#snapping sound

Everything got worse when he was at school. That new girl he'd been crushing on? Samantha - she'd said her name was - seemed to realize that there was something wrong with him. His entire body was covered in sweat and he kept breathing out cold puffs of air… even though it was spring. Something was seriously wrong with him and he'd made a complete fool out of himself in front of her!

Somehow, his hand had gotten partially stuck in the material of her purple backpack and they had to cut it open with scissors to get it free. He knew for sure now that he'd seen his hand go transparent. He phased into her backpack like it didn't even exist on the same level of reality that he did….

Walking through the hallways of school even felt jarring. He could feel everyone's eyes on him… and it dawned on him how obvious he was being. Oh, God - could this get any worse? Everyone knows. Everyone knows!

All of a sudden, that sudden tingling gripped his leg and he almost fell through the floor. He panicked and shook his leg until it felt solid again. Zion glanced around, seeing if anyone had noticed.

They're talking about me, he determined. They saw everything! He knows. She knows. THEY know. He squeezed his eyes shut and ducked into the nearest bathroom to calm down. He couldn't face them, couldn't face what was happening to him.

Because whatever was wrong with Zion was very wrong. He didn't feel normal anymore. And if he had to bet, it was because of what had happened with that tunnel last night. And he was starting to get an idea what it might've done to him. After all, everyone in Amity Park knew that phasing was a common ghost power.

When he went back to the lab, he didn't expect to find Amity Park's infamous ghostly hero, Phantom; his archenemy, Plasmius; and hordes of GIW roving around the laboratory. Phantom was successfully fighting off Plasmius, who seemed to be in league with the GIW, even though he was a ghost? What really confused Zion was that just last night, this particular laboratory was abandoned. Yet now, it was teeming with activity - a battle ground between heroes, villains, and scientists.

What had Zion gotten himself into? This place was dangerous and it wasn't like he could protect himself. After all, he wasn't a hero like Phantom! He wasn't a really a 'true' ghost, he was just… tainted? So far he'd figured out that he had some ghostly abilities from that tunnel… he could deal with that. But having ghost powers didn't qualify him to fight like Danny Phantom! It was ludicrous just being here!

Zion hid behind a pillar, watching the fight with vexed interest. He could see the vague shape of Phantom's lean and tall figure; he was a strong ghost, appearing to be about in his early twenties. Zion had heard stories of when he looked younger, more nimble and more baby-faced. Seeing Phantom now, Zion could tell that he was the epitome of someone who had grown into a great hero.

Phantom fired an ectoblast at Plasmius, "Vlad, listen to me," he said. "This new portal can't stay open, it's not like the other portals. Amity Park has reached its max allowance of ghost portals!"

"And how should you know, Daniel?"

"My parents did the calculations. I guess none of us really like the idea of Amity Park being sucked into the Ghost Zone?"

Yeah, he really was stupid for coming here. If they were talking about a portal… and Zion had accidentally turned something on last night… then it was his fault for this happening. He had started up the portal that was causing all the problems here. "I think I'm gonna go," he muttered.

"After what happened last time, can you blame us?" Phantom dodged a blast from Plasmius, and retaliated with a shot of ice, managing to graze the bottom of Plasmius's cape.

Zion turned and ran, doing his best to just get out of the lab. Unfortunately, before he could get very far, it turns out some of Phantom's ice hit a nearby pillar, causing a beam to crash into the area where Zion was hiding. Off-balance, Zion fell on top of the beam, which lurched with his weight, swinging back out right in the line of fire between Phantom and Plasmius. Terrified beyond belief, Zion clutched onto the rogue beam for dear life.

"No!" he freaked out, doing his best to dig his hands into the beam. "No!"

Phantom and Plasmius didn't see him and continued their battle, the force of their parries knocking the beam around the room, carrying Zion with it. He was so scared that he couldn't even scream, terror locking him onto the flying pillar. After a moment or so of back-and-forth shots, Plasmius's resolve hardened and he summoned a barrage of clones. In unison, the clones all shot ectoblasts at Phantom. Phantom was able to deflect the ectoblasts by putting up a well-timed shield, but Zion was left vulnerable. He had to jump off the beam to avoid being hit, thus exposing him to Phantom and Plasmius.

Suddenly, everything felt much more real.

He didn't know if either of the ghosts saw him, but he couldn't dwell on that anymore. Instead, he turned and continued his escape, heading for a massive hallway away from the battle. He was more focused on speed than watching where he was going, so when he reached the end of the hallway, he almost tripped over a ledge down into another room below. It was about a thirty-foot drop, so Zion cautiously hung onto the walls to avoid falling down.

"Woah," he marvelled, processing that he had almost fallen from a fatal height. What now?

He should've turned back and found another route, but his curiosity ultimately got the best of him and he looked down into the room below. After a moment, he was stricken with realization that it was the same room he'd been in last night; the place with that weird tunnel. Although, it looked… different from above.

The lighting was definitely not the same from when he had been with Valerie last night; it was all lit up now so that the entire room was obviously pristine and white, glowing with an eerie blue light. Wait… that blue light?

