Attention all former, current and new readers! This is NOT a standalone story; it is part of a faux story lineup I have written as part of a continuation of the TV series. If you have not previously read the stories, or chapters, that come before this one, I highly advise at least giving them a onceover. A list of the stories that I have written for the lineup can be found on my homepage here on this site. It lists the stories in their correct order. However, if you wish to continue, you may do so at your own discretion…you have been warned.

Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon Studios. Any OCs are created and owned by me or have been used with permission by their original creators.

Sorry for the delay, I've had this chapter done for a week or so now at the time of posting it, but I've been busy writing out synopsis for the next few chapters in order to help me keep track of what I'm writing.

When we last left our hybrid heroes, they'd fled from Walker's prison and tried to seek shelter with allies, only to find themselves in the Realm of the Far Frozen being attacked by the locals. The icy realm itself has been devastated and the locals infuriated. How did all of this happen? Well, our two Phantom Heroes are wondering the same thing. Let's find out together, exactly what happened to the Realm of the Far Frozen during our heroes absence.

Danny's vision was somewhat blurry upon first waking from unconsciousness. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he instead focused on what he could hear, rather than what he couldn't yet see. The sound of water flowing over his ears and the soft hissing of the breathing mask he wore. It was easy to determine that he had been submerged in water.

Opening his eyes again, his vision became more focused as it became clear to him where he was. Beyond the glass chamber, within which he was submerged in water, was an icy cave with icicles hanging from the ceiling and high-tech medical equipment adorning the walls of the cave, some half-buried in ice and snow. He was in the Far Frozen's medical facility. He'd been here once before, so recognized it instantly.

His vision shifted to a pair of Far Frozen Yetis chatting with one another on the other side of the cave, one of which looked up and was quite startled to see him looking back at them from the healing tank in which he floated, submerged in water. The second Far Frozen Yeti turned and gasped at seeing him awake and alert of his surroundings.

"Great One!" Frostbite, the second of the two, gasped before he and the first kneeled and bowed their heads at him respectively before Frostbite waved off his compatriot and approached Danny's healing tank. "It is with great relief that I see you well on the road to recovery," he greeted the Ghost Teen, once again bowing his head.

"Wouldn't need to be on the road to recovery to begin with if we hadn't been attacked," he promptly scolded the much larger ghost, whom seemed to shrink away from the healing tank rather sheepishly, visibly blushing through his fur from obvious guilt. "So, you know I'm the real deal then?" he asked, his tone calmer.

"Beyond a reasonable doubt, O' Great One," Frostbite confirmed, again bowing before he rose up and stood straight, looking Danny in the eyes. "I realized the truth when you jumped in front of your sister to defend her from my attack, and shielded her from it as best as you could," he informed the Ghost Teen. "The creature we mistook you for would not have done that," he concluded with a scowl; merely thinking of the creature in question appeared to rub him the wrong way apparently.

Danny's thoughts also drifted back to the evil versions of himself and Dani that they'd encountered after returning home after their week long absence. "I know what you mean," he said, still lost in thought. "Those things didn't seem to have that much care for anything besides themselves. There was definitely no love lost between them; they only seemed to get along because they enjoyed the destruction the other was causing," he commented.

"Mindless beasts that only seemed capable of following orders," Frostbite interjected, his scowl never faltering.

"Following orders?" Danny questioned, visibly confused by Frostbite's description of the ghosts in question. Perhaps they were thinking of different creatures after all? The evil doppelgangers he'd encountered did follow Vlad's orders, but only reluctantly; and because it served their own purposes in the end anyway. "They must be the same, but why the difference in attitude towards following orders?" he asked himself in a whisper, though this didn't stop Frostbite from noticing the confused look in his eyes.

"You appear to be deep in thought, Great One," Frostbite stated, pulling Danny out of his thoughts. "I can understand why; young Danielle has already described her account of your encounter with them, and we can now be certain that they are indeed the same creatures," he reassured. "Doppelgangers of some kind. Never had a situation like this before."

"Huh?" Danny questioned, surprised that Frostbite had correctly guessed at what he'd been thinking. "Yeah. Something must have happened between when they attacked you and when we encountered them," he expressed his speculation. "The two that we encountered obeyed Vlad's orders, but only reluctantly. They certainly didn't do it willingly," he concluded, shaking his head in the negative.

It was while he was shaking his head that his gaze fell upon another healing chamber, similar to the one he was in; though this other one was currently empty.

"So, Danielle's awake then, I suppose," he figured, based on the other now empty healing chamber, and from Frostbite's assertion that he'd already spoken with her in regards to the dark specters they'd encountered. "How's she doing?" he asked with worry, quite concerned with her well-being.

