Danny must have flown over the whole city in search of his double, or so he decided after checking all the possible locations he could think of. It was getting dark before he dejectedly went home in the vague hope that Shade would already be there. He knew the boy wasn't as strong as he was, having received his powers considerably later. If Valerie found him…

He resolved to go back out as soon as his parents went to bed, but the sudden activation of his ghost sense drove the thought from his mind. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then became invisible and sneaked through the kitchen. The otherworldly chill led him down to the empty lab, where a stabbing headache heralded his sudden lack of motor control.

"Hey, it worked!" announced the voice of the last person Danny wanted to see right then. Skulker materialized, grinning broadly. "I could get used to that."

The boy would like to have demanded to know what was going on, but his jaw was clamped shut.

"Now, whelp," the hunter continued, greatly relishing his victory. "There are three imposters roaming this city, and I want you to tell me everything you know about them."

"Three?" Danny exclaimed as soon as he was allowed to speak.

Skulker nodded, a bit irritated than the boy didn't know about the other two but not overly surprised. "Yours, mine, and one that looks like Technus' whelp." At the boy's reaction, he asked, "So you do know them?"

"They're from an alternate universe," the ghost boy answered. "Electra and…and AU Skulker must have followed him here." He repressed a smirk at the realization that Jazz had been wrong; his brief obsession with Doomed fanfiction had been worth something after all, if only to give him a name for Skulker's alternate counterpart.

After a moment, Skulker stepped back, and Danny staggered as he was suddenly able to move again. Grateful though he was, he couldn't help but blurt out, "You're letting me go?"

The armored ghost scoffed. "I don't need Technus' nanobots to capture you. However…" He trailed off, apparently warring with himself about something. "I may have miscalculated their abilities."

"What do you mean?"

Again, he hesitated before answering, and Danny suddenly realized that he was embarrassed about something. "The…alternates of you and I are weaker than ourselves, but Kat's seems to be stronger."

Danny thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, she's not. I've fought her before."

Skulker gave him an appraising stare and said, "Perhaps you should come with me."

Yellow police tape and flashing cruisers surrounded an area that might have been ground zero for a nuclear bomb. The few trees still standing appeared to have struck by lightning; most of them had been knocked over or burned down. Headstones had been reduced to so much rubble strewn over the blackened ground of the cemetery.

Invisible, Danny stared in astonishment, even forgetting Skulker hovering next to him. "What happened here?" he whispered.

"Kat met Electra," the hunter answered simply. He pointed down to where the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle idled among the police cruisers. Wishing he'd thought to check the cemetery earlier, the boy led the way down. He slipped past his parents, who were busy arguing with the police, and peaked inside. Leaning back in one of the seats and looking very faded was Kat. She glanced up as he reappeared.

"We called it a draw," she said almost before he could open his mouth. "I didn't lose."

Skulker chuckled. "No, you lost."

"I didn't lose to that…that…arrogant, insipid imposter!" She tried to prove her claim by standing, but didn't quite succeed. "Yeah, well…she's in worse condition."

"She flew out of here laughing," the hunter informed him.

"Are you going to be okay?" Danny asked, torn between worry at the gremlin's condition and laughter at her denial.

Kat nodded and sat up slightly. "Your parents don't realize it, but I'm draining this thing's batteries."

"Kat!"

"She was heading east," the girl said, changing the subject. "She was talking to someone on a headset that I'm astounded still functioned with all the static we were throwing around. I'm thinking she may have made it."

"Do you know where she went?" Skulker interrupted before she could start on a hardware-related tirade.

Kat shrugged. "Something about 'back to the door.'"

Of course, the Guardians of Space had let them through. Danny was almost amazed at himself for not realizing that sooner, although, to his credit, he had other things on his mind. They were probably trying to Shade back, but he couldn't just let them go like that. If Shade couldn't get away, he'd be stuffed into a cage, or worse.

Skulker was apparently thinking of something close to that because he brightened considerably. "Well, if they're leaving, then I don't need to bother with them. I'll give you a thirty second head start, whelp."

"Not now!" Danny exclaimed angrily. He gestured at the ghost's wrist unit. "I have to rescue Shade! Can you find them with that thing?"

