>>Boy gets dumped in an alternate dimension where he must work with alternate versions of his friends and family to get home. This is complicated by the fact that his alternate selves perceive him as a monster.
Appreciating the people around you.
Danny is caught up in the misfire of one of his family's portal guns, which, critically, opens a portal inside the Fenton portal. This causes Danny to get dumped in an alternate version of the same portal. He notices the lab is larger and better organized, but only really realizes how different this reality is when he's attacked by his alternate self, who is a motorcycle riding ghost hunter with a pet owl and a huge fanbase. Danny only manages to escape complete obliteration, but it comes at the cost of outing himself to his alternate family. He somehow convinces them to not kill him, but is under close surveillance by the Fentons, more of a "keep your enemies closer" strategy than an actual truce as they try to figure out the implications of Alter-Danny's clone, and what to do about it. Meanwhile, Danny has gone to Clockwork (who is not the same clockwork as the one Danny knows,), who has said he can't send him back on the basis that he's the ghost of time, not space, and has no relation at all with alternate dimensions whatever.
Danny discovers that Alter-Danny has a very different friend group and living situation: He's bros with Dash and Kwan, dating Paulinia, and keeps Tucker around, but as more of a lacky than a friend. Sam rejects him vehiminantly, and has joined forces with Wes as the town's sole pair of ghost rights activists, and keep urging Tucker to join them, who reluctantly turns them down, as he still clings to the dregs of friendship they once had. Jazz, meanwhile, has taken the place of the under-appreciated sibling, as her interests in psychology are disregarded by her family in favor of ghost hunting. The relationship between ghosts and humans is significantly worse in this universe, as humans go out of their way to obliterate every ghost they see.
Danny, out of loneliness and isolation, starts making friends with the alternate versions of his companions, bringing together Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Wes, who gradually start spending more and more time together. The loss of Tucker especially bothers Alter-Danny, as this forces him to confront just how much he's given away in exchange for his popularity, and Danny and Alter-Danny end up confronting each other over what Alter-Danny perceives as Danny stealing his life. Hurtful things are said, and this confrontation ends up blowing things up between everyone, as long withheld grievances are brought to light: Danny's feelings that his half ghost nature really did ruin his life generally, and his relations with his parents specifically (He envies Alter-Danny somewhat in that regard); The guilt Alter-Danny felt over starting the ghost portal, and how that paired with the sudden fame/getting the sense of belonging he'd always wanted and appreciation to become all consuming; Tucker's fear of being disregarded and left behind as a useless third wheel; Jazz being isolated from her own family; and Sam's embitterment and refusal to back down or apologize before the one she think has wronged her does it first. Everything explodes all at once, shattering the status quo between them all.
Around the same time, things go bad on the spectral front, as Vlad has managed to amass a ghost army filled with specrals the Fentons have either wronged or harmed, and uses them as a tool to assault Amity and kidnap Maddie. The Fenton family, Danny, Alter-Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all have to work together to repel the attack and Vlad. Alter-Danny and Danny make up, The Alter-Fentons finally admit they might be wrong about ghosts (one of the ghosts Sam was nice to defects from Vlad's side during the fight?), and finally give Danny access to their own portal gun, which had been locked away from him in the weapons vault before then, using the portal-into-the-portal trick to get back to his version of the lab.
When he gets home, the first thing Danny does is cook something for Jazz, who has been overworked trying to deal with Danny's secret, the Fenton's naturally hectic lives, and her own studies. They discuss the stress she has in her own life, and when asked why he was so suddenly concerned about these matters, Danny awkwardly stutters out that he only just realized how important it was to not only appreciate those around him, but also make sure those persons knew they were appreciated in a way that mattered. Jazz is touched, and they hug. She assures him that if she ever feels like he's not appreciating her enough, she'll just call his girlfriend to beat him up. Danny replies that Sam is not his girlfriend, to which Jazz points out that she never actually specified that she was talking about Sam.
>>>>Danny and Alter-Danny don't actually look that much alike, the result of the slow, creeping effect Danny's ghost half had on his human form. It's noted that Ellie and Danny look more alike than Danny and Alter-Danny.
>>>>Alter-Danny and his parents have a genuinely good relationship.
>>>>Alter-Danny has no idea his awesome Godfather, Vlad Masters, is the same as the evil ghost, Plasmius, and considers Wes's assertions that they are obviously the same person to be nonsense. It takes him a long time to realize it even when Danny confirms that Vlad and Plasmius are one and the same.
>>>>Vlad views Alter-Danny the same way he views Jack in Danny's universe: As a buffoon and an impediment, without any of the twisted respect or sense of equality shared by mainline Danny and Vlad.
>>>>Alter-Danny is disturbed by Danny in part because it implies that becoming a ghost isn't necessarily a choice, as he'd been taught to believe.
>>>>Valerie is still a preppy bitch in this universe, but has had a falling out with the A-listers over the inclusion of Fenton in their group, who she still views as lame, ghost hunter or no.
>>>>Alter-Danny convinces Danny that becoming a ghost makes you lame by default. Danny, who realizes he's the only one between the two of them cheesy enough to have his own catch phrase, becomes concerned that Alter-Danny may have a point.
>>>>Jack in this universe was brutally maimed by Vlad's minions during the family reunion, an assault he just barely survived (And major factor in Alter-Danny taking ghost hunting so seriously)
Hook and Beginning
Danny ends up trying to handle Cujo in house, while the Fenton parents are still there, working on a portal gun in the basement. When Cujo eats the class notes Sam shared with him, then his ghost sense goes off. He cajols a reluctant Jazz into watching the dog while he flies off to check the ghost and text Sam to ask if she has another copy of the class notes.
The ghost that triggered his ghost sense ends up being harmless-Turning out to be a petty argument between a ghost trying to buy large amounts of candy the Ghost Zone way (bartering,) and getting offended when the human he was trying to trade with kept demanding money (ghost views mere paper as beneath the value of the candy he's trading for, which flatters the candymaker enough that he somewhat reconsiders his money only policy.) Danny reflects that more peaceable interactions between humans and ghosts were becoming more and more common in Amity, which he liked, even if they were usually more difficult to solve than simple combat.
He receives a text from Sam stating that she did not make a second copy of her class notes. Danny wonders if maybe he can borrow Jazz's old class notes.He returns home to find Cujo running amok, with his parents alternating between trying to shoot him with a laser, and trying to shoot him with a bazooka. The house is in shambles and everyone is stressed. It turns out that Jazz had gotten distracted with her homework, and missed when Cujo slipped through the wall. They have a brief argument about how Jazz could have missed the glowing ghost dog before Danny turns back into a ghost and tries to grab Cujo, who has been alternating between huge and small according to his moods.
Inciting incident
appearance of Phantom makes things even worse, and the fight escalates as Danny makes for the portal, as the houseshields have been turned on and that's the easiest point to escape to. This leads to the portal gun getting jostled, and firing into the main Fenton portal just as Danny and Cujo go through.
After a brief stint of excruciating pain, Danny wakes up in what he thinks is the same portal. The portal is locked, so he uses the thumbprint scanner to get out. He has just enough time to realize the lab is completely off from what he's used to, too well organized, and has signs ghosts were experimented on and ended in the near past.
Danny crosses over from the portal threshold and into the lab itself. He has just enough time to touch a containment unit of captured ghosts when the lab security, activated by his and Cujo's ectosigniture, activates and starts chasing him. The portal snaps shut, and Danny flees into the house, activating all the security measures that Tucker should have hidden his ecto-signiture from ages ago.
Danny fights his way through the house, and eventually runs into Jazz, who has hidden inside her room. By this point, Danny has destroyed most of the automated systems. He has just enough time to realize she's terrified of him when Alter-Danny arrives and points a gun to his core.
After a brief, confused back and forth (Alter-Danny is upset Danny has no idea who he is,) Danny manages to escape by filling the gun barrel with ice, and glueing his shoes to the floor with the same technique.
He flees back down to the lab, only to find it on lockdown. He tries to cajole Cujo, awake but injured, into using his power to "dig" through barriers, but is interrupted by Spooky (who is a laser shooting cyborg owl,) and the arrival of Alter-Danny's motorcycle, which delays him long enough for Alter-Danny himself to join. Danny and Cujo manage to escape the entrapment by releasing all the stored ghosts in Alter-Danny's face, then flying back up the stairs, hoping to find a control panel for the house. By this point, the Fentons have arrived, adding to the fray.
Danny (Note-Danny is in human form) and cujo are able to get out of the Fenton household thanks to Danny's knowledge of the Fenton household's own traps, deactivating the ghost shield for Cujo, and scooting out of the house.
When he gets out of the house, the first thing he does is go switch to ghost and go invisible, hide, and try to call Sam (he knows its a bad idea, he does it anyway), the talk goes badly, as Sam is on the outs with Alter-Danny and believes this is just another attempt to win her over. She only just realizes that something's wrong with "Danny," when troops arrive in response to a siren that had been set off not seconds after Danny got out of Fentonworks.
The GIW arrive, and they do it in supersuits, wearing a less lethal, but less effective version of the Fenton Ectosuit.
Danny decides to just leave, switching from human to ghost and planning to fly away for a bit where he can let things cool off and figure out what's going on.
This is foiled by one of Tucker's drones, which spots him in air and hits him with a net.
The net pushes him back down, tangling him up and ruining his ability to fly, with Cujo following. Danny crash lands in front of some GIW agents, and he is forced to fight, with Cujo helping to defend. They almost get away, but are stopped by Spooky and Alter-Danny, after another major confrontation. (Alter-Danny makes comment about Danny finally revealing his true form, revealing he can recognize Danny as himself)
Alter-Danny initially puts a gun to Danny's forehead, but then redecides, and thermoses him instead.
Alter Danny is scared and breathing hard, as his evil, ghostly clone laughed in the face of every security system Fentonworks had, destroyed a large containment unit, loosing monsters into the world at large, threatened his sister, and did all of it with his face. He wanted to destroy the ghost, like usual, but couldn't as they needed to extract information on how it knew about Fentonwork's security and to use it as proof that it was a separate ghost causing this, and that he himself was not possessed.
Alter-Danny and the GIW argue over who gets to keep the ghost, Alter-Danny mocking their incompetence and, when his parents arrive, pointing out that they're only as effective as they are thanks to all the contracts with his parents, that all the other paranormal divisions and even private companies like Vladco would love to buy out in their stead. The GIW agent relents, but points out he's only better than any other human thanks to that same tech, which Alter-Danny brushes off, in part because, by this point, he makes as much tech as he uses.
Alter-Danny gets in the car, which Jazz, unusually, has loaded up in, and they get in a discussion over what to do about the ghost. Alter-Danny ultimately wins with his suggestion of opening him in a contained space, collaring him, and extracting answers. The Fentons allow this because they trust Alter-Danny as a son and a ghost hunter. Jazz's repeated comments that the ghost was behaving unusually and didn't hurt her go ignored.
When they get home, the Fenton siblings get into a fight. Alter-Jazz tries to convince her brother to let her talk to the ghost a bit, which Alter-Danny refuses. Alter-Danny points out that she's never been interested in ghosts like this before, and she doesn't need to be now, because he has it handled. Jazz points out that a wrecked home and the first level seven to breach Fentonworks security in years is not handled, and the ghost wouldn't have been captured at all if it hadn't been for a lucky hit from a drone and the presence of the GIW. Both siblings part in a bad mood.
Alter-Danny's day gets worse when Sam calls, asking what was going on with real-Danny's earlier phone call. Alter-Danny tries to tell her it was just a ghost pretending to be him, but it devolves into an argument for both of them, and Alter-Danny is left in an even fouler mood. Then, finally, Mikey texts, apologizing that he can't get Alter-Danny's homework done for him, as Dash's chem assignment ran longer than he expected.
Instead of immediately opening up the thermos, Alter-Danny puts it aside for later, and opens up the GZ, figuring that it can wait while he blows off some steam.
Danny (and cujo) are pulled out of the thermos by Jazz, who has snuck down into the lab while the other Alter-Fentons are asleep. She is initially surprised to see what she thinks is a completely different ghost-Phantom, with the same dog. Danny is tired, stressed, and afraid, and starts snarking and making things up, (one point in particular-claiming looking like Alter-Danny was just an evil ghost trick.)
Eventually, however, they manage to explain things to each other: That Danny is from an alternate dimension and wants to go home, and that Jazz fundamentally doesn't agree with her family, and feels isolated because of it. She's suspected ghosts aren't intrinsically malevolent for a long time, and feels that Danny is good proof of that. She also notices Danny bled red when she first met him (scraped himself up earlier,) leading to Danny having to explain why.
Jazz agrees to let him out, but in doing so, sets off a silent alarm in Alter Danny, Jack, and Maddie's rooms. They arrive in short order, and when Jazz defends Danny and Cujo, the whole thing erupts into a fight. The original plan had been for Jazz to simply let Danny go into the GZ, where he hoped to find Clockwork to help fix things, which is vetoed due to how easily he could cause trouble there and the impossibility of ever getting him back. The portal gun, which is not a prototype, as in Danny's dimension, is mentioned (It's stuck behind the weapons vault, well protected against ghost and human alike.)
It's decided that, since Danny is too dangerous to let go of, too valuable to just destroy, too uncertain in his humanity to just let go of, and with Jazz exploding the way she did, a move that shocked everyone, it's agreed that Danny and Cujo can stay under surveillance if they agree to do so wearing ghost restraining cuffs. Danny switches to human form (to help hide, though Alter-Danny dislikes it) and agrees.
Danny ends up sleeping on the couch, in a living room just different enough to put him on edge. He now has two goals: First, try to get into the GZ as soon as no one is looking, and two, if that doesn't work out, get the portal gun, and escape that way instead.
First Turning point
The next day, Danny wakes up to an extremely uncomfortable breakfast with the alter-Fentons, with Jazz the only one remotely comfortable with Danny around. It is made clear that he is to stay in the house, where he will be under surveillance until they decide what to do with him. We also get a look at how the Alter-Fenton family operates, with a lot of talk about ghosts, Alter-Danny's academic success (which very much surprises Danny,) and tech.
Danny is left alone in the house, as the Fentons have a meeting with the GIW and Alter-Danny and Jazz need to go to school. Danny immediately starts looking for ways to get to the GZ. In inspecting the house and its technology, he notices a lot of it is more advanced than it is back home. Sleeker, shinier, and more effective, even accounting for the damage he did yesterday, which still wasn't fully repaired, and there was more of it, too. (Danny is left at the home because it's still the most secure place to hold him, barring a containment unit, which Jazz wouldn't allow.)
The door to the basement and the portal have been locked in the Fenton's absence, with security cameras and proximity sensors showing signs of hasty repair. The security makes Danny think of Tucker, and how much he misses him already.
Ultimately, Danny decided to see if he can't get into the basement a different way, specifically, through the floor. He reckons that even if he can't use intangibility, if he were to pick a spot he knew was over one of the soft spots in the floor, he could get in. The basement was ghost proofed, but not human proofed, which the Alter-Fentons hadn't quite been able to grok in their interaction with him.
Danny is in the process of prying up the floorboards out of camera range when he hears the sound of a GIW agent breaking in. (GIW agents chose now because 1) They knew Fenton security had been damaged very recently, making it easier to get in, 2) they knew all the Fentons would be out of the house, thanks to the meeting they set up with Jack and Maddie, 3) they wanted to lay hands on the containment unit with the abnormally powerful ghost, to use his core for the kinds of experiments even the Fentons wouldn't approve of. Such experiments involve humans reverse overshadowing ghosts, stripping their ghost cores and implanting technology to control them. The Fentons consider leaving a ghost even slightly alive too high a risk to allow, much less sullying yourself with the insane ectocontamination of reverse possession.)
Danny meets the GIW agents, realizing too late the Fentons were not, in fact, home early. The GIW confuse him for Alter-Danny, which Danny takes advantage of to try and get information. He learns that the GIW have been planning this for a while, and that they they think the sudden change in his looks (Danny doesn't realize how much being half-ghost changed his physique,) is because the Fentons are secretly doing the same things after all.
The GIW attack, and Danny is forced to fight back while actively gimped. To make matters worse, one of the GIW agents has a ghost core enhanced battle suit, (Danny can hear the ghost inside it screaming,) and two have reverse-possesed a pair of ghosts. Danny wins partly thanks to wit, some hidden weapons that were hidden in the same places as his real home (though these burn when he touches them,) and the fact that the GIW were really just stalling for time, as their real goal was to break in and steal portal data and diagrams. Alter-Danny also arrives and ends up helping. They survive, but the door to the workshop was forced open and a lot of sensitive data was stolen.