Frostbite could only smirk and chuckle before he answered. "She's doing quite alright," he reassured the Ghost Teen. "She wasn't nearly as marred up as you, so her recovery took significantly less time. On a different note however-," he changed his tone, more to being quite curious than worried, much to Danny's relief. "-was her desire to test out her fighting capabilities once she'd been released from her own healing tank," he explained, glancing towards the empty healing tank in question. "She seemed a bit…'pent up', as it were."

At this, it was Danny's turn to smirk and chuckle. "We've been held prisoner by Walker for the last few days," he began to explain. "He kept our powers suppressed with pairs of Spectral Cuffs that had been supplied to him by Plasmius. I broke out of mine during our escape, but Dani's were still active when you attacked us," he continued, trying his best to skim passed the awkward retelling of that encounter.

"Hmm," Frostbite seemed to ponder for a moment as his compatriot came up beside him, holding something in their claws. "You must be referring to these," he concluded, claiming the now destroyed remains of Dani's Spectral Cuffs from the other Far Frozen, and dangled them from his claws for the Ghost Teen to see. "They were found in the snow near your bodies after you'd both fallen unconscious after our 'earlier encounter'," he said, his free hand punctuating air quotes as he did. "They must have reached their capacity and been destroyed in the explosion," he concluded, carefully eyeing the metal fragments he held.

"I was afraid we'd never get those things off from her," Danny sighed in relief, knowing that his sister's powers were no longer restrained, and she could now defend herself in a fight; something he knew she was concerned about. "Hopefully she's not pushing herself too hard right now," he mentioned with mild concern. "Where is she now, exactly?" he asked, somewhat suspicious.

"Target practice in the arena, I do believe," Frostbite's Far Frozen compatriot answered matter-of-factly. "Trying to blow off some steam."

"Probably annoyed her to no end being unable to use her powers, having to rely on her brother," Frostbite speculated, looking to his compatriot and nodding in agreement. Danny, however, did not seem relieved to hear this.

"She's using her powers!?" he shouted frantically, pressing his hands against the inside of his healing chamber as worry crept into his eyes. "She can't be using her Ghost Form right now!" he warned, hoping that Frostbite might do something to stop her. Before he could explain why, Frostbite began to chuckle, confusing the Ghost Teen.

"No need to worry, Great One. She is only using what limited powers she has access to whilst in her human form," the Far Frozen leader reassured him. "If the idea is to hide from Walker and his forces; and subsequently, Vlad Plasmius; whom is now in possession of the Infi-map, once again," he grumbled with annoyance in a hushed voice, more to himself; "then utilizing your ghost forms would be quite counterproductive, as that would lead him straight here. She knows this, and is taking extra precautions to make sure your location is kept secret from your enemy."

"Well, that's something of a relief, I guess," Danny sighed, a great weight being lifted off his sore shoulders. "Walker will be quite reluctant to reveal we've escaped from his clutches so soon, but it is only a matter of time before Plasmius finds out," he explained. "When he does, he'll be watching that map for any sign of where we're hiding, or of our return; that's how he caught us before," he revealed to the Far Frozen Leader.

"Yes, much has to be discussed in regards to your whereabouts for the last week and a half or so," Frostbite agreed, nodding his head in the affirmative. "Young Danielle was too restless earlier to go into much detail beyond what led up to your imprisonment, and even that was skimmed over; so I figured you could give greater detail on your disappearance?" he questioned of the Ghost Teen.

'A week and a half?' Danny had thought to himself. 'So there was some validity to what Paradox had explained to us about time passing by faster when you're dreaming that hadn't been nothing but hot air.'

"It's a long story, and might take up a significant portion of time to describe in detail," Danny explained before another thought crossed his mind. "Speaking of which, what is the time now, anyway?" he asked, an eyebrow raised curiously.

"Shortly before noon, the day following your arrival here, Great One," Frostbite answered him. "Perhaps we could discuss things over lunch?" he suggested. "Having been locked up in Walker's Prison for as long as you were, I would imagine you must be quite famished," he figured as his compatriot began the process of releasing Danny from his healing chamber.

As the liquid inside the healing chamber drained away, Danny thought back on the last time he'd had a good meal. Sure, he and Dani had been given some food while being imprisoned, but that barely passed as even being considered edible, having almost literally been complete garbage. They'd also gotten something to eat at Dora's castle, but mutton cooked over a fireplace and a few loaves of stale bread just wasn't satisfying enough. So the last real food they'd had was the day they left the other world, but that was several days ago! He was somewhat surprised that he wasn't hungrier than he thought he should be, and this brought a smirk to his face.

"Yeah, food sounds good right about now," Danny agreed, nodding his head as he removed the breathing mask from his face just as the glass chamber of the healing tank rose up to allow his exit. Cocking his head from side to side and rolling his shoulders produced several cracks as he stepped out of the now opened healing chamber. "Man, Frostbite. You sure worked me over good," he commented, massaging his neck as he continued to roll it from side to side, trying to get the kinks out.