There was a blue light coming from the wall, exactly where the tunnel had been. He couldn't see inside the tunnel, but he had a bad feeling that was the portal that Phantom had mentioned. A portal that was supposedly too much for Amity Park to handle. And Zion had opened it himself because he had pressed a button. And then he suspiciously had fallen unconscious and gained ghostly abilities….

It all made sense. Well, not really. He didn't know what the portal was or where it went. Supposedly, it was like the famous Fenton Portal that had been constructed years ago by local ghost hunters - a portal the ghost world. However, Phantom had said that it was different. New. Maybe it had something to do with Zion being on the inside when it opened up?

"What is the portal for?" he wondered.

Before he could even think, Zion realized too late that the sounds of fighting had been getting closer and closer. There was a small explosion behind him - a cold explosion - and then next thing Zion knew he was careening down the thirty-foot ledge. The world spun in a blur of movement, white walls greeting him all around as he fell. Somewhere below him, Plasmius hit the ground many seconds before Zion, presumably from the direct force of whatever Phantom had hit him with. And in that moment Zion knew; he was going to die.

Except something cool and strong wrapped around his stomach, pulling against the motion of gravity and lifting Zion into the air - flying. All he could see was the floor below him: white, white, white - and then he was thrown up once again, caught, and set down on a concrete platform. He was facing Phantom. Phantom had caught him after he fell and had saved him. Holy crap. Zion was staring at Phantom and neither of them were saying anything and Phantom was just looking back at him and-

"Did you know your shoes are untied?" Phantom asked, gesturing to Zion's unlaced trainers.

Zion gaped at him blankly, only managing an incoherent, "Uh, huh," in response.

Phantom didn't know what to say either, so he elaborated, "These are HAZMAT boots so I don't really have to worry about it."

What was Zion supposed to say to that? There was a momentary lapse, then a single beat. The concentration of static energy within Zion stuttered, reached out, and unfurled; simultaneously, Phantom breathed out a wispy trail of blue mist. Zion felt like the boundaries between he and Phantom collapsed in that moment, allowing their minds (no, their cores) to converge for a split second. And then, the sensation was over.

He was a ghost. Zion had to be. That… this wasn't normal. His core had resonated with Phantom's for a moment and he could feel it - that both of them were-

"-the same," Phantom cursed. He was at a loss for words. "Y - you're like me," Phantom sputtered. "You're a halfa. Another one, fairly new too. Were you the one that opened that portal?"

Zion shook his head, "I don't - don't know what that means. I pushed a button in that thing and then… I was like this? I really don't know, don't know what 'halfa' is. Am I dead? Am I a ghost?" he asked, desperately. "I don't want to be."

Phantom sighed, a pitiful look in his eyes. "I don't think you have a choice, kid. A halfa is someone who's half-human and half-ghost; they have ghost powers and can change into a ghost form. That's me, and you now." He softened his voice and continued, "Got a lot going through your head, I'm sure."

"Yeah," he nodded numbly.

"You're gonna be fine," Phantom assured. "I can help you. If you stick around, I can show you the ropes."

Was this even happening? Phantom was offering to help him through this. Not to mention the bombshell that Phantom was also half-human. "Yeah," Zion was relieved. If anyone could help him, he knew he could trust his hero.

Phantom stood up from where he was crouched, "I just need to destroy this new ghost portal before it expands and pulls Amity Park into other dimensions. Don't move. See you in a bit-"

Phantom leapt into the air, relinquishing gravity's hold on him, and soaring towards the direction of the portal. Zion watched in amazement, wondering for the first time what it must be like to do that.

Zion was running now. A team of about four GIW agents had pushed Phantom into the unstable portal and manually restarted the start-up, finishing the process that Zion had started the night before. Apparently he'd gotten the machine to work enough for them to partially open up a breach into another dimension, but they needed a catalyst that was fully ectoplasmic to finish the process. So, they mercilessly shoved Phantom into the portal - bright blue light, the scent of flesh burning, agonized screams… and then nothing.

Phantom had fallen out of the portal with black hair. Dead. When he hit the floor, he didn't look like a ghost anymore, just a dead dead dead corpse. A human corpse. And -

It's all my fault. I did this, Zion realized.

He choked out an ugly sob, doing little to stifle the sound. That was a mistake; the GIW agents had realized the there was someone else there. They commanded one of their freelancers, the Red Huntress, to investigate. They told her to hunt down the interloper and bring him in for detainment. Zion couldn't be caught, he just couldn't; so he ran. He ran as fast as he feet would take him away from the scene of the crime and didn't look back.

The Red Huntress stayed in pursuit of him and almost had him when his foot phased into the street, but he managed to to escape. It had been so close that Zion was pretty much convinced that he was over. Over just like Phantom… who had been so ready to help him, but met his demise at the crux of Zion's mistake. If he'd never pushed that button no one would've been there tonight! He couldn't - couldn't breath.

He slipped into his bedroom and sobbed himself to sleep, ignoring the static under his skin that crawled and clung to his insides. He was stuck like this and now he was truly, totally alone.

Phantom had been a Fenton, the renowned family of ghost hunters that lived in Amity Park. Zion hadn't been close enough to see who Phantom was in his… human form. But it was all over the news, so that meant that the GIW must have announced it to the world.

