Hi! Sorry for posting so late into the day this Friday. I got distracted by a book, you know how it is. :)

I want to thank everyone who gave me suggestions for floors! Recent and coming floors have been suggested by Take It As You Will, DarkFoxKit, DemonKittyAngel, Anne Camp, and Richard1081! (I'm really sorry if I missed you! Please tell me if I did. I've been going back through reviews and PMs to figure out who suggested what, but I was foolish and didn't write it down the first time.)

I'm going to try to answer questions that I missed from this last week. If I skip your question it might be because it's going to be answered in the story soon. Thank you for your patience!

Black Cat: (from ch 142) You'll have to wait and see for the first few questions, but the fight never officially started. That won't stop Aragon from trying to say it did, but he lost pretty soundly, so... (from ch 146) I was trying to write it as a combination of his Obsession, exhaustion, the presence of a functional lab in his own home, and his interest in astronomy, which would be difficult to study in a closed room. He was also trying to sort-of talk his classmates out of running off, but not doing a super great job of it.

DJTimmer: (from ch 142) That (or something very like that) was a previous floor. I can't recall at the moment exactly what chapter it was, but it is in there. For Issitoq, it's mostly implied, but he can't see past the destruction of the Observants, and he can only see the most likely outcome. For him, the end of the Observants might as well be the end of the world, and he's running headlong into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

naeo: (from ch 142) Thank you! I'm always excited to get new readers!

fictionaddiction1: (from ch 142) Sorry I took a break from answering reviews right after you left this! Thank you for the feedback. With Ellie, it isn't because she's the queen (they're different people!), but because she's his sister by ghost law and tradition, and therefore the next best thing he has to an heir. Hope that clears that up!

Rose Verdict: (from ch 143) Thank you for reading and taking the time to review! I think I saw you briefly on AO3 as well?

DarkFoxKit: (from ch 143) At the moment, it's more that they're distracted by gangsters, etc, but the issues will be revealed soon (some of them were foreshadowed way back)!

Rye: (from ch 144) Thank you!

Raj8: (from ch 144) Thank you for reading! That might not be Dan's Obsession, though. Things will be made clear in the future (sinister laughter).

Anne Camp: (from 145) Yes, I kind of skipped that part of the journey. Nothing too significant was going to happen on it, since my end plan was for them to wind up in the Tower, so... *shrugs.* Just one other little thing (this is my inner science teacher acting up), it's astronomer, not astrologist. The later term, while being the logical progression from words like biologist, geologist, etc, has sadly been claimed by fortune-tellers and pseudoscientists. Lots of people get it wrong, but it's a peeve for a lot of people... Thank you, sorry.

Thank you to everyone else who reviewed! I really like reading them. :)

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Chapter 147: A Free Society

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"So, you're saying I'm a social pariah," Danny laughed a little at this, "basically at the bottom of the food chain?"

This floor was set up like a high-end restaurant. Danny was currently perched on one of the bar stools, alternating between trying to convince the bartender to give him a drink and listening to his friends swapping stories. He was stressed, and worried about all his friends left on the lower floor, but there wasn't anything he could do about that. He might as well make the best of the situation he was in.

"Pretty much," said Mikey.

It was fascinating how much everyone had changed on this floor. Mikey was, sadly, considered to be rather unpopular in Danny's universe, shy and soft-spoken. He was still well thought of, but he wasn't thought of often. Here, though, he was confident, and brash, and dressed significantly more boldly than was his norm back home.

"And this 'A-list' thing? What's that?"

"Well, it's all the popular people," said Lester. "Basically, me, Nate, Dash, Paulina. You know."

"W-wait," said Paulina, nervously, "I'm popular? For real? That wasn't just, um, the other floors being weird?"

"Yeah, you're pretty popular," said Danny. "In my universe at least. But we don't have this... 'A-list' thing. I'm not really sure what the point is?"

"Well," said Mikey, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "if you aren't in the A-list, you can't get invited to parties, or respect from everyone else, or discounts at the Nasty Burger, or, well, things like that."

"How does being popular translate into discounts at the Nasty Burger?"

"I- er. Never mind that."

"Are you bullying the cashiers into giving you money?"
"That- um. Noooo. Nope. Do you really not have that kind of thing in your version of reality?"

Danny laughed a little. "Um. No. That sounds as distopian as heck, actually. I mean, really, that sounds like a caste system."

"You're saying you don't have cliques?"

"There are cliques, sure, just, they aren't that important."

"Weird."

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"But I was this close to making a functional battle robot!" complained Ricky as Val and Ellie dragged him out of the lab.

"No you weren't," said Prunella, sounding bored.

"What do you know about battle robots?" demanded Ricky angrily.

"More than I want to," said Prunella.

"Look, maybe you two can bond over robots or something," said Ellie, shoving Ricky in Prunella's direction, "since you were so helpful when we were fighting the angry dry dude in the polo shirt."

Prunella raised an eyebrow, but took hold of Ricky's sleeve. "I think the word you're looking for is 'desiccated.'"

