Danny Phantom in A Twist in the Dimensions

by TrojanHalks2012

After Jazz's High School Graduation Ceremony is brought to a grinding halt by a ghostly ambush, orchestrated by Vlad, Team Phantom finds themselves in a different dimension thanks to Freakshow and the newly recreated Reality Gauntlet. Divided amongst themselves, and with Freakshow hot on their trail, they must join forces with Team Possible if they ever want to return home.

38. Hometown Horror

Attention all former, current and new readers! This is NOT a standalone story; it is part of a faux story lineup I have written as part of a continuation of the TV series. If you have not previously read the stories, or chapters, that come before this one, I highly advise at least giving them a onceover. A list of the stories that I have written for the lineup can be found on my homepage here on this site. It lists the stories in their correct order. However, if you wish to continue, you may do so at your own discretion…you have been warned.

Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon Studios. Any OCs are created and owned by me or have been used with permission by their original creators.

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This is it folks! The Final Chapter! It has been a long time coming. When I started this rewrite, I didn't realize it would take quite as long as it did, but I've finally crossed the finish line...with a little extra bonus trailing behind I may add. Don't skip to it if you can avoid it. It has no bearing on "this" story.

Our heroes will finally return home, and they know they won't be met with open arms, but the trouble they find waiting for them will only leave you asking questions before the end. I hope you enjoy the suspense filled finale!

---

"YAAH!" the Box Ghost screamed as his body was suddenly, and forcefully, shoved into a floating boulder, severally cracking it and threatening to shatter it to pieces. He winced fearfully as he grasped at the gloved hand that had him by his neck. Kim held him tightly with one hand to prevent him from getting away. Jazz stood behind her on the glider with the Phantom siblings floating on either side of them with their arms folded. Cujo, now free from Dani's arm, sat atop the floating boulder and looked down on the Box Ghost. All of them were glaring at him angrily.

"We need a lot of information out of you!" Danny informed the Box Ghost threateningly. "So you'd better start talking."

"And if we don't get the answers we want-" Kim threatened as she held up her other fist and extended out a pair of glowing blades that she promptly held underneath his quivering chin. "I'll be serving us up some Filet Mig-Box Ghost," she threatened with a sadistic gleam in her eyes.

"Since when did you become this sadistic?" Jazz worryingly asked her friend from over her shoulder.

"Eh, around the time I woke up from the dead," Kim shrugged, briefly glancing back over her shoulder at her friend.

"Wait, wha-?" the Box Ghost questioned, confused by her admission before he was suddenly shoved back up against the floating rock.

"I am not in the mood to play any of your silly games," she hissed at him. "Answers, now!" she demanded aggressively.

"Will someone get this psycho to let go of me!?" he pleaded with the others as he began to fear for his afterlife.

"Kim, play nice," Danny requested with a bit of warning in his voice. "Remember who the real enemy is here?" he reminded her with a stern glance. She grumbled in defiance before relenting and released her captive from against the floating boulder. She floated back a bit to give him some room as he began to rub his aching neck. "Now then," Danny spoke up to gain his attention. "Will you help us by telling us what we want to know?" he asked of his annoying enemy, still giving him a stern glare as well, indicating that he was expecting a positive answer.

"Keep her away from me, and I'll give you my former social security number," he offered as he continued rubbing his sore neck.

"Grr," Kim growled at him, barring her teeth, eliciting a scared yelp from him.

"We just want to know where we are and how to get home," Dani informed him.

"And hopefully you can tell us about what's been going on back home too," Danny requested. "Plasmius and the other ghosts that ambushed us are unlikely to have sat back and done nothing during our week long absence," he pointed out.

"Oh man, it's total chaos back in the real world!" he informed them as he began to panic from a flood of bad memories. "Ghosts and humans have been going at it like it's World War 3! Your town is a complete wreck!" This was not the kind of news they wanted to hear, but he had no reason to lie to them. They knew it was the truth, so they let him continue. "The humans at Axion Labs have put together a small resistance force, and have managed to keep those monsters from destroying the entire town, at least," he offered as some solace, not that it did them any good. From the sounds of things, it may have been better to let the other Kim come with them after all.

"Well, too late now," Danny grumbled to himself upon realizing this. "Besides Plasmius, who is clearly the mastermind behind all of this, who else do you know of that we'll be dealing with?" he asked of the Box Ghost.

"Skulker, Technus, Vortex, the usual's," he responded with a shrug of his shoulders before a shiver went up his spine. "But they aren't the ones that have been causing the most havoc amongst the human defenders," he warned them.

"Great, more ghosts that like giving us hard times," Kim growled as she put her hands on her hips.

"Whose been acting out the most?" Jazz asked curiously, looking over her friend's shoulder. "Surely if it were Vlad, or one of the others that we know, you'd have come right out with it," she speculated.

"I don't know," the Box Ghost replied, shaking his head. "I didn't get a good look at them," he claimed. "All I saw was two pairs of merciless, bloodthirsty, glowing red eyes that pierced my soul. Most ghosts, like myself, are fleeing back into the Ghost Zone just to escape from those two monsters alone," he informed them with eyes wide with fear.

"I find it a little difficult to believe that Vlad found a pair of ghosts so terrifying that they induce fear in other ghosts, and convinced them to do his dirty work," Dani scoffed at his fearful claims. "I mean, I turned against the guy."

"We don't really know how he did it," the Box Ghost again claimed, though he was looking at her with a serious look in his eyes. "These two are a force to be reckoned with," he confirmed. "They're monsters! Cruel, cold-hearted monsters! If he didn't convince them, then he's controlling them somehow," he concluded.

"Control them!?" Kim half-yelled with agitation. "He possesses Clockwork's Time Staff, so he can start, stop and rewind time; but the ability to control, or at least possess, another ghost for an extended period of time, without overshadowing them, is not one of his abilities," she informed the Box Ghost.

"No, but he could have a device that can control ghosts," Danny theorized.

"What kind of device?" Dani asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"When Freakshow first came around, he had a staff of his own that he used to control ghosts, even myself, completely against their will," he began to iterate for the group.

"Oh, yeah. I remember you and Sam telling me about that," Jazz said in thought as she began to think.

"Plasmius went out of his way to create a new Reality Gauntlet for Freakshow; he may also have created a new mind controlling staff as well," Danny speculated.

"Or, he could even have gone back in time and taken the original before it was destroyed," Dani suggested as an alternative hypothesis.

"I don't think so," Jazz replied, shaking her head. "If he'd gone and done that, then who's to say he wouldn't have gone back and grabbed the Reality Gauntlet before Danny destroyed it as well?" she pointed out. "He went out of his way to make a new one, so traveling through time and changing the past is certainly not on his current agenda," she reminded them. "Besides, if he had that, he'd be in control of an entire ghostly army, not just a select few," she pointed out, seeing as the Box Ghost already informed them that several ghosts were fleeing, rather than joining him. "He must be controlling these two new ghosts another way," she said as she went back into thought.

Suddenly, an image of Dani flashed through Danny's mind. She possessed the same eyes that the Box Ghost had described when she'd been taken control of by Youngblood near the end of the previous winter. "Mind control," he blurted out his thoughts, gaining everyone's attention.

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't have that power either," Kim replied with a now sour glare.

"Not if he used the Mind Control Serum," Danny discredited her with a shake of his head.

"Mind Control Serum?" Kim asked, confused and perplexed that something so mundane could possibly exist.

"You mean like the kind that Youngblood used on Dani?" Jazz asked of him with a somewhat panicked reminder of what happened a few months previously.

"Wait, wha-" Kim asked, glancing over her shoulder at her friend in confusion. She'd thought Danny had a screw loose, but if Jazz was gunna start backing his theory…

"If he used that mind control serum on them, then that means we only need to destroy the transmitters that he's put on them somehow," Dani reminded them cheerfully. "And if we do that, we can see just how loyal they really are to him," she added as a bonus. "They might be ticked at him enough that they'll take him out for us," she snickered with delight.

"Well, you all can do whatever you want to get yourselves killed," the Box Ghost said with disinterest as he raised his hands to distance himself from them. "But leave me out of it," he said as he turned away from them and prepared to leave.

"You're not going anywhere just yet, Pal," Danny growled as he grabbed the little ghost by his overall straps from behind, yanking him back and holding him up to eye level. "We still don't know where we are, and you clearly do. So you're gunna show us the way back to the Fenton Portal," he demanded rather forcefully as he glared daggers into him.

"After seeing what those other two monsters are capable of doing with looks alone, your penetrating gaze has no effect on me," the Box Ghost replied defiantly. "Going back to your home town is suicidal; I ain't going back there, and you can't convince me otherwise," he said quite sternly, putting his foot down on the matter.

"Oh, I'm not the one that's gunna be doing the convincing," Danny informed him with a grin.

He turned around and faced the Box Ghost back towards Kim who was nonchalantly sharpening the pairs of blades that extended out of her wrists on each other, creating a slicing sound before she stopped and looked up at him with a sinister grin of her own.

The Box Ghost gulped nervously before turning his gaze upon Cujo, still sitting atop the floating boulder. With wide eyes, he licked his lips before imitating chewing food with his mouth open before he swallowed, all while looking at him as if he regarded him as a nice juicy steak.

By now, he'd broken out into a nervous sweat. "So, uh, the Fenton Portal, huh?" he asked of Danny with nervous grin as he began sweating bullets, all while Danny regarded him with a rather pleased smile.

---

With the Box ghost flying in the lead, the others followed behind him for nearly an hour before they recognized a few locations. The Carnivorous Canyon and the River of Repulsion, the large maze near Pandora's Realm, Dora's more modernized castle; before long, they finally came upon a very familiar sight. Before the teens floated the swirling green vortex of the miraculously still intact Fenton Portal.

"Well, it's about time," Danny said with a sigh of relief as they stopped a few feet from the swirling green vortex.