No matter where Zion turned, there was always a television or phone screen that was reporting something to do with Phantom….

Channel 7 News: "Multiple sources are confirming the existence of ghost-hybrids, previously thought to be impossible."

An Internet article about his death: "Danny Fenton, a twenty-four-year old grad student and successor to FentonWorks has shadowed as ghostly town hero, Phantom, for at least a decade. By some counts, Fenton has saved thousands of lives around the state area as Phantom. With these tragic seismic events on the rise, one can only wonder, is there anyone who can keep Amity Park safe?

A YouTube video his Mom sent him: "He is survived by his sister Jasmine Fenton and his parents, Madeline and Jack Fenton."

And lastly, over the intercom at school: "Our hero Phantom is gone."

Even though there was all this information out there, there seemed to be a definite lack of knowledge about how Danny Fenton had died. Zion tried to not let it bother him, but in the end… his guilt kept coming back to him. Especially in Jasmine Fenton's words at her brother's funeral….

To honor Phantom, many of the attendants of his funeral dressed up like their late ghost hero. Some costumes… were crude, lame attempts at cosplay; gray wigs, black tracksuits, and felt 'DP' emblems pinned to their shirts. However, there was some balance in the crowd and some had notably good costumes. Zion might have been biased, but he felt like his costume was more on that side of the spectrum. He found one of his Mom's old wigs and bleached it white, looking realistically close to Phantom's hair color, bought a black cosplay 'HAZMAT suit' white ankle high white boots.

Jazz stood in front of the crowd, fondly looking over the imitations of her brother's ghost form. She spoke into the microphone, "My brother Danny got ghost powers when he was fourteen years old. I found out about it almost immediately, and my parents learned by the end of high school. Even before he became Danny Phantom, he was always an inspiration to me, someone I could look up to. Back then, he wasn't a 'hero', he was just an ordinary kid. And then was happened happened; as a half-ghost, he felt like it was his duty to protect the city since he was the only who could fight the ghosts with their power. His ghost side drove his awful hero complex," she laughed, "always insisting that he should be the only person allowed to put himself in the line of fire. He was too noble for his own good…."

"But my favorite thing about Danny is that even though he stayed in touch with his humanity, always believing in the abilities of others. Danny made us each feel powerful; we all have powers of one kind or another. So in our own way, we are all Phantom. And we're all counting on you."

That hit hard. For a moment, Zion wondered if Jazz knew about him because it all felt too close to home. He was the only other half-ghost now - in theory, he had the same powers as Danny. "They're all counting on me," he realized.

After the funeral, Zion tried jumping off a short building to see if he could fly. It hadn't gone well; he'd uselessly fallen to the ground and only survived the impact by turning intangible. Thankfully, he hadn't fallen through the street into the sewer and flickered painfully back into tangibility. Demoralized, frustrated, and grieving, Zion decided to visit Danny's grave. Maybe he'd get a revelation there that could help him through this entire mess.

Little did he expect to encounter a man that looked exactly like Danny Fenton with gray sweatpants and light stubble. Nor did he expect the electricity from his own hands that promptly knocked the imposter (he had to be an imposter, right?) unconscious.

"I love this burger. So delicious," the new (yet older and fatter) version of Danny said, shamelessly cramming the food into his mouth. "One of the best burgers I've ever had. In my universe, this place closed sixteen years ago. Blew up during my Sophomore year of college." He snorted. "Guess for me some things were inevitable."

An employee regarded Danny B's drab appearance skeptically, sliding the check on the table. Danny B frowned, "You have money right? I'm not very liquid right now."

"Can we focus?" Zion asked, beyond exasperated.

Danny B didn't take his face out of the burger, "Uh huh, sure."

"The other Danny-"

Danny ignored Zion and reached for his burger. "You gonna eat that?" he reciprocated Zion's harsh look. "I'm listening."

"The other Danny said he was going to be showing me the ropes," Zion told him. He still didn't fully understand this 'other dimension' thing that Danny B had told him about, but he was going with it. His life had been crazy enough in the past three days. An older, grumpier version of Phantom from a different dimension - why not? They apparently had to close the portal the Zion had opened - perfect fine!

"Wow," he responded carelessly, taking a second to sip from his soda.

Zion was getting antsy, "You got any half-ghost tips you can tell me now?"

"Yeah," Danny B

"I got plenty. Starting out, don't stay in ghost form for more than six hours at a time because you'll get a migraine. Hurts like hell and painkillers won't work. You don't want that, right?"

Zion pressed him to continue, "Anything else?"

"Nope," he said, "that was everything."

Zion groaned. "I think you're going to be a bad teacher."

"Mhmm…" Danny B smiled. "Look up where Axion Labs is."

At his request, Zion fished out his phone and looked up the name on Google. He read the search results out loud, "A private branch of the GIW in Elmerton, Illinois. That's about twenty miles out of Amity Park." Zion set his phone down and realized with a rush of excitement, "You can teach me to fly on the way there!"

Danny B only laughed.