The Alter-Fentons are not happy about this, both because what they once thought were allies proved to be more unreliable than expected, and because Danny almost made it down to the basement again, somewhere he was told not to go. Alter-Jazz, in particular, feels somewhat betrayed by this.
It's ultimately decided that Danny and Cujo were helpful, but can't be trusted alone (the door to the lab is also wide open now, with the locking mechanism broken). Since the Fenton Parents want to deal with the GIW directly, and will be busy with that, Alter-Danny is assigned to watch his double, which he is very unhappy about. The emerging philosophical disagreements between the GIW and the Fentons are touched on here.
Danny ends up heading upstairs to sleep with Alter-Danny, where the readers get a good look at his room: All ghost hunting equipment and awards, with prototypes split open and half-finished models mixed in with homework on the desk. There is no sign of his interest in astronomy. Alter-Danny threatens Danny, essentially saying he still thinks they belong on a dissection table, that he's a freak, and if he tries anything, his room is the second most heavily weaponized area in the house. When Danny points out that if he's a freak, so is Alter-Danny, since they share a face, Alter-Danny points out that Danny looks pretty different, and in a painfully inhuman way. We also learn Alter-Danny wears a specter-deflecter 24/7, never taking it off.
After settling down for the night, both Dannys pretend to sleep. Alter-Danny, upset by his inhuman double, the extra stress of managing him, and the fact that he's not being trusted to handle the GIW directly. Danny by his loneliness, his fear of never going back, and the dawning dread of the realization that Alter-Danny was right; his human form no longer looked properly human, too much of the ghost seeped through, leaving behind a thing too alive to be a ghost, and too ghostly to be human. He wonders if his friends and family back home didn't notice either, or if they did, and couldn't bear to bring it up.
The next day, Danny is made to tag along with Alter-Danny to school as his cousin, with a whole list of rules to make sure he doesn't embarrass him at school. He also puts Cujo in a thermos, to make extra sure Danny stays compliant. Danny, tired and irate, decides then and there to be as obnoxious as possible.
They get to the school, where it turns out Alter-Danny is extremely popular: He's friends with Dash and Kwan, dating Paulinia, and keeps Tucker (who, without ghost hunting and Sam to keep him fit, has gained a lot of weight since the age of 14,) and Mikey on the fringes of his group. He's also academically talented. It's here that Danny gets a look at how well liked Alter-Danny is as a fighter and a ghost hunter. Valerie is still popular, but is on the outs with the rest of the school, as she refuses to acknowledge that Fenton is cool.
Things go wrong during lunch, when Sam, who is even more of an outcast than in Danny's home universe, and one of two ghost-rights activists (the other one is Wes.) She confronts Danny and Alter-Danny at lunch, wanting to know what was going on the other day, and who this person he's claiming to be his cousin really is (She's put together that it must've been Danny on the phone the other day, who must also be the person Alter-Danny claimed was impersonating him as a ghost.) While Alter-Danny is distracted, she demands Danny meet her outside to talk in private.
NOTE:Danny has been trying and failing to grab the thermos with Cujo in it the whole time.
As the day winds down, Alter-Danny gets distracted with his other friends, Danny gets his first chance to really hang out with Tucker, and though Tucker is initially put off by him (Tucker is spiritually sensitive,) they start to get along, chatting about doomed, then moving on to Alter-Danny and his friendship with Tucker, which is obviously no longer as close as it once was. Tucker describes himself as "tech support," and rejects the idea that he could ever fight ghosts for real. Around this time, the ghost alarms go off.
Confronting antagonist forces:
Unknown to the protagonists, the GIW have sent some of their failed super-soldier experiments to Amity park, to distract the Fentons from their portal research (which unbeknownst to everyone, is destabilizing the border between life and death even further,) and to kidnap something valuable to them, namely, their kids, to use as leverage.
However, aside from Danny sensing a flux in Amity's ecto-levels, no one knows anything is wrong yet, and consider it a regular ghost attack. Alter-Danny springs into action, and Danny is left to watch as part of a cheering crowd, which he hates. Due to the collar, however, there's not much he can do.
Audience gets to see how Alter-Danny fights, and how much the people of Amity admire him for it. Tucker works vigorously from the sidelines, operating the same kind of drones that brought down Danny, and even helping to film the fight for later analysis. Danny gets the rundown of how Alter-Danny went from zero to hero with the appearance of ghosts, he also learns that the cause of these ghosts, the Fenton portal, is not known, as the Fenton's reputation would be in danger were they to reveal themselves as the cause of all this trouble.
Things go wrong; As human/ghost fusions, the enemy is more resistant than they should be to several of Alter-Danny's defenses. One of them is able to forcibly wedge itself through the ghost shield, attacking those hiding behind it. Danny joins the fight, though he has a very difficult time without his ghost powers. He's able to get the enemy to break his ghost suppressor, and uses the boost from his free ghost half to win. This unfortunately requires enough power his eyes turn green, which Alter-Danny, is forced to pass off as a result of his "cousin's" unfortunate ectocontamination.
Covers the fight from his perspective, where he notes how wrong the ghosts seem to be, and how they seem to be targeting him, specifically
ends up grappling for Cujo's thermos, only to discover it's no longer hooked to Alter-Danny's waist. Someone clears their throat, and they see Sam, holding the Thermos, asking if they were looking for it.
Alter Danny wants to know where she got it, and Sam states that if she picked it up when it fell during the ghost fight. She refuses to give it back until Alter-Danny and Danny explain what happened with the phone call the other day. Tucker, who followed Sam in an effort to convince her to give back the thermos without making a big deal out of everything, is confused
Alter-Danny and Sam get into another argument, this time with Danny wrapped up in it as he simultaneously tries to look like he knows what's going on, while also not knowing anything. Sam eventually brings up that she got Tucker to admit that his tech had picked up the ecto-signature of the ghost that attacked yesterday in the Fenton household, and that Danny (now that his suppressors are off) is putting off that same signature, now. She demands an explanation in exchange for the thermos.
Alter-Danny, feeling betrayed looks aghast at Tucker, who explains that he did what he did because he was worried about Alter-Danny, he knew there was something going on, and he was concerned that he might be being mind controlled or threatened somehow, and even if Sam and he didn't get along anymore, she was the only one he could think of who would help without causing a fuss. He did this because he's his friend.
Alter-Danny snaps that if they were really friends, Tucker wouldn't have leaked information to outsiders and trusted that he knew what he was doing. Alter-Danny is even more riled up when Danny suggests that Tucker and Sam have a point, and that maybe they could explain a little.
Alter-Danny, realising his friends/fans are coming to look for him, swipes the thermos out of Sam's hands, and cuts the conversation short. Sam yells at him that the conversation isn't over as Alter-Danny makes nice and puts on his cool, confident hero mask for the crowd. Danny follows along behind. Alter-Danny, busy with his fear of what the ghost attack meant, the need to reassure the crowd (and himself) that things are fine (Alter-Danny feels that if he can't handle it himself/stay admired, he'll fall back into being a loser, just like before,) that he doesn't notice Danny getting a text and checking his phone.
Danny receives a text from Sam, asking him to meet at her place next evening, and assuring him that he'll be able to get out, so long as it's the designated time and he doesn't pull anything funny. Danny isn't sure what to make of this as he follows along behind a seething Alter-Danny.
After a bout of uncomfortable silence, Alter-Danny snaps that they'll get him a new suppressor when they get back to Fentonworks. Danny protests that he's not a threat, and doesn't need the suppressors. Alter Danny responds that he's not a threat because he's wearing the suppressors, and goes on a mini-rant about the evils of ghosts.(this is where we learn how Jack was badly hurt by "the wisconsin ghost," and how Alter-Danny defeated him rather thoroughly.)
Danny eventually convinces him that they have bigger things to worry about, such as getting back Cujo, and figuring out what was going on with those ghosts earlier (Danny noticed they were aiming for both Alter-Danny and himself)
Around this time, Danny's ghost sense goes off. At the same time, Alter-Danny gets a call from Jazz, alerting him to another ghost attack, with more GIW failures and a spate of wild portals, which was something that the Fentons should have made impossible (by means of towers forcibly patching Amity's reality. Danny notices these in the first chapter, and how they make him feel odd.) which Alter Danny explains as they run over.
They fight and successfully fend off the ghosts, but this time, Danny ends up transforming to fully fend off the hoard. While he does manage to evade the gaze of Amity's general population, one of Tucker's drones sees what he does. He introduces himself as Phantom, one of the good guy ghosts, before getting into a petty yes-no argument with Alter-Danny. Jazz, tired and beat, gets them to cut it out and asks them both to just go home.
They make it back. The Fentons have not arrived yet, because the GIW has kidnapped them, but the kids don't know this. Alter-Danny and Jazz receive a text saying that negotiations are going a little long, and this is enough to mollify them.
Danny is cajoled back into a collar, in part because he notices Jazz is still genuinely nervous around him, on the condition that Cujo is retrieved and released back to Danny first thing tomorrow.
It's late and all are tired, but Jazz and Danny both stay up (most ghosts are nocturnal and Jazz still has homework.) They get into a conversation about their lives: Jazz in this universe feels like her hard work goes unappreciated when it's not related to ghosts, Danny can sympathize with this, and discusses his belief that he has no talents at all (his fighting ability is "just ghost powers.") they get into a conversation about ghosts, psychology, Alter-Danny and his mechanical talent. It wraps up with both being slightly closer, and Jazz saying she'll do her best to get him home.
Come night, Danny sneaks out, meeting up with Tucker and Sam just as they were about to leave, due to having had to wait for Jazz to fall asleep. It's revealed Tucker (at Sam's cajoling) had turned off all the security measures that would alert anyone to his leaving. She, Wes Weston, and Tucker meet with Danny in a secluded area of Amity Park Park.
They discuss circumstances: Sam and Wes are the only two people in Amity's ghost rights club,(although Wes is mostly in it to spite the Fentons and the GIW, who he believes are the ones responsible for the ghost attacks and only helping to further their own, personal power, respectively.) Sam has noticed that there's something spooky about Danny, and had her suspicions solidified when Tucker, after having been blown off by Alter-Danny, brought his data to her.
Sam wants Danny to be the frontman of her ghost-rights organization, as his face, his relatively human looks, and recent good deeds make him ideal for the task. Wes wants him to help infiltrate Fentonworks and prove once and for all that the Fentons didn't rip a hole to the Ghost GZ by mistake, but as part of a deliberate experiment, without any regard to the safety of the town(Danny notices Sam and Tucker, who know he's right, share a look.) Tucker wants to know what Danny is planning, and why he looks like his best friend.(Tucker wants to prove, really to himself, that he can be an effective ghost hunter, too. Had encounter with Spectra that knocked his confidence.)
Once he sees his transformation had been caught on tape, Danny admits to being another version of Danny from an alternate dimension, one where he ended up as a half-ghost rather than a human ghost hunter. The group comes to an agreement: Danny will keep them in the loop with what's going on with the Fentons and the GIW until whatever strange thing they're up to is resolved, and in exchange, Sam will return Cujo the next morning, while Tucker agrees to open up Fentonwork's defenses, crack his collar, and allow Danny to flee into the GZ and go home.
Danny is not happy about further delay, but agrees.When he gets back to Fentonworks, the first thing he does is resume his pry-the-floorboards-up plan from before, albeit while feeling rather guilty, and finally manages to sneak into the GZ.
Picks up just after Danny left the group, touches on Tucker's perception of Danny and how he's different from the Danny he knows, and is no longer sure he's friends with. He, Sam, and Wes, discuss their perspective on the meeting, and Sam brings up specifically how she's not mad at Tucker for helping Alter-Danny, she's mad he won't stick up for himself when Alter-Danny blows them off or doesn't discuss things beforehand, and how she'd like to be friends again.
Tucker goes home, and pulls out his texting history with Alter-Danny, where it goes from friendly and casual to more and more businesslike and terse. The last texts are of Tucker asking what is going on with the sudden appearance of the white haired ghost his sensors spotted (Alter-Danny states there's no time, and requests a drone intercept); An "joking" question about whether the weird guy he brought in today was Alter-Danny's cousin or his twin (unanswered), then one last attempt to bring Alter-Danny into the loop, asking him if he could visit Tucker's house tonight (unanswered). Tucker recalls Spectra's words about him being a third wheel, disposable, and more of a sidekick than a friend as he tries and fails to fall asleep.
The next day, Fentonworks wakes up to another bunch of attacks, all wild ghosts getting out of portals that shouldn't be spawning. Alter-Danny and Danny do what they can, but Alter-Danny is spread thin and Danny is still collared, and the GIW end up cleaning up most of the damage with stunning efficiency, thanks to their new super suits.
The GIW agent (Oscar) Alter-Danny mocked in the beginning leads the charge, and makes a point to rub their success in his face, implying that he's no longer needed now that their technology is better than his.
GIW begins to gain public recognition and applaud here, aggravating Alter Danny. Danny, meanwhile, is still deeply upset by the screaming he can hear inside their super suits. He tries to bring it up to Alter-Danny + how much more he could help if he had the collar off. Alter-Danny states that the last thing they need is more ghosts, that ghosts hurting isn't physically possible, and even if it was, it wouldn't help solve their problems: Nobody in Amity cared about the pain of ghosts.
Danny notices Alter-Danny repeatedly checking his phone,(the GIW, posing as the Fentons, have sent another text to explain the delay,) which prompts Alter-Danny to complain a bit about his parents. Danny brings up how they seem to have a very good relationship compared to himself and his parents.
After this, they go to school. Their lateness is not a problem, as Alter-Danny is widely recognized as a heroic ghost hunter, whose duties to the town sometimes get in the way of school. Valerie, however, is unimpressed, pointing out it was the GIW who handled things this time, not Fenton.
More school shenanigans, but this time, with Sam, Tucker, and Wes sticking close, with Sam pointedly giving Cujo's thermos over to Danny, saying she trusts him to take care of it (with a pointed look at Alter-Danny while saying it.) Much to Alter-Danny's irritation. He gets most of his groupies to agree, but not Tucker, who suggests that since Danny is his cousin, and that maybe he should trust him a little more to handle the practical aspects of ghost hunting. Alter-Danny blows him off, not realizing that Tucker was talking about himself at least as much as he was about Danny.
Another ghost attack hits the school, (another GIW attempt to effect a kidnapping on Danny and Jazz.) They fend it off, though this time Tucker and Sam insert themselves directly. Sam does pretty well, but Tucker does especially poorly, and ends up having to be saved by Alter-Danny. It is very clear now that something is wrong, and more ghosts than usual are targeting the Fentons. It is brought up by Wes/Val that it may finally be payback for pushing ghosts out of Amity and the Zone so ruthlessly (Amity may have been patched, but too many ghosts wriggling through the seams could open things up all over again + hunting in the GZ directly let them get samples while also driving off threats at the source.) Danny is alarmed to learn this, and begins to worry that maybe getting home through the Zone won't be so easy after all.
A full blown argument between Tucker and Alter-Danny occurs after this, with Alter-Danny upset that Tucker endangered himself, and Tucker interpreting this a proof of Alter-Danny's disregard for him and the value of his contribution, which Sam reinforces. Alter-Danny splits after this, too upset to even try to bring Danny with him, who he leaves behind with Sam and Tucker.
Alter Danny has had a stressful series of days, and his fear of not being enough, of letting things slip out of his control just like when Vlad hurt Jack, is stressing him out more. He checks his phone, but his parents have not sent anything beyond their earlier text, even though he sent something asking them what's going on. (note-this is normal for them, but something feels off to Alter-Danny.)
Meanwhile, Dash, Kwan, and Paulinia (who is his clingy girlfriend,) try to cheer him up, congratulating him on finally ditching the loser squad for good. Alter-Danny defends them, though he has difficulty explaining his feelings to them. He is worried in particular about Tucker, who he believes is better off kept away from the action.
Follow Alter-Danny to his home, where he dives straight into work, doing his best to rig a new and better weapon. He is interrupted by Jazz, who decided to interrupt him when he didn't come down for food. They discuss Danny, things going wrong between Fentonworks and the GIW, concern over what's taking their parents so long, and how Alter-Danny is handling his life. Jazz points out that dedicating herself to her studies at the expense of all else just made her lonely, in the end. Alter-Danny, still spun up, points out that the things he's working on are more important than that. Jazz's protestations that the world isn't held up by him alone, and maybe they can trust the GIW to handle some things are rejected. In the end, Jazz leaves, asking him to at least eat his food. Alter-Danny turns back to his work, the pizza Jazz left for him slowly growing cold.