"This is as far as I go," the Box Ghost informed them. "I do not dare cross back into the human world until this mess is cleared. I shall retreat to the far corners of the Ghost Zone until it is safe to rain down boxy terror on your home town once again. GOOD LUCK!" he yelled before he took off into the endless void once again, leaving the four teens to continue on their own.

"Coward," Kim grumbled when he left them to their own devices.

"Oh, like he would've been of any help to us anyway," Jazz reminded her with a grin, earning a chuckle from her.

Silence fell on them when they suddenly remembered the gravity of their situation. There was a warzone awaiting them on the other side of the portal. They hadn't had much time to prepare as they hadn't been expecting things to be quite as bad as they'd been warned. All they could do was brace themselves for what awaited them.

Taking deep breathes and holding them, they all passed through the portal and entered into the Fenton's underground lab. The lights were out, so only the glow from the portal lit the room. The lab was a complete disaster. The Training Simulator which their parents had built for them to train themselves was completely gone, having been torn from the very walls themselves, leaving behind sparking wires sticking out of the holes in the wall where it was once located.

The rest of the lab was no better off. Debris from the decimated Training Simulator was strewn across the floor. Old beakers with dried ectoplasm stuck to the inside edges were scattered across the room, having been tossed aside by whomever had turned over the work tables, turning the lab itself practically upside down. But in spite of the damage to the lab, it was clear that nobody had been down here in quite some time; where had their parents gone too?

Cujo hadn't minded too much though, as he had run over to the corner of the lab and picked up a pink toy shaped like a small teddy bear and began chewing happily, making it squeak a few times before it suddenly deflated. He chewed on it for a couple more seconds before he spat it out and whimpered over the decrepit state of his favorite chew toy.

"Amazing, how much only a week of abandonment can do to a place," Jazz sighed with grief as she ran a hand over a miraculously still upright work table, leaving a trail in the dust.

"I don't even want to imagine what everything else is gunna look like if the lab is this gloomy," Dani sighed, petting the ghost dog on his head to comfort him.

"Unfortunately, we won't have to imagine it," Danny grumbled with agitation as he turned towards the stairway that led upstairs to the kitchen.

With the girls and ghost dog following him, they cautiously ascended the steps and entered into the kitchen to find it in an even worse state than the basement lab. One of the kitchen table legs appeared to have been chewed through, so the table now sat lopsided. Several cupboards and even the fridge were open; the door to the fridge unhinged and leaning, the light long since blown and the already spoiled emergency ham now an unrecognizable black sludge. Multiple bags and boxes of dry food were spilled out of the cupboards and onto the floor as rats ate with content before the appearance of human's startled them, sending them off into hiding.

"Your house has become a safe haven for vermin!" Kim groaned with disgust as Jazz hid behind her.

"Are they gone?" she asked, looking out from behind her friend and looked around for the rats that moments before had been eating spilled cereal.

"Our town is infested with worse things than them," Dani informed her sister in an attempt to calm her.

"Which is bad for them, because the exterminator is back in town," Danny declared confidently before he turned away from their destroyed kitchen and made his way for the front door.

Stepping outside alone was a heavy blow to take. The building across the street looked as if its entire roof had caved in and exploded out through the door and windows and onto the sidewalk and street, which itself had multiple deep holes imbedded all up and down its length, making it look like Swiss cheese. Taking to the sky and floating over Fenton Works, where the Ops Center was currently sitting slightly lopsided, he had a much better view of the town around him.

The night air was dead silent, as there was no activity anywhere in the city. Not a single car nor a single person were in the streets. The light from the moon above shone through a clear sky, revealing all that had been done to the town. Many buildings were in the same condition of disrepair and collapse as the one across the street. Smoke rose from a few buildings, but it was clear that whatever had caused all of this was over for the time being. Amity Park was completely deserted, a literal ghost town.

"Well!?" he heard Jazz call up to him. He looked down and saw the three girls outside on the Fenton Works stoop. "Is it as bad as Boxy described!?" she shouted to him, using her one good hand to cup over her mouth in order to amplify her voice.

"Yeah," he answered before he looked back out over the city's skyline. "It's as bad as we'd feared," he said more quietly to himself, knowing that he was high enough up that the girls couldn't hear him.

Sniffing around down in the pockmarked street, Cujo came upon one of the larger holes before he began sniffing more intently. Lifting his nose into the air, he caught the scent of something that captured his attention. He barked madly as he suddenly took off down the road, following the scent he'd picked up.

"Cujo!" Dani called out to him before she made to give chase, but she was stopped in mid-step.

"Dani, no," Danny called down to her. She looked up at him with worry as he looked down on her with concern of his own. "You stay here with them," he ordered as he pointed towards the two older girls. "I'll follow the mutt, and see where he's headed." Without another word, or giving her the chance to argue, he took off after the ghost dog, rounding a street corner and disappearing from sight.

"Ok, great," she quietly relented, resenting the thought of being left behind. "Now what do we do?" she asked, turning back to the two older girls.

"We need to find out if there is anybody around here that can offer us a bit more insight into what's been going on around here?" Jazz suggested as an option. "I'm not just gunna sit around and wait for Danny to show back up," she informed the other two with a defiant glare.

"Actually, that's exactly what you're gunna do," Kim informed her with a stern glare of her own. "With your arm in its current condition, you can't fight," she reminded her friend. "Dani and I can go and search for help," she offered. "You stay here and boot up the Ghost Radar in the Ops Center," she requested as an alternative to her staying on the sidelines. "This way you'll still be able to keep an eye on things from a safe distance," she said as bright side to Jazz having to stay behind. "And see if you can hail Dr. Gray over the radio," she added as an afterthought. "If Axion Labs has put together some kind of human resistance, then no doubt he's leading it," she figured before she offered her a Fenton Phone that she'd dug out of her pocket. "We can keep in touch with these," she suggested as she offered another to Dani.

"Where did you get these from?" Dani asked out of curiosity as she held hers up between her fingers.

"I grabbed up a few from the lab before we came upstairs a moment ago," Kim replied as she placed a third one in her own ear. "Figured they'd be of some use," she correctly speculated.

"But what about Danny?" Dani asked, still worried about him flying off on his own. "Might he need one of these to call for us if he needs help?" she asked, still gloomily looking at the hearing device in her fingers.

"Danny's a big boy; I'm sure he can handle himself," Jazz reassured her as she placed her Fenton Phone into her own ear. "Besides, can't you sense him now?" she asked with a smirk. "You'll know if he needs help or not," she reassured the young ghost girl.

"But what if he comes across Vlad? Or one of those two new ghosts that we've never seen before?" she asked, still worried before another thought crossed her mind. "Or worse, what if we come across them first?" she asked, suddenly going wide eyed.

"Then we'll just have to deal with whatever we come across first," Kim suggested after she'd finished adjusting her Fenton Phone in her ear. "Besides, didn't you call dibs on kicking my Uncle's butt first?" she asked the ghost girl with a grin.

"Oh, did I say that?" she questioned them with a nervous smile over having forgotten her former eagerness to take him down a peg or two herself.

"At the very least, if you come across Vlad, or any other ghost for that matter, and there aren't any people around, you can fight without having to worry about anyone's safety," Jazz reminded them as a plus to coming across an enemy first rather than someone that might be able to help them, or them help in return.

"I can live with that," Kim agreed as she reached over her shoulder and pulled out an ecto-blaster, charging it as she held it in her grasp. "If it's all the same to you Dani, I'd like to stop by my place real quick," she requested of the younger girl. "You guys all got to see what condition your house is in. I just want to see what my house looks like," she continued, certainly curious and a bit worried all the same.

"That's fine with me," Dani agreed with a nod. "Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find Vlad's beaten corpse lying on your doorstep with our parents standing over him, victoriously," she offered a bit of dry humor to hopefully lighten the mood a bit as she took to the air and flew by the older girl.

"Wishful thinking," Kim grumbled as she hopped into the air, allowing her glider to materialize under her feet. She took off after the ghost girl as Jazz ran back into Fenton Works in order to monitor everything from the Ops Center.

---

Carefully making their way down the pockmarked streets, Kim slowly rounded with her ecto-blaster held tightly in hand and at the ready. No longer on her glider, she opted for a quieter approach to her home, in case there were any enemies nearby. She glanced around cautiously, trying to keep an eye out for Vlad, or any other enemies that may cross their path. Dani casually strode behind her with her arms raised with her fingers interlaced behind her head.

"So you just shut the door and locked her in there?" Dani asked the older girl, acting a little too laid back for the stressful situation their town was enduring. Evidently, Kim had been relating to her how Danny had gotten his powers back after they'd been taken away.

"She broke my nose," Kim shot back at her with frustration.

"Seems a little harsh," she gave her opinion. "Think you may have gone a little overboard?" she asked of the older girl, sounding a bit skeptical herself.

"Well, consider where we'd be if I hadn't," Kim replied to the younger girl. "The other Kim would never have gotten Ghost Powers, and she was a big help in stopping Freakshow," she reminded the ghost girl. "Without her, we might not even be here," she informed the girl.

Dani could only chuckle. "I still can't believe you thought you could beat her in hand-to-hand combat," she snickered tauntingly.

"I'd been training for over a month in preparation for a ghost attack," Kim snapped in her own defense.

"Well, yeah, but, she'd been fighting for several years," Jazz spoke to her through the Fenton Phone in her ear. "So, she kinda had a distinct advantage over you," she reminded her friend.

"Oh dear lord, you sound just like my conscience," Kim grumbled, mostly to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"And as your conscience, my first decree is that you stop being so tense right now," Jazz mockingly advised her through the Fenton Phone. "You won't be of much help yourself if you're all jittery," she cautioned her.

"What, you want me to be all laid back like your sister!?" Kim yelled into her Fenton Phone. She glared down at Dani who had begun snickering. She too was wearing a Fenton Phone, so she could hear everything they were discussing.