"Can't believe we took the bus," Zion muttered once they had arrived at the woods outside of Axion. From the edge of the treeline, they could see Axion up on the hill.

"I'm supposed to be dead. Well, dead dead. That and I'm not flying to Elmerton, Zion. Not after a hearty burger-breakfast. Don't exhaust your core, you're gonna thank me later."

No comment. "So we're going to go in there?" Zion asked instead, tilting his head towards the facility..

"Yep," Danny B replied. He stood back and held his arms out in the air for a moment. Just when Zion was about to question what he was doing, a bright white light circled his midsection, creating a halo around his waist. The ring of light spread over his body, changing his day-clothes into Phantom's signature HAZMAT suit, his black hair to white, and his blue eyes to green. Before him was the striking image of Phantom.

Zion's jaw dropped. Woah.

"You alright there?" Danny B checked.

Zion used his hands to push his jaw back into place. "Uh huh."

"Good," he said, slapping Zion on the shoulder. "It's your turn, kid."

Zion stared at him. "M - my turn?"

"To transform," Danny B clarified. At Zion's mystified look, he realized that he had no idea what he was talking about. Danny B groaned, "You haven't transformed before, have you?"

"This ghost thing only happened to me three days ago! How would I know what to do?"

Danny B shrugged. "I dunno. I figured out how to do it pretty quick. But… I guess I'll talk you through it."

The notion of changing into a ghost was scary, foreign territory. Not… normal. Zion didn't know how he felt about it, but this version of Phantom was offering to guide him. And hell, this was still a Phantom, how could he refuse?

"Okay," he agreed, "alright."

"So first, close your eyes and breath." Zion did as he said. "'K, now you focus on your core, that bubble of energy or whatever in the middle of you. You feel it?"

Zion opened an eye, keeping the other one shut, "It uh… doesn't really feel cold. But I think I do?"

"Right… you're probably a different core type than me. Anyway focus on it and mentally try to drag that feeling over all of yourself."

Zion tried to do what he said, poking and prodding that ball of energy within him. Nothing happened. He attempted mimicking Danny B by putting his hands up into the air and tried again. Yet, his core still stubbornly refused to cooperate.

"It's not working," he admitted, defeated.

"That's fine, I expected that," Danny B nodded.

"Wow, how encouraging," Zion rolled his eyes.

Danny B waved his hand dismissively, "It's not easy, so I give you props for trying. We'll just go ahead with the plan."

Zion gave him a skeptical look, "Which is…?"

Danny B recounted a loose plan were he would phase into Axion Labs, find the head scientist's computer with the password to deactivate the portal, 'hack' the computer, and steal a bagel from the cafeteria.

After he was done explaining, Zion raised a brow. "So what am I doing?"

Danny B suddenly broke eye contact, "Uh… Step 7: You stay here, you're lookout. Very important."

Lookout? Zion reacted fiercely, "Look, man you have to teach me to do ghost stuff or I'm not going to be able to help-"

Danny B calmly stretched his limbs, causally floating off of the ground. "Alright…" He turned to fly towards Axion, putting his back to Zion. He called behind him, "Watch and learn, kid, I'll quiz you later!"

And before Zion could protest, he had slipped into invisibility, stealthily infiltrating the facility. Danny B had just left Zion in the woods, alone. How could he just-

"AGH," he screamed in frustration. This guy was supposed to be the solution, but wasn't helping him at all! "Why did I get stuck with the janky-old, broke, hobo Phantom?"

In a swell of fury, he motioned punching a nearby rock, but instead of just a mad swipe through the air, green energy wrapped around his hands and shot out. The ectoblast hit the rock he was aiming at and left a smoking scorch mark. Zion regarded his hands warily, "That's new."

Moments later, a car pulled up to Axion Labs; a car of about six GIW agents. Wait no, that wasn't right. These agents were familiar… because they had been the ones there at the abandoned lab that night. These were the agents that had killed Phantom, well, the first Phantom.

And Danny B had told Zion to be lookout. Making sure that they didnt see him, he hid behind a bush out of caution. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

His feet started running towards the facility before he had even made a decision. He had to warn Danny B.

So… the plan completely fell off the rails. And both Danny B and Zion felt like that was one Zion. Instead of just pulling the file with the password off of the head scientist's computer, Zion had the wonderful idea to just take the entire computer! Monitor and all. And now the entire facility knew they were there and the GIW had deployed one of their brainwashed ghosts on them: Skulkress. Skulkress used to be an enemy of Phantom's before the GIW had captured her and turned her into one of their 'guard ghosts'.

They were on the sundeck, ready to make their escape. Skulkress and the GIW were gaining on them.

"You know," Danny B suggested, waving around his bagel, "this would be a great time for you to transform."

Zion stared at him, "Dude."

"Come on it's easy-"

"That is not what you said earlier!"

Skulkress was only twenty feet away now, they really didn't have the time to do this.

"Just focus on it, kid," Danny B said. "You gotta fly and our hands our full."

Zion looked at him, panicked. "But I can't do this yet! And you have a bage-"

Danny B cut him off, reassuring him, "Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening pressure!" No, not it isn't! Without any other choice, Zion focused on his core - begging it to do what Danny B had described. That static feeling washing over his entire body and changing him. "C'mon, c'mon," he muttered. He put all his energy into that mantra… annndd still nothing.

