The web site of onusonus

Premise:

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.

Theme:

Appreciating the people around you.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

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)

Outline:

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.

POV ALTER DANNY:

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.

POV DANNY:

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.

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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

POV DANNY:

things end not long after that, and Alter-Danny takes Danny aside to chew him out for endangering everyone around him, and demanding he put on new suppressors. Danny wants cujo back first. They get into a fight over what it means to be a hero, and whether or not Danny can even be one at all, since he's just doing it to feed his Obsession, unlike Alter-Danny, who claims to be doing it because it's truly right(Danny does point out he gets a lot of benefits for doing what's right.)
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.

POV TUCKER:

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.

POV DANNY.

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.

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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.

POV: TUCKER:

(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.

POV DANNY:

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.

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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

POV Danny

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)

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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.

POV DANNY:

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.
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??)

JAZZ POV:

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

POV DANNY:

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.

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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.

POV AGENT O:

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.

POV DANNY

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.

POV ALTER-DANNY:

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

POV Tucker:

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"

POV DANNY:

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.