(Back in time to when Alter-Danny stormed off,still late afternoon.) Tucker is greatly upset with Alter-Danny, even though Sam and Wes point out that Tucker did kind suck when he tried to help out. Danny offers to help train them, Wes declines (he's not into ghost hunting and gets plenty of exercise at basketball.) but Sam and Tucker say yes.
They train for the rest of the evening, and at first things go well, unfortunately, Danny gets too comfortable, and during a pause point in the training, tries to play with them in a particularly ghostly kind of way, sneaking up and scaring them in what any ghost would instinctively recognize, and the real Tucker and Sam have learned to see as an attempt to play more than scare. Alter-Sam and Tucker, however, react very badly. Tucker, who has a mild phobia of ghosts, especially so.
Danny had no idea this behavior was ghostly (He doesn't know this, but Sam and Tucker have a standing rule between themselves, where any ghostly behavior that Danny demonstrates is to be politely ignored unless it actually causes problems–a well intended attempt on their part to stop Danny from needlessly stressing out and repressing himself even further.) He wonders if his Sam and Tucker were just as afraid and hiding it, and just how much of his behavior has altered over the years without his noticing. He apologizes to Sam and Tucker and promises not to do it again, while trying to end the training session by walking away.
Tucker (still upset) asks him what he means by "it was an accident," wanting him to explain before he leaves, as avoiding questions he doesn't like is something Alter-Danny has an issue with and Tucker, in particular, is beginning to get sick of. Danny explains a bit about ghost instinct, how fear has greater use and meaning for them, beyond the traditional human concept of the word, and how he can't always tell the difference between what kind of thought is "human" vs. "Ghost", especially when he thinks he's being well intentioned. Sam picks up that this may mean that at least some of what ghosts do isn't as malicious as it appears, and that part of the issue is more gaps in communication and expectation than it is of ghosts being naturally malicious. She brings this up, and tensions ease back down as they discuss what they do and don't know about ghost behavior. (possibly place why Prime Sam and Tucker didn't say here, via Sam/Tucker commenting why they would have held something like that back, possibly after Danny leaves?)
By the end of the conversation, things circle back to their agreement, with Danny updating Sam and Tucker to the Fentons being missing, how the ghosts that invaded are behaving weirdly, and how he thinks the GIW are involved in something really serious, but he can't get Alter-Danny to see that. He asks Tucker if he can crack into the GIW database, and Tucker says yes. Danny gives him an enthusiastic hug, which startles Tucker, who is used to Alter-Danny's more stoic demeanor.
Before they part, Tucker gives Danny software in a USB designed to plug into the Fenton household's security system, which he can finally use to circumvent their security and get into the GZ, albeit with the promise that he'll come back, which Danny agrees to do.
Back at Fentonworks, everyone but Danny is asleep, he uses the opportunity to sneak down to the Fentonworks basement, taking Cujo with him. He encounters Spooky the owl, who, being unaffected by Tucker's virus, almost causes a ruckus but with the help of Cujo Danny makes it into the Zone. (On theme of appreciating the people around you: It's only thanks to Tucker and Cujo that he accomplishes this, as opposed to when he tried, and failed, to do it on his own.)
In the Zone, things are very different from what Danny was expecting: What isn't emptied out or outright destroyed is too stiff, too regular, symptom of the Fenton's destruction and subsequent meddling in the Zone. They aso run into a small ghost who tries to warn Danny away, commenting that there are evil, murderous humans (Fentons and the GiW) and abominations who would gladly capture and destroy ghosts like him, and that he's better off fleeing for deeper parts of the Zone. Danny is appalled.
The Long Now is still present and mostly unmolested, Danny and Cujo make it in for a meeting with Clockwork. Unfortunately, there's not much Clockwork can do, and what he can do, he is unwilling to, as Danny's mere presence has caused a temporal shake in what he considers a good way: Possibilities for both the human and ghost Zone too fundamentally desirable to just let go of. He's also busy keeping what remains of the Observant council from doing something stupid, like unleashing Pariah in an attempt to reclaim their pride and losses against the human incursion, which the mere presence of Danny has definitely aggravated. This is where we learn that Clockwork is the ghost of time, not space, so he can't send Danny back.
Danny and Cujo return to Fentonworks, Danny in particular being upset and exhausted, only to encounter an equally tired looking, and much more irate Alter-Danny, a smug looking Spooky, who was the one who managed to alert him, perched on his shoulder.
Danny and Alter-Danny fight: Danny is appalled at what the humans have done to the Zone, not only due to the damage it did to the ghosts, but due to the damage it will do to the human realm if allowed to decay any further, commenting that the Fenton's reality solidifying towers are practically the only thing stopping the two realms from collapsing in on each other.
Alter Danny feels betrayed, both by Danny, who he had sort of started to trust, despite himself, and whoever it was who gave him the means to bypass Fentonworks security (he correctly guesses Tucker based on what he did to him by sharing data with Sam, earlier.) Danny suggests that even if Alter-Danny can't trust him, then he should at least trust Tucker and if he did, maybe stuff like this wouldn't happen. Alter-Danny replies that he does trust and appreciate Tucker, and when Danny claims that it didn't seem like he did, Alter-Danny goes on a rant about his motivations, about how he feels he has to keep everyone else distant from the ghost fighting because it's all on him: It's all he's good at, unlike Sam and Tucker, who have other talents, how he won't let another ghost rip into someone he cares about, the way the Wisconsin ghost did to his dad, and that he's doing them a favor because keeping everything on his shoulders is safer for all of them. It's also implied that at least some of Alter-Danny's motivations stem from guilt, since, just like in Danny's universe, the ghost portal only activated because Alter-Danny accidentally turned it on.
recognizes a lot of himself in Alter-Danny for the first time, not the least because a lot of what he brings up are issues Danny himself tended to struggle with, but in ways made worse or more severe due to his ghostly obsession (Bring up Danny stalking Sam in cannon, +arguments over Sam and Tucker coming on patrol, locking people in who don't want to be locked in, inability to get good sleep due to paranoia that the people around him aren't adequately protected/safe and being unable to deal with it), which he was more or less forced to deal with lest he do real damage to the people around him and the few relationships he managed to keep.
Perversely, because Alter-Danny's humanity make his drives and desires less extreme, he put less effort into controlling them and less critical thought into how his behavior affects those around him, putting him in a worse spot than Danny, who had no choice but to confront himself and his base desires in ways Alter-Danny just didn't.
this point, their argument wakes Jazz, who comes down to check on what's going on. After some more argument, Jazz settles it by saying that she's tired, and that they should all go to bed. Danny and Cujo settle down together, with Danny missing his home terribly as he goes to sleep. He gets texted an image from Tucker's phone, a grainy image of Jack and Maddie, tied up and beaten in a perfectly white square of a room.
The next day, Alter-Danny wakes up sore and grumpy from his late night, still irate that the ghost boy would betray them, and worried over what he did while he was loose in the zone. He resolves to put the ghost restraining collar back on Danny no matter what he says against it, and to interrogate him properly about what he did while in the Zone. Alter-Danny feels stressed and disturbed about how more and more is slipping out of his control.
When he comes down the stairs, however, his plans are derailed by Jazz and Danny, who ask him if he'd received any contact from their parents. When he mentions the texts, Jazz emphasizes verbal contact, which he has not had.
Alter-Danny is then shown the picture of his parents, leaving him upset 1) Because a part of him trusted the GIW, if not to do the right thing, then at least be allies in regards to the mutual threat of ghosts 2) that Tucker gave this info to his evil monster twin from another dimension, rather than Alter-Danny, his best friend 3)That he had been fooled, 4) He doesn't know what to do about it.
This gets mixed up in another argument about Danny and what he did last night. Danny explains Clockwork (Alter-Danny is shocked and somewhat doubtful that something like a ghost of time even exists), and how he was just trying to get home, since, as Alter-Danny has made abundantly clear, he's unwanted and unwelcome where he is. Alter-Danny does feel a little bad about this.
This finally leads to Jazz crying from the stress, as she feels everything is falling apart and there's nothing she can do about it. She and all her psychology, everything she's tried to do to help has been worthless.
Alter-Danny, who, like Danny, tends to view Jazz as a bastan of emotional stability (while still being his annoying, nosy older sister, of course,) is shocked. Both Danny's comfort her, and it finally begins to occur to Alter-Danny that the way he's handled the people around him may have been more for his own benefit than it was for theirs.
Ultimately, Alter-Danny drops the push for Danny and Cujo to go back under suppressor collars, and they agree to stay home for the day (Alter-Danny is allowed to skip school as long as the issue is ghost related, which this is,) contact Tucker to see if he has anything more from his hack, and formulate a plan to get their parents back.
This plan is derailed when Tucker fails to answer his phone. Instead, he sends a text, using phraseology peculiarly similar to the texts their "parents" sent, which they now know were fake texts from the GIW. Tucker has been kidnapped.
Alter-Danny's first thought is panic and anger, as he tries to text back that he knows that the person on the other end isn't Tucker and to hurry up and reveal themselves. He's stopped by Danny and Jazz, who suggest that he at least call Tucker's parents and friends first.
Tucker's parents think he went to school, early(Tucker had in fact gone to meet with Danny and Jazz with more info as soon as possible), salt is rubbed in the wound when Tucker's parents comment about how glad they were that Alter-Danny had decided to call, and that Tucker had seemed lonely of late.
Sam is called, and it's agreed to meet with Wes outside of school, both to decide what to do and group up to avoid being picked off one by one. Alter-Danny asks Sam to be careful, she replies that she wasn't the one who got her best friend and family kidnapped, then hangs up.
As they head to the meetup point(Danny has volunteered to fly ahead, leaving Cujo behind to guard Alter-Danny and Jazz. Cujo is snuggling against Alter-Danny,) Alter-Danny can't resist going through some of the documents Tucker sent before being kidnapped, already focused on trying to formulate a plan to get everyone back.
This is interrupted by a text by "Tucker," asking after Alter-Danny. Alter-Danny replies, stating that he knows it's the GIW and threatening them. Alter-Danny is eventually goaded into clicking and downloading a link sent by "Tucker," which turns out to be a map of the facility where Alter-Danny's friends and family are being kept.
Agent O does this with the intent to bring the Fenton kids to him, since kidnapping is proving more difficult than expected. The map is accurate in all regards except where Tucker, Jack, and Maddie are supposedly being kept.
First pinch point
Danny makes it to Sam and Wes, learns that this particular hang-out spot was once Alter-Danny, Sam, and Tucker's hang out spot back when ghosts were new and the trio were still friends. He explains what happened the night before and asks for help.
Sam and Wes are both game, with Wes volunteering his conspiracy-theorist knowledge of the GIW he and his online associates collected, and Sam more than willing to go against the man (tm.) (uses parent's computer to gain access to things?)
Alter-Danny arrives, and while there is definite friction between him and Sam, they all agree to attack the GIW as soon as they can, although not immediately (alter-Danny and Sam are upset about this.)
Alter-Danny states that he has access to the internal layout of the GIW facility, though not that said layout was sent to him by phone.
During their planning session, Wes interrupts, revealing that Casper is being attacked by another ghostly foe, forcing the gang to table their planning session to confront the threat. Alter-Danny and Danny both want to leave Sam, Wes, and Jazz behind, but Sam and Jazz won't let them. Wes is dragged along.
At the school, which is half devastated by the abnormally powerful ghost, they begin fighting back. Danny alone is able to hear it speak, going on at length about still being good enough, proving itself, not wanting to be left alone in the dark. This is what leads Danny to realize that the ghost is a person fused with the same kind of robo-suit he had seen the GIW fighting in earlier, the combination of a new ghost core fused with the broken old one resulting in an insane abomination.
During the fight, one of the pillars is damaged—Danny, confused for Alter-Danny by the crowd (wearing his cloths since last night)—is the one who pushes the ghost and breaks the pillar, causing more of the zone to seep in and give the ghost a power up. Danny is forced to go ghost to deal with it.
They wear down the ghost together, and nearly defeat it, only for the GIW to appear, suck in the ghost, Phantom, and Cujo, then try to arrest Alter-Danny and friends for conspiring against the living at the behest of ghosts, damage to public property, and abuse of his ghost hunter license to skirt the law.
(failed GIW experiment, Damages pillars, GZ seeps in, Alter-Danny accused of conspiring with ghosts, town turns against him)
Picks up immediately after Danny is thermos'd, Alter-Danny attempts to tell them they're wrong, and that it's all a mistake. He turns to his school friends, who look on unsure. This is the first time Alter-Danny has had the town turn against him, and a part of him feels its because he, personally, let them down.
The GIW, and more specifically, agent O, who has been (injecting himself with core ectoplasm/using similar machines to the rest of the GIW-mad ecto-contamination in pursuit of power), and publicly states that Alter-Danny has been conspiring with ghosts, knowingly damaging the veil between worlds, and must now be arrested by the GIW, the real protectors of Amity Park and the living realm as a whole.
Alter-Danny tries to say that no, he didn't do this on purpose, he was being tricked by ghosts. Unexpectedly, Agent O agrees, (though not without casting a fair amount of shade on his ability as a ghost hunter), but says if that's true, he'll want to come with the GIW to run some tests and make sure/some paperwork regarding all the damage he caused while being manipulated.
Alter-Danny is now stuck between publically siding with ghosts, versus publically selling out his friends to an organization he knows is evil. He chooses his friends, and another fight ensues, with Alter-Danny very publically "betraying" humanity. At first nearly captured, they get space to breath when Alter-Danny unleashes Cujo, who grows to massive size, and then Danny. Once both ghosts are unleashed, they're able to get away from the encirclement.
As Alter-Danny is flown away, he spots Agent O smirking, and waving goodbye, as though he's not concerned for their escape at all.
The brief stint in the thermos was enough to knock Danny off kilter-one moment fighting, then sensory deprivation, then more fighting, then fleeing with no idea where they should be going. Unfortunately, no one else in the group has any idea where they should be going, either, since all their usual places were known to the authorities and all of them were now wanted. Danny states that he might know a place, and flies them underground, back to Casper high, in the Lunch Lady's hidden meat locker.
Sam is disgusted, Wes, who had theorized something like this existed, is excited, and both Danny's are reminded of how much Tucker would love a place like this, which saddens he group when Danny mentions that out loud.
They sit down and begin to properly plan. They have the location of the facility and know its layout, but not strictly their patrols or security. Danny is able to fill in patrol schedule based on GIW invasions he committed back in his dimension, and Alter-Danny, as a ghost hunting expert, has a pretty good guess as to their security. Thanks to the info Agent O sent him, he also states he knows where Tucker and the elder Fentons are being held, though he dodges explaining how.
Alter-Danny is a better liar than Danny, but both Danny and Jazz recognize he's trying to sidle out of something, but aren't able to confront him about it right then.
The plan they make is as follows:
sneak into Fentonworks, get as many weapons as possible.
2) Danny and Cujo attack the front, while Alter-Danny and Sam (Alter-Danny wanted to go alone, he was refused) sneak through the patrols.
Jazz mans their escape vehicle - ideally the GAV, if they can get it, and Wes mans the comms and maintains communication.
Once Danny and Sam rescue Tucker, Maddie, and Jack, they will rejoin with Danny and Cujo, who will then beat a fighting retreat to the GAV, after which they are to drive off to..somewhere. None of the group is really sure.
**Danny turning people invisible won't work, since the GIW have the same kind of ghost detectors the Fentons do, so their options for stealth are limited. This is why they opt for the split-the-enemy approach.
It's pointed out, (probably by Wes) That this is a shitty plan. Alter-Danny asks if they have anything better, and Danny, actually, does. He points out that instead of invading from the real world side, they could invade from the GZ instead.
Alter Danny scoffs that of course the ghost's solution would be to go into the Ghost Zone, and asks how he expects them all to survive in the toxic green hellscape of the afterlife. Danny snaps that he's not a ghost, and Alter-Danny can actually thank himself for thinning the barrier between worlds enough that the human world is slowly toppling into the GZ, enough so that there's plenty of air for everyone. As long as they don't spend too long in the Zone, then any ectocontamination should be minor and fixable.
Wes is elated that he was right, that the Fentons were the ones responsible for messing with the veil between worlds. Cujo is getting worked up alongside Danny.
Both Dannys snap that it wasn't their parent't fault, with Alter Danny pointing out that one ghost portal was never supposed to do what it did. Wes snaps back that it obviously did, and they shouldn't have hidden it from the town. Alter-Danny says that there was nothing else they could do, and it was better to protect them. Sam jumps in to say that keeping people ignorant wasn't a good way to keep them safe, and Danny agrees. Due to his nature as a half-ghost, he's been forced to think about this a lot. He states that you can't just presume for people, and that to do so belittles their ability to think and choose for themselves while putting them in more danger long term, since a protector who's all alone will leave his people vulnerable once he's inevitably outmatched or destroyed.