He was going to die.

Danny B had already jumped into the air, taking flight. Zion was left behind with the computer and had no way of getting into the air. As a last resort, he tried jumping off of the sundeck, praying that the hobo-Phantom was right about life-threatening pressure being a good motivator.

"Become… a ghost," he told himself as gravity started to pull him towards the ground. And like that, the concentration of static within him sparked, igniting every nerve in his body. It wasn't painful, it was more… exhilarating. As he fell, he watched in fascination as his body mimicked Danny B's transformation. He stopped falling and was frozen, hovering in the air.

A white ring appeared around his chest and split into two halos of light; his clothes changed color - morphing into a color-inverted version of the outfit that he had worn the night of the accident. Instead of his plain, red t-shirt and blue jeans, he was wearing a dark green shirt and tan pants… not as fashionable. He could feel the rings go over his head, but he couldn't tell what his face looked like at the moment, but from what he had seen of Danny B's transformation, he assumed that he looked radically different.

But this feeling of floating… antigravity. The static under his skin felt stronger than ever, a network of electricity fluctuate under his skin. Zion really was a ghost.

As the realization sunk in, so did Zion's center of gravity. He began to fall towards the ground, despite being a ghost. He did his best to stay in the air but ultimately failed. He hit the forest floor feet first, vulnerable to any above attacks. He could hear Skulkress's engine behind him now, so Zion frantically broke into a sprint.

"What are you doing down there?!" Danny B shouted.

"I can't fly!" Zion responded, continuing to weave through trees as he ran.

"You gotta fly or they'll catch you! This is what you wanted!"

There was a rhythm of loud sounds behind him. Explosives. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Skulkress blowing trees out of the way with short-range bombs.

Danny B looked back and saw the issue, "Uh oh."

Zion tried to jump back into the air, but he uselessly fell back to the ground.

"Come back, ghost boy!" Skulkress cried over the noise of the bombs.

Realizing that Zion wasn't making any progress, Danny B doubled back and flew in front of Miles. "You gotta get yourself in the air. Look where you want to go and use the momentum of your body to move. Square your shoulders. Forget about your legs. Don't lean back unless you want to end up upside-down."

Zion took a step to the left and tried to run up a tree so he could jump into the air at a better angle. It didn't work and he fell back onto the ground. He picked himself up and resumed running.

"That's too many things!" Zion screamed.

Danny B's eyes glowed brighter, desperate. "Then stop listening to me!"

"That's the best idea you've had all day!" Zion jabbed.

He locked eyes with another tree. He could do this…I can do this.

Zion jumped up at the tree and kicked back, putting himself into the air. It was do or die, if he fell, he wouldn't be able to get up fast enough to run from Skulkress again. And… he stayed in the air! He was hovering again and not falling!

Remembering Danny B's advice, Zion leaned his entire chest forward, keeping his shoulders squared and ignoring his legs. He began to move - fly - forward. After a few moments of slow flying, his speed picked up and had to go intangible to avoid hitting trees. With more speed, his legs blurred into a single spectral tail, wisping into nothing behind him. That was a little freaky, but he was doing it!

Danny B shot an ectoblast at Skulkress and matched Zion's pace, flying alongside him. "Nice Zion!"

"I'm doing it!" he smiled.

"Good, you're doing it!" Danny B amended.

Zion laughed, reveling in the feeling of flight. He turned to Danny B, who looked pretty ragged, but had managed to get Zion into the air with him. "I gotta say, you're amazing man!"

Danny B had an elated expression on his face, "We're a little team. Me as the teacher who can still do it. You as the student who can do it just not as good. I'm proud of us! Is there something you want to say to me-?"

Suddenly, before Zion could respond, Danny B's entire body spasmed - his form became pixelated and color seemed to glitch around him. The glitching stopped and snapped back, causing Danny B to lose momentum and lose flight. It was the dimensional glitching that Danny B had explained to him in their first conversation; because he had be sucked through the GIW's unstable portal, his atoms weren't happy being in the wrong dimension. As a result, his entire body was glitching.

Danny B fell onto a tree branch and dropped the computer. "Danny!" Zion called after him, flying down beside him on the branch, reaching out to grab the computer's power cord. He grabbed it! However, the addition of Zion's weight causes the tree branch to snap, causing both off-guard halfas to fall. While they were both disoriented, Skulkress managed to grab the computer - they were done for.

But then, there was a blur of green and white. Another ghost? Before either Danny B or Zion could do anything, vines appeared out of nowhere, tangling their limbs and keeping them from plummeting to the ground.

"What the…" the vines pulled Zion upwards.

"Who did that?" Danny B accused.

A new ghost girl appeared. Her costume resembled Phantom's HAZMAT suit, except more colorful and stylized. Rather than black, her outfit was green and white. The emblem on her chest was an 'S' with what looked like the letter 'M' inside of it, but Zion was too far away to tell exactly. Like Phantom, the mystery girl had green eyes and shoulder length white hair that was pulled into a ponytail.