"She's not wrong, Kim," Dani said with a smirk. "You forget, I can sense whenever a ghost is around now. There's nothing within my range right now that should be of concern," she informed the older girl.

"I wish I could have the same carefree attitude that you have," Kim grumbled loudly enough for both girls to hear her. "But if I know Vlad, he'll have wrecked my house even more than yours, just to spite his own family," she said, rather darkly.

And indeed, her fears were not unwarranted. Silently rounding one more corner, Kim gasped upon seeing the charred and burnt remains of her home. She sprinted down the sidewalk until she stood in front of the stoop to her home and gawked up at the charred door frame above. The house itself was still standing, but it looked as if a fire had swept through it recently.

"No," Kim whimpered with horror as she dashed through the charred door frame and found herself in the destroyed remains of her former living room. Not a single piece of furniture survived the inferno, save for their metal skeletons that had been melted and warped from excessive heat. Everything else; floor, walls and ceiling, was charred black; saying nothing else of the rest of the house. "He's a monster," she growled with growing fury as she clenched her free hand into a fist; her other hand tightened around the grip of her ecto-blaster. "First my home back in California, and now my home here in Amity Park," she seethed, her anger breeching the surface. "I'm gunna KILL HIM!" she yelled to the heavens.

"Argh!" Jazz could be heard screeching through Dani's Fenton Phone as she herself winced. Apparently Kim's outburst had been ear splitting enough to make Jazz tear her own Fenton Phone out of her ear. "What's going on over there!?" she asked through the Fenton Phones.

"Kim's house got burned down," Dani answered back, feeling sad for her friend despite the older girl's absolute rage.

"Ah man, again," Jazz replied, sounding both disappointed and sympathetic towards Kim's plight. "Had to be Vlad's doing," she figured.

"Wait, again?" Dani asked sounding quite confused, but was ignored by Kim's yelling. She herself forgot about her own confusion when she started getting an uneasy feeling.

"Of course it was Vlad's doing!" Kim yelled hysterically, both ignoring the younger girl's question, but also unintentionally answering it at the same time. "He burned down my first home out of revenge; now he's doing it just to spite us!" she screamed as she punched a hole through the nearby burnt wall.

"Kim, be quiet for a moment," Dani urged the older girl as she glanced around cautiously. "I'm getting this sick, disturbing feeling in the pit of my stomach right now," she informed the older girl. "It feels ghostly, and it feels close, I don't think we're alone," she warned as she looked at Kim with a grave look in her eye.

"Good! With any luck, maybe it'll be Vlad!" she yelled angrily as she tightened her grip on her ecto-blaster. "Can't wait till I get my hands around his throat; I'll choke him till he's blue in the face when I find him," she threatened.

"Now, Kim, let's try to keep our cool," Jazz tried to calm her friend. "We need your head to stay level on your shoulders," she advised. "Now according to the radar, there is only one ghost in your area besides Dani," she informed them. "Capture them if you can," she suggested. "We might be able to get more information out of them."

"I'm down for a little bit of torture," Kim complied with a snarl. "Now then, where's that pitiful excuse for a specter hiding?" she asked as she glanced around the charred remains of her living room.

She was too blind by her own fury that she failed to feel the lurking presence that had suddenly materialized behind her out of a cloud of digital data in the form of binary code. Dani failed to notice it too, as she had her eyes closed so that she could try and feel out the ghost's location. She gasped when she'd narrowed it down.

"Behind you!" she screamed, but it was too late. Kim had already been blasted off her feet, struck in the back from behind by an energy ray, and crashed into Dani, sending them both through the wall and out into the empty street.

Having lost her ecto-blaster in the process of being blasted out of her house; Kim stood, recovering as quickly as she could. With a burning fury in her eyes, she glared daggers and seethed with rage at the spectral form that hadn't yet materialized in front of her just yet. "Time to stop pussyfooting around," she growled angrily. "I'm gunna tear you to shreds!" she threatened as she clenched her hands into fists before pairs of glowing blades extended out of each of her wrists.

She charged for the spectral mass and swiped a pair of the glowing blades through it, hitting nothing but air before she came to a stop and spun around with a look of surprise. The spectral mass hovered in the air for a moment before it suddenly dove down towards her.

"Ugh," Dani groaned as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, shaking her head to clear it after having Kim crash into her so suddenly.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little ghost brat," a cocky voice called out to her. Her eyes snapped open and she looked up at the specter who's voice she'd recognize anywhere. Standing over her, and holding Kim by her wrists so that her arms were bent, threatening to stab her glowing blades into her neck, was none other than Technus himself. He was smirking down at her with malice. "I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting to see you again, impressive!" he taunted the two girls. "We had high expectations for Freakshow to finish you off. Can't really say I'm surprised though," he admitted.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Dani growled angrily.

"Yeah, well, we couldn't wait to kick your butt again," Kim winced as she struggled within his grasp, only to regret it moments later.

"Ah, ah, ah," Technus taunted her as he pulled her wrists against her front tighter, pressing her glowing wrist blades against the skin of her neck. "One more word out of you my dear, and you'll be learning a very painful, and I must say, messy lesson," he threatened with a joyful grin.

"The only lesson getting taught here today is my fist in your face!" Dani threatened as she held up a tightly clenched fist. "Now let her go!" she demanded.

"Ha! You're not in any position to be giving the orders here, Ghost Brat!" Technus chuckled, not the least bit threatened by the young ghost girl. "Besides, I'm not the real threat here," he informed her. "As much as I'd like to smack you around a little, my role is solely that of a distraction," he informed her tauntingly, knowing that she'd get the idea rather quickly.

"A distraction from what?" she questioned before getting what he was hinting at. "Jazz!" she yelled into her Fenton Phone. "It's another set up!" she yelled, pressing her hand to the device in her ear. "Jazz?" she questioned when there was no reply. "Jazz!?" she called out again before she turned and looked back in the direction of Fenton Works to find that there was a cloud of green smoke lingering in the air around where her home was.

"A distraction from the set up," Technus answered her mockingly. "Now it's time for the main event!" he cheered as he held Kim up higher so she could get a good view. Her rage and hate filled eyes turned to fear and horror at something that Technus wanted her to see very much. She wanted to yell out to Dani and tell her to run, but her own blades pressing into her throat unfortunately stayed her tongue.

Worried about her sister's safety, Dani was far too distracted to notice the green smog-like mist that had formed out of thin air before it solidified into a dark mass that was silhouetted behind her. Only after it had taken solid form and touched the ground did Dani sense its dark presence. With a look of fear, she slowly turned and looked into the malicious, blood red eyes of the creature that loomed over her. Taking a step back away from the terrifying creature, she tried to gather her wits about herself.

"You're definitely no illusion," she said to it, but more to herself really, as a reminder that this wasn't one of Freakshow's mind tricks. "Unlike those other creature's, I can sense your energy, so you're very real; but I can clearly see that you are not the person you were meant to resemble," she warned the creature that she wasn't being fooled. Defying the specter's fear inducing aura, Dani yelled in defiance. "You're not Danny!"

The creature standing before her, took a single step forward, bathing itself in moonlight that had otherwise been obscured. From the neck down, the creature wore the same suit as Danny, right down to the phantom symbol on its chest. But its head and face were a different story. It had green skin and pointy ears on either side of its two glowing, dark rimmed, blood red eyes. The white flames it had instead of hair licked at the air above its head.

Glaring down at her with detestation, the evil looking specter suddenly gave her an evil grin, revealing a set of sharp teeth with two prominent canine teeth hanging down in front of the others. He suddenly began growling before he roared at her, waving his snake-like tongue around outside of its mouth.

---

Cujo, now in his adult form, paused next to damaged fire hydrant, no water was flowing, and sniffed it before he took off down the street. Danny flew by overhead, following and keeping an eye on the ghost dog, interested in finding whatever had caught the ghost dog's interest. Although, his attention was often dragged away from the ghost dog as he glanced over the destruction to his town.

The roads were destroyed, no cars would ever be able to navigate down them. Even military grade, four-wheel drive Humvees would be lucky to not get stuck in the craters that littered the landscape. And if there weren't craters, there were destroyed buildings that had collapsed into the streets, creating immovable piles of rubble, blocking off entire avenues. And to top it all off, there was absolutely no sign of whomever, or whatever, had been the cause of such destruction. No ghosts causing havoc, no humans trying to clean up or piece things back together. There wasn't a soul around for miles, the silence filling the night air of the now literal ghost town.

"Where has everyone gone to?" Danny asked himself as he surveyed the destruction from above, all the while flying after the ghost dog that had begun sprinting out of town and up past the mall. "While it's a relief to not see any bodies lying in the streets, it's still a little concerning for there to be nobody around at all. This place is just far too…dismal," he sighed with gloom, turning his dreary frown away from the Amity Park Mall in the distance as he flew by.

Indeed, just like the rest of the town, it hadn't been spared the destruction. Its entire right wing had been completely destroyed, nothing but rubble remaining. The glass dome fixtures that expanded the lengths of all three remaining wings had been completely obliterated, leaving the mall open to the elements from its now open roof.

Even the wildlife had started moving in, now that there were no humans around to scare them off. Raccoons and opossums busied themselves with an overturned trashcan outside the shattered remains of the mall's main entrance's glass doors. They only briefly looked up at Danny as he flew by in the distance, before going back to their meal.

"Huh?" Danny questioned when he managed to see smoke steadily rising from behind the hill he was following Cujo towards. If not for the moon light, he might not have noticed it at all against the night sky. "That can't be good, but at least it's something," he said, a hint of seriousness showing through his glowing green eyes.

He increased his speed and stopped over the top of the hill to survey the source of the smoke from a distance, only to suddenly realize where he was, and what he was looking at. Too horrified by what he saw, he didn't notice as Cujo continued running down the other side of the hill, coming upon the recently destroyed remains of what used to be Axion Labs, now nothing more than a smoking crater in the ground filled with piles of metal, electronic equipment, and other debris.

