"This is not looking good," Ford muttered to Dipper. The Stratus Shifter hadn't shown up all day, and there was no way to track it. Wendy and Mabel were together in the woods, looking for signs. Ford and Dipper were closeted in the basement, trying to find a way to track the clone. 

"Will a Stratus Shifter have the same powers Danny does?" Dipper asked nervously. 

Ford shook his head in defeat.

"I just don't know Dipper. Shifters are rare enough as it is. We don't have much information on their pure form, let alone how they act when cloning something... not entirely human."

Dipper shivered. 

"One way or the other, the creature will be powerless within a week," Ford reassured him. "We'll do what we can."

Dipper bit his lip. A thought had occurred that was bothering him.

"Grunkle Ford... You know how ghosts can posses people?"

Ford nodded thoughtfully. He picked up journal 3 and opened it to the well worn ghost page. 

"They seem to prefer calling it 'overshadowing', but yes."

"If that Shifter can mimic Danny's powers, then could it have the ability to overshadow anyone? If it kept jumping between bodies, it might never lose form." Dipper explained, twisting his hands together. 

Ford lowered the journal with a look of dawning horror. 

"Then we'd better catch it before it can discover that power," he growled. 

......................................................................

Danny lay awake that night. After his dream with Bill, he couldn't go back to sleep. His words kept playing back in his mind.

"Sorta makes you wish you had a way to track the supernatural doesn't it? Make portals by yourself?"

That image of himself swooping through town, destroying everything in sight wouldn't leave him alone. Bill said that the Shifter would have his abilities. He had to find it first. 

Moving quietly so he didn't wake Jazz, Danny slid out of his sleeping bag and stood up. He tried to whisper, "Going ghost," before remembering that his voice didn't work. 

Scowling, he transformed and shot through the R.V. ceiling and into the night.