The ghost girl grinned at Skulkress, egging the huntress on. Skulkress took the bait and flew towards the new ghost, keeping a firm hand on the computer. After a few well-placed ectoblasts, she managed to dispatch Skulkress and pulled out her own ghost-thermos. It wasn't a Fenton-thermos, but had the same initial design. She pressed the button and sucked Skulkress up, grabbing the computer at the last second.

She put the computer under her arm and walked along a snow-covered branch, glancing between Zion and Danny B - who were still dangling in her vines.

"Hey guys," she said casually, like they were all good friends.

Zion froze. Her voice… That couldn't be- "Samantha?"

"It's Sam, actually," she corrected.

Danny broke free of his vines, flying again, and looked to Zion. "Oh, you know her? Very cool." He paused. "Wait… are you Sam Manson? Like my thirty-year-old best friend from high-school Sam?"

"I'm from another dimension," Sam provided as an explanation. "I mean, another, another dimension. I guess I'm older in this dimension."

Sam quickly explained who she was and how she came from her dimension into this one. Two years ago when she was fourteen, she'd been in a portal accident in her best friend's basement and gotten ghost powers. Now she protected Amity Park from all kinds of ghosts with her ghostly and nature-elemental powers as Sammy Manes. Until one day, a blue ghost portal had sucked her into it, and then suddenly she was in Zion's world one week earlier. She'd gotten a feeling to enroll in her high-school, Casper High except no one there were the same kids from her dimension. There she met Zion and could tell that he was also a halfa.

"Anyway," Sam concluded, "let's go." She started flying away, followed by Danny B. Zion fumbled with Sam's vines before realizing he could just phase out of them.

He caught up with the other two halfas. "How many more half-ghosts are there?"

Danny B cackled, "Save it for Comic-Con!"

Zion tilted his head. "What's Comic-Con?"

He still didn't get a response.

Once in their human forms, they took a bus back into the city. Almost immediately, Danny B crashed in his seat, slumped between the window and Zion.

"Seeing an older version of Danny is just weird," Sam decided.

Zion looked at the snoring hobo-man. "You know him in your dimension too?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he's my best-friend. We're uh - the same age," she assured, making sure Zion didn't think she was friends with a version of Danny Fenton like Danny B. "His parents' portal is what gave me powers… I never really considered what might've happened if I hadn't been the one to check it out. I guess it could've easily been 'Danny Phantom' instead of 'Sammy Manes', huh?"

"Does he know?" Zion asked awkwardly. "About uh… the ghost stuff?"

"Oh, oh yeah," she confirmed. "Danny, Tuck, and I all hunt ghosts together. Danny's a total astronomy geek and helps out with his parents technology; Tucker's goth and helps with mythology stuff. We make a pretty good team. Even though I'm the one doing most of the fighting," she laughed.

"That must be nice, to have your best-friends back you up," Zion nodded. In school he didn't really have anyone else besides a few acquaintances. He was closer to his older sister Valerie than anyone his own age, but… he doubted he could ever tell Valerie about this. She openly hated ghosts.

"They're pretty solid," she said. Picking up the unsaid meaning in Zion's words, she looked at him, "Do you… have anyone to help you with any of this?"

"In my own dimension?" he clarified. "No. But for now I guess I have you and that homeless slob," he joked.

"Well good thing that I'm better than a homeless slob," she grinned.

"Friends?" Zion asked. He held out his hand.

"Friends," she confirmed, returning his grip.

The trio stands in front of a large house, a giant UFO-looking structure bolted to the top of the building. The entire street is illuminated by the green 'FENTON WORKS' sign, creating odd shadows down the road. On the Fentons' doorstep, there are cards, bouquets, and toys; little condolences left from compassionate citizens.

Danny B regarded at the building with terror. "We should probably go," he decided.

"Danny, we're literally on the doorstep," Sam chastised.

"Bad idea, bad idea, this is a bad idea-"

"Why?" Zion asked. "It's just your family."

"Exactly," Danny B stressed. "Me from this dimension may have had it made, but when my family found out I was a ghost," he laughed nervously, "it was teenage emancipation for me. They gave me a choice: get out or be dissected. So when I was seventeen I left. After that, even my sister eventually drifted away. I haven't seen them in years." He crossed his arms. "I can't do this."

Sam shot him a look of sympathy, "Just relax. These aren't the same people as your family. They're not going to dissect you-"

Zion gaped at her, "What do you mean dis-"

The door opened a crack, Jazz Fenton's eyes peering out. "You guys are all very sweet but no more fans today, please." There was a beat of silence. Jazz suddenly realized who she was looking at and her eyes widened. She shut the door, undid the deadlock, and stepped onto the doorstep. In her late twenties, Jazz was wearing a brown sweater and teal leggings. She was stunned by the sight of her supposedly dead brother.

"I'm not ready for this," Danny B repeated.

"Danny…" Jazz said softly.

"Hey Jazz…" he rubbed the back of his neck - Danny's nervous tick. "So this is going to sound crazy... but I'm pretty sure that I'm from an-"

"-an alternate dimension," Jazz supplied.

"Yeah," Danny B confirmed.