"I can, but-"

Whatever Skulker had been about to say was suddenly cut off by Jack Fenton's cry of "Ghost!" Apparently, Danny's exclamation had finally gotten their attention. The three spirits quickly took off, although they were still close enough to hear the GAV sputtering as Jack tried to start it.

"Look," Danny began, facing Skulker. "I need you help."

"We're enemies," Skulker reminded him, amusement coloring his tone. "Why should I help you?"

Suddenly, his ecto-skeleton froze and Kat's voice said from the speakers. "How about, I'll drain this thing and blow it up if you don't?"

Listening closely, Danny could just hear Skulker from inside the huge metal shell. "You wouldn't."

"Watch me." Kat seemed to listen for a moment, but the boy couldn't make out any words. Finally, however, she went on. "Because I am Electra Technus, and no one else will say otherwise! Now, are you going to help me get revenge? Or should I activate this 'Eject' command?"

Shade huddled in the net surrounding him and wondered why the Guardians of Space had let Skulker and Electra through. He thought they were benevolent; apparently, he was wrong. The two ghosts argued quietly about some kind of door that was supposed to have been there, paying little attention to their captive. Every so often, Electra glanced in his direction, but he wasn't worried about her. Although she never seemed to deliberately let him go, she had a tendency to ignore his efforts at escape.

He held part of the net in one hand and focused an ectoplasmic energy blast on it with the other. It had become very frayed, but the work was slow. If he used enough power to simply break free, Skulker would be alerted, and he wanted to employ stealth if at all possible. Any battle with the big hunter was likely to end inside another net, and he wouldn't be allowed a second chance at escape.

"They said the door would be here," AU Skulker was muttering.

Electra shook her head and met Shade's eyes for a moment. "I told you we shouldn't have trusted them." She grabbed her companion's wrist as he started to turn back toward the boy and leaned in close. "Well, in lighter news, I beat that miming twit today."

"Your alternate self?" he asked, although he already knew. He idly wondered how she managed to go without gloating for so long.

She waved a hand dismissively. "I'll not be lumped into the group with that weak creature. The Box Ghost gave me more trouble."

Skulker snickered, knowing her lie for what it was. She had come limping back, greatly the worse for wear, saying that he'd better be done because she wasn't staying another moment. So enraged had she been, in fact, that he had decided not to call her out for not finding a place to stay. It wasn't as though it mattered, anyway. Fortunately, her anger at meeting herself had faded once she regained some energy.

He was distracted from his distraction by a loud snap, and whirled around to see Shade fleeing at his fastest speed. Cussing loudly, he took off after, leaving the unsurprised Electra behind to address no one in particular with the words, "Oh, look. He got away again."

Shade glanced back to see that AU Skulker was far too close for comfort. Before he could turn back, a blast of energy knocked his pursuer out of the sky, and he turned the rest of the way to see Danny and this world's Skulker, hovering side by side. "There they are," the ghost announced. "Now, get out of my ecto-skeleton!"

Danny drifted over, laughing quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Now," Shade confirmed. "You're…friends?"

They glanced over to where Kat was now sitting across Skulker's shoulders, to the ghost's bemusement. "Not exactly."

He might have continued, but the bickering pair was suddenly blasted from below by something that looked like ectoplasm merged with electricity. Kat fell like a stone, shrieking as her weakened state made defying gravity more difficult. Danny grabbed Shade and dove to catch her, content to let the two hunter ghosts duke it out themselves.

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone, the Guardians of Space argued briefly over their game of chess. They fell silent as the door swung open to admit the currently adult Clockwork. There was some quiet chortling at the expression on his face. "It's gone too far, Master of Time," one of the Guardians said. "You have to let it run its course, now."

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Clockwork replied heatedly. He shifted to his young form, and then to his old one and back again, causing some mildly alarmed muttering. They'd never seen him angry enough that his temporal shifting went out of control. "Maybe there isn't much I can do for the worlds under your charge," he continued in a dangerous tone, actually making an effort to maintain one form. "But if your games ever spill into this one again, I will personally shatter every one of these mirrors and render you all blind. Is that clear?"

When the door slammed behind him, the Guardians actually flinched.