Wes whistles, and Sam is impressed, asking where he came up with that. Danny admits that it was Sam herself, and some Jazz, stuff they had told him over he years to help deal with his - he is forced to gesture somewhat uselessly until Alter-Danny finishes the sentence for him: His obsession.
Alter-Danny has managed to puzzle out Danny's ghostly obsession, and because he is angry, frustrated, and tired, starts hitting him with it. He says he realizes that's why Danny's been so pesky about "helping," that he's just operating on a routine that demands he does, and he suggests the real reason he even stuck around at all was because he saw people that he viewed as his in a bad spot.
Danny tries to protest, stating that he's wrong, but Alter-Danny snaps back that Danny's not capable of defending himself, as any thought process a ghost has must ultimately serve its obsession, just like any people a ghost engages with are little more than tools to further the same. Alter-Danny asks if he's happy now, since he's ruined everything, they are all now completely at the mercy of Danny's "protection," with no choice but to follow his lead, with his plans, into his territory
Danny is aggravated to the point where he shoves Alter-Danny into a wall, frosts over the entire room, and his attempts at denying it come out as ghost speak. Cujo, meanwhile, is holding back the rest of the gang and preventing them from helping.
Alter-Danny asks if he's wrong, Danny asks if he has any better ideas, Alter-Danny again asks if he's wrong, Danny responds by snarling and flaring his aura in a threat display, finally scaring everyone else around him(Sam is being held back by Wes, Jazz is trying to get around Cujo in an effort to help her brother) to make him realize how inhumanly he's behaving at the moment. Danny forces himself to back off, putting physical distance between himself and Alter-Danny. He tells him fine, he's right, but that going through the ghost zone, a route the GIW definitely won't expect, is better than taking one they will.
Danny then phases himself and Cujo into a storage box where he can be alone, kick himself, and miss home.
(This only works if thermoses=full/broken/lost) ++ (Have Spooky killed for extra Alter-Danny stress + Return as ghost at later date??)
Picks up immidiately after Danny removes himself from the situation. For a moment, everything is tense and silent, the room still unbearably chilly. Jazz is left breathing hard, Sam asks what the hell was he thinking. Alter-Danny, who is hugely stressed, stated that he had to know, before committing to working with a ghost, he had to make sure it had itself under control. Sam states that he's nuts, that he could've ruined everything, and asks what he would have done if Danny had decided to attack.
Jazz answers for him, stating that he would've died. She clarifies that directly bringing up a ghost's obsession is a massive taboo, that no ghost hunter with sense would bring it up, since it runs such a high risk of inciting violence and excess damage. She states that Alter-Danny almost got all of them, not just himself, killed. (Note-Jazz reflects on how Danny is different from the brother she knows, her perspective on what happened, how scared she was, how dangerous their situation was, how Alter-Danny was right in and of that their plan hinged on a ghost who wasn't really her brother and who they didn't really know.)
Silence descends after this. Alter-Danny attempts to say something, but is silenced by Jazz, who tells him he's spoken plenty. She then takes off to her own corner in an attempt to rest, from which she hears Wes state that he's had more than enough drama for the day, and plans to take a nap before things inevitably get worse.
Alter-Danny joins Jazz sometime later, lying down next to her. The siblings finally talk, Jazz admits how she feels pointless compared to the rest of them, and how part of what scared her was that there was nothing she could do (this surprises Alter-Danny, who had missed the signs.) Alter-Danny 1) realizes he was putting undue pressure on/failing to appreciate the people around him again 2) Admits that he's scared too, that how everything falling apart around them and all his beliefs being smashed was why he did what he did 3) How he's terrified of something going wrong. 4) emphasizes how important they all are to him, including Jazz, which just makes the fear of loosing them worse
They clear the air, but before going to bed, Jazz tells him that he'll need to apologize to the others, too, including Danny. Alter-Danny wonders if he'll even be there tomorrow at all, and Jazz says he will, since she knows her brother, and Danny, half ghost monsterousness aside, wouldn't just leave them. ("Would you leave?"--"no"--Then there's your answer)
They go to sleep hugging each other, something the two siblings haven't done since they were very small.
Midpoint
Danny wakes up from a bad night, initially unsure where he even is until his mind catches up to the events of last night. He angsts, having it hammered home that this is not where he belongs, while also worrying he's permanantly destroyed the groups dynamic. Unwilling to face the music outside the container he's hidden himself in, he dawdles until Wes (he drew the short straw) knocks on his box, and he and Cujo exit.
Everyone has an awkward breakfast (except Sam, who refuses to eat the surrounding meat.) Jazz is awkwardly cheerful, Alter-Danny Awkwardly explains that after thinking about it, they've all decided to go with Danny's plan of invading the GIW through the GZ.(Note-Alter-Danny in particular is more unsure and a little bit guilty than he is scared, and trying to cover it up by pretending everything is fine, just like Danny himself does. Danny doesn't know this and takes it as proof that his supposition of having totally ruined relations between them was right.)
They gear up as best they can, then head out. The plan is to carry the team intangibly as far as they can go, until they hit the Fenton ghost shields, which Alter-Danny will disable, allowing everyone into the GZ. From there, Danny mostly just hopes that the GZ will be similar enough to his own that he'll be able to navigate wherever they need him to go.
Take time here to show how sentiment has shifted among the public (maybe as they're all getting suited up?) Alter-Danny trending negatively on social media, his high school "friends" denouncing him, agent O getting positive interviews with the press. Danny notices Alter-Danny paying unusual amounts of attention to it.
They go through the underground, beat up some GIW agents who were busy stripping the house(Alter-Danny is greatly offended), then make it to the GZ.
Danny is both relieved and upset to be in the GZ, as it is familiar and soothes his ghost half, but also disturbingly vacant, stripped and gutted by frequent human hunting sprees and thinned to the point where living world physics are on near equal footing with the GZ's own rules.
This is where they discover that the GIW do not have one portal to the Ghost Zone, as the Fentons thought, or even two, but dozens upon dozens, fraying the surrounding reality to the point where the transition between the GZ and reality is difficult for even Danny to detect. This is where they begin to wonder why the GIW would even have that that many portals, and what they're doing with them (they're trying to recreate Vlad's incident.)
Unfortunately, the GIW was waiting for them, with an ambush waiting on the other side of the veil consisting of several power-armored troops, some slaved ghosts (ex-GIW) and two of the GIW's near successful Halfas, agent D8, whose human half lost its instinct to breath, and agent H4, whose ghost core is made of meat. They are both wearing masks to cover the heavy rashes and skin damage from deep ecto-contamination.
Caught off foot, they are nearly overwhelmed, with Danny resorting to a wail to get them out, downing most of the enemies and allowing them to escape at the cost of any semblance of cover and Danny's near total exhaustion. It takes a combination of both himself and Cujo just to turn them invisible and intangible long enough to escape, though not before he spots D8 seem to turn his head, watching them go.
Alarms are blaring, and the group spends just enough time in a supply closet to make a hasty plan: Alter-Danny is still determined to go through, so rather than waste their one chance on retreating and abandoning their friends and family, they'll split up: Jazz and Wes will be placed inside the walls, somewhere the GIW won't think to look, as contacts, Alter-Danny and Sam will go to retrieve the Fentons, and Danny and Cujo will go to retrieve Tucker. Alter-Danny hands Danny his phone, saying that he'll need it (for the map,) and, after an awkward pause says he's sorry. Danny has no idea for what, and further conversation is cut off by the need to hurry, with Alter-Danny and Sam shimmying into the vents while Danny and Cujo slip into invisibility.
As he is running and following the map, Danny hastily presumes that as a long time associate with the GIW, this is a reasonable thing for Alter-Danny to have.
Danny makes it to the room where Tucker is supposed to be, but instead of finding his friend, he finds agent O, (who has confused Danny for Alter-Danny, due to switching phones), flanked by D8 and H4. He monologues, revealing that he had been tracking the group though their phone the whole time, that he had no need to kidnap them after that since he always knew where they were, and that they'd come to him, one way or another, on their own. He wants Alter-Danny and Jazz to force the elder Fentons into compliance and knows Danny's a hybrid. He believes Danny is a clone of Alter-Danny, a more successful version of the GIW's own experiments, and wants him as a sample since their own source "is basically all used up," anyway. Danny realizes what the portals are for but doesn't directly articulate it either to the other characters or the reader
Note: Alter-Danny and the rest of the gang are listening in the whole time.
Danny goes straight for agent O, with Cujo helping by attacking one of the other agents who tried to get in the way. He manages to surprise them by using his ghost powers, revealing he's not Alter-Danny after all.
The fight turns complicated as the two other halfas reveal their power and other agents start flooding in, forcing Danny, still weakened from the wail, to enact a running retreat. He manages to disable D8 by cutting off his breathing apparatus, but H4 is basically a ghost powered deadpool, is able to mold his flesh any way he wants, and is able to absorb both meat and ectoplasm into his whole. Danny only makes it by tossing agent O (who has used his abduction to shiv Danny in between his struggles, slowing him down further,) straight at the meat monster, which distracts them both long enough for Danny to book it.
Note: During the struggle Danny was able to pull off Agent O's security clearance tag
Knowing his locations were bad, Alter -Danny suggests he, sam, Danny, and Cujo meet up again, at Alter-Danny's location, stating that he and Sam may have found something they all need to see/he has the real map this time.
Alter Danny and Sam, not being tracked by a bugged phone, have an easier time of it, using the vents, blind corners, and both party's willingness to suffocate patrolling guards into unconscious to make it through the complex. (Have Alter-Danny teach Sam how to throttle people as a bonding mechanism?)
They make it close to their own destination when Danny is found, and thanks to the linked comms, everyone learns that Alter-Danny had a bugged phone. Sam wants to help Danny, and Alter-Danny wants to throttle Agent O, and also help Danny, so they start running towards him to help.
However, other GIW agents are still a threat, and in trying to dodge around them, Alter-Danny and Sam end up in a series of corridors that weren't on the map, at least so far as Alter-Danny could recall.
This area is mostly non-field agents, with a lot of rooms dedicated to R&D, systems testing, and research. Alter-Danny recognizes derivatives of Fenton tech, while also realizing that this presents a perfect opportunity to find out what the GIW really knows, get a real map, and find out what's going on with all the strange ghosts. (He recalls Maddie's comment earlier in story/other things she and Jack had said off screen.) He convinces Sam to wait at least long enough to try getting into the GIW's systems, which is eventually done by Sam finding the password on a sticky note on the back of the monitor.
It's hard to find a map on the computer, or anything, as all icons are listed in coded shorthand. Numerous things are found, including that the GIW is a joint operation between the CIA and the DOD (Look into this to see if feasible), much of their research is being repurposed for conventional war, and that there's something called project revenant that's not performing as expected and has lately run into problems due to the increasing fragility of it's "source"
Alter-Danny does not want to entertain the idea of who the first "source" of ghost/human hybrids was, since he can only think of one, he does eventually pull up a map, but his focus is elsewhere (angry, hurt, betrayed, but also fearful, that Vlad might be alive.)
By this point, Danny has managed to slip past H4, (No thanks to him--Sam points out), Alter Danny suggests they meet back up, with Danny and Cujo meeting himself and Sam near the hidden hallways, and work together from there.
During this brief breather, Alter-Danny and Sam talk: Sam is unhappy, convinced Alter-Danny is slipping into old habits, as well as treating Danny as disposable. Alter Danny explains that he's not, he's trusting him to survive, just like he's trusting Sam now. He says he's sorry, to Sam and everyone. Sam, unsure what to do about this, is distracted.
Danny and Cujo make it to the meeting point, remarkably disheveled and visibly hurt. Alter-Danny asks if he's alright, Danny says he would be a lot better if someone hadn't handed him a bugged phone. Alter-Danny shoots back that he already said sorry, and that at least he was able to make it out alright. He then states that he has the real map now, which lists a bunch of places Agent O's map didn't even have - such as a section listed "holding cells." He says that he wants to go look for Tucker, Maddie, and Jack together, rather than apart.
They make it to the holding cells, which, in addition to holding dissenters and "persons of interest," is also where functional, but non-cooperative halfas are stored. We get another look at how many ways halfas can go wrong, Sam wonders how the GIW even made so many, Danny explains that that's probably why the GIW has so many portals. It's not that they need them, so much as they're just left over from each attempt at making a new halfa. Alter Danny keeps silent, unwilling to consider the implications.
They make it to the cell with Jack and Maddie, and they're caught up on events. It's discovered that Tucker was here, but he was taken deeper into the facility as Halfa fodder, something Jack and Maddie/one of the imprisoned halfas overheard.
By this point, the GIW are bearing down on them, and they decide to bust the failures out both as a distraction and as extra firepower. When Alter-Danny and Sam's keycard fail, Danny uses Cujo's ability to 'fetch' - which allows him to dig through any barrier, as long as its in pursuit of the specific toy he once had while he was living - to start busting them out/manages to bust through with strength alone/ Agent O's security card. They also break the halfa's suppressors once they're out.
Alter-Danny, along with the rest, take a moment to consider how dangerous a halfa could be, if it so desired. Alter-Danny in particular is strongly struck that Danny is another version of himself, someone he very easily could have been. He recalls Vlad again, and tries to believe that that level of evil is not inevitable/wonders how he would've responded to the man if he had the same kind of power?
The struggle now devolves into a free for all between GIW and prisoners, as the Fentons and friends struggle their way down to the lowest, experimental levels. The last they hear of the combat is a furious scream, and H4's wet, fleshy tentacles beginning to engulf them all. It is only thanks to the extra strong, ghost proof door that they close behind them that keeps them safe.
The gang is now trapped in the lowest, most top secret facility the GIW has, with Tucker not far away, and no way out.
Agent O is having a bad day. He puts H4 down once it finishes destroying the other halfas, activating the kill switch next to its core on the basis that its already too far gone to be worth healing.(Extra angst--H4 is still a little there, mentally, and in his final moments, begs Agent O to help and take the pain away. Agent O says yes, of course.)
A look into his perspective and morals as he yells at his remaining staff and wards off calls from his superiors/strictly instructs subordinates not to contact outside help: Agent O sees himself as a savior, legally and morally obligated to protect the ignorant masses from ghosts and themselves. The need to kowtow to civilian, and worse, a teenager, had troubled him for a long time, and he viewed the Fentons as a necessary evil, uncontrolled and unregulated civilian contractors who could only get away with what they did because the GIW and Agent O weren't good enough (yet) to work without them.
With his projects almost all at or near completion, Agent O had been on the very cusp of freeing the GIW from obscurity and impoverishment. In his hands, they would become a top alphabet agency, no longer a hidden, underfunded offcasting of project bluebook. One part CIA, one part NASA, with all the funding they could ever dream to contain, control, and collect the supernatural beings otherwise known as ghosts, while enforcing all needed safety procedures on a populace at last aware of the GIWs worth.
His plan was to take out the Fentons, who were not only the GIWs primary competitors, but also one of the few persons capable of 1) realizing how awful the things the GIW were doing and 2) had the freedom, ability, and reputation to act on it. He aimed to get them more or less all at once - using some of their "burnouts" to do so, a test of their ability to continue following orders despite the loss of their lives/humanity, to establish a baseline of their abilities in the field, and to make it look like a ghost attack to the world at large, covering up the scheme. (planned to keep the Fenton parents alive to extract expertise through torture, then as bait.)
Danny, who he believes is a byproduct of the Fentons own illicit experiments, threw a wrench in his plans, confusing other agents and basically ensuring the Fenton children stayed out of GIW custody far longer than they should. He does consider it darkly amusing that Jack and Maddie, despite all their protestations, eventually went down the same path as the GIW. Agent O also considers this a justification of his own actions.
He feels similarly about Alter-Danny's decision to back Phantom and Cujo at the cost of his reputation: A happy accident that makes it easier for Agent O, and also proof that Alter-Danny, child that he was, could not and should not be relied upon as a ghost hunter, that his reputation was overblown and undeserved.
Kidnapping Tucker wasn't in the plans either, but he considered it a stroke of genius nonetheless, as he was an easy target that no one important would miss, the way the Fentons would be, and it would rile up Alter-Danny and make him take stupid risks, like downloading a bugged file in the hopes of finding his friend. Agent O had set it up so that he didn't need to get the children: They would come to him, all while he kept perfect tabs on their movements through the hacked cellular device.(also audio? Other parts of fic need tweaking if so)
Agent O heads up to his office, retrieving another copy of his key card, a core-powered exo-suit, and several guns. He considers that the children coming through the portal was another mistake,(its generally known as an airless death realm and Agent O hadn't realized the degree of O2 penetration + ghostly guide) one that had allowed them to get past most of his security measures. Had the map not been deliberately flawed to begin with, they would be in even deeper trouble than they were now.