Jazz hesitantly moved forward and touched his face in awe, letting her fingers trace the face of the brother she just lost. Danny B thoughtlessly absorbed her touch.

"You look tired, Danny," she whispered.

"Well," Danny B sagged, "I am tired."

Jazz noted Danny B's physique, "And older. And… thicker."

"Yeah," he rolled his eyes, "I've heard that already."

Jazz raised a brow, "Oh jeez, are those sweatpants?"

"Yup," Sam interjected. "That's what they are."

Zion felt a lag in the conversation. He really just wanted to tell her… and this was probably his best chance. "I was there…" he took a step towards Jazz. He saw her frown a bit, so he specified, "when it happened, I mean. I am so sorry."

"And what dimension are you from?" she wondered.

"A bit outside Elmerton," he shrugged. He glanced at the computer that Sam was still holding, "Do you… have a place where we can hook that up?"

Jazz nodded, a knowing smile playing on her lips. "Come with me."

Zion and Sam moved towards the house, but Danny B was frozen on the doorstep. Jazz saw the look of fear in his eyes and sighed. "Don't worry. Mom and Dad aren't home yet, so you don't have to worry about being overwhelmed - right now, at least."

Danny B nodded and walked through the threshold into his old house.

The Fentons' lab was extravagant, shiny technology and state of the art ghost hunting equipment. There was an entire section of the lab devoted to Phantom-related gadgets. There was an entire shelf of various Fenton-thermoses, all with slightly different designs.

Danny B whistled, "Mom and Dad really stepped it up from the last time I was allowed in the lab." He picked up a Bazooka, gauging its weight and setting it back down. "I tried making my own lab once," he mentioned off-handedly. "Mine was like this, but take away all the advanced weapons, the Specter Speeder... imagine it way smaller. Imagine a futon. I feel sad for this guy."

Zion ended up looking at the different thermoses. The surface of the shelf was so glossy that he could make out his reflection. He saw Jazz walking up behind him.

"Danny knew how dangerous the job was," she told him. "But he figured the only one who could stop this guy was Phantom."

Zion shook his head, "The GIW knows we're coming now. They have to. We're going to be outnumbered."

Jazz threw him a suspicious smirk, "Don't be so sure." She fished out at least six 'my name is' stickers from her pocket and placed them in Zion's palm. "You might need these."

At that exclamation, Zion felt his ghost sense go off - his core prickled with static, warning him of more specters - and looked around the lab frantically. The doors to the Fenton Portal opened, and three more figures appeared inside of it. Sam spun around, her fists glowing green at the ready.

"You think you're the only people who thought to come here?" Jazz revealed.

"Hey fellas," the first figure stepped out from the portal into the lab. He was clearly a version of Danny Fenton, with gelled back black-hair and striking blue eyes. His skin was almost grayish, like a walking corpse, and he was wearing a blue sweater vest with black pants. Even though he looked about seventeen, his entire outfit was very dated, like something out of the mid-twentieth century.

"Is he from the fifties or something?" Zion asked.

"Eh, the sixties," the sweater-vest Danny shrugged. "I died about fifty years ago. Look pretty good for a dead guy, right?"

Zion looked to Danny B, who had a similar expression of shock on his face.

The next person, a smaller figure, stepped into the lab. "Hi guys! What's up? Are we gonna fight together and stuff?"

A girl, about half-a-foot shorter than Sam, grinned. She had jet-black hair perfectly crafted into a bun and blue eyes. She was wearing a red polo shirt and plaid skirt, giving her a refined socialite look. She couldn't be more than thirteen-years-old. Like the (full?) ghost before her, she had an uncanny resemblance to Danny Fenton.

"Well," Danny B groaned, "this literally couldn't get any weirder."

"It can get weirder," the last figure groaned. The new guy looked like a regular version of Danny Fenton in his early teens, except that he had black fins on his forearms and talons for nails. "I just washed my hands so that's why my arms look like a lizard," he explained. Zion, Danny B, and Sam stared at him. He rolled his eyes, "I'm half-merman, okay? Water makes me change."

"Okay…" Sam whistled, "that one takes the cake."

"How about you guys each introduce yourselves?" Jazz suggested. "If you're going to be working together after all."

"You can call me Danielle!" the preppy girl said, not missing a beat. "Danielle Masters. I'm a clone of Danny Fenton because my Dad wanted the perfect half-ghost son. Well, now he just has the perfect half-ghost daughter. He gives me everything I want," she bragged. "He teaches me how to fight other ghosts. My original and I, Danny, actually get along well! He doesn't like that I live with Vlad, but… I'm planning to take over his hero duties when he leaves for college in a few years!"

"Wait," sweater-vest Danny interrupted, "are you talking about Vlad Masters?"

"Yeah?" Danielle asked. She was met with skeptical looks from everyone but Zion.

"Don't trust that guy," Danny B, Sam, sweater-vest Danny, and merman Danny spoke simultaneously.

"...why not?" Zion looked to the other halfas apprehensively. He'd heard of Vlad Masters - who hadn't - but what was so bad about that guy? "Isn't he just like, a millionaire?"

