However, Danny was unable to sleep. He lay in his bed for what felt like hours, tossing and turning in his bed. He heard loud snores, at which point he looked over to Jazz, who was relaxed, her eyes closed, asleep. Danny sighed and decided to go for a little flight outside to relax.

After scanning the room for any cameras, he jumped up from his bed and rings of bluish-white appeared around his waist. One of the two rings went up his body, changing his pyjamas into a black hazmat suit with a white neck, and a stylised D in white on the front of the suit across his chest. His eyes glowed a neon, ectoplasmic green, and his hair became a glowing white. The other of the two rings went down his body, changing his pyjama bottoms to the trousers of the hazmat suit. He wore white boots and gloves, covering his previously bare hands and feet. Overall he had an ethereal look to him, like he didn't belong in the mortal realm.

Danny decided it would be best to turn invisible as he left, it would be too suspicious if he just flew out of his room completely visible.

He had gained ghost powers several months prior, and had kept it a secret from everyone except his best friends, Sam and Tucker, and his sister, Jazz. If he just waltzed out of his room in his ghost form his parents wouldn't take long to figure out that he's half ghost.

Danny turned invisible, and flew through the wall. He sighed as the cool night air brushed against his skin. He could use his ghost powers to lower his body temperature, but had decided not to around his parents, it would seem odd if he was the only person who wasn't boiling in the summer heat.

He flew away from the shack and became visible again over the dark, foreboding forest that surrounded the town. Various unidentifiable creatures roamed the woods, and Danny was glad that he didn't have to camp with them in there - being mauled by a wild animal wasn't on his list of holiday activities. All was silent, aside from the occasional shaking branch or gust of wind, and the town of Gravity Falls was but a few lights shining in cluster of dark streets. He took in a deep breath of fresh air, and let it out, marvelling at how calm the scene around him was. It was very different to life in Amity Park, where there was barely a moment with this sort of peace.

Danny began to fly closer to the trees, and in response, as though sensing his presence, the nocturnal birds took off, shaking the leaves, the masses of shadows shifting with the movement. He turned intangible, and flew through the branches that clustered and tangled around each other. Landing on a sturdy branch and sitting down, his legs dangling in the air, he observed his surroundings. A group of small creatures scurried along the forest floor, and Danny turned invisible as not to spook them, and flew down to get a closer look. On closer observation they were small rodents, with antlers? That was odd, he'd never seen any creatures like that before.

A crunching noise of footsteps stopped Danny in his thoughts, as he turned around to face what he expected to be a bear. Stan was walking through the trees, his eyes on the ground, wearing boxers and a tank top. Danny wasn't one to judge his clothing choices, and watched silently as Stan walked towards the Mystery Shack. 'I guess he must have also decided to go for a walk,' thought Danny.

Not long after this encounter, Danny figured it was probably a good idea to try and get some sleep, he had cooled down nicely, and was beginning to feel a bit dopey. He glided invisibly into his room, and was engulfed in his rings of light, returning to his human form and landing neatly on his bed. It wasn't long before Danny lost consciousness, sinking into his lumpy mattress.

• • •

"Wake up Danny, we're going ghost hunting!" The sound of his excited father was the sound that woke Danny from his slumber.

"What time is it?" asked Danny groggily, as the room came into focus.

"It's 7:30," replied Jack. "We'll have plenty of time to look for those putrid protoplasm."

Jazz was glaring at her father from her bed, as Danny blinked the sleep out of his eyes. "Okay," said Danny, still not fully awake. He dangled his legs off the bed and placed his feet on the soft floor, as his father left the room.

Danny yawned, and shuffled out of his room, down to the kitchen. Dipper and Mabel were already eating breakfast, bacon and eggs, coated in grease. Dipper had bags under his eyes, and Mabel was bouncing off the walls, full of energy. She wore a bright pink sweater with a goofy looking unicorn on the front. Stan was at the stove, a frying pan in his hand, still dressed in his boxers and tank top.

"'Morning," said Danny as he entered the room and walked towards an empty chair at the table.

"'Morning sleepy head," Stan chuckled as he dumped a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Danny. "Nice hair."

Danny's hair was poking out in random directions, looking more like a bird's nest than hair. "Oh, bed hair," mumbled Danny as he picked up his knife and fork. Mabel and Dipper tried to suppress their giggles, but only Dipper succeeded, muffled giggles sounding throughout the kitchen.

Danny finished off his breakfast, and left the table. "Thanks for the meal," he muttered, and headed to the bathroom, where he got ready for the day ahead, taking special care to rip the comb through his tangled hair. It wasn't exactly neat, it never was, but it was good enough.

He returned to his room, packing the essentials into a backpack: a first aid kit; a couple of water bottles; a Fenton thermos. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he turned to the door, to see Dipper walking past, towards his and Mabel's room. "Hi Danny," said Dipper, noticing Danny standing in the room. "You got ready quickly."

"Uh, I guess," replied Danny, rubbing the back of his neck; this was a habit of his that he did when he felt awkward or nervous.

"Why aren't you and Jazz excited about ghost hunting?" asked Dipper, curiosity in his voice. "Isn't ghost hunting fun?"

Danny hesitated and answered: "Our parents are always ghost hunting, so we're kinda bored of it." 'And they couldn't catch a ghost if it lived under their own roof' he added internally.