As it was, Agent O knew there had been a data breach in the science labs, one that included not only a real map, but details on some of the facility's most secure aspects, such as project Sisyphus (placeholder) and Thanatos (Vlad). Agent O had seen to it that Tucker, who lost all value once he was taken, was moved somewhere he would be useful rather than taking up valuable cell space. Now that decision was going to pay off for Agent O. Alter-Danny could play at ghost hunter all he wanted, but he was still a child, and Agent O reckons he's naive and arrogant enough to throw away his best chance of escape in pursuit of Tucker, undoubtedly throwing away his life in the process.
Because Agent O is going to fix the problem the Fentons have become, he's going to do it before any of his superiors even realize there's been trouble at all, and he's going to do it himself.
Agent O instructs his remaining staff, two thirds to stay behind and secure the area, and the other one third to come with him as back up.
The gang head down to the deepest, darkest tunnels of the facility, with Sam in particular having no issue threatening any humans who get in their way.(Danny feels conflicted/nervous about shooting humans.)
Most of the staff have either evacuated due to the intrusion or are fairly easily possessed by Danny and Cujo once their anti-possession gear is disabled by the humans.
----Scene of Danny diverting/incapacitating a group of guards in this manner, meditation on how much he dislikes possessing people after Freakshow.
They make it to their destination, swiping in with Agent O's card, and find themselves in hell. Masses of bodies in tubes, some deceased, some not, scattered notes, dissected corpses covered in ecto-acne. Jack and Maddie comment they recognize the disease from Vlad. Alter-Danny is silent, Jazz is horrified, Sam and Wes immediately start trying to document everything they can to reveal to the public, later.
Danny is asked if he believes the GIW have similar facilites in his timeline, and he answers no. The GIW are widely disliked in Amity (which is growing more pro-ghost, thanks to Phantom), and how to make a halfa, or even that halfas are something that could exist, is something only a small handful of people know. Danny asks in reply if they know how the GIW figured this out. The Fentons, and Alter-Danny in particular, are painfully silent.
Before Danny can inquire further, Cujo alterts the group, running towards a test tube in particular, which turns out to hold Tucker. They all run to the tube, already filled with ectoplasm, and try to get him out. Tucker, however, is the one with technological expertise, and none of the Fentons are able to get into the systems, which are password protected with a code Agent O's card just can't go through. During this, it's evident the tube is doing something to Tucker powering up in preparation for something.
Their attempts are interrupted by someone chuckling and suggesting that what the GIW lack in competence, they make up for in brute obstinance, and if Alter-Danny really thinks he can out stubborn the government, specifically calling him "little badger." The group turns around, looking down into a pit to find the wasted form of Vlad Masters.
The group is astonished. Danny looking over to Alter-Danny, states that he thought Alter-Danny told him Vlad masters had been destroyed.
Alter Danny responds that he thought he was destroyed, the GIW officials who helped with the raid in Wisconsian said that was what they had done.
Vlad laughs at him, points out that no reasonable scientist could resist such a fine specimen as himself ("isn't that right, Madaline?") Before breaking out into laughter again. Alter-Danny's face warps in anger, stuttering out denials. Danny/Maddie interrupts him, asking if he knows how to get Tucker out/the password for the tanks.
Vlad starts laughing again, talks about how brilliant the tanks are, and how much they make him miss tea - since tea, like people, needs to be steeped before it's any good. Alter-Danny gets even angrier at the suggestion that Tucker is a food product, but Danny and Jack manage to catch on to how broken Vlad really is.
Jack asks what they did to him, and Vlad replies with "everything." He also asks, since he and Jack are evidently on speaking terms again, why there are two of his sons, but only one of everyone else, commenting that normally when his vision doubles, it doesn't do so selectively. When told its complicated, he asks if Danny was a clone, and comments that the GIW had been trying to clone him recently, before he 'ran out' on them when they still hadn't perfected their little project, but cloning halfas was just so much harder than it looked.
(Note - have a bunch of the GIW halfas look like Vlad?)
Danny is reminded of another version of Vlad, one from the TUE timeline, and decides to reach out to Vlad in a ghostly way, touching his aura as he tries to cajol a coherent answer out of him for help. This causes Vlad to finally focus, snapping his head over to Danny, asking what he is, who made him this way, and if it was the GIW or the Fentons.
Danny explains that he is the way he is because of an accident, and that he can explain more later, but Vlad doesn't have to be alone anymore, if only he'll help.(Danny feels somewhat bad doing this, as he's using things about Vlad that are profoundly intimate, riding dangerously close to outright exploiting his obsession while the man himself is in no state to think coherently or resist. Doing this while also pushing his aura is also considered scummy.) If he knows anything about how to get people out of the tanks, he needs to tell them.
Vlad looks on astonished, but agrees. Right as this occurs, however, Danny is yanked out of the way from a laser shot by Alter-Danny. Agent O has arrived, and he aims to kill them all.
Alter Danny is upset, astonished, honestly doesn't know what to think. Trying to square the pathetic shadow of a man in front of him with the evil ghost-hybrid who tried to kill his dad. He is, for once in his life, extremely grateful for the GIW, as their attack gives him an excuse to put off thinking about it. He pulls Danny out of the line of fire, and instructs him to get Vlad to talk and find tucker. His logic is 1) Vlad is pretty obviously fixated on Danny/Danny was the only one that could really pull a coherent answer out of him 2) When it comes to agent O, in particular, it was personal.
Agent O and Alter-Danny square off. Agent O and Alter-Danny exchange banter, with Agent O claiming that no matter what happens, Alter-Danny's reputation is tarnished, he will never be the respected ghost hunter he once was, and that he was already seeing to it the he and his whole family go down as colluders and traitors not just to humanity, but life itself. Alter Danny points out the hypocrisy, since he and his family weren't the ones trying to create freaks of nature, and that he cares more about taking down Agent O/doing the right thing than being well loved and famous. Agent O points out Danny's existence (who he still believes is a clone of Danny made into a halfa) as proof to the contrary.
The fight intensifies, Alter Danny is able to use a bunch of his weapons to damage the ecto-suit and deliberately force Agent O into crashing into a bunch of stuff--Most notably, the ecto-tanks, which release (disturbingly Vlad-like) bodies along with ectoplasm-charged fluids, some of which land on Agent O, interacting badly with the electricity already pinging off the suit.
While Alter-Danny manages to hold for a long time and even almost wins, he ultimately is defeated by Agent O, who has just enough time to monologue about how futile Alter-Danny's efforts are, and how the best means of fighting death are not to struggle against it, as Alter-Danny and other "backwards" ghost hunters, but to turn it as a weapon against itself, when he is slammed into from the side by what he thinks is a ghost, who pushes Agent O aside and proceeds to fry the hell out of him and his ecto-suit, killing him dead.(not on purpose)
Alter Danny has managed to break an arm and pull a socket in the altercation, but he's still able to whip a gun around to face the ghost. The ghost runs up to him, asking if he's okay, only to collapse midway, rings splitting around his middle to reveal Tucker, who then promptly faints, just as the rest of the gang run around, telling him not to shoot.
Jack states that they found him, and Alter-Danny notices everyone but Danny looks happy, who says he's sorry.
Alter Danny decides he's overwhelmed, and doesn't particularly want to face any of what he's feeling right now, and opts for action instead. He tells everyone to get going, and for someone to grab Tucker, since now that they've managed to stage a rescue, they need to figure how to get out.
No one notices it. but something in agent O begins to stir.
Back in the upper reaches of the GIW facility, it's chaos - human vs ghosts, ghosts versus humans, and so forth. The gang fights their way through the crowd, getting attacked by both sides, trying to make their way back to the portal room. When they do, they realize something has gone even more wrong: The multitude of portals have broken their bounds and fused, leaking into the human realm and breaching into the human realm in three dimensional cracks.(NOTE: Have the gang witness at least on fusion event between a GIW agent and his suit.)
Maddie and Jack theorize that there are structural limits for both realities/ the veil separating the two, and between the multitude of portals created by the GIW and the stabilizers Danny broke, the two are now trying to collapse in on each other as limits fail. Without any other option, and with the GIW facilities falling apart at the seams while simultaneously being eaten by the ghost zone, the group re-enters the zone, leaving the chaos behind.
When Tucker finds out Alter-Danny clicked and downloaded a link provided by a known bad actor, he chews Danny out for his lack of cyber-security: "See, dude, this is why you need me." "You know what Tuck, yeah, I think you're right. I do need you."
The GIW plot to use ghost/human hybrids, using Vlad, who had been turned into GIW custody after attacking Jack years ago, is revealed, as are their numerous portals, and who those portals are weakening the veil between worlds.
Agent O : points out virus/tracker he placed in phone, stating that had it not been for that, the team's stunt with going through the GZ to get to them might have thrown his teams off enough to work.
disaster
Tucker wakes up in an ecto-containment (the only one left in the stripped down Fenton basement) unit with Danny watching over him. As a newly turned halfa, he registers something's off, but not much else. Danny comments with mild surprise that he's awake.
Tucker immediately starts trying to warn Danny, who he initially confuses for alter Danny, about what the GIW are up to, and that they had grabbed him and his tech. He also remembers being dunked in a tank full of ectoplasm and electrocuted, but doesn't really want to process that right now.
Danny tells him to calm down, and that things are okay, or rather, batter now, and that he'll get everyone else in a bit.(Tucker only here realizes/ is told he's got the wrong Danny.)
The ground shakes, and a whiff of mist hisses out of Danny's mouth. When questioned, he states that things are a little hectic right now.
Tucker wants to know what's going on,(and is starting to get troubled by his obsession: "to matter") and in doing so, tries to reach out through the bars, only to be stopped by the lock. Danny tries to explain (badly) That Tucker, as a halfa, is no longer human, and that he didn't agree with the decision to put him in a cage, but the Fentons wanted to be sure that Tucker was still himself before letting him go.
Tucker, convinced that he's died all the way and starting to panic, terrified that he's going to have to be destroyed before he becomes a danger, unable to matter to anyone anymore, or do anything of worth, that the Fentons have placed him in this box to die all the way. Danny's offers to put Cujo, who is also there, go ignored.
In his panic, Tucker activates his powers, and while the anti-ghost-wards try to fire back, their uninsulated nature causes them to fry from Tucker's assault. Tucker changes to his ghost half and lunges towards Danny.
Cujo immediately grows big and pins him down, while Danny hits him with his aura -- effectively a ghostly bitch slap--and a snarl of his own. Now a half ghost, Tucker is able to understand this kind of body language instinctively, and surprises himself by suddenly turning meek in the face of what he still doesn't grasp is a much larger ghost.
The commotion draws Alter-Danny, who thumps downstairs with a gun while still in PJs,(this takes place at night) only for him to stare at Tucker. "Danny" Tucker says
Alter-Danny replies, still staring, with a single "Tuck"
A huge confrontation between GIW and the Fentons, which ends in the viel fully collapsing around Amity park, the human world flooding into the ghost one, and the ghost zone flooding into earth. The ghosts in the hybrid suits fuse with their human hosts into abominations and go wild, while humans begin to suffer ecto-contamination.
Second pinch point
There is one way to fix the realm: The fright night's sword. Danny reckons if it can be used to drag the mortal realm into the zone, it might be possible to use it to cut them back apart. They have to fight their way through the chaos to do this. Alter-Danny is made to realize it's not the technology that makes him a good hunter, it's his smarts and how he uses it.
Second turning point
They fight their way to the sword, but are stopped by Agent Oscar, who has died and become a ghost himself, (though he refuses to admit it,) obsessed with protection, and chooses to express it by becoming someone powerful enough to control and dominate those around him. Highlights how Danny is heroic not because he has some instinctive drive to be, but because he is the kind of person who is a hero.
Resolving conflict
Theymanage to defeat Agent Oscar, then split the realms back in two, but only by working together (the sword requires too much power for any one character to fuel without it costing their life.) Alter-Danny is genuinely surprised when Sam and Tucker join in.
Climax
They return to Amity, Alter-Danny makes up with his friends, family, and Danny himself, then pulls out the Fenton Portal gun from the vault, and suggest that if he got here by portaling through a portal, then maybe that's how he could get back.
Epilogue
Danny makes it back to his Fentonworks, where he finds Jazz, who has fallen asleep at her desk from a combination of stress for where Danny could have gone, and homework. He wakes her up, gives an abbreviated version of everything that happened, promising to fill her in tomorrow. Before going to bed, he considers how much his friends and family did for him, and how alone and lost he would be without them, and makes a special point to thank Jazz before heading to bed.
Ghost’s persistent ambient glow might make them stick out in the living realm, but in the ghost zone, where everything glows in varying but omnipresent intensity, it in fact helps them blend in.
Set just after D-stabilized, Valerie has gone to the far frozen in pursuit of Danni, partly chasing after rumors of a map that can take you anywhere, partly because she's aware that Danni is likely an ice-core ghost, and a habitat that suited her was a logical first place to start
She is met by one of the guard Yetis, and fails to make a good impression, leading to the whole thing turning into a running combat as Valerie tries to accomplish her objective without being overwhelmed.
Valerie is eventually cornered in the treasure chamber, just a few feet away from her goal, but also exhausted and cornered.
The treasure chamber the map is kept in dates back to the era where Halfas ruled this section of the ghost zone, of which the far frozen was the farthest periphery. As such, the entire chamber is warded against ghosts, humans, and Halfas all.
Valerie engages in a brief exchange with one of the yetis, who points out that she is well known servant of plasmius, and that even if they did have Danni, would a ghost truly be safe with a killer like herself?
Val is forced to view herself from the perspective of the ghosts she hunts: An unknown danger, a menace, another species entirely, hunting their kind for a wrong they were not involved in out of a hate they don't understand.
Val makes her decision, feinting towards the infinimap, only to turn around to catch one of the smaller yetis, which she had noticed was obviously favored by the head captain.
Valerie attempts to escape by holding the smaller yeti hostage, but in doing so, makes a cultural error: For a member of the far frozen, it is the highest dishonor to allow oneself to be used for the sake of harming one's comrades. Those comrades, in turn, would be under obligation to remove that dishonor by refusing to allow the victim's captured state impede their duty to protect.
When the captain, who is in fact the younger yeti's father, decides to let Valerie go in exchange for the younger yeti's life, the younger yeti attacks Valerie in attempt to save his father's honor, grievously wounding valerie in the shoulder and shattering her armor at the cost of his own life.
Valerie is able to escape due to the distraction of the captains terrible grief.
As she flees, Valerie considers how everything in the ghost zone seemed right and natural, how Valerie herself was the obvious anomaly, a deep red shadow in a world of otherwise infinite lights.
Valerie considers how, unlike the ghosts here and the humans back home, she didn't fit in either realm, and how she had thought that if she could just find Danni, a human-ghost hybrid who also didn't quite fit in either realm, she had hoped they could at least not fit in together.
In the aftermath of the events in the far frozen, covered in ghost and human blood, Valerie considers if perhaps she shouldn't find Danni after all, if perhaps they were both better off where they could at least pretend to belong.
It is a week after the events of D-stabilized, and Valerie, after ruminating for a while, decides to track down Danni, partly out of guilt for nearly getting her killed, and partly because Danni is the only one who might be able to answer her questions on what makes a human VS what makes a ghost.
She is at the tail end of her journey to the Far Frozen, something Vlad commissioned her to do as part of his scheme to attain the infini-map once again, as well as to cause trouble to Danny’s allies, of course. Val accepted this request because:
She has guessed that Danni is an Ice ghost, and thus very likely to be found in a realm of ice
While Val was not informed on the full extent of the infini-map’s powers by an overcautious Vlad, she is still able to figure how useful a magical map could be in finding Danni, making it worth the trip one way or the other.
It is a chance to put some distance between herself, Plasmius, Phantom, and her dad: Plasmius because Val desperately wants to attack him and free herself, even knowing that she can’t; Phantom because she’s still angry with him, partly out of sheer habit, but for not even bothering to tell her about human-ghost hybrids until it was almost too late, in spite of presumably being familiar with them + a sense of trepidation that she doesn’t want to deal with about how much of an enemy is he really; Her dad because he’s more sad and disappointed in her than ever, as her grades slip and her social life is in obvious shambles. She and her dad had a row, in fact, not long before the start of this story.