Merman Danny scoffed. "In my dimension he's a half-merman who's trying to marry my Mom, kill my Dad, become King of the Merfolk, and enslave humanity with his legion of people-eating merfolk."

"Oh same," Danny B added. "In my world he wanted world domination and to be the Ghost King."

"Me too," Sam added.

Sweater-vest Danny said quietly, "Vlad murdered me because I saw too much. Locked me up for two years before he finally did it. Even as a ghost he still kills anyone that gets too close to the truth. I try to stop him though, expose his crimes… for so many years…." He looked up and cracked a grin, breaking the tension. "I'm not the only one who goes by Danny, right? To keep things clear, you guys can call me Daniel, I guess."

Jazz was the first to speak, "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Daniel."

"Don't worry about it. It's only been fifty years. And I think…" his eyes flicked to Sam for a moment, lingering for a second too long. "I think that it won't be much longer."

"When it comes to Vlad," Danny B advised Danielle, reflecting on Daniel's story, "don't take him for granted."

She sighed, "Nothing that my Danny hasn't told me before."

"Wait," Zion realized. "So is the Vlad Masters in this dimension a ghost?"

"Probably," Sam summed up. "Is there a ghost named Plasmius? Cause that'd be him."

"Oh my-" Zion put it together. Vlad Masters was also a halfa, Plasmius. The same villain that Phantom had been fighting in the abandoned lab the night he died. It made sense now.

"What kind of name is Plasmius?" Merman Danny snorted.

"I think it's cool," Danielle muttered.

"It sounds like he's trying to make himself more intimidating than he is," Sam observed dryly. "So he picked a vampire-esque name because he's just that pretentious."

"Man, you're... exactly the same," Merman Danny told Sam. "I mean, you're really like the Sam Manson from my dimension. She's one of my close friends. She found out about the whole merperson thing and decided that I was a cool enough mythical creature for her to 'befriend'."

"Sounds like something I'd say," she shrugged lightheartedly. "How does that uh… 'merperson' thing work, anyway?"

"Like how I became like this?" he asked. "Well, I'm - uh… not entirely sure? Vlad said something but I don't know if it's true. From what I know, Dash Baxter pushed me off a boat and then I was saved by a mermaid. She said she was going to do something and I woke up on the beach. Next time I tried to take a shower, the water made my skin turn into scales. Freaked me and my friend Tucker out. Now whenever I fully submerge I get a tail and white hair. I also have hydrokinesis, my 'water mode', telepathy..." he listed. "I don't really like this whole thing, but I guess I'm getting used to it. I'm still not ready to tell my parents though, since they hunt merfolk."

"That's, uh, eccentric," Daniel commented.

"Basically," Merman Danny laughed, "but I guess it turned out that they're not completely crazy. Also, uh… since you pointed out that there's multiple Dannys here, can you guys call me Triton? It's the name I use for my merhalf."

"Triton as in the Greek God?" Sam asked.

"Kinda?" Triton laughed nervously. "I really chose it because it's-"

"-It's Neptune's largest moon!" Danny B and Daniel chimed in.

"Space nerds," Sam accused, smugly.

"Neptune has a moon called Triton?" Danielle's eyes lit up. "That's so cool! I really need to study more astronomy."

Jazz sniggered, "Is everyone named Danny obsessed with space?"

Sam crossed her arms, "I wouldn't doubt it." Everyone laughed for a moment before slipping back into silence.

"So we've done our introductions," Daniel pointed out. "But who're you three?" he asked Zion, Danny B, and Sam.

Sam introduced herself first, repeating what she'd told Zion and Danny B. Next, Danny B concluded that he became Phantom; was disowned by his family; dropped out of college; and dedicated his life to protecting Amity Park, working any minimum wage job he could in the meantime.

After his depressing recollection, they all turned for Zion, looking for his story.

"I uh, I'm kinda new to this thing? I just had my accident this week. And actually, uh, I'm kind of the reason that you guys are here? I turned on the portal and that's what sucked you into this dimension." He looked down, leaving out the part that he'd also indirectly killed Phantom. "Sorry."

"Nah," Triton said, "it's fine, dude. We've all made some kind of mistake like that."

"Yeah, don't blame yourself," Danielle added.

"It's not like you made the portal, anyway. The Guys in White built it to go into the Ghost Zone, but instead it just sucked up halfas from other dimensions," Danny B elaborated. "It's their fault for building the portal wrong, not yours for being the one to turn it on."

"Someone was destined to turn it on anyway," Sam pointed out.

Wow… they were being really understanding.

"So, whaddya say that we all work together to close that portal?" Danielle suggested. She made a fist, "Taking down the Guys In White~"

"I'm down," Sam grinned.

"Me too," Danny B, Daniel, and Triton chimed in.

Zion looked all these amazing people, heroes learning and fighting to protect their own cities. A clone that wanted to live up to her original's duties… a ghost that wanted to expose his murderer… a merman who wanted to protect his town and the ocean… an environmentalist who worked with her best-friends to save the day… a worn-hero, cast out from his loved ones and doing his best to save everyone, regardless….

Sure, Zion was new at this, but if these other halfas could do it, then why couldn't he?