"Oh, man," Danny sighed, hovering over the destroyed remains of the Ghost Research Facility. "The Box Ghost said the folks here had started up a resistance force," he reminded himself. "They must have been using the labs as their base," he figured. "I don't imagine they would've used such an obvious location without having a Ghost Shield activated," he further presumed. "Must be that Plasmius and the other ghosts figured out how to get through it and blew the entire place to smithereens," he ventured. "If there ever was any hope of finding anyone here, they've long since abandoned this place," he relented, with a heavy sigh of displeasure.

Down on the ground, Cujo was distracted from whining and pawing at a pile of twisted metal that he was trying to nudge out of the way with his head by the sound of more metal whizzing through the air, straight towards him. He only managed to turn his head towards the direction that the sound was coming from before he suddenly found himself covered with a massive glowing energy net that began electrocuting him, making him roar and yelp before the net that had engulfed him was suddenly retracted by an attached cable, sending the poor ghost dog slamming into a still standing metal wall that was shred apart by him slamming into it.

"CUJO!" Danny yelled for the ghost dog, flying down towards the new rising plume of smoke that soon dissipated to reveal the ghost dog had been rendered unconscious with the occasional leg twitch, reverting him back into his puppy form, still trapped within the energy net that was at least no longer electrocuting him.

Too stunned by the sudden attack on the ghost dog, Danny wasn't able to avoid a pair of cabled claws that raced in out of nowhere and latched themselves onto his forearms. Before he had time to realize what was happening, he was overcome by ecto-electricity that flowed into him through the claws gripping his arms. He grit his teeth and weathered the assault, but was unable to maintain flight and eventually plummeted towards the ground, uplifting a small cloud of dirt around his smoking body.

The clawed cables retracted themselves, but remained latched onto his arms, pulling them out, away from his body; threatening to tear them right off. Gritting his teeth again, he grunted with discomfort as he was pulled into a kneeling position with his arms pulled out to the sides of his body, forcing him to look forward as the shadow of a ghost appeared from the still rising smoke that was the destruction of Axion Labs.

"Why am I not surprised to discover that you'd eventually find your way back? Freakshow must not have put up much of a fight for you to return so quickly," spoke the deep voice of an enemy that Danny knew only too well. He growled at the specter as he emerged from the smoke with a wicked smirk on his robotic face. "If I had been told a week ago that I'd be capturing two pups at the same time, I'd have laughed it off, and yet here I am, doing just that in less than a minute," the robotic specter chuckled at the irony.

"Skulker," Danny growled with irritation. "Been awhile since you've last called me that," he commented, referring to being called a 'pup' by the ghost hunter. "What's the matter? Run out of nicknames, so now you're circling back around?" he mocked the predator.

"Mock me while you can, Ghost Child," Skulker continued to taunt him with a wicked grin. "It won't help you get out of this predicament," he warned the ghost teen.

"And right there, what's with this 'Ghost Child' nonsense?" Danny asked, sounding somewhat annoyed, not even caring anymore that he was essentially trapped at the moment. "You know I'm sixteen now, right?" he asked the ghost hunter. "I'm barely classified as a child anymore," he pointed out.

"You're barely classified as fair game," Skulker growled, quickly growing frustrated with his prey. "But in the end, I still plan on putting your pelt at the foot of my bed, Whelp," he attempted his own mockery with another smirk.

"Wow, three different nicknames in the span of thirty seconds," Danny mocked him with a grin. "If someone had told me a week ago that I'd be making fun of you for your lack of repetition, heh, I'd probably believe them," he taunted.

Fed up with Danny's mocking of him, Skulker merely looked at him with an impassive expression as he pushed a single button on his gauntlet, sending a stream of ecto-electricity flowing through the cables and into Danny through his arms. Only after Danny had started screaming from the pain caused by the relentless assault, did he release his finger from the button, stopping the flow of electricity, and allowing him a breather. Rasping to catch his breath, he looked up and glared at Skulker who had returned to smirking at him.

"Starting to feel helpless?" he taunted the ghost teen. "There's no one else around that can help you," he informed him. "And I can only begin to imagine what Technus and the others are doing to that bothersome little clone of yours," he added with a wicked sneer.

"Do NOT call her that!" Danny yelled at his robotic enemy with a sudden fury that quickly died down. "Dani is far more than capable of enough of handling herself against those goons," he informed the predator. "Besides, with Jazz and Kim helping her, I have no reason to fear for any of them," he said, calming to the point of smirking at his enemy. "You, on the other hand, ought to fear what I intend to do to you once I'm free of this little contraption of yours," he warned as he glanced sideways at the cabled claws that were still tightly attached to his arms.

"Ha! I would love to see you try, Ghost Child," Skulker chuckled with amusement. "These cables have been tested for a level 9 ecto-plasmic entity," he informed the ghost teen as he patted one of the cables before leaning over so his smirking face was directly in Danny's smirking face, their noses practically touching. "And last time I checked, you only came in at a level 7; barely making a level 8 at the most when angered. You're not getting out until I've decided to begin the hunt," he informed his teenage prey.

"That's what I admire about you, Skulker; always thinking ahead," Danny complimented him as the ghost hunter backed away from his prey. "Too bad in your effort to think ahead, you forgot to look back," he warned, intriguing the ghost hunter enough to listen. "There are two things you didn't take into account," he warned. "First, was the incident with that ghost catching net you trapped me in during that ambush last week," he reminded the ghost hunter. "Designed to contain my powers, but it was easily overwhelmed by my growing power output," he reminded the ghost hunter with a grin.

"Well, yes, I suppose there is still that possibility," Skulker reluctantly admitted as he thought back to the ambush he'd participated in a week previously. "But again, it was your anger at seeing your sister being crushed under my boot that enraged you enough to break free," he reminded the teen. "I don't intend on making the same mistake twice," he warned the teen.

"Hmm, and the second thing you never took into account was the strength and abilities that I learned whilst in that other universe," he warned, completely disregarding Skulker's own warning as if it were a mere afterthought.

"Oh? Do further enlighten me then," Skulker feigned interest in Danny's claim.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Danny said with a grin. "Oh, by the way, you might wanna stand back a little more," he advised the ghost hunter, warning him that he might be a little too close for what was about to happen.

Skulker only cocked an eyebrow as Danny's mocking grin was replaced by a severe strain as he focused on accomplishing one goal, pulling on the restraints that were bound to his arms. When the metal cables seemed to be stretching and straining themselves, he started to become curious. From his shoulder pad emerged a scanner that positioned itself in front of his eyes, allowing him to evaluate Danny's power output, and he was quite shocked by what he was seeing.

"8.6!?" he gasped with shock before the well of horror he'd fallen into grew deeper. "And climbing!" he shouted as the energy reading device beeped rapidly whilst displaying a readout of Danny's power output. "8.8, 9.0, 9.2," he kept reading off, his disbelief growing as fast as the power reading.

"Grrr!" Danny growled as he tensed up and strained himself as hard as he could, pulling on the metal cables with everything he had. His ghostly glow turned green and his eyes shown more brightly as he began augmenting his energy to aid in his efforts to free himself. "ARGH!" he screamed in a rage as with one swift movement, he swiped both arms across one another, using them to shield his body as the cables suddenly snapped, much to Skulker's utter disbelief. Lowering his arms, Danny admired the claws that had restrained him before he pried them from his arms and dropped them to the ground. He smirked up at Skulker, looking as if he hadn't even broken a sweat yet. "Impressive, huh?" he asked the ghost hunter, tauntingly.

"GRRR!" Skulker growled angrily as he grabbed the energy reader in his hand and yanked it free from the arm that extended out of his shoulder. "It's over 9.6!" he yelled angrily as he crushed the device in his powerful grip. "That's only one level below me! You were not this powerful a week ago!" he yelled at the ghost teen, pointing a finger at him threateningly.

"Clearly, he's been doing a bit of training while he was away," a young girl's voice called out to them. They both glanced to the side and saw a shadowed specter standing atop a metal beam that was sticking out of the ground. Her features were hidden by darkness, but it was clear that she had flaming white hair and crimson-red eyes that glowed with malicious intent. "And he might not even be utilizing his full power yet," she added as a warning to be heeded before she front flipped and landed on the ground a short distance from the two.

Now standing in the light of the moon above, Danny didn't need to take a second look before he took a step back, putting a bit more distance between himself and this new ghost girl. She wore the same phantom suit as Dani, and even looked a bit like her; only she wasn't his little sister. Her skin was green and her ears were pointed. Her hair was indeed made out of white flames, her eyes were a sinister crimson-blood red, and she sported a pair of fangs when she smirked, showing her teeth.

She didn't seem to be paying him any attention yet though, as she was currently focused on Skulker, who only growled at her, scowling at her mere presence before him. "And if that were to be the case, then you might want to consider upgrading that pathetic hunk of metal you call a ghost hunting suit," she warned him. "Not that you'll ever get the chance to hunt him with it," she taunted before she turned her attention to Danny, making him start sweating bullets. "Not when I'm through with him," she threatened with a wicked grin.

Despite the striking similarities, Danny knew beyond a doubt that this new ghost was most definitely not his sister. In fact, he didn't really know what she was. But one look into her cold, merciless, crimson colored eyes was enough for even him to figure out that she was one of the two ghosts that the Box Ghost had warned them about. She gave off these vibes that just resonated a soul piercing evil. Her evil grin was enough to send shivers of fear down even his spine.

"What are you even doing here?" Skulker asked her with irritation, distracting Danny from the evil aura the new ghost girl was emitting. He found it a bit strange that Skulker wasn't intimidated by this ghost girl like he was. "Shouldn't you be off hunting down those resistance fighters, like Plasmius ordered you to do?" he asked her, no less annoyed by her interference.

She only glanced sideways at him and smirked as she responded. "Ha! As if I'm going to do everything that windbag orders me to do," she chuckled. "Besides, this is gunna be much more entertaining than hunting down those meatbags."