"I believed my home was under threat a second time," Frostbite admitted. "We tend to fight to the best of our abilities to protect that which we care about the most," he explained before he smirked curiously. "Something that I presume you can relate to," he postulated.

"Yeah, I could," Danny admitted with a nod. Very much so, which was why it was imperative that he and Danielle returned swiftly so they could do damage control. They had been out of it for quite some time; he didn't dare think about what condition Amity Park would be in upon their second return, if its previous condition was of any indication; the remnants of a massive warzone.

The Far Frozen Attendant that had accompanied Frostbite had only finished handing the Ghost Teen his clothes, he'd been reduced to his underwear again for his duration in the healing tank, before he was addressed by his superior. "Please go to the arena and fetch young Danielle, and bring her to the dining chamber," he requested. "We will be waiting there."

"At once, Sire," the attendant acknowledged with a slight bow before he rushed from the room, leaving his leader and the now fully clothed Ghost Teen to themselves.

"Your time in the chamber wasn't quite complete, Great One," Frostbite explained, wincing upon seeing Danny still stretching in order to work out the kinks in his back. "Would you perhaps like assistance so you don't tire yourself out?" he offered, still feeling a bit guilty over the Ghost Teen's condition.

"Nah," Danny declined. "The exercise will help get the blood flowing," he said as he slowly swung one arm in a circle, pivoting at the shoulder before he pulled both arms back until his elbows almost touched behind his back, producing a crack from his shoulder blades. "Gunna be sore for a little while though," he grumbled as he massaged one of his shoulders whilst returning to rolling his neck.

Walking alongside Frostbite out of the medical room and through the icy halls, they soon came to a larger cavern devoid of all ice that was lit by torches on the cave walls. A roaring fire was inset into the cave wall, acting as a fireplace, warming the cavern. One could only imagine what kind of ventilation was required to prevent the cavern from filling with smoke. Near the fire was a large wooden table with several chairs set around it; several platters of food were already set out. Apparently they were expected.

"You guys sure went all out," Danny commented, taking a seat, facing towards the fireplace and pulling a plate of what looked like spare-ribs towards himself. He didn't even want to question what kind of ghost had been hunted in order to prepare this feast. At this, Frostbite could only bellow with laughter before he too took a seat, adjacent to the Ghost Teen.

"Much like ourselves, we are well aware of yours and your sister's appetites," the Far Frozen Leader explained. "Gunna need all the energy you can get if you are to recover enough to take on Plasmius and those evil copies of yourselves," he reminded the Ghost Teen.

Danny had opened his mouth to reply between bites, but was cut off.

"Danny!" Danielle suddenly yelled upon being led into the cavern by the previous Far Frozen Attendant that had been sent to fetch her. She dashed towards her brother and wrapped her arms around him in greeting, too excited at seeing him awake to notice him wincing slightly in her tight grip. "You're recovered already?" she asked him, pulling back and looking at him in amazement. "I was told it was going to be longer before you were back to full strength?" she inquired.

"I'm still not," he answered with a grimace and a crack of his neck. "I'm a little sore. But it's nothing that another day of rest, and some decent food for once, won't fix," he reassured her.

"I thought I smelled something good from down the hall," she exclaimed as she took a seat at the table opposite him, facing away from the fireplace. Apparently she was going to trust that Danny knew he'd be alright.

"How're your powers doing?" he asked of her curiously. "They holding up now that you got those cuffs off?" he further inquired.

"Yeah, it's not easy using them without transforming, though," she admitted, almost a little disappointed in herself. "But you said Vlad could track us if we did, so I've been repressing the urge to just cut loose on something. My powers have been repressed for too long."

"You'll get the chance to 'cut loose' at a later time," Frostbite advised, his tone suddenly turning serious, and all business. "But for now, we have much to discuss. Such as a much fuller explanation of your whereabouts this last week and a half," he requested, his eyes shifting between the two Ghost Teens, whom both shared a nervous exchange between them as they silently contemplated how to go about explaining everything that's happened to them.

A clock above the fireplace showed a transition of nearly four hours as the Ghost Powered siblings recounted their tale to Frostbite, whom listened intently on every word and every detail they described, regarding their adventures in the other universe. They explained everything that had happened, from the first ambush after Jazz's graduation to meeting Kim Possible and her allies in her universe; from Danielle and Jazz being lost in the wilderness to them meeting back up and teaming up and battling with Freakshow; from figuring out how to get back home, to being ambushed a second time upon their return.

"After we were knocked out, we were taken to Walker's Prison," Danny finished up their tale.