Val is also angry at her position in life: Stuck working for the very creature she hates (Plasmius,) but unable to escape or think of a way out. Val won’t admit it to herself, but the revelations of D-stabilized have left her feeling isolated without the comfort of knowing what she’s doing is right. Val isn’t just looking for Danni, but a companion. Valerie is unwilling to admit this to herself.
Knowing she is close by the change in environment, Valerie lands to rest a bit and take one last stock of her plans, placement, and supplies. She has a 3D map, provided by Vlad, that is becoming less accurate by the hour (The GZ plays fast and loose with time and space,) just enough supplies to last her to and from Vlad’s ghost portal, presuming she stays here less than a day and the warp/drift calculations of the GZ remain w/i parameters, and a sleeping bag designed to blend in with the environment (read, it glows.)
Valerie eats, reflects on how in the GZ, everything glows, with the ambient aura being roughly a match to the luminosity of the average’s ghosts own glow. It is Val herself, by contrast, who sticks out. She also notes that the environment in the far frozen mostly glows white, a match for Phantom and Danni’s own auras. The sleeping bag needs to be calibrated for color.
Val attempts to calibrate her own armor to put off a ghost like glow in an effort to delay being identified as a non-ghost, something which has already gotten her attacked more than once on her way to her destination, delaying her further.
Val trudges through the far frozen, trying not to draw the attention flying on her hoverboard would get her, trying to sneak past both civilians and patrols, which become more and more frequent the nearer she comes to her destination. None of this is Valerie’s style, and it grates her nerves, leading to a buildup of frustration. When she’s finally caught by Icecrest, she’s almost relieved.
Icecrest orders her to halt, initially mistaking her for a forign ghost, leveling his weapon at her and demanding proof of welcome to the area (permits.) Valerie’s solution to this dilemma is to shoot him and run. Her aim, instinctively, was to kill, but in her haste, she missed his core.
This is where Icecrest tries to explain his name/Yeti naming conventions and expected manners?
This scuffle (and Icecrest’s yelling) alerts those around them, which includes civilians, as Valerie has not yet managed to breach into the imperial holdings, where the infinimap is kept as part of a vaster hoard. Valerie goes on the offensive as she races towards her goal, figuring her cover’s been blown.
After making her way through (and occasionally shields out of) a crowd of civilians, Valerie is halted by a gate, which is not only closed, but guarded by senior members of the treasure guard, at the head of which is Icefall.
Valerie is pinned between Icefall in front and Icecrest in the back. Icecrest wants to fight immediately, but Icecrest, recognizing her as the red huntress, wants to first know what a human servant of Plasmius is even doing here, and why she is picking a fight. Icecrest is also considering Vlad may have sent his minion here deliberately, as a means of weakening Yeti morale while flaunting the ability of his servants to breach an enemy stronghold.
Icecrest is shocked and appalled to learn she is not a ghost, but one of the living monsters known as human. In his mind, Humanity is the dangerous, alien force that Danny Phantom, Great one managed to rise above to achieve his heroism.
Valerie attempts to protest, unsuccessfully, that she is neither a servant of Plasmius, nor a threat. Finally cornered, she finally asks about Danni. Icecrest informs her he doesn’t know of a female ghost by that name, but says he is willing to look if she leaves now.
Valerie is upset by this partly because it isn’t that she wants to know Danni’s safe, but to find her, personally. In her heart of hearts, she also wants to take her back to the realm of the living, which she still feels was the “real” world, where the living and half-living properly belonged.
Icecrest is upset because a) He confused Danni for Danny. Using someone’s given name without being friends is rude on a good day, and for an enemy to casually refer to an exalted personage like that is a grievous insult. He is also angry his father is disregarding him in favor of a disrespectful, greedy monster.
Valerie refuses to leave, demanding the infini-map so that she might find Danni for herself. Icefall refuses, Icecrest is even more insulted, things devolve back into a fight.
Valerie is able to escape through a combination of a flashbang and utilizing the human ability to become intangible in the ghost zone, flying underneath both the guards and the gate.
Val is only somewhat disturbed when she looks back to find Icefall looking back at her not with foiled anger, but grim satisfaction, as though he knows something she does not.
The inside of the treasure chamber turns out to be both a trap and a maze, filled with twisting corridors and dangerous artifacts. Valerie discovers both of these the hard way when she ends up cornered by one of the yeti patrols. She also discovers here that the entire place is warded against both humans and ghosts, a precaution set up by its creators, who were in the employ of the emperors of the “third age,” which was an entire dynasty of halfas.
Valerie is able to escape by massacring the entire group that cornered her, partly using one of the traps.
Her success comes with damage to her board, slowing her down enough that avoiding her pursuers becomes more difficult.
At one point she is forced to hide (using her camo sleeping bag as well as some well placed rubble) as Icecrest and Icefall have a conversation. This is where the audience learns they are father/son, as well as Icefall’s suspicion that Valerie is here partly to make a political statement, and that’s why he’s playing the defensive, more focused on ensuring Valerie does minimum damage and is prevented from taking anything valuable than he is on killing or capturing her.
Icecrest, however, wants to take the direct route, cutting off the source of the threat at the roots, pulling troops from their defensive positions and putting everything into putting down the threat.
Icecrest is not only overruled, but assigned to a guard station that they both know is well out of the way of Valerie’s goal and intended path, keeping him safe at the cost of keeping him out of the action. Icecrest storms off, offended, while Icefall, resigned, heads back to manage the task.
Valerie is left to wait for her suit to repair, which is slower than usual, due to the odd effects of the treasure chamber. Forced to wait, and unwilling to dwell on more personal topics, Valerie uses the breather to consider her circumstances: Effectively cornered, her only way out covered in warrior yetis, all of whom are anticipating her arrival, and even had she been willing to escape (which she is not,) the way out is still through yeti country, which has likewise been alerted to her presence.
To achieve her goals, Valerie concocts a plan: 1) continue to use her sleeping bag to hide in plain sight 2) veer around patrols, and 3) rather than head straight for what she knows is a trap, find a wall adjacent to where she wants to be, and blow a hole (she knows this is possible thanks to the prior scuffle in the treasure room) in it, taking her enemies by surprise, then flee as she layers flashbangs and bombs to keep them distracted.
Valerie manages this, but once in the treasure room, things don’t go as planned. While most of the other Yetis are taken out, Icefall proves to be unexpectedly skilled, and he and Valerie fall into combat. Icefall is winning, by virtue of his excess of experience, until Val is tackled by Icecrest (who disobeyed orders when he heard the sound of explosions), which does impair Valerie, but distracts Icefall enough that he pauses just long enough for Val to seize the initiative, using a close range laser to impair Icecrest and take him hostage, demanding the infinimap in return for his freedom.
Icecrest is initially smug, explaining to a confused Valerie that a true yeti would never allow a hostage to impair his duty. Icecrest is silenced by Icefall, however, who initiates conversation with Valerie rather than continuing to attack, as expected.
During this time, the other, incapacitated Yetis are getting back up, surrounding Valerie, but unsure what to do in the face of their leader’s restraint, paired with their own lack of desire to kill one of their own.
Icefall tries one last time to convince Valerie to leave, let Icecrest go, not pursue the infinimap, and leave. Valerie states that she has no reason to trust him, but is silenced by Icefall, who points out she is the one that murders, kidnaps, and steals. He also brings up the notion even if she did find Danni, Danni may not want to be with her (he says this while gazing sadly at Icecrest.)
Icefall reminds Val of her own father and some of the conversations they had, here.
This, the incredible, pointless destruction, and the burgeoning notion that she really was the bad guy in this scenario, finally drives Valerie to let go, agreeing to release Icecrest in exchange for being allowed to leave (Icefall stipulates that she be escorted rather than simply being let go.)
During this entire exchange, Icecrest is increasingly aghast, deeply upset that his father is not only violating every concept of heroism that he knows, shaming himself in the process, but also listening to a creature that knows neither honor nor mercy. He is certain that this is just a trap of Valerie’s
However, just as Val pulls back her gun, Icecrest turns on her, point blank attack ripping a hole through her armour. Valerie, meanwhile, shoots on reflex, boring a hole through Icecrest’s core. The other Yeti’s, incited, fall upon her, all aiming to attack. Valerie gives it everything she’s got, and even then, only manages to get away because Icefall has gone berserk, lashing out at anything and everything in the way of his fallen son.
Icecrest uses the last of his strength to trip Valerie up and call her a monster (potentially too melodramatic?)
Valerieflees to the sound of Icefall’s grief, Echoing with a terrible pain that she can’t escape, no matter how far she runs.
Valerie gets out of the treasure vault and back into the outer Farfrozen, where the civilian yeti flee on sight, leaving her alone as she ascends back into the empty ghost zone.
Valerie considers how, with her armor shorted, she doesn’t fit in at all with her surroundings, a black shadow where everything else shines. She thinks about how maybe Danni really would be happier where she could at least blend in, even if she didn’t belong.
Val heads back home, contemplating her own act of camouflage, as an ordinary highschooler, as a good daughter, as a hero, and tells herself being something apart is fine, so long as you can pretend to belong.
Certain degree of envy for ghosts/humans who have somewhere they do fit in, feelings of how in the search for Danni, Val was hoping to find someone like herself, so they could at least not fit in together.
A stranger met in passing, a chance meeting in another world, unrelated to the goal at hand. They would never meet again. (Use for when Val causes icecrest's death.)
Open with Valerie finishing off the last of her food, which had been nothing but plastic wrapped biscuits from another earth, where Uwanna became a major brand name, for the last five days. She reflects that they were likely the result of a “portal dump,” an instance of a portal opening and closing too briefly for most to notice, leaving whatever contents that drop out of it for scavengers to pick at and search over. The muffins, being totally useless to ghosts, must have been mostly ignored by scavengers, which she had noticed were mostly the same species as the bug she had assaulted several days prior.
She reflects that she’ll have to find more soon, either spending forever scavenging for another lucky portal dump, or holding up another easy target, which she’s loath to do, feeling that just because it was the ghost Zone, where the strong made the rules and the weak obeyed, didn’t mean she liked doing it. It also makes her feel a strange sense of guilt paired with bitter irony, to see ghosts trembling and afraid of a “mere” human. She finishes her preparations, including setting her suit to artificially glow.
She considers that maybe it would at least be a fair turn against all the ghosts who try to steal her things when she’s not looking or asleep, something she’s continued to have trouble with.
However, for Valerie, none of that matters, because she has, after so many days? Weeks? Her time keeping mechanisms had begun to bug not long after her mapping system became completely useless, she has finally made it to the far frozen. (takes in the obviously cold environs, change in hue from mostly green-purple to mostly white and green, settlement in the distance.)
So far as Valerie is concerned, she has now made it to the halfway point of her venture, and as long as she can grab the map, all she needs to do is find her way back to one of the two Amity portals. She does not consider how she might do this, now that she has no idea where she is relative to the either of them.
There is the vague outline of a city in the distance, and Valerie begins to fly towards it, making note of some of the wildlife that scurries by, noting that they all have a distinctly white aura, matching the glow emanating from the environs, making them difficult to spot. She remembers that both Danni and Phantom have white auras (she had previously thought it was a unique trait) as well as a small animal flares its aura at her before running off as well.
She eventually intersects what is obviously a well travelled path leading towards the city, now both more distinct and much larger in her field of view, more so than expected. (path is marked by odd symbols she can’t decipher) She begins to follow it, and soon begins to run into more and more crowds, most of whom are non-yeti, with several of the yeti being herdsman, hunters, or other, relatively low status individuals (Valerie doesn’t know this.) Not long after this, Valerie nearly rams into a ghost, only able to avert a collision thanks to her swift reflexes.
The ghost snaps at her to watch out, and Valerie snaps back, believing herself to be in the right. The offended ghost snaps back that she might be able to do whatever she wants behind whatever door she was godling behind, but that she’s nobody’s lord here, and to either obey the speed limits or don’t complain when she gets arrested. Valerie expresses confusion at the idea that there are speed limits (“What speed limits?”), to which the ghost responds with mild surprise and disgust, that she just passed one, “my lord.” He does this while gesturing to one of the indecipherable signs. He then runs off, deliberately bumping into her as he leaves, with the crowd that gathered during this either snickering or casting dirty looks towards Valerie, who is fuming. She muscles her way back into the stream of ghosts, flying over what she now recognizes as a road, and continues to head towards the city.
The road soon increases in size and density, merging into a large highway with multiple layers of ghosts, and Yeti guards helping to keep everything organized. While Valerie still can’t read the signs, she is able to copy what she sees others doing, and winds up in a fairly fast sector where most of the ghosts are riding some kind of steed or automaton, much like Valerie is riding her board.
Eventually, they hit what appears to be a large shantytown surrounding what is less a city, and more a mountain, where the traffic eventually grinds to a halt. Valerie is then forced to wait, for hours, as the lines slowly crawl to the base of the mountain, all while fending off overeager venders and pickpockets. SHe is able to figure out that this is a line to check their status and give them what is essentially visitor/immigration documents for the explanations of one ghost to another who was also irate about the long wait. (This outburst was also spurred by some other ghosts being allowed to peel off into a smaller, faster lane by guards who, by this point, are more or less hemming in the convoy.)
Valerie alternates between steaming over being forced to wait in a ghostly checkout line, the dawning realization of just how deep she’s in and how complicated this whole endeavor might be, and the beginnings of hunger. By the time she makes it to the checkout stand, however, she is completely distracted by the massive statues that line the area. Most of them are yetis, but one, obviously new sculpture is of Phantom himself.
-Val goes through processing, they check her for her control over her obsession.
>-part of the test involves an artifact that can detect truths from lies + specialist in its use.
-she is irate when they tell her a)it’s not very good, b) that she will need to wait a while while they draw up paperwork for her (visitor license) this is also a test of patience and control.
-Valerie ends up in the surrounding slum for the time being.
-Yetis have own coinage, which she was able to trade for at an exchange station. Danny’s face is in one side, frostbite on the other. This makes her even angrier, but also convinces her she’s on the right track.
-Looks up to inner mountain, decides to wait a bit before flying through the walls. (Decides not to “play their game.”)
Valerie looks agog at the oversized statue, exclaiming phantom!? As she does so. The Yeti working the check out desk coughs, and suggests uncomfortably, that since she is a foreigner she might not know, but that statue is of the great one, and that it’s not polite to use the chosen name of such a vaunted personage/it’s polite to use the ekename over their chosen name.
Valerie fails to respond, as she struggles to process that 1)Phantom is famous, 2) Phantom is famous, 3) she had no idea. The Yeti, growing uncomfortable with her silence, rambles a bit about how Phantom defeated the ghost king, thus earning the respect of all Yetis for his heroism, with lord Frostbite going so far as to institute Phantom’s native language, English, as the official yeti
When Valerie fails to respond, the processing yeti pulls her attention back to the paperwork she’ll need to complete as a first time visitor. Valerie assents, mollifying herself with the knowledge that this was likely proof that if Dani wasn’t here, then chances were good some trace, some proof of where she could be, was. She is also somewhat reassured that if Phantom comes here regularly, then there must be some way to Amity nearby, since she’d never seen him disappear for as long as it took her to make the journey to the far frozen.
A part of her is still irate that she knew nothing about this, some part of her convinced that Phantom should have told her, just as he should have told her about where Dani went to when she left.
She is perversely reassured, however, that Phantom’s fame and reverence among the Yetis gives a non-altruistic reason for his decision to fight the ghost king alone, an image that fits with her own imagining of him as a glory hound who only plays the hero to feed his own ego.
She recalls that he offered her everything in exchange for Dani, then brushes the thought aside.
Valerie finished her paperwork with difficulty, as it’s a mix of bad English and written ghost speak in the yeti dialect. The requirements on the form are a mix of the ordinary, (has she been here before, and are there records of her prior visits; race; intention of visit; duration of stay/type of license; taken name, given name, ekename)
And the strange, ( core type/element; whether she’s a dead, made or born ghost; “status”, which is a request to reveal how powerful she is using the ghostly value scale; an oath to honor Frostbite, king of the Yetis, and all the great ones of the realm (she is unhappy about this), and a simple, blank line, where she is expected to fill something out.
Valerie glances at the Processing yeti, but doesn’t ask questions partly out of pride, (she’s been visibly lost and confused a few times too many for her own comfort today.) And partly to avoid looking suspicious in her ignorance of what is, presumably, something obvious.
She tries to rationalize it out based on what she’s already written, and what she would need to write, (Val handled a lot of the paperwork for her mom’s funeral? Dad too depressed.) She concludes, based on this, that it might be for her job/occupation/affiliation, which she has only just learned ghosts have.