"Well then, don't interfere with my hunt!" Skulker growled at her. "You can watch from the sidelines if all you want is to be entertained," he advised her, his frustration with her not wavering the slightest.

"Being on the sidelines is no fun at all," the dark specter pouted. "The only way to enjoy a slaughter is to be a part of the action itself," she declared, her wicked grin returning. "That's why I decided that I couldn't just stand by passively!" she said with enthusiasm. "We can't just do as we're told all the time. We need to take a more proactive stance! Otherwise, we'll never accomplish anything. Why do you think Phantom here is always winning?" she asked of Skulker mockingly. "That being said," she continued as she turned her attention back to Danny. "I do hope you'll forgive me for finishing him off in your stead," she requested with a wicked grin.

"The Whelp is mine for the hunting!" Skulker yelled at her furiously. "I have been hunting him for much longer than you've ever been around!" he enlightened her. "I work alone, and refuse to entertain your disillusioned notion of interfering with my hunt! I will be informing Plasmius of your rebellious attitude. He will not allow such treachery!" he warned her.

Smirking, she turned her head and snickered as she looked back at him. "What, you think he doesn't already know?" she taunted him. "He believes that he has control, but I'm just biding my time," she informed him. "Besides," she continued as she raised one of her hands with her fingers extended as she charged up a ball of glowing red energy. "Who said my request was for you?" she again asked him tauntingly as her fearful glance suddenly became vicious and maniacal.

"Huh!?" both Danny and Skulker gasped with surprise when her intentions became clear.

Raising her arm, she swiped it horizontally through the air, releasing a wave of red energy that tore apart the ground and sliced through the air before exploding in a blinding flash of light. The sudden release and explosion of energy triggered Danny's new ghost sense. It was a strong pulse of energy that sent shivers down his spine. He had good reason to fear this level of power; not even Skulker could stand up to it.

"ARGH!" he screamed as he became engulfed in the blinding flash of light that had exploded around him. His limbs all appeared to be torn apart before the rest of his robotic body completely disappeared from view. When the light disappeared and the dust settled, Skulker's robotic body could be seen amongst the rubble with his head nearly separated from his torso, connected by only a few wires and pieces of metal. His hair had been extinguished and his eyes were dark holes.

The evil ghost girl approached Skulker's remains and grabbed the top of his head, lifting it up and completely separating it from the rest of his body before she grabbed onto his face and ripped it off, revealing Skulker's small form inside. He winced upon having his suit's face torn off and shivered with fear as the evil specter smirked at him within the confines of the decapitated metal head.

"Consider getting yourself an upgraded body," she advised him with a sinister grin. "Now, run along then," she snickered as she released his decapitated head and let it fall, but didn't let it hit the ground. She then proceeded to punt the metal head up into the air and out of sight, as Skulker screamed angrily, cursing her out until he was beyond their sight. "And the kick is good. Now then, where were we?" she asked herself as she turned back to Danny with a sadistic grin.

Her display of power was short-lived, and didn't even come close to revealing her full power. And that was what Danny feared more than anything else when observing her. He'd already figured out that she was one of the ghosts that the Box Ghost had told them about, but he'd at least thought when he encountered the threat, he'd be able to handle it; now, he wasn't too sure. If what she just demonstrated was just a sample, then he wasn't too sure of his chances of dealing with her on his own. He'd need help from the others, but for the time being, he was currently on his own.

Snickering as she observed him, she tilted her head in curiosity. "You seem frightened, but also angry. Or, perhaps you're frustrated? I'm not really sure," she observed, noting the panicked glare he was giving her. "Yes, you're not quite sure what to make of me," she guessed. "I can see it in your eyes; the fear, the pain and anguish. Before this night is through, Phantom; I will break you," she hissed with delight as her eyes lit up with a burning passion.

"Yes, I'm frightened," Danny admitted, scowling at her as he took another cautious step back away from her. "But not of your power," he informed her, earning a scowl and a curiously raised eyebrow from her. "I'm no stranger to such wanton destructive forces, I've seen it before. What scares me though, are the unknown factors," he informed her. "What are you, where did you come from?" he asked her, a bit aggressively to hide the uncertainty in his voice.

"I didn't necessarily come from a very pleasant place," she answered him as she looked off to the side with a scowl, as if recalling her past disgusted her. "It was cold, dark, cramped, and filled with gelatinous goop," she recalled, her nose curling with disgust. "But, it made me what I am today," she said on the bright side as she shrugged her shoulders. "Heh, if you thought having Vlad in your life was nothing more than a bad dream, then I'm your worst nightmare," she taunted with a toothy grin, revealing her fangs.

"Why are you doing whatever he tells you to do!?" Danny shouted at her, worried that she was on the verge of attack. He was desperate to stall her, if he could, at least until he could gain his bearings on the situation; otherwise, he wouldn't last very long. This seemed to work, because she had leaned forward as if she had prepared to lunge, but paused when he asked her this.

"Huh?" she questioned with a puzzled expression in her eyes.

"You're clearly stronger than he is, there's no point in me denying that fact. I've already seen a small glimpse of what you're capable of," he pointed out to her. "So why are you following his orders?" he asked her, rewording his previous question. "I can't possibly imagine someone of your caliber possibly obeying him willingly."

"Unfortunately, he has that damn Time Staff," the evil ghost girl growled as she scowled with frustration. "It's more than enough to keep us in line..." she paused before she smirked. "For now," she snickered. "I'm just biding my time until the moment is right. Sooner or later, he's gunna slip up, and when he does, I'll take him down myself."

"There's a serious flaw in your plan," he warned her. "You haven't known Plasmius as long as I have; trust me, he already knows about your plan to turn against him. That's how he works, he thinks these things through several steps in advance. You're nothing but a pawn to him," he tried warning her, quite sternly too. Perhaps he thought he could turn her much like he did Dani.

"Vlad might love his real life chess games, but trust me, I'm most certainly no pawn," she chuckled with amusement. "If he were the king in this chess game of his, then I'm the unpredictable piece that doesn't yet exist," she informed him.

"Then make a move that he wouldn't see coming!" Danny urged her, growing somewhat desperate. "Help me beat him," he suggested. "Put a stop to all of this madness before it's too late," he pleaded as he waved his arms around at the destroyed remains of Axion Labs around them. "Put an end to his plans before he can proceed to the next step. We have the same goal in mind; if we work together, we can achieve it," he tried to encourage her. "Help me stop Plasmius, before he can carry through with his dark intentions," he offered up his ultimatum whilst extending his hand, hopeful that she'd agree to his proposal.

"Hmph," she scoffed with amusement as she crouched and clenched her hands into fists. "I don't need your help to bring him to his knees," she snickered with delight as her ghostly glow turned red. "Just your cooperation," she hissed with delight.

"Huh!?" Danny gasped, alarmed, but not entirely surprised, that she'd turned down his offer; but also somewhat confused by what she meant by that last part.

"You see, I already intended on bringing his latest scheme to a grinding halt," she informed him. "He has plans for you and that cloned sister of yours," she continued. "Big plans that he intends on carrying out tonight; but I'm not gunna let him have the satisfaction." Danny was starting to become worried again, he did not like where this was going. "He would love nothing more than to follow through with the plans he's been putting together for weeks. Imagine his surprise when he finds out he can't, because I'll have already eliminated you, myself," she concluded with a malicious glare.

With a burst of acceleration comparable to an explosion, she charged towards him with a fist pulled back that she charged with red energy. She let out a thunderous battle cry as she sped towards him without haste. Danny was barely able to react in time, throwing up his arms in front of his torso as her energized fist slammed into his crossed arms. The force of the impact shoved him backwards, his feet carving out parallel swaths of dirt in the hard ground, several feet before he managed to come to a stop.

"Hee," the evil ghost girl snickered before she spun like a top and slammed the back of her foot into his midsection, sending him airborne. Before he could even try to regain control of his flight, she suddenly appeared in front of him, as if teleporting as she had just fizzled in front of him. "RAGH!" she yelled as she thrust both of her hands into his stomach, releasing a beam of red energy that blasted him back towards town.

After flying for some considerable distance, all without any control, he was suddenly knocked out of the sky when she appeared in front of his flight path and, with both hands interlaced over her head, she slammed them into him as he was blasted by the continuous stream of energy. Like a speeding bullet, he slammed into the ground and the energy finally exploded, blowing away all of the buildings within the blast radius.

"Not so tough now, are you?" she mocked him as she floated overhead with her arms folded.

The smoke from the explosion soon settled revealing Danny getting back to his feet in the middle of an impact crater that had destroyed the street and the surrounding buildings. His already tattered suit was now even more destroyed, one whole sleeve even being torn off up to his shoulder and a hole in the side revealing his midsection. His hair was now dusty and unkempt; and that was all on top of the bleeding cuts and bruises that he now sported. He glared up at her and barred his teeth in a growl as she snickered at his disheveled appearance.

"Snicker all you want," he growled before he turned his head and spat blood out of his mouth. "I've still got a couple tricks left up my sleeve," he informed her in a darker, more serious tone as he clenched his hands into fists at his side.

"Hopefully you can pull off something before you lose the other one then," she taunted him before she began laughing at the joke she had made.

"Grrr!" he growled at her taunting. He was becoming aggravated by this evil specter's mockery, and it was beginning to show. His ghostly glow turned green as he began augmenting his power. He was realizing that he couldn't mess around with this ghost; she was rather gifted. Beating her the usual way was out of the question. He'd have to improvise, much like he did against Freakshow. Remembering back to what the madman had done to him and his friends allowed him to reach greater depths within his own power than he'd realized he had. If he could just somehow figure out how to tap into that power again, he might be able to beat her.

Using what he'd learned from his trip away, he unleashed his fully augmented power in a powerful burst of ecto-energy that swirled around him; his aura becoming almost flame-like in appearance as his eyes began to glow with an internal light of their own.