"I was talking more about the way he talked, but that, too. Yeah. Sure." Ellie sighed, heavily.

"Hey," said Valerie. "Are you sure this is the way we were going before?"

"No, but the fighting sounds have stopped, so there isn't anything we can follow."

"Great."

"Yeah, great."

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Wes Weston leaned around the corner and took a picture. He wasn't sure how he had been chosen to do this. Apparently, he was the best at taking 'uncomfortable' and 'compromising' pictures, whatever that meant. He took normal pictures! Selfies, pictures of friends, pictures of sunsets, interesting dogs, that kind of thing... And, okay, pictures of ghosts, for his website. And the odd picture of Danny Phantom aka Danny Fenton, who was a ghost. How else was he going to reveal the truth?

… And, yes, okay, many of those were taken in the bathroom. Or in storage closets. Or from trees. It wasn't his fault Fenton was so elusive!

Yeah.

So, here he was. In a 'restricted' zone (and, jeez, that was so stupid) trying to take pictures of the GIW doing... Things. He didn't know enough to tell what they were doing. It seemed to involve a lot of vans pulling up in front of the Fenton household. A lot of vans. And briefcases. And big, puffy HAZMAT suits.

He really hoped he wasn't going to get cancer from being here. He wouldn't be the only one, though. Other people had volunteered to spy on the GIW. Other people weren't so close, though.

Wes took one last picture, and slipped away, back to the streets he was 'allowed' to be on. He stayed wary, however. There was a good chance one of the agents occupying the city would accost him, ask him where he had been, and where he was going, toss him in 'holding' for a couple days, search his house, and confiscate all his stuff. It had happened to other people he knew. It was why his group of conspirators had decided to move all the incriminating evidence out of their homes. Well. Most. All would be difficult, with the curfew and other restrictions.

A dust devil spun across the empty street in front of him. He paused.

Weird things had been happening lately, even if one ignored the GIW. Street names would change while no one was looking. His neighbor swore up and down that a skyscraper that no one else had ever heard of had disappeared overnight. Extra notes on agent movements were written into their notebooks in unfamiliar hands. Yesterday, his friend, Zane, claimed that some agents had looked right at him while he was out after curfew, but that they hadn't seen him. There were reports that Marley Park (the largest, most popular, and most haunted public park in Amity Park) had started screaming a couple days ago, before the GIW had set it ablaze with flamethrowers. Wes himself had seen lights moving in houses he knew to be abandoned.

This being Amity park, there was really only one explanation. Well, Hannah, would claim aliens were also a valid explanation, but Wes didn't think that was very likely. He'd put his money on ghosts. Ghosts, who were probably even more unhappy about the occupation of Amity than the humans.

There was no dust on the rain-soaked street. Nor, for that matter, was there a breeze. Was this some kind of warning? Should he hide? He should probably hide, regardless. He backed himself into the shoulder-width gap between the fences encircling two small yards. Yeah. This was a crappy place to hide.

The ground began to rumble. Okay, this was an incredibly stupid place to hide. He was going to die here.

A black cat ran through the slice of street Wes could see. Was that Inky? Was that his cat? What the heck?

Whether it had been Inky or not, the small, normal, black house cat was quickly followed by a much, much larger, spotted cat. Then another. Then a larger striped cat. Orange and black striped, to be precise. A few dogs ran by, accompanied by what he was fairly confident were wolves, coyotes, and foxes. Then a number of rather exotic deer, all with various birds and monkeys on their backs. Then a rhinoceros. A rhinoceros. A rhinoceros being ridden by a large, white and purple gorilla. Then, as if the universe was trying to one-up itself, a second rhinoceros stampeded by, this one ridden by two gorillas, one significantly smaller than the other. Elephants followed shortly after, then a number of less-swift creatures. Including bears. Large bears. Wes held his breath until they went by.

The sky went dark, and Wes looked up. That was a large number of birds.

Only after Wes was completely sure the stampede was over (Was it really a stampede? It seemed too organized.) did Wes squeeze himself out of the gap.

That was... different.

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Inky was quite pleased with herself. It wasn't every day that one liberated an entire zoo. True, she didn't do it on her own. Even for a cat of her considerable skill, that would have been impossible. But between all the ghosts that despised what was happening to the town, the clever hands of the primates, a rather foolish GIW-hired set of zookeepers (the original, well-liked ones having been told to stay home after the GIW shut the zoo, and most other recreational areas, down indefinitely), and a set of handy inter-dimensional 'shortcuts,' it was quite doable.

It was a little more difficult to arrange for places for all of the freed animals to stay until things returned to their rightful state, and Inky had wisely left that part to more humanoid ghosts. Amity Park was riddled with hiding places. There were locales and locations only visible if seen sideways, or glimpsed half-asleep, roads that could only be entered with a toll, exact change, buildings that needed keys, or passwords, mirrors that were actually doors, and doors that only appeared on certain dates. Inky knew that even she was aware of only a fraction of the forever-shifting, forever increasing constellations of byways and tiny, secret worlds.