Based on this, she decides to list herself as a “huntress”, and turns the paper in.
The receptionist yeti looks over her documents, frowns in concern when she finds what’s been written in the blank section, but says nothing, simply signing the papers and handing her a new slip of paper, which valerie is then directed to take to another sector of the check in plaza.
Valerie follows her directions to another line, increasingly tired, footsore, and ready to take any chance she can find to slip away without being noticed.
When she comes to the end of the line, there’s a commotion from the building she’s expected to enter into, one of the ghosts that entered just ahead of her is pushed out by two Yeti guards, desperately protesting that the device had lied, that he’s in full control, and if they only let him go back to try again, he can prove it. He’s wrestled into a pair of cuffs that look very much to valerie like well ornamented suppressor devices. One of the yeti guards, mockingly, asks him if he really wants another chance. The captured ghost says yes. The yeti guardsman leans in and tells him that he has a ring in his pocket (the ghosts obsession is “ring,” as demonstrated by his being covered both in literal rings as well as jingling bells), and that all he has to do to get it is lick his boots if he wants it. The ghost falls for this, thanking him and trying to kneel down to lick his boots.
The other guard, Icecrest, who was already trying to discourage him, tells him to lay off it, intimating that he’s wasting time as well as being dishonorable. The mocking guardsman laughs him off, saying he has nothing to gain by being a hypocrite and playing the honorable yeti in front of a bunch of foreigners and “Skeyllings,” a word he has already used in reference to the ring ghost several times. Icecrest bristles, saying that he won’t stand for any slander against his family name. The mocking yeti eggs him on, and if it weren’t for a loud cough from inside the room they were both set to guard, it would have devolved into a fight.
As it is, the mocking yeti gets one last dig in, telling icecrest to give his regards to his father as he cajole the ring ghost into following him, saying that he’ll lead him to somewhere with plenty of rings and bells if he comes along nicely. Icecrest is peeved to be left alone on a job that’s supposed to require two partners, but is blown off.
He turns back around to face the small audience, which includes Valerie, and uncomfortably clears his throat, pretending everything is fine, calling “next.”
Valerie, who now has no one in front of her, has no choice but to step foreward.
Icecrest introduced wielding the truth seeking artifact, as artifact use/handling=part of treasure guard duties.
--Icecrest and valerie interact, icecrest apologizes for altercation, explains yeti position on other ghosts, ghosts who succumb to their obsession
--valerie undergoes truth-test, test for control over her obsession
--valerie realizes icecrest is part of the treasure guard, and may be a useful means of getting info on the infini-map
--valerie, who has run out of food, is upset to learn that even after passing the test (barely, to her distress,) and submitting to certain restrictions as an “inherently weaponized ghost,” she must still wait a day or so to get her visitor’s permit.
--she is very upset about this, letting slip that she’s looking for someone, to the point where icecrest tries to console her, going so far as to offer to offer her some help (this is partly because he is embarrassed and mortified by the actions of the mocking yeti, which Valerie was direct witness to.) He offers to let her stay for the night.
--Valerie is completely nonplussed, rather aggressively asking him why. Icecrest stutters out a combination of the truth, his duty, and his curiosity about her origins, as he has guessed (wrongly) that many of Val’s mannerisms stem from a formation outside the ghost Zone, AKA the living world.
--Valerie, recognizing a means to pump him for info, once she finally lets go of getting out now, accepts.
Icecrest apologizes to Valerie as he leads her into the next room, explaining it as a small family quarrel. When Valerie asks why he didn’t just leave (thinking of all the family members who did exactly that, both when her mother died, and when her father lost his job,) Icecrest makes a face, touches his emblem of high ranking, and explains that it was a matter of honor and inheritance, and that now that it was his, he wasn’t about to just prove everyone who disrespected him right and leave.
Valerie is surprised that she agrees with this, and states that she’s surprised that he doesn’t just fire them/beat them up. Icecrest makes a face indicating that he agrees, but points out again that he is family, and also was in public. Valerie, as a matter of fact, had beaten up some of her family members in public, biting an aunt who had gotten drunk enough to start badmouthing her mom at the funeral, but she has the sense to make a noncommittal noise in reply.
By this point they have reached their destination, and Icecrest uncomfortably shifts back to his role of impersonal guard, opening the door, where yet another Yeti waits besides two artifacts. The artifact Yeti blandly comments that Icecrest is late. Icecrest ignores this, choosing to repeat his introduction instead, which the other yeti reluctantly follows along with. (icecrest and the artifact yeti belong to competing factions, as the royal guard, dominated by the house of Ice, and artifact management, acquisition, and storage, as dominated by the house of Hoar)
Valerie is ushered up to the artifacts, and made to place her hand on the the one to her left, the artifact yeti (Hoarhind), begins asking questions:
name: Valerie responds similarly to how she did on her sheet, responding with “Red huntress”
Val notices the artifact glow, and Hoarhind marking something on his sheet
Hoarhind then asks for Valerie’s given name, which angers icecrest, as he recognizes the request as both nonstandard and rude.
Val tries to lie, but due to the artifact, which she can’t remove her hand from, is eventually forced to give it up.
The yetis note that the name she gives is unusual for “machinekind”, who typically have acronyms or code numbers as true names.
Intent, what Valerie intends to do during her stay: Valerie answers that she’s looking for someone she’d lost, an ice ghost like them, and the far frozen was her best bet. She gets away with this question without too much trouble. Use this opportunity to have Val ruminate on why she wants to get Elle back.
Does she mean harm to the yeti, their land, their way of life: Valerie answers no, she isn’t here to hurt people, she just wants to steal their stuff.
Do her “needs” pose pose a threat to herself or others: what Hoarhind means here is her obsession (Valerie is still masquerading as a ghost), but Valerie interprets this an inquiry into her “need” to be here, to which she responds no, as just stealing a map isn’t really threatening. The artifact yeti expresses doubt about this, commenting that those with a “need” for hunting rarely grow it in a healthy way, much less a safe one. Valerie realizes what the blank line meant just as she is released from the truth-telling orb’s hold.
At this, the artifact yeti is seemingly satisfied, and Valerie is allowed to remove her hand. She is then made to place her hand on the second artifact, which she does much more reluctantly.
Upon touch, Valerie is sent into what is, effectively, a mental simulation, where she is instantly made to forget how she got there and why. So far as Valerie is concerned, she is hunting in Amity and is on the lookout for prey, which she finds soon enough. She is relieved that her target is obviously bestial (Cujo?), though she can’t exactly remember why, and proceeds to hunt (insert cool action sequence), she is stopped, however, by Dani, who pushes her away from the beast just as she is about to administer the killing blow. Valerie and Elle argue, with Elle pushing the idea that killing the beast is wrong, and that she should hold back. Valerie can’t remember, exactly, why she hates the dog, but she does know that she wants to kill it, that it is her prey, and that Elle is in the way. The fight escalates to the point where Valerie is forced to choose between harming Elle, or letting Cujo go. Ultimately, she decides to let it go, though she does so in poor grace.
(The orb is designed to test the user's obsession-compelled desires versus their personal ones. As Valerie is not a ghost, it targeted her strongest desires and used it to build a choice based scenario: her revenge versus her morality, matching the appropriate characters from her memory. Note that the yeti’s also usually use the orb to gather details concerning a given ghost’s power, abilities, personality, and thoughts. While Valerie gave away much of her combat abilities in the fight, her humanity interfered with the artifact’s ability to process the mental aspects.)
(The artifact yeti blackmails Val for his own personal gain, this intersects with Val’s own desire to get into artifact storage, she ends up cooperating with him as part of the heist.)
Valerie is then released from the artifact’s grip, and is quite angry at the perceived manipulation. Both Yetis, however, stare at her in astonishment, though the artifact yeti looks on with more than a little irritation and concern. Icecrest, meanwhile, is ecstatic, and asks why she didn’t mention before that she was acquaintances with the great one.
Valerie is tripped up by this, she doesn’t want to be associated with Phantom at all, much less mooch off his reputation, but it’s obvious Icecrest is an utter fanboy, and as a member of the artifact guard, a likely source of knowledge to the infinimap and how to get it.
The artifact yeti, (Hoarhind) interjects that the last he checked, the great one was not a girl, though there was a great resemblance. He also tries to ask how she managed to desist from her hunting target so easily, though he is cut off before he can complete the thought. (--put this last line elsewhere)
With Hoarhind’s interjection, Valerie makes her decision, discussing her involvement with Elle in a little more detail, and that while she’s not Phantom (she refuses to call him the great one,) she believes she might be the same kind of ghost/related, which is why she decided to search in the Far frozen in the first place.
She is also pushed into admitting that she is aware of Phantom by Icecrest, although she claims to have only worked with him directly once, in the rescue of Elle, which is true, and intended as a ploy to boost her reputation without involving herself too deeply with Phantom and his large, hairy fanboys all at once.
Icecrest is more than happy to offer his aid in the search for a friend/relation of the great one, and even offers to shelter her in his clan’s outpost, where he’s staying for the duration of his stay outside the capital city (which is inside the mountain Valerie saw,) Valerie assents, deciding the chance of reward was worth the risk, especially now that she realizes just how utterly huge the Far Frozen is. This is done after overcoming an argument with Hoarhind.
Valerie leaves with Icecrest, she sees, but is ultimately unsure what to do about the glance Hoarhind throws her way as she leaves, which is both cutting and suspicious as he clings the second artifact close, looking over its data.
(Note-Icecrest is still guilty about the negitive image of his people Valerie must have after the incident with the ring ghost outside the tent, which also factors into his decision. He brings this up briefly with Hoarhind?)
Maddie makes a new friend, but doesn’t want to show her to anybody else. Said friend is shy
Alicia is jealous at first, leading to an argument between herself and Maddie
Alicia does manage to spy on Maddie and her new friend “Julie.” She is only able to spot Maddie talking to someone beyond her range of vision, her face illuminated by a soft glow.
The glow vanishes, Maddie is alerted to Alicia’s presence, and Maddie yells at her for scaring “Julie” off.
Things begin to go wrong, objects have been breaking/going missing for a while now, but the trouble escalates. Maddie, as the only person who could be responsible for such things, is blamed.
Alicia overhears Maddie having a fight with something that speaks in a language of howling wind and creaking beams. The next day, Maddie declares she and Julie are no longer friends.
Things get even worse for Maddie, being blamed at home and at school for increasingly destructive occurrences. Maddie stays silent, Alicia notices her anger.
Alicia wakes up to find Maddie walking around in the middle of the night. She confronts her a third time, refusing to leave. Maddie finally capitulates.
Maddie cajoles Julie out of hiding, (Being friends with Alicia?) saying she’ll be friends forever, with Julia alone, just like she wanted, but only if Julie can catch both Maddie and Alicia in a game of tag.
They run, with Maddie guiding the way.
At the very end, Alicia gets possesed, and is forced to watch her own body chase after Maddie.
Maddie has been preparing, however, and makes it to “base”, which is a bottle tree designed for trapping ghosts, which she had been working on for a while now.
Alicia and Maddie hug it out, being both exalted and afraid. Alicia says she hopes they never encounter anything like that again. Maddie says she hopes no one ever gets hurt by anything like that again.
When the moon casts a beam through the bottles, the silhouette of a doll can be seen in every one, writhing in an effort to escape.
Wes steals a haunted camera from ghost
camera shows what a person looks like at the moment/ just before their death.
Wes brings this to the attention of the A-listers, and they proceed to fool around with it, taking photos of themselves/others while Wes hassles then to either give it back or take a photo of Fenton, which is the reason he stole it in the first place
ghost shows up, and proceeds to chase Wes down as he calls him a thief. Most of the other A-listers follow, either to run themselves or to help out the ghost, just for giggles.
Dash stays behind, picking up one of the photos that had been dropped.
It turns out, the camera had managed to catch Danny in a photo, where he appears much younger than his current age, no more than fourteen or so, in a goofy black and white Hazmat suit.
huh, weird.”
Introduction:Danny and his father arrive at the family house, and meet his folks
They are goaded into solving an old haunting supposedly plaguing the family mansion. They agree to spend the night in the haunted room.
David, the main host, has called a small family get-together to show off what he inherited, recieve free help converting the old place into an upscale bed and breakfast,
The mansion has ghost wards all over it, preventing Danny from using his powers.
Rising action: Danny and Jack find the spirit (not a ghost,) but they scare her off when she realizes she’s being watched. Jack is enthusiastic, Danny, realizing that this won’t be so easy, is not.
Danny figures out who the ghost is by finding her picture
The next night, they manage to follow her all the way to a sealed wall.
On the third night, with Danny’s help, they make it through the wall, and wait for the lady ghost. She arrives, and weeps over a spot of concrete.
Climax: The next day they break into the spot, and discover a well that had been sealed over, and in that well, was the body of a mother with her arms still gripping a bundle of swaddling. The bones inside had long since decayed.
Child and mother were acting as batteries for the ward.
Jack’s family reveal they intended to send Jack and Danny on a ghost hunt as a prank, and are very, very unhappy to discover there were a pair of bodies in the well.
The power in their ectoplasm, like the batteries in his fathers gun, like his own core, utterly nullified, ineffective and inert.”
Duty to family/how long one must serve vs. wanting to continuing to do a thing.
Ghost feels now that Nightengales have left, her duty is complete.
(--Jack thought ghost would be small)
David describes background for ghost, expose family relations here, then go on ghost hunt
Danny gets lost in evil maze house, sees ghost, learns its not a halfa, offers help
Danny gets out of evil maze, grabs Jack and David, takes them to toadstone
toadstone opened, soul set free, David upset at body, only brought in Jack as hunter for publicity
they drive after Jack breaks off relationship with David, but he admits he doesn’t know if it’s for good, how much is too much when it comes to family.
Danny considers what nightengales did to daughter, David and larger fenton clan did to jack, what jack and maddie do to him as Phantom. He responds he doesn’t know either)
Valerie Gray
Protagonist. After the devastating loss of her social life, stability, and the dignity of her father, Valerie was left angry and directionless. When offered the opportunity to funnel her anger into attacking the ghosts, and more specifically Phantom, Valerie seized it, gladly selling away her freedom to Vlad Masters, becoming his personal ghost hunter/attack dog. When this power proved insufficient to her goals, Valerie next sold her humanity, allowing Technus to fuse her with her own ghost hunting gear.
Valerie is self righteous and deeply stubborn, a wayward paladin type. She has only just been introduced to the idea that being human and being a ghost aren’t as obviously separate as she once thought, due to her introduction to Danni. Furthermore, she has recently found out that her employer, Vlad Masters, is himself a ghost. These twin revelations have shaken what was once an iron-clad conviction in the absolute dichotomy between evil ghosts and good humans.
This uncertainty is covered over via excess aggression and an even firmer outward pretense in the rightness of her own beliefs.
Has an unbending personality, refusing to outright concede defeat unless broken outright. Prefers to channel her uncertainty and self doubt into anger and action, hates ruminating. Smolders over long periods of time in an often unproductive manner. Loyal and firm. While she often looks down on those she considers beneath her, she will always go out of her way to protect those she considers worthy of the act. Narrow minded and closed off, a symptom of her early, privileged upbringing as well as the early loss of her mother.
Hates loss of control, or the sense thereof, which she struggles to deal with in any productive manner and fuels some of her worser habits.
Icecrest of the brimming youth (Guidar)
Obsession: Rise (I can Rise to the challenge, whatever that may be.)
Youngest of his father’s line, Icecrest grew up somewhat coddled by both the clan mother’s and his older siblings, who were the ones to give him his Moniker (Ekename,) as a child, referencing his vibrant, eager to please attitude and somewhat hasty character.
Over time, Icecrest began to resent his status as the eternal little brother, always doted on, but never properly respected, and began to go out of his way to prove he was a real adult, often going exploring to places he was told not to go, getting beat up in his attempts to protect those lesser than himself (without ever calculating his chances of actually succeeding, of course,) and trying to get involved in jobs and tasks he wasn’t quite trained for. This had the unfortunate effect of getting him in trouble while simultaneously reinforcing the very moniker he was trying to rid himself of.
Finally, Icecrest decided the best way to make a name for himself was to strike out on his own, away from the preconceived notions of his close clanmates and friends. To that end, he runs off to the capital to join the royal guard as soon as he’s of age to do so.
Unfortunately, this attempt is foiled by his father, himself a captain of the treasure guard, who pulls some strings to get his son placed directly under himself as a subordinate.
This leads to no small amount of frustration on Icecrest’s part, as now, not only have his chance to prove himself been utterly foiled by the very father who was never really around to watch him grow, but he also managed to earn the resentment of his fellows for being a wet-behind-the-ears recruit whose family connections allowed him to skip multiple ranks. This makes it very hard for Icefall to make friends.