"Oh, this might actually get a little interesting," the evil specter said with a delightful smirk.

Glaring up at her with fury burning in his eyes; and his mind looking back on all the terrors he'd suffered over the last week; Danny hoped that he could muster up enough willpower to at least wipe the smug grin off her face. She thought he was going to be her entertainment? So didn't Freakshow, and she was about to learn the same lesson that he had, the hard way.

Seemingly fizzling out of existence, he effortlessly appeared behind her, managing to catch her by surprise as he swiped his arm through the air and landed a powerful blow to the back of her neck. She jolted forward in the air before he began to throw a rapid succession of punches to her back that she couldn't defend against. Not giving her a chance to recover and retaliate, he raised both hands over his head before he slammed them both down onto hers, sending her crashing to the ground in the center of the impact crater he'd made only moments ago.

Continuing his relentless attack, he began unloading several ecto-plasmic energy rays, shooting several in the span of a couple seconds. They exploded on impact with her and the ground around her, enshrouding her in smoke and dust. Luckily, he could sense her energy, and so knew exactly where to hit, despite not being able to see her through the billowing smoke. Her power was dropping steadily with every hit; he had to keep pressing his attack.

After several seconds of firing continuous energy rays, he paused long enough to form a large energy ball the size of a pulsating beach ball, before he threw it down to the ground like an oversized baseball. It erupted into a massive explosion that shook the streets and still standing surrounding buildings, threatening to topple them like so many others in this war torn town. When the explosion subsided, the original impact crater had enlarged considerably, and was now filled to the brim with dust and smoke.

"There," Danny coughed as he tried to catch his breath after exerting himself to such an extent. "That'll have slowed her down a bit," he huffed, noticing that her power had dropped considerably after his relentless barrage. "What's the matter!?" he called out to her, so his voice could penetrate through the thick cloud of smoke below. "Did I just deflate that massive ego of yours!?" he taunted her, believing that she'd be having trouble standing after an attack like that.

His smirk slowly began to fade as something began to happen that he hadn't expected; the dust and smoke blew away, clearing whatever remained of the street, revealing the evil ghost girl standing in the middle of the expanded impact crater, looking as if she didn't have a single scratch despite the decrease in power. She smirked up at him and began to snicker at his look of perplexity. How could she possibly appear to be completely unharmed after an assault like that!?

"Not bad, really," she congratulated him as she began to stretch as if preparing herself for a workout. "I'm actually a little surprised that you could pull off something like that," she praised him. "You're stronger than Skulker originally predicted," she informed him as she finished stretching. "If he were still around, he'd probably have you clocked in as a level 10 ecto-plasmic entity; maybe 10.5," she theorized. "And trust me, that's being generous," she mocked, shrugging her shoulders. "But as for me, well, for your sake, I do hope you're still holding back!" she taunted, widening her eyes as she grinned with psychotic delight.

Her aura suddenly exploded around her, rising like flames as she began to power up. Danny gasped fearfully as he began to back away in the air, surprised by the sudden spike in her energy reading. It was even higher than his! There was no way he was gunna last for very long against the amount of force she was exuding. He began to tremble fearfully as her power continued to climb before finally settling out. It was a truly extraordinary amount.

With the power to sense ghost energy being so new to him, he had no way of comparing it to other ghosts whose power he knew exceeded his own, but hers was high enough for him to know that he wasn't going to be able to defeat her on his own in his current condition.

"Now then, let's see how you fare against this!" she yelled ferociously before she suddenly disappeared into thin air and almost instantly reappeared behind him, fizzling into existence, catching him completely off guard. With fists charged with pulsating red energy, she unleashed a barrage of punches to his abdomen that completely took the wind out of him.

Too busy gagging on his own spittle, he couldn't react, let alone defend himself as she continued her onslaught. Raising her legs up, she launched them into his back sending him flying through the air where he was suddenly clotheslined by her suddenly reappearing in front of him in midair. Disappearing and reappearing underneath him, she kneed him in the back hard enough to send him still higher into the air.

"ARGH!" he screamed in agony from her onslaught of relentless attacks; but if he thought she was done, he was dead wrong. Racing up to catch up with him high in the air, she grabbed him by one of his ankles before throwing him back towards the ground below. Doing a midair flip, she dove after him with both fists stretched out in front. She was thoroughly enjoying herself and only snickered as her fists made contact with his abdomen once more. Only this time, rather than unleash another barrage of punches, she pushed on him, eventually slamming him into the ground at full force, creating yet another impact crater, with him in the middle.

Flying up to hover over his mangled body, she could only snicker with satisfaction. He grunted as he pushed himself up so he was propped up by his arms stretched out behind his back, he growled up at her with one eye half closed. This only got her laughing hysterically.

"Wahahahaha!" she cackled, hugging her stomach as her legs kicked with joy. "You are truly pathetic!" she mocked him after she was done laughing. "I can't possibly see how Plasmius even considered you to be a serious threat," she taunted as she wiped away a tear. "Taking him down will be a piece of cake if beating you was this easy," she speculated to herself, still smirking down at her adversary before she sighed with forced reluctance. "That being said, I'd better wrap things up here before he notices the commotion," she said, more to herself than to him. "Don't want him interfering and ruining my carefully laid plans."

She rose higher into the air as she held out one of her hands, charging up a ball of red ecto-energy that soon began to spark and pulsate. The power of this ball that Danny was sensing was enough by itself to do some serious damage; it must have been highly concentrated considering the amount of power it contained for its size. What shocked him more was that as dangerous as it was, she was tossing it up and down and catching it like it were a hacky sack as she continued smirking at him while snickering with amusement.

"Now then, before I snuff out your miserable and pathetic existence; do you have any last words? Requests? Last ditch efforts to escape your untimely demise?" she asked of him, clearly savoring the moment.

"Yeah," he replied with a groan. "How about a distraction?" he asked of her with an aggravated growl.

This only got her laughing again. "Wahahahaha! A distraction?" she asked, using her free hand to wipe away another tear. "How do you plan on distracting me when you're the main target!?" she asked, amused by his absurd statement.

"It's a game that I like to call, 'Keep your eyes on the Birdie'," he answered with a grin of his own after he'd finally gotten back to his feet.

"Wha?" she questioned, apparently suddenly confused by this. She stopped tossing the pulsating red energy sphere and held it in her hand as she contemplated what he could have meant by what he'd just said. She would soon find out.

Before she knew what hit her, she was suddenly sent flying through the air at tremendous speed after receiving a powerful blow to the side of her head. She crashed into the side of a building where the red energy that she had been holding suddenly exploded, destroying the building in a tremendous explosion of red ecto-energy that bubbled outwards before fading away, leaving behind the dust and debris from the destroyed building.

Where she had once been floating in the air, Danny was now hovering with one of his legs outstretched after having just caught her off guard and kicked her away with all he could muster. He was in fact a duplicate, created at some point by the original on the ground. "You didn't keep your eyes on the Birdie," they both echoed each other with triumphant grins at having caught her off guard.

The original sprung into the air, launching himself at his duplicate, and merged with it after it turned to fly away. Upon merging his two halves, he took off across town in retreat, knowing full well that despite yet another plunge in her apparent power reading, if she was able to recover like last time, he wouldn't get another chance. She was likely to be furious with him, and would do all she could to put him down; and retreating for the time being and coming up with an alternative counter strike against her with help at his side would be the best course of action for the moment.

"Huh," Danny said to himself as he flew over his destroyed town. "I'm not the only one that had their hands full," he said to himself as he noticed a pair of ecto-energies that he was fast approaching. "Dani appears to have gotten herself into a jam with someone almost as powerful as that evil specter I just got the better of," he concluded, realizing she was one of the two powers he was sensing, the other power almost as terrifying as the last. "Need to get her and the others and retreat until we come up with a better plan," he suggested to himself. "Sorry, Amity Park, I couldn't save you this time around," he apologized to the town below him as he flew overhead at full speed towards where he felt the other powers struggling with one another.

---

An explosion of red energy shook the streets as Dani descended from the air and landed on the pavement, panting heavily to catch her breath before she looked back up into the air and growled aggressively as her attacker emerged from the smoke of the explosion. The evil specter that was eerily similar to Danny grinned as he brought both hands together and charged them with red ecto-energy before he fired three blasts down towards her.

She barely managed to dodge each of the three resulting energy explosions, jumping backwards before each explosion. After the third explosion, she was caught off guard by the evil specter speeding down towards her, punching at the ground with an energized fist. She barely managed to avoid being slammed into the ground by his fist, but she couldn't avoid the resulting explosion. She put up her arms and braced herself. Before the explosion had finished erupting around her, she was suddenly punched in the stomach, being sent flying backwards into the side of a building where she became imbedded within the cracked bricks.

"Heh," the evil specter grunted with a smirk, his arm still outstretched from having punched her. He stood upright and cracked his neck, his smirk never wavering. "Pathetic," he insinuated. "Those pathetic human friends of yours put up a better fight than you," he informed her. She growled angrily and glared at him, infuriated by the smirk he sported out of smacking her around.

"You're a cold, heartless monster," she growled as she pried herself from the bricks.

"Maybe so, but power is everything in this line of work," he informed her, his smirk still lingering. "Inferior creatures such as them will always fall to the more dominant. Those who lack power deserve to be snuffed out so the stronger may flourish. And you fall into the former category," he snickered. "So just accept your fate, and I'll be sure to end things quickly, though not necessarily painlessly," he advised with another snicker.

"Accept this!" she yelled ferociously as her aura suddenly exploded around her, rising like flames around her. She prepared to attack, but he only continued snickering before his own aura exploded around him, rising like flames. "RAGH!" she yelled as she sped towards him, suddenly fizzling out of existence.