But there had been places, more than enough. There would have been more if the GIW hadn't burnt down the park, destroying the most reliable entrance to the most appropriate place for the living animals to stay. It didn't matter. Amity would adapt. Amity would provide.

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"Okay," said Ellie, "what the actual heck made you think this was a good idea?"

Dale was lying on the floor. Prunella had a number of syringes set up and was injecting them sequentially into his leg. His arms weren't available for that purpose, as the easy to get to veins had already been used. By him. He had, apparently, been trying to turn himself into the Hulk. His words, not Ellie's.

"I mean, you're really lucky you're not dead, and that Prunella knows how to fix overdoses from ghost steroids."

"I was thinking that maybe I'd be able to protect myself," growled Dale.

"There are other ways to do that," said Val.

"That's easy for you to say. You two have ghost powers."

Ellie shifted uncomfortably. That was true. "Poisoning yourself isn't going to help, though. Look, just stop doing this... stuff, and we'll try to get you lessons, or something. Weapons. I don't know. But you have to get through this without dying. Please. I mean, just, show a modicum of common sense."

"I have a modicum of common sense! I have more than a modicum! I have a bunch! I graduated from college at fifteen. I'm a biochemist, for crying out loud."

"That means nothing," said Valerie. "You still injected yourself with a dozen things without knowing what they were, or what they'd do. That's nuts."

"I knew what they'd do!"

"No, you didn't," said Prunella.

"... I thought I knew what they'd do."

The door opened. Ellie tensed, raising her fists. Valerie raised her weapon.

"Well, hello hello, children," said Penelope Spectra.

Oh, well. This wasn't good. After everything, Ellie wasn't in fighting shape. How did Spectra even get here? According to what Danny, Valerie and the others had told her when she first met up with them, outside the Tower, she'd been reduced to her core. There was no way to recover from something like that so quickly.

"Ignorant children," continued Spectra. "And you. Whoever you are. I-"

Ellie threw an ectoblast directly at Spectra's head. The ghost dodged, body deforming to do so, and laughed. Valerie hoisted her weapon. Ricky hid inside a cabinet. Dale, however, wasn't in any condition to move, and Prunella stayed by him.

"You there, not a fighter, hm? Letting these children do everything for you? An adult like you?"

Prunella hissed. "Better than you, you fraud!"

Spectra laughed. "Oh? Me? I'm the fraud? You're the one living in a fantasy world. And you, Dale Gordon, don't think of yourself as a scientist. You're at the bottom of your class, a failure in every sense of the word. The only thing you have going for you is muscles, and it looks like you're not going to have that anymore, either, not if this hack has anything to say about it! But then, you did this to yourself, didn't you? Shouldn't you know better than to play with test tubes?"

"Shut up!" shouted Ellie, as she chased the fiery ghost around the room. She was trying to hit her with a blast of ice, on the theory that fire and ice didn't mix well, but Spectra was too quick. Neither she nor Valerie hadn't been able to get a clean hit on Spectra.

"Oh, yes, the little clone would know all about test tubes, wouldn't it? Pity you aren't a very good clone. The original puts up much more of a fight!"

Ellie tamped down on her anger. She had put those issues behind her.

"You know he resents you, don't you? What am I saying, you'd have to be blind not to see that!"

Ellie refused to engage, refused to give Spectra more ammunition. It was what the woman wanted, and Ellie wasn't about to play along.

"I wonder what it would take to make him hate you? Not much. The loss of one of his precious humans perhaps?" With that, Spectra dove at Dale, claws extended.

Ellie, not even thinking once, jumped in front of Spectra, who immediately latched on, her claws digging through Ellie's suit, into her skin. Spectra smiled.

"Your original" purred Spectra, "wouldn't have let me get a hold of him so-"

"Let her go!" said Valerie.

"Oh, don't think of yourself as a hero, Valerie! We both know it isn't true. After all, it's your fault everyone is in this situation, isn't it? If only you had trusted your friends over a complete stranger."

"It's your fault-!"

"I only told you what you wanted to hear, my dear, and what you wanted to hear was that all ghosts were monsters, and that you were the victim. Sound familiar?"

The thing about being 'caught' by Spectra was that Ellie was also in a very good position to hit Spectra. Vampiric abilities or not, grappling someone who could freeze things with a touch was a dumb move. Actually, grappling ghosts was generally pretty risky. It was why so many preferred ranged attacks.

Spectra flinched away from Ellie as ice climbed up her arms, coating them to the elbows. It was Ellie's turn to don a wicked grin. Spectra had finally bit off more than she could chew.

The door slammed open. A number of unfamiliar ghosts swarmed in. Enemies?

As they immediately started attacking Spectra, Ellie decided that they probably weren't. Or, at least, they were enemies who wanted to beat up Spectra, and Ellie was happy to let them do that. Now, how to disengage gracefully, ie, without getting an ectoblast in her face..?

"Ellie!"

Ancients! She knew that voice!

"Jazz?"