Despite all this icefall’s core motivation is still to prove himself a man in the eyes of his family, his father, and himself. He wants to be acknowledged as a worthy son, and close the distance between himself and the father he never really knew as a child.
He is still, unfortunately, hot headed, brash, and reckless, characteristics which are often exaggerated due to his nervousness about his new leadership position, which he knows full well he is neither deserving of, nor well equipped for.
Often idolizes traditional values and ancient heroes as examples of the kind of person he wants to be, and is in fact somewhat nerdy in the sheer depth of his knowledge of his society’s tales and lore.
Obsession: Rise (I Risebecause I must, because others will fall if I do not.)
Old fashioned, burnt out, yet fantastically skilled warrior who has served as an integral part of the treasure guard since the era when the position was a responsibility as dangerous as it was prestigious.
Icefall was the third born of his clan, inheriting his place as head when his father (Icehaven) and elder brother (Iceherald) were both slain in one of Pariah Dark’s many assaults, which were penetrating deeper and deeper into their homeland with every passing year. After his last remaining brother (Icehart) was forced to kill himself after having been discovered ferrying information to Dark’s forces in exchange for the protection of his own people. Icefall, who understood his brother’s intent, despite himself, was deeply marked by this event.
With no choice but to lead, and no one to comfort him as he grieved the loss of those who put him there, Icefall threw himself into his duties, as strict on himself as he was on those around him. Any time that was not spent performing his duties as Clan Elder was spent training in the art of combat, often well past the point of exhaustion.
Due to his early experiences, Icefall developed serious trust issue, always avoiding intimacy both friendly and romantic. This was what earned him his first moniker: Frigid Rampart.
As the war dragged on and Icefall spent more and more time on the frontlines, Icefall’s fighting skill leads to a slight change in name: Fighting rampart.
The war ends, and things settle down, but after so long spent distancing himself, Icefall struggles to connect with others emotionally.
Over the years, Icefall does relax, helped in no small part by one of his favored haram mates, a smaller than usual female from outside his own clan, Snowpass. Incidentally, Snowpass was only able to bear one child before dying from overexertion of the core (Ghost procreation involves spinning one's core to intense and unsustainable levels in close contact with another core, weak cores are at risk of permanent, potentially existence ending damage.) That child was named Icecrest.>
Icefall lived through an era of pain, turmoil, and loss, and has already decided that the loss of his most favored mate will be the final one he will endure, no matter what. He ends up distancing himself from others once again, but is unable to fully sever his affections, which he still has trouble expressing.
This is made harder by the fact that Icecrest looks very much like his mother, which makes it very disappointing when he doesn’t act like her at all.
Icefall has long since come to look down on many old traditions and tales, viewing them as romanticized bloodshed and betrayal. War is pain, and pain is life. He cares about order and the law, but sees any attempt to justify it beyond the necessity of its existence as foolish. Laws and order exist to keep people safe and happy, and any law that fails to do that should be discarded or ignored.
Icefall likes to pretend he’s hardened and bitter, but in truth, he’s tired, in pain, and sick of loosing people he cares for without cause or reason. To this end, he’s determined to make sure those he cares for are safe, regardless of their opinion on the matter.
Frost–Foremost house of the Far Frozen, which has been led by a member of the Frosts since time immimoreal, They are the generals, high officials, and political heads of state and town. Lead by Lord Frostbite of Winter’s Fist. Their clan colors are deep blue with light blue accents.
Colors: deep blue with light blue accents, angular knotwork
Hoar–The intelligentsia of the Far Frozen, they are heavily involved in the study, research, and management of artifacts, objects of power that exists beyond Yeti societies current levels of technology and understanding. Led by Hoarwhistle Mealy-mouthed, they oppose the house of Ice and are trouble makers on the political scene with the house of Frost.
Colors: dark grey with silver accents, twisting fractal patterns
Cold–Merchant clan, the house of cold is the primary reason forign markets haven’t taken the combat focused society of the far frozen by the balls. Yetis favor self-sufficiency, and will usually try to build what they cannot create, and conquer for themselves what others won’t give them. The House of Cold is an exception to this, mostly dealing in the import of raw materials, and, of late, fine goods from other nations. They favor a blunt, straightforward bartering style, and view haggling as an insult to the worth of their goods. Lead by Coldclammer Widewit.
Colors: Yellow and pink, broad, vertical band patterns
Ice–Artifact guard and border patrol, the House of Ice is a military based clan in close alliance with the house of Frost, serving as the royal guard and tasked with the protection of the Far Frozen’s most valuable resources. They are also responsible for the discovery and retrieval of new artifacts, the glory for which they often compete for with the house of Hoar. Lead by Icehaft the Grim.
Colors: Red and pink, triangular lines and squares
Sleet–landholders and farmers, they are heavily involved in agriculture and the rural peasantry who work the land. A very large, but mostly poor house with a broad divide between haves and have nots, the house of sleet is noted for its anti-industrial, anti-city stance, which they view as a threat to their way of life and base of power. Strong believers in tradition and “the old ways.” Lead by Sleetclaw of the flourishing palm. They dislike the House of Skift.
Colors: purple and black, circles and triangles
Snow–artisans and architects, heavily involved in the creation and maintenance of public and private buildings, as well as the keepers of the only repository of floor layouts and plans for most major constructions, which they keep in a large library accessible only by select members of the House of Snow without direct permission. The members of the House of Snow are the ones largely responsible for temples, statuary and other public art projects. Led by Snowscatter Dream wright
Colors: aqua and yellow, smooth, looping knotwork
Skift–industrialists, the Skifts are famous for their skill with heavy machinery and automated craftsmanship, and are well know to compete among themselves for the best and and most efficient designs. Once a minor clan known for leeching off the house of Hoar, they have of late gained status of their own, thanks to great leaps in technology and manufacturing, most of which are rumored to be not true innovations, but adapted from stolen knowledge of artifacts and their functions. Known for being secretive of their techniques, yet disdainful of tradition, particularly the clan system, which they say favors the stagnation of progress and fragmentation of knowledge. Rivals with the house of Sleet, their long alliance with the house of hoar has recently decayed, and they are currently in an unsteady partnership with the house of Firn, instead. Led by Skiftclaw Burntback
Colors: grey and blue, plaid with crescent moon patterns stacked in vertical lines
Firn–scientists and biologists, a clan dedicated to the catalogue and discovery of the natural world, and an exception to overall Yeti culture, which largely favors stoic acceptance and enforcement of tradition. The Firn are unusual in that they are very open with their discoveries and knowledge, in part as a way to parley favor with other clans, seeking broad acceptance in exchange for relative lack of favor and power with those in power, a long standing issue that has only recently changed with Lord Frostbite, whose lack of understanding when it comes to science does not stop him from enthusiastically supporting it. Their alliance with the house of Skift is a major one, but ultimately fraught due to ideological differences, mainly revovling around the Skift’s tendency for hypocrisy. led by Firnfirth Ever Reaching
Colors:black and tan, bold slanting patterns
Rime–Police and law enforcement, where the house of Ice is largely responsible for guarding “things,” the house of Rime are mostly involved in the guarding of “people,” keeping order and enforcing law among the civilian and non-royal populouce. Are envious of the house of Ice’s exclusive hold on that of the royal guard, which is clearly the protection of “a person,” which they believe is their domain. Close alliance with the house of Cold.
Colors: Brown with red accents, simple, horizontal split between colors
Freeze–outcast clan, and the only House to form within surviving historical records, the result of a major dispute of succession between two halves of the Frost clan. Just as the fourth era (Empire) began to pick up steam and expand. One half of the clan wanted to ensure the safety of the Far Frozen by joining the Empire, while the other wanted to stay loyal to the third age, and maintain independence from the “usurpers.” This divide lead to a long civil war that nearly ruined the Far Frozen completely, though those who wanted to remain independent eventually won, casting out the opposers, who were left to form what is now the house of Freeze on the outskirts of society. The house of Freeze makes its living filling in the cracks of society, working low status jobs others avoid, participating in illigal or nefarious activities, and fraternizing with foreigners. They are widely disliked by all other clans not only for the nature of their formation, but for their decision to side with Pariah Dark during the 6th age (Kings), a number of their members directly involving themselves in the betrayal that caused the death of the last Lord frost and the severing of the current Lord’s right arm while in combat with Pariah. The house of Freeze is split between three leaders: Freezefall Rotbelly, Freezefang Burning Oath, and Freezestrike Ever-loyal.
Colors: Light blue with Dark blue accents angular knotwork, more simple than the frosts with more of the background field exposed.
(Given name) (Courtesy name) (Ekename)
Ex:(Guidar) (Icecrest) of the (Brimming youth)
The far frozen’s civilization began when the 9, ( and later 10, after the Freezes split off from the frosts, ) yeti clans were United through conquest under the halfa kings of the third age. After this, cooperation was mandatory as part of the ongoing resistance against the rise of ghost kings of the fourth age, forging a group identity beyond that as vassals for a set of distant lords.
As a result of their long history as warriors, paired with the harshness of their environment, the Yetis ultimately formed a strict, but ultimately merit based society that emphasizes duty and honor to one’s clan and king. A yeti who is exciled from his clan is no longer a true yeti, and treated accordingly.
clanless yetis have the first part of their name replaced with “no”, ex: frostbeard-->nobeard. Their ekenames are usually replaced with “the clanless” as well.
One’s place in life within Yeti society is strongly related to the clan you were either born or adopted into. Clans also form the basis of the political system, with each clan voting in ten of its members to serve as part of the lord’scouncil.
The house of Frost: the most politically powerful of the clans, with one of its members serving as the yeti lord for six generations. Frosts
Extra: As the infinite realms are A) Infinitely large, B) have existed for an infinitely long time, C) have a large number of light sources which are allowed to travel through large amounts of empty space, and D) filled by an atmosphere of dense, reflective mists, the entire realm if filled with a diffuse sort of light.
This light originates from many sources, but the main cause of the Ghost Zone’s glow green and purple glow emanates from the eyes of the Ancients, who contain the realm of the dead in their eternal, unblinking gaze as they guard against the ravenous unbeings that would seek to consume life and death into themselves, unmaking all existence for a chance to be, if only for a moment, in their own right.
The Ancients themselves are former unbeings, who became through the sacrifice and consumption of other multiverses, who at first created existence as a nothing more than another meal, albeit made from scratch this time, rather than stolen, before becoming fascinated by the intricate dance of creation and destruction they had made within themselves.
The moment the ancients become more hungry than amused is the moment the realms of the living and the dead are taken forever, swallowed by the never ending throats of their creators.
Note: Death came first, and it was from death that life took root and flourished.
Overall: Valerie’s suit is the byproduct of Technus, a technology ghost whose love of technology is matched only by his total ignorance for how it’s supposed to work. On one hand, this means Technus’s creations are usually unstable, since he’s using his powers to force them into existence. This technique, furthermore, leads to a lot of power bleed, as he’s dedicating more concentration and effort to keeping his creations real than he otherwise would be if he would just knuckle down and learn how whatever robot he’s forcing to exist is actually supposed to work.
On the other hand, because he never really learned what technology can do, he also failed to learn what it can’t do, either. As such, Technus’ creations rely more on his imagination than they do on reality, and Technus wouldn’t be technus without dreaming big.
What this means is that Valerie’s suit is more the result of what a ghost thinks the ideal ghost-hunting techno suit should be, not what real technology would or should be capable of creating.
The reason the Valerie’s Red Huntress gear has managed to stick around after Technus himself ceased to power it is powered primarily by dreamlogic and metaphor than reality: Basically, the reality of Valerie reinforced and stabilized the reality of the Red Huntress, which now, as a part of Valerie herself, is just as real as she ever was. The fact that Val never doubts the reality of her suit, and indeed often relies on its continued existence, reinforces its ability to continue to be.
This is also the reason why Technus can’t just remove the Red Huntress suit from it’s host once they fused: He might have created the suit, but he isn’t a part of it, not the way Valerie is.
This same logic of using the reality of something to stabilize something otherwise too unreal to exist on its own follows with all of Technus’s creations. He just doesn’t 1) Because that would mean giving up most of his control over the new creation, and 2) he’s not terribly clever, and hasn’t realized how incredibly dangerous this ability could be when applied well.
Self-synthesizing endo/exo-armour
The Red Huntress unit is capable of reinforcing its host body both internally as well as externally using four types of monomers (Think freaky robo-DNA), which combine to form polymers of various kinds, all of which are unique to the Unit. These Polymers, depending on how it arranges itself, can be stiff or flexible, conductive or insulative, depending on the need.
Most of the mechanics of the Red Huntress Unit, including most of its guns, anti-gravity board, and power cells are formed using these unique compounds as a base.
The colors of objects formed from these polymers are always going to be a shade of pink, red, black, or silver.
The Red Huntress unit can shift its mass from place to place. When Valerie de-summons her armour, it’s not actually disappearing, but is mostly re-incorporating itself back into her body, where unwanted sections are allowed to go dormant to save energy.
What parts can’t fit into the host body are stored in a subspace pocket for later use.
The Red Huntress Unit is always present and active within the host body, responding to host stimuli, from fear to hunger, as best it’s able.
The Red Huntress Unit can absorb and utilize almost any energy type to fuel itself. The food Valerie eats is not typically enough, however, and it will usually steal ambient ectoplasm in a vampire-like energy absorption to fuel itself. The host body will be encouraged to seek nearby fuel sources when stores are low.
The Red Huntress Unit is capable of self repair at the expense of time and energy, and can encourage biological healing, as long as it has the right molecules available and the host is not too damaged/de-energized.
The Red Huntress Unit CAN NOT create or synthesize any biological compounds. This is a consequence of both its ghostly origins and its nature as a synthetic entity.
It is also limited to working with non-biological materials at the elemental level up. It Cannot pull apart, for example, the hydrogens from the oxygen they’ve bound to. Molecular bonds are simply too strong for it to break apart.
If the host body is damaged, no biological compounds are available for supplementation, and the host itself cannot sustain itself alone, the Red Huntress Unit will simply replace damaged sections of the host with itself, and leave it there.
What this means is that it is fully possible for Valerie to accidentally turn herself into a robot given enough time/damage.
The Red Huntress Unit is paired with a three folded subspaces which are tied to it at a distance of one foot away from the host body at all times. They are fixed in position, with one being above the right shoulder, the other above the left, and on near the small of the back.
These storage units are each roughly the size of a walk in closet. They are not habitable, in large part because it never crossed Valerie’s mind that she could fill them with oxygen to make them so.
The opening to these units self seal when not in use, and can expand to perfectly fit the proportions of whatever thing she wishes up to seven feet in height and four feet in width.
Unit #1: Above the right shoulder, Val’s dominant hand: General storage, a free space for her to put whatever she wants inside. Most of the stuff in here is a combination of guns, school assignments, and small snacks.
Unit #2: Above the left shoulder: Mass storage, formation and replication: Most of the unformed mass of the suit is stored here, as are the replication units that make more of it on an as-needed basis.
Forming an object from the unformed mass takes longer than pulling an object that’s already made, and consumes slightly more energy.
Forming more mass is energy intensive
The only mass that can be replicated, instead of simply manipulated into different forms are the Red Huntress Units own Polymers. Once non-organic elements that are not of the Red Huntress Unit are all used up, they’re gone.
Valerie has to actively find and store non-Red Huntress Unit elements in Unit 2 for them to be usable.
Mass exclusively for the Red Huntress Unit’s own continuation and replication occupied 70% of Storage unit 2 at any one time.
Valerie’s hoverboard board is stored here.
Unit 3: Small of the back, engine room:The energy center for all the Red Huntress Unit’s various functions. It Connects to and powers all Red Huntress Unit’s disparite parts by using the same physics bending logic as the storage units. Each subunit is “charged” as needed through a small, dimensional pinhole that connects directly to the engine room, and can utilize that pinhole, in turn, to absorb forign energy and rout it to the engine room, where it’s converted to a more usable form.
The power for Valerie’s weapons uses the same logic, simply pulling large enough quantities at a time from the dimensional hole to fuel a deadly shot.
It is possible for Valerie to form power centers/ammo for her guns not directly connected to her own power source, but she would have to specifically will it so.
The engine room occupies 100% of the space provided by storage unit #3
Fully depleting the engine room’s power source is difficult but possible, particularly should Valerie get into a long firefight that is simultaneously damaging her suit, forcing large amounts of energy to be expended in multiple directions.
Should this happen, the Red Huntress Unit will cease functioning until more power is supplied, leaving the host vulnerable.