"Hmm?" the evil specter hummed with curiosity as he raised an eyebrow at the ghost girl's disappearing act, but she didn't stay gone for long. Soon she became visible, running rapid circles around him so quickly, it appeared that she had duplicated herself, as there were now several Dani's running around him in a blurry circle. "Impressive speed," he complimented her as his eyes darted around, following her movements around him. "You're moving fast enough to create false images of yourself in order to throw me off," he explained with a grin. "Too bad it won't work," he warned her, not threatened by her new technique.

"We'll see!" Dani hollered from somewhere within the fast moving circle she was running around him before she moved in from behind, moving so fast, her fist was a blur as it sped towards the back of his flaming head. She was quite perplexed when he suddenly spun around and deflected her punch with one of his hands as he side stepped her.

Using her other fist, she threw another punch, only to have her fist caught in his hand. She growled and barred her teeth as he smirked down at her. "Common, that the best you got!?" he taunted her. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me," he goaded her as he tightened his grip on her fist.

She winced a bit from the pressure threatening to crush her fist, but she countered by twisting her body around and swinging her leg at him in an energized kick that missed when he suddenly appeared to fizzle out of existence. Her anger faded when she felt the presence of his energy signature directly behind her.

"Heehee," he snickered, holding out his hand as he charged it with pulsating red energy, aimed directly at her back. "RAGH!" he roared as he released the energy at full blast.

She was unable to defend against the energy blast from behind and was completely engulfed as the street was utterly destroyed; the energy blast destroying everything in its path, creating a hundred yard swath in the ground. When the dust and smoke cleared, she was lying face down in the dirt. Slowly, she managed to roll over onto her back, grunting with every movement, before she glared up at the evil creature as it walked up and stood over her.

Using the same hand he'd just blasted her with, he prepared to blast her again as he aimed his hand directly in her terrified face and charged another pulsating energy sphere. "The weak will perish," he growled. "Now say hello to oblivion!" he hollered. "RAGH-ARGH!" he roared ferociously as, rather than releasing the energy, he was suddenly sent flying backwards, where he crashed into a building a couple hundred yards down the street. The pulsating ball of energy he'd charged suddenly exploded, destroying the building in a flash of red light before all that remained was a rising plume of smoke.

"Grr!" Danny growled through tightly clenched teeth, glaring at where the evil specter had been concealed by the smoke, as he stood over his sister with his leg still in the air after he'd suddenly appeared and roundhouse kicked the evil specter away. He knew through experience with the evil ghost girl that whatever this creature was, it wasn't to be underestimated; and if it could recover from that attack as quickly as its counterpart could, then they didn't have a whole lot of time on their hands.

"Get up," he ordered his younger sister, never taking his eyes off the plume of smoke at the end of the street. "We're retreating until we can come up with a plan to combat these creatures," he informed her as she struggled to her feet behind him.

"So we should have heeded the Box Ghosts warning, then?" she questioned, not the least bit worried that this wasn't the real Danny. She could sense his energy, this was the real him.

"We underestimated these creatures," he informed her. "They're too tough for us to handle in a normal fight; we've got to come up with a better strategy than our usual tactics," he explained before he chanced a look at her. "Where are Jazz and Kim?" he asked, somewhat worried that neither of them were around.

"Jazz couldn't fight, so she stayed behind in the Ops Center in order to monitor things, and try to get a hold of Axion Labs," she explained. "And me and Kim went to her house to check on things," she continued. "But we were attacked, and they were captured," she further explained, accounting for the older girl's absence. "It was another ambush, somehow, they knew we were coming!" she warned him.

"Yeah, I kinda got that impression already," he informed her as he turned his attention back to the rising plume of smoke down the street. The energy from the evil specter he'd saved her from had been depleted a bit from the explosion, but it was still considerably higher than what he himself was capable of handling once it had recovered. "Axion Labs has been completely destroyed. They razed it to the ground; it's nothing more than a smoking heap of twisted metal now," he informed her. "But the resistance force they put together is still intact somewhere," he further explained. "Plasmius is still apparently hunting for them."

"Then we'll have to try and join up with them," Dani suggested. It was likely their last ray of hope, as things were looking pretty dreary for them at the moment. "They might know a bit more about what's going on, or even how to beat these things."

"Agreed," Danny agreed with her, nodding his head in approval. "But, we're gunna have to give this guy the slip first," he reminded her.

Her attention was drawn away from him to the still rising plume of smoke. At that moment, a burst of wind blew it all away, leaving the evil specter standing in the middle of the street with no sign of injury. He glared at the siblings with frustration before he began to smirk. Dani gasped when she felt the energy of another ghost behind them. She turned and looked up to find the evil ghost girl now floating overhead as she smirked down at the siblings.

She descended and landed a couple yards away, making Dani jump back so her back was pressed up against Danny's. She began trembling fearfully at the sight of the evil specter that looked eerily similar to herself just smirking at her with a pleased grin.

Danny growled and glared daggers, clenching his hands into fists, as the evil specter that looked eerily similar to himself approached, closing the gap between them until only a couple yards separated them. He too was smirking at Danny with a rather pleased grin.

"Danny, just what the heck are these things!?" Dani asked of her older brother, fear making her voice tremble at the sight of her evil counterpart smirking at her.

"I really wish I had an answer for you," he replied, somewhat nervously. "But I think the Box Ghost's description of them as monsters was pretty spot on."

"Yeah, especially those soul piercing, crimson eyes of theirs," Dani added, further pointing out the evil specter's malicious gazes.

"Teaming up, I see," Dani's evil counterpart inquired of the siblings. "Not that it'll do you any good," she advised them.

"Either one of us could beat you both easily enough," Danny's evil counterpart warned them. "But together? A slaughter doesn't even begin to describe what we could do to you," he began to snicker.

"Hey, Bro!" Dani evil counterpart called out to the other evil specter. "Remember what we did to that armored punk earlier?" she asked him.

"The one who thought she had an advantage over us?" he questioned before he recalled exactly what she was talking about. "Ah, yes. I see. You wanna do that again," he said with a smirk, glancing from her back to the siblings. "Very well, let's finish this then," he complied as he tensed up in preparation for an attack.

Both evil specters raised their arms up and aimed pulsating balls of red ecto-energy at the siblings, making them both tense up upon sensing the level of power the energy balls were exerting.

"Their attacks are highly concentrated," Dani pointed out, pushing herself against Danny's back.

"Very powerful; if they collide with us in the middle; we're done for," Danny speculated, keeping his eyes on the pulsating ball of red ecto-energy his evil counterpart was preparing. "We have no alternative but to avoid at all costs," he advised her.

"But with their speed, they'll take us both out soon afterwards anyway," Dani argued. "We can't afford either option; we need to get out of here now!" she shouted at him over her shoulder.

"I work best when under pressure, so just give me a moment to come up with something," he advised her as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"The only place you'll be going-" Dani's evil counterpart snickered.

"Is Oblivion!" Danny's evil counterpart finished before they both fired their highly concentrated energy beams at the two siblings.

The two beams raced towards each other, threatening to explode on contact with the two siblings in the middle, but before the attacks could reach the siblings, the two ghost teens began glowing with a blue aura before they vanished from sight, causing the two beams to pass by one another and continue on towards each of the evil specters. They both gasped and shrieked with horror as each other's attacks now threatened them instead.

They both vanished in a massive explosion of blinding red light that destroyed several nearby buildings, causing them to collapse, and sending out a shockwave that produced hurricane force winds across much of the destroyed town for several moments before the explosion died down, leaving a low rumble behind as the town stopped shaking from the aftermath.

Small pieces of debris rained down on the streets surrounding the newly formed crater where Danny was now crouching over his younger sister, protecting her with his own body following the massive explosion. They both looked up at the massive plume of smoke that was now rising from where they once were off in the distance only moments ago.

"I didn't know you could move that fast," Dani inquired of Danny with awe. "How did you do that?" she asked him with wonder.

"Huh?" Danny questioned with confusion as he looked down at her. "That wasn't my doing," he informed her, causing them both some worry.

"You survived only because I don't want you to perish just yet," a drawling voice that they knew only too well answered them. They both turned around and looked up to see Vlad Plasmius, with Clockwork's Time Staff in hand, floating overhead. He grinned at them, delighted by the shocked and horrified looks on their faces. "I'm not going to lie, I had been expecting Freakshow to return instead," Vlad admitted with a bit of disappointment. "I imagined the copy of the Reality Gauntlet I'd made would break sooner or later, forcing him to return; but imagine my surprise when I saw you coming home instead," he snickered tauntingly as he pulled out from his suit a very familiar looking scroll.

"How did you get that!?" Danny demanded to know.

"Frostbite was only too happy to oblige the wants and needs of the soon-to-be ruler over all of creation," Plasmius taunted him as he replaced the Infi-map back into his suit.

"You're lying, Plasmius!" Danny shouted at him angrily, to which Vlad looked off to the side with a grin over having been caught red handed. "What have you done with Frostbite!?" he demanded to know. "You'd better not have hurt him!" he warned.

"Let's just say that the Far Frozen won't be mustering up a counter-offensive anytime soon," Vlad chuckled with amusement. "They may have outnumbered us, but we overpowered them," he said as he lifted his arms up in presentation as Vortex and Technus became visible off to the sides, with the siblings turning cautious glances at both as they chuckled at the ghost teens with toothy grins.

"What have you done with Jazz and Kim!?" Dani demanded of them angrily after jumping out from behind Danny so he wasn't protecting her anymore, eliciting a worried gasp from him and a cocked eyebrow of intrigue from Vlad.

"Don't worry, ghost brat," Technus assured her. "They won't be killed, but they also won't be interfering anymore either," he answered her.

"You humans…are nothing but mongrels to us," Vortex wheezed through his cocky grin. "And mongrels should be caged…at all times," he wheezed before chuckling at his own sick and twisted form of humor.

"Speaking of Jasmine, did you get what you were requested to retrieve?" Vlad asked of Vortex, turning his attention to the weather manipulating ghost as he folded his arms across his chest.