"And put inside the Training Simulator, which had been liberated from our parent's lab," Danielle further elaborated. "We were kept under by Nocturne and were stuck in it for three days before we escaped from it."

"But our minds were trapped for a month and a half," Danny concluded. "It threw our sense of time off after we escaped. We had thought more time had passed than really had. It took an additional two days for us to get out of the prison."

"I was still asleep, after having been knocked out by Nocturne during the escape," Danielle continued. "So Danny took me to Dora's Castle to recuperate, only to discover that it was abandoned, before we came here," she explained.

"And you know how that turned out," Danny concluded, leveling Frostbite with a steady glance, but the Far Frozen Leader was still piecing together all that had been explained to him to notice.

"That's certainly an intricately woven tale you've elaborated upon for me, my young heroes," Frostbite contemplated. "It certainly explains your absence from recent events over the last week and a half," he settled upon accepting.

"Recent events?" Danny questioned; he and Danielle both seeming a bit hopeful. "So do you have any knowledge of what's been going on back in the living world?" he asked, hoping that the Far Frozen Leader would be able to fill them in on the details they themselves were as of yet aware of.

"Not to such a large degree as you would hope for, Great One," Frostbite sighed, shaking his head in the negative. "I do know that the humans of your world have put together a meager resistance force to combat against Plasmius; and that Queen Dora has even sent in her own soldiers after the humans were dealt a pretty massive blow to their campaign," he explained.

This little bit of news certainly explained why Dora's kingdom appeared to have been abandoned. It wasn't that they'd been chased from their home for being allies with Danny; they had left voluntarily to aid the human resistance fighters against Plasmius because they were allies with Danny.

"The information our scouts are able to bring back is limited," Frostbite continued to elaborate. "We wish to aid them as well, but we are currently in the process of looking after our own. Once we've re-established a foothold for ourselves, I intend to send our best warriors to aid in the cause," he reassured. "Much help will be necessary if those creature's that attacked us before have truly undergone the radical change in personality, as you've described to me, and become just that much more dangerous," he clarified, his tone becoming quite serious once more.

"Still have a hard time believing that those things would follow Plasmius' orders after we encountered them," Danny grumbled, shaking his head in mild disbelief. "That dark version of Dani seemed quite sure of herself that she would eventually get one over on him, and only seemed to obey his orders, rather reluctantly, because it suited her own needs at the time."

"She and the dark version of yourself had no such problem with following his orders when they attacked us over a week ago," Frostbite contradicted, shaking his head in disbelief this time around. "They did what he commanded of them, without question and without hesitation."

"Oh, yeah. That's something else we wanted to bring up," Danielle interjected. "Vlad has the Infi-map in his possession; so he must have gotten it from you during their attack?" she questioned.

"Yes," Frostbite sighed with regret. "He used your doppelgangers as a distraction for us; and while we were baffled and confused at being so caught off guard, he was able to steal what he needed, among other things," he explained, leaning back in his seat so he could look towards the ceiling as he recalled the events that had previously taken place.

One in a pair of Far Frozen guards standing outside the shine that had been dedicated to Danny's heroisms, both within the Ghost Zone and out in the Real World, stood stone faced before he was suddenly hit in the face with a snowball. Enough of the snow fell away, revealing an annoyed look in his eyes before three very small Far Frozen younglings ran by, laughing and giggling, followed by a fourth that stopped and created another snowball in his hands using his Cyrokinesis before he threw it at the others with a playful laugh of his own.

The four Far Frozen younglings continued running through the village, passing by snow and ice covered wooden huts where much older Far Frozen Yetis with thinner, scruffier fur were either preparing fires, hitting ghost/animal hides with sticks to prepare them for tanning, or even sweeping dust and debris out of the wooden huts they called home. The older Far Frozen Yeti that had been sweeping out the wooden hut, smiled at the laughing younglings as they ran by before chancing a glance towards the sky where the void of the Ghost Zone could be seen beyond.

"Huh?" the older Far Frozen resident questioned, tilting their head to the side upon seeing something in the distance. A pair of dark silhouettes in the shapes of the Phantom siblings were floating far overhead, looking down on the Far Frozen village and its residents. "It's the Great One and the Beloved One!" the elderly Far Frozen Resident gasped with delight, absolutely beaming at the sight of them.

"They grace us with their presence!" another elderly Far Frozen resident that had been preparing a nearby fire rejoiced as two younger, yet still more adult than the younglings, Far Frozen residents paused in what they were doing to look skywards with expressions of gratitude.

The two guards standing outside the shrine for Danny both bowed in respect, the one no longer looking upset and annoyed. "Please pardon us," he asked of the siblings for their forgiveness as they descended and hovered a few meters above the ground. "We were not prepared for your arrival," he admitted apologetically.

"Lord Frostbite and the hunters