This answer seemed to satisfy Dipper, who waved and continued walking to his room.

Danny went into the living room, where his parents were sorting through a pile of ghost hunting weapons. Jack was inspecting a particularly dangerous looking gun, while Maddie looked at him cautiously, not trusting him with such a powerful weapon. Maddie looked up and grabbed the gun in one swift movement. "Ready to go ghost hunting, sweetie?" asked Maddie, as Jack grumpily mumbled about wanting the cool gun.

Danny avoided eye contact and nodded unenthusiastically. He couldn't have just one normal holiday, without ghosts.

After about half an hour of waiting, Danny texting and using social media to pass the time, everyone was ready to leave for the ghost hunt. During this time Ford had discussed ghost hunting weapons with Maddie and Jack, exchanging notes on capturing and destroying ghosts. The families left the shack, with Soos pledging to 'guard the fort' and staying behind.

"Maybe we should start with 'Dusk 2 Dawn'," suggested Dipper. "There are a couple of ghosts there, an elderly couple." Mabel began snickering and muttered something about 'the lamby lamby dance', much to Dipper's annoyance. Danny noted how embarrassed Dipper looked, and decided not to ask about it.

"Good idea," said Ford. "Let's check there first." And with that the group began trekking to the abandoned store.

As they neared the 'Dusk 2 Dawn', walking down the alleyways on the edge of the town, Danny noticed a shadow of a figure pass by the window of the store. He slowed his pace to walk alongside Jazz, who was trying to avoid the rest of the ghost hunting group. "I think there's actually a ghost there," he whispered to his sister.

"Don't worry Danny, I'm sure it'll be fine. Just another urban legend," she scoffed. Just as she finished her last sentence, a wisp of freezing air drifted from Danny's mouth, like breath condensing in the cold, indicating that there was, in fact, a ghost there. This was Danny's ghost sense, that he had gained as part of his ghostly abilities, to tell him when a ghost was nearby.

"Just cover for me if you need to, okay," hissed Danny, just loud enough for Jazz to hear. She gave a quick nod and tensed up.

It didn't take long for Stan to notice that the two were more tense than before. "Are you two scared?" he joked, turning slightly to face them.

"No!" they both blurted out at once, leading Stan to chuckle and do a crude ghost impression. This slightly reduced the tension, but didn't put Danny or Jazz at ease. "Tough crowd," said Stan, turning around to the rest of the group. Dipper was interrogating Maddie and Jack about ghosts as they stopped outside the entrance to the store, but quickly stopped when everyone else went silent.

"Ready?" said Maddie, slinging an ecto gun over her shoulder. "When we go in there the ectoplasmic malefactors could attack us at any moment." Danny rolled his eyes at that, he was pretty sure that the ghosts were at more risk than his parents, he knew first hand that a large amount of ghosts aren't bad, and just want to be left alone.

Maddie pushed open the door, that hadn't been locked, inviting them into the dusty shop. The store was old and in a state of disrepair, with a candy display completely wrecked and cobwebs all over the aisles, but wasn't anything special. A chill ran up Danny's spine, as he swore he felt something, but it could have just been the sudden change from the hot outdoors to the unusually cool store interior. Maddy and Jack were scanning the store like hawks, searching for their prey, while Mabel was more excited than before, looking ready to climb up the shelves of out of date food and knick-knacks. Once the whole store had been patrolled by the hunters twice over, they concluded that the ghosts were hiding, to the disappointment of Dipper, Mabel and Stan, and the relief of Danny and Jazz.

"Jack, did you bring the ghost detector?" asked Maddie. 'Oh no, please no,' thought Danny, silently praying to whatever deity might care that they had forgotten it.

"Here it is!" shouted Jack, bringing out a scanning device and flicking it on. The device began to hone in on the area by the door where Danny and Jazz were standing, and Jack followed it, backing Danny into the wall.

"There's a ghost right in front of you. You would have to be some kind of moron to not see the ghost right in front of you," said the detector, in a monotone computer voice. Jack looked at Danny with a puzzled expression plastered across his face.

"Maybe it's outside?" said Danny, shrugging, and Jack ran out the store, quickly followed by Maddie.

Ghost tracking devices always honed in on Danny, it was a miracle that his parents hadn't worked out that he was half ghost. By far the worst tracking device his parents had made was the booomerang, which kept honing in on Danny and hitting him when it was thrown.

A minute passed and Maddie and Jack reentered the store looking defeated. "As much as I hate to admit it, there doesn't seem to be a ghost. The ghost detector must be faulty again," Maddy sighed. Danny failed to hide his slight smile at that, glad his parents had given up on this ghost.

"But we're going to keep searching, right?" said Dipper, a hint of hopefulness in his tone.

"There isn't really much point," replied Maddie defeatedly. "If there isn't a ghost here there's not much we can do."

Ford intercepted the conversation: "maybe the kids should go and play in the woods while we search for ghosts."

"I suppose that would be good," she agreed, ignoring a slight protest from Jazz at being called a kid. "It'd be good for them to get to know each other."

With that they left the store, Dipper, Mabel, Danny and Jazz heading away from the 'Dusk 2 Dawn', and the adults staying behind to continue the investigation.