Vortex responded with a grin as he held up what appeared to be a pair of Fenton Thermoses. "They were even gift wrapped for me," he chuckled with amusement before he tossed them both to Plasmius.

The siblings were horrified by this development. They both knew all too well what was contained within both of the Fenton Thermoses. One contained the Ecto-Vultures and Ecto-Pusses, while the other had become storage for the four Reality Gems; and both thermoses were now in the hands of their mortal enemy.

Twisting off the cap of one of the Fenton Thermos he now held, Vlad released the six ghosts that had been trapped inside. A blinding beam of green energy emerged from the thermos as the six ghosts emerged and joined the growing list of enemies that surrounded the siblings. All six gathered behind Vlad; the Ecto-Vultures flapping their wings over one of Vlad's shoulders while the pair of smaller Ecto-Pusses floated over his other shoulder. The larger Ecto-Puss that they'd had such a difficult time defeating and capturing now towered over all of them from behind him, but it made no aggressive move as it was apparently loyal to him.

Rattling the other thermos, checking to make sure the Reality Gems were indeed inside, Vlad smirked when he heard them clanking around inside. "So tell me Daniel, whatever did happen to Freakshow, hmm?" he questioned out of curiosity, glancing down at the ghost teen glaring back up at him. "Without your powers, I'd expected him to take care of you quite easily; so tell me, how did you beat him?" he asked with growing interest.

"Let's just say that his own ambitions were his undoing," Danny answered back in a growl. "No more so than what's going to happen to you in the end as well, sooner or later," he declared.

"Well we'll see, won't we?" Vlad responded with an amused grin. "I was just going to double-cross him and take the gems back anyway, so I guess this saves me the trouble," he admitted without a care. "And speaking of your powers, how did you manage to get them back?" he asked with even greater interest than before. "Their removal should have been permanent," he added with an annoyed scowl.

"Like I'd tell you," Danny growled in response.

"Well, he's certainly wormed his way out of hairier situations than that before, believe me," Technus pointed out, though with an amused grin towards the two Ghost Teens. "Honestly, I'm not all that surprised, really," he admitted.

Vlad growled in frustration of his own before he raised the Time Staff and glanced at it more carefully. "I should have seen this coming," he muttered to himself. "Why am I limited to seeing a stream of time that is no longer connected to this one?" he muttered angrily as his grip on the staff tightened. "It would seem that I still don't have full control over the powers that this staff affords," he concluded before opening the second Fenton Thermos, dumping out the Reality Gems into his hand. He inspected them for a moment before he dumped the three main ones back inside before tossing it to Technus, all whilst keeping the Power Gem for himself. "Here. Perhaps now you can work out the problems you've been having with that belt," he suggested as Technus caught the thermos.

"But, what of the Power Gem?" he asked Plasmius with a cocked eye.

"You need only concern yourself with those three," he advised the electronics ghost. "I have other plans for this one," he said with a smirk as he held up the Power Gem to eye level.

"It'll take me some time to calibrate it and run a few tests to make sure everything works properly without it," Technus warned offhandedly.

"No worries, I'm a patient man," Vlad responded, sounding quite pleased. "After all, soon I'll have all the time in the world," he muttered loud enough for everyone to hear as he lifted up the Time Staff and rubbed at Clockwork's symbol with his thumb.

The siblings growled at him angrily before they both gasped with fright. Sensing a terrible power approaching, they turned back around and gaped at the still rising plume of smoke from the earlier explosion as two red contrails flew out of the smoke and took to the sky before flying over towards them. The evil specters stopped overhead, cutting off the siblings final escape route, and fully enclosing them in a circle of enemies. Their power had been cut drastically after being hit by each other's attacks, but they were still overwhelmingly powerful by the ghost teen's standards. And to top it all off, neither of them looked as if they'd suffered a single scratch!

"What is up with these things?" Danny asked of his sister with a mixture of fear and aggravation as all of their enemies descended towards the ground. "They don't even look bruised. You'd think after an attack like that, they'd at least be a little banged up," he presumed.

Their evil counterparts glared at them both before glancing up at Vlad who glared right back at them; and he didn't look pleased. "The two of you are becoming more and more defiant," he scolded them. "I ordered you two to continue hunting down the resistance force," he reminded them. "But here I find you trying to kill them off earlier than I would wish it," he spoke to them angrily.

Despite his anger with them, they were not deterred. "And miss out on all the fun," Dani's evil counterpart responded with a grin.

"There's no more satisfaction in fighting those worthless humans," Danny's counterpart growled with frustration. "They can't even begin to challenge our abilities."

"At least these two put up an interesting fight," Dani's counterpart argued their case. "Skulker even clocked Phantom in as being potentially stronger than him before he fell to pieces," she snickered at the pun she'd made. "So why not take them out now? It couldn't be easier," she asked, pointing out the obvious.

"I want them to suffer!" Vlad yelled ferociously at the two evil counterparts, making even them jump with surprise. "Freakshow failed to hold up his end of the bargain of destroying them himself, so now I must do it myself; but there's no point in obliterating them until after they've seen their entire world burned to the ground," he informed the evil spirits. "Only once they've lost the will to live after seeing everything they care about destroyed, will they be annihilated," he concluded with a wicked grin. "If you wish to destroy them yourself, I will happily oblige, but only after their spirits have been broken," he offered of the evil counterparts.

"And where is any of the fun in that!?" Dani's evil counterpart asked angrily.

"The fun, my dear, is in the destruction of all of humanity, and all life on this pathetic mud ball of a planet," Vlad answered with a wicked grin.

The evil counterparts glanced at each other with uncertainty before they both folded their arms and pouted. "I guess we can live with that," Danny's evil counterpart relented.

"Amazing," Dani grumbled. "As powerful as they are, even they can be controlled through the use of fear," she pointed out. "I was sure he would have to use some form of mind control in order to keep them in line," she figured. After all, that was what they had already theorized before they even got back from the Ghost Zone.

They both looked back to Vlad when he began laughing. "Oh, they once were," he informed the siblings. "But their recent fight with a trio of ghost hunters from Axion Labs destroyed the control transmitters a few days ago," he explained. "Of course, I had prepared for such an event, and can still keep them in line. Their speed and power are second to none against the ability to stop time itself," he snickered as he again rubbed Clockwork's symbol on the time staff with his thumb. "This will keep them in their place until such a time as when Technus is done with his mechanical alterations," he concluded.

"Mechanical alterations of what?" Danny asked, perhaps hoping that if they could keep Vlad monologuing, they'd be able to make their escape.

"A special device that will aide me in my conquest," he answered. "You see, I no longer have aspirations for world domination," he informed the ghost teens. "I now strive for world annihilation. Everything, everywhere will be exterminated; but I need the two of you out of my hair for a bit longer before I can follow through with my ultimate plans," he informed them as a shadowy figure appeared behind him. "So while the two of you will be allowed to survive this surprise encounter, you will not be allowed to plot against me, either," he warned them with a malicious sneer.

"And some new accommodations at my prison will ensure your forced cooperation," the shadowed ghost continued with a distinctly southern drawl. The shadowed specter stepped forward, revealing the tall, white skinned form of Walker in his usual white business suit. "In exchange for stupidly releasin' Vortex, I'll be takin' both of you instead," he informed them with a wicked grin of his own.

"Released Vortex?" Danny asked, confused by what he meant. Had he really thought the siblings were responsible for the weather manipulating ghost's escape? "But we didn't-" he tried to defend himself, but Walker wasn't hearing any of it.

"Take them!" he ordered, pointing an authoritative finger at the two siblings.

"GRR!" they both growled aggressively as they prepared to defend themselves at all costs against the onslaught of ghosts that surrounded them, but they were confused by the lack of participation from any of the ghosts that surrounded them. "Huh?" they questioned when a light gust blew through the street, carrying with it a strange blue powder.

"What is this?" Dani asked, looking around nervously as they became surrounded by the strange glowing powder.

"Sleeping…powder," Danny answered groggily as he felt his eye lids growing heavy.

Before either of them fully lost consciousness, another dark form materialized within the circle of ghosts that surrounded them. It was a gaseous form that solidified into a dark mass that appeared to be a doorway into outer space, with stars that twinkled as they passed by. The form got closer and reached out a hand that engulfed their vision as they finally succumbed to weariness and drifted off to sleep as their world went dark around them.

---

Feel like you're missing something here? Or, maybe a few somethings? Clearly something went down during the week that our heroes were off in another universe. Amity Park has been destroyed!? Axion Labs has put together a resistance force!? There were references to battles that we haven't seen yet!? What are these evil versions of our heroes!? And why are they so much more powerful than them!? Where are their friends and family!? What happened to Jazz and Kim!? What's happening to our favorite Phantom siblings now!? None of these questions, and several others you may have, will NOT be answered...yet. ;D

You're just gunna have to stick around for the long awaited rewrite of A Trip through Time! Questions will be answered, stories of battles we haven't seen yet will be retold. This dilemma cannot be solved in the present. Only the past, or the future, hold the keys to success when our favorite Phantom duo fight back to save their world. Keep your eyes out for the next update when we begin the long awaited rewrite of A Trip through Time! So stick around.

But don't leave just yet!

Lately, a couple of chapters ago actually, I got into an MCU movie marathon that gave me the idea of doing short little "Post-Credit Scenes" like they do in those movies. I've decided to do something similar with my stories. From now on, following the conclusion of future stories, I will be adding a very short "Post-Story" Epilogue, that will hint at Easter Eggs to appear in future stories. Nothing too spoilery though; just enough to hopefully keep everyone on their toes. Hope you enjoy; and as always, be sure to stick around for more.

EDIT: I added some dialog between some characters near the end and some new details concerning the state of the Fenton's underground lab that helped fill in a few plot holes that would have proven difficult to work around later on down the road when doing the rewrite for A Trip through Time.