The bright light that had encompassed Dan and Danny faded away and revealed the lush forest surrounding them. Sunlight poured through the leaves, while small critters scurried along the dirt and into some bushes. And while all of these factors hinted at this not being his original timeline, it was the loud car honk that sealed the deal. Said honk also alerted a nearby deer, making it look around with its big brown eyes.

"Woah…" Danny looked at the creature with fascination-having never seen an animal that wasn't green and glowing with ghostly energy before. "Where are we? What's that?"

"That's a deer, Danny." Dan said, looking up at the sky to see a plane rush by. "And it looks like we're not in our dimension anymore… Turn into your human form."

Danny pouted, but did as he was told and jumped off of Dan's back. White rings transformed him back to his human self and caused the boy to shiver. The air felt so different now that he was breathing again. There were so many smells of different people and places, and it was all both very intriguing and very gross to the halfa. But his mind deviated from that path quickly when he watched white rings encompass his father.

He saw the suit the man had always worn turn into a black shirt and jeans-while his hair turned black and partially hung in his face. Those piercing red eyes also turned into a dark blue, while his skin paled and lost its blue color. Those pointed ears left in favor of very human ones that looked so alien on the man. Everything just looked so different on him now and, had Danny not see him transform, he probably wouldn't have recognized him.

"Dad...?" Danny asked, staring up at the man with vague doubt. The man also looked a bit shorter with his hair down. "You can turn human?"

Dan cracked his neck, rolling his shoulder as he answered. "No, this is a disguise. Think of it like pretend. We're going to pretend to be regular people and look around a bit, okay?"

"Okay!" And with that Danny leapt onto the man's back, setting his head in his father's hair as they made their way in the direction of that mysterious honking noise. And what Danny saw was breath taking.

There were people everywhere. They jogged down the street, sped along in cars, and rode past on bikes-all while buildings stood tall around them without any blast damage to be seen. Even the roads looked fascinating with their lack of massive craters. The entire place made Danny's head spin as he took it all in, while his sensitive ears picked up on the new sounds. He was so distracted, he didn't even question the look of surprise on Dan's face.

'Amity Park…' Dan knew that was where they were. The sights, the sounds-they were all too familiar to be anywhere else. Even the way the air felt reminded him of Amity Park: cool while scented slightly with fast food. It left him feeling particularly wistful. He never let it settle in when he was in Amity Park fighting his past self, either time, but now that there was no danger… He almost wished he hadn't destroyed everyone. Almost.

"Dad, I don't like all of these people." Danny suddenly said, and Dan could almost hear the ghostly echo in his voice.

"Now Danny," Dan started as he plucked the boy off of his back and sat him down on the ground-completely unaware of the people who had saw him and were now staring at his physique. "this could be fun. You could try some of the things that I did when I was young. Wouldn't you like that?"

And as always, Danny eagerly said yes. The boy was always interested in getting a better understanding of Dan-especially when it came to things the man did in his youth. So, not wasting the opportunity, Dan took his son's hand and looked up and down the street. He figured he should start with getting him something to eat as he'd promised before going through the portal, but where could they go?

Picking a direction, Dan realized that Amity Park wasn't all that big on restaurant variety. There was the mall, but it was festering with people all the time. Plus, the full ghost wasn't eager to deal with swarms of teenagers, and strangers trying to get him to buy their phone service. And the only other place he really remembered was the Nasty Burger.

A bitter taste formed in Dan's mouth as he thought about that location. For a long time it wasn't of much importance to him-just the place where his family and friends died right before his eyes. The amount of cold acceptance to that truth he had shook anyone who'd noticed it. But after awhile he found he really just didn't like the place anymore. He could even remember standing by the establishment while waiting for Danny and blasting the broken neon sign into a car.

But they did have food he was sure Danny would enjoy, and he had to admit that their food was pretty good last time he tried it. Granted that was a little over 20 years ago, but considering he hadn't had any human food in years it would probably make it much more enjoyable.

So with destination in mind, Dan made his way to the establishment while Danny looked wildly around. The boy hadn't been this excited in a long time. He was bubbling with energy and gave curious eyes to everything that was different from their home. Dan could only guess as to what the boy thought about it all in detail, especially since he was certain the last memories the boy had of this kind of place was when they went hunting down his past self, and that was years ago.

Though those thoughts did make Dan wonder if yet another version of himself lived here. He supposed it wouldn't be very surprising… That train of thought would have to continue later though, as Danny read the sign on the building they approached. He made a curious humming noise as they entered the building, where people were dining and talking amongst themselves.

Dan opened his mouth to address the boy, but Danny voiced his thoughts first and asked. "What's a burger?"

