. Two airborne... somethings chased each other in figures of eight, blasting back and forth at each other with green and pink blasts of energy. Occasionally, two of the multicolored beams would collide in midair, causing an explosion that produced booms like the one he'd heard.

Sam squinted at the figures, trying to discern more details, but suddenly, one of the pink bolts of light hit its opponent, throwing it back. As what had, until now, appeared to be a black and white projectile settled into stillness, Sam could see that it was none other than Inviso-Bill, his glowing hands raised defensively in front of him as he tried to shake off the hit he'd just taken. Had he shot that green energy out of his hands? The other projectile stopped moving too, revealing itself to be a magenta-clad female figure riding... was that a hoverboard?!

"Come on, what happened at Axion Labs was an accident! I had no more control over the situation than you did!" Inviso-Bill yelled across the intervening space, the words carrying to Sam down below in the parking lot. Sam made a mental note to look up this Axion Labs place.

"Shut it, ghost!" the girl yelled back, stunning Sam for two reasons. First, her voice was much younger than he had assumed it would be. Around middle or high school, he guessed. Second, she'd just referred to Inviso-Bill as a ghost. A mistake, perhaps? "You ruined my life and now I'm going to ruin your afterlife!" She shot at Inviso-Bill again, but he dodged out of the way.

"Oh, yeah," said Inviso-Bill, "real original." She shot at him again and he dodged. They started circling each other in the sky, each with their weapons at the ready, Inviso-Bill with his fists raised, and the girl with her gun. "I don't want to fight you, Valerie," Inviso-Bill tried again. Apparently saying her name was a bad move.

"It's Huntress, you piece of ectoplasmic scum!" screamed the girl, firing off a rapid fire sequence of shots. And before Sam could take another breath, they had zoomed away across the city, fighting just as viciously as they had been when Sam had first seen them. After a few more seconds of staring at the sky, Sam shook his head, equal parts bewildered and amused. Then, without further ado, he compressed himself into the Impala and roared off to the liquor store, thoughts whirling through his head all the way.

When he got back to the motel later, Dean was fast asleep in one of the dark purple beds. It looked like he had managed to slip only one of his shoes off before falling asleep. Sam set the bag of beer and food down as quietly as he could and grabbed his laptop, taking it and a beer outside so he wouldn't disturb his brother with his typing.

The first thing he looked up was "Axion Labs". It turned out to be a large technology development and production plant on the edge of Amity Park. It looked like this facility might be the place where most of the city worked and made their living. As he scrolled through the search results, he found a news report from a few weeks before with the information he was looking for.

Axion Labs, the hub of Amity Park's jump into the 21st century, was nearly leveled on Friday as local threat, Inviso-Bill, rampaged through the facility with his pet, a ghostly green dog allegedly named Cujo. The facility had just recently installed a security update courtesy of Damon Gray, former head of the R&D department. Mr. Gray declined to comment, but higher ups in the corporation say that he had been assigned the job with the intent of making the facility ghost proof in lieu of the recent ghost influx into the city.

One ghost in particular, the dog now known as "Cujo", ran rampant through the facility on a regular basis for three days before Mr. Gray began installing the updates to the security system. The day after the new system was installed, Inviso-Bill accompanied Cujo on his rampage through the building, completely destroying the new security system and many hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment. Mr. Gray was subsequently demoted.

Axion Labs could now be facing a lawsuit from several concerned parents whose children were part of a school field trip touring the facility that day. Before being sequestered by their lawyers, Jeremy and Pamela Manson told reporters that "there will be hell to pay for the individuals responsible for the endangerment of our child!" When told about Mr. Gray's demotion in light of the catastrophe, Mrs. Manson commented that "that's one down, one to go! We're coming for you, Inviso-Bill!"

Sam reread the article a few times, making sure that there was no "Valerie" mentioned. Then he sat back and thought. That Valerie, or Huntress, as she had insisted Inviso-Bill call her, had sounded young. Young enough to be in high school? Sam glanced through the article again, his eyes landing on the words "school field trip". Pulling up several social media sites, Sam searched a variety of different names and phrases and eventually found the Facebook profile of Valerie Gray, a high school student at Casper High School and daughter of Damon Gray. Her unwisely public feed, which was littered with daily selfies and pictures of her fashionable friends, had been suspiciously silent since the day of the Axion Labs incident.

It fits, Sam thought, connecting the pieces in his mind. Aside from Damon Gray, the person bearing the primary responsibility for the destruction of Axion Labs was Inviso-Bill. It was plausible that the Grays blamed him for Damon's demotion. Although he had been demoted, Damon Gray was still working for Axion, meaning both he and his daughter still had access to some of the most high tech equipment in the country. The only thing Sam couldn't wrap his head around was how a freshman in high school had managed to pull off the theft of what was likely thousands of dollars of said high tech equipment, even if she'd had her dad's help. Would Damon want to risk jail time so soon after almost losing his job?

Either way, it was clear that Valerie, at least, was up to her ears in plotting revenge-by-hoverboard against Inviso-Bill, who himself seemed to be ending up at the center of everything. An unfortunate place to be, Sam mused sympathetically.

Getting up, he re-entered the motel room and dug around in his backpack, pulling out some sticky notes, a Sharpie, a box of tacks, and some yarn he kept for just such an occasion. Heading to the far wall, he removed a cheap painting and stuck two sticky notes on the wall. One read "Inviso-Bill" and the other "Valerie Gray (Huntress)". Using the tacks, he strung a piece of yarn between the two sticky notes and took out another one, writing "Axion Labs" on it. He strung a piece of yarn from Valerie's and Inviso-Bill's sticky notes to this one.

Taking one last sticky note, he wrote "Casper High" on it and connected it with yarn to Valerie's Post-It. He looked at Inviso-Bill's sticky note. He had also been young -- his voice definitely hadn't dropped yet. Was it possible he went to Casper High too? Shrugging, he connected Inviso-Bill to Casper high, but with a different color of yarn so he would remember his uncertainty.

Stepping back to admire his handiwork, he was struck suddenly with a thought. Taking out one more sticky note, he wrote "Ghost?" on it. Valerie had referred to Inviso-Bill as both a ghost and an "ectoplasmic piece of scum". Or was Valerie just saying mean things because her life had been ruined? Hesitantly, Sam stuck the note on the wall and connected it to Inviso-Bill's with the same color yarn he'd used to connect him to Casper High. If it was nothing, it was nothing, but it was definitely something to investigate.

He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight and he had been traveling and dealing with this strange haunted city all day long. He was exhausted. Maybe not as much as Dean, but still. Looking back at the triangles of sticky notes, he felt the smallest spark of pride. It may have been a long day, but at least it had been a productive one.