"You don't know what a burger is!?" Dan's attention was drawn from his son's sudden outburst to the man behind the counter-whom of which Dan almost didn't recognize-but he only knew one person in Amity Park who wore that kind of red hat.

Not wanting to start any meat-based discussion with the apparent Nasty Burger employee, Dan gave him a dismissive answer while looking at the menu. "My son's only 10 years old. We've never gotten the chance to get one until recently."

"Oh then he has to try number 8-he'd love it!" And with that Dan's suspicions were sealed as he stared at the triple-decker bacon disaster that only Tucker would constitute as food. The full ghost could feel his blood clotting just by looking at it, and he didn't even have any blood.

Ignoring Tucker's insightful recommendation, Dan ordered what he'd always gotten at the Nasty Burger: real food, only with a kid's meal for Danny. He then reached into his pocket and used his energy to make a wallet, while an invisible duplicate reached through the cash register for a twenty. The two then grabbed their drinks, with Danny questioning what all of these "sodas" were, and sat down. Not long after their food was ready, and the two soon began opening their lunch.

The entire thing felt odd though. Dan hadn't been within 50 miles of this place for a very long time-he didn't really have any reason for visiting a destroyed fast food place after all-but now he was sitting inside while unwrapping one of his favorite things on the menu. It was quite surreal, and Dan couldn't help but wonder if Danny managed to knock him out with that ghostly wail of his, no matter how unlikely that was.

"This is amazing!" Dan's attention was brought back to his son when he exclaimed in joy. There was a bite taken out of his burger, and his soda was gone-clearly having been enjoyed.

The sight was quite amusing, and Dan found himself subconsciously trying his own. It tasted just like he remembered-but that wasn't all that pleasant seeing as he'd only needed and consumed various forms of ectoplasm. Still he promised Danny and dealt with its blandly familiar taste.

"Hey dad, can we go through random portals more often? This is fun!" Danny asked, watching Dan's expression morph into one of consideration all of a sudden at the reminder of how they got here.

It'd been so long he'd forgotten, but the ghost remembered being told about timeline hopping-and considering the state of this place it had to be a different timeline. But if that were the case, why didn't he see the fabric of reality tearing at the seams? It happened when he went after his past self, so why wasn't it now? What was it about this place that allowed them to be here…? And come to think of it, he wasn't sensing any ghosts at all outside of a vague feeling that some weak ghosts were scurrying around and unable to be seen. Even focusing a bit more, Dan could only sense Danny.

"…Danny, are you sensing any ghosts?" The halfa looked curious at that, but tried to feel for the ghosts like his dad taught him. And though a blue mist rose out of his mouth, it was clear that Danny was just sensing Dan. Danny shook his head.

Curious, Dan stood up from the booth and walked up to the counter while Danny sifted through the box his food came in. He cleared his throat and caught Tucker's attention, lips twitching into small smile when he shoved his PDA into his pocket and tried to look professional. "Tucker, right?"

Tucker looked confused, only to remember that he was wearing a nametag and gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah man? What's up?"

"You've lived here awhile, right?" Tucker nodded. "Have you ever seen anything unusual? Or something… supernatural? Like ghosts."

And for the first time in a long time Dan could see his parent's point of view whenever they asked about ghosts, as Tucker replied. "Uh, ghosts don't exist dude."

"I was asking for Danny." Dan covered, looking behind him when he heard a yell of surprise. A small smile formed on his face when he saw the boy hold up a small ghost plush that came with his kid's meal. "He really likes ghosts. We came to Amity Park and heard there were apparently some haunted locations. He keeps insisting I ask people about it."

Tucker laughed lightly. "Well good luck on your "ghost hunt," dude."

Dan nodded, reproaching his table to find Danny playing with the little light-green plush. In earnest he gave it a week until its head was lobbed off by an ectoplasmic blast to its squishy face. "Come on Danny, lets go home."

Rather than looking disappointed, the halfa looked eager to go home with his new toy. He jumped onto his father's back as they made their way out of the restaurant and into the quieting Amity. Street lights were cutting on as they made their way into an alley and Dan shed his disguise. Danny also transformed with a smile, happy to be in his ghost form once more.

Dan then reached for the time medallion he'd started carrying with them-only to find none. He blinked at the thought of forgetting something like that, before he glanced over his shoulder at the ghost boy on his back. "Danny, do you have your time medallion?"

Danny floated off of Dan's back and looked in the collar of his suit before shaking his head. And it was this simple gesture that made Dan start to feel concerned.

Grabbing the boy by the hand, Dan turned them invisible and flew into the thick trees they'd originally found themselves in. He then sat the boy down and the two returned to visibility while Dan waved his hand and formed a ghost portal-only to grimace. That would only lead to this world's Ghost Zone which meant one thing…

He and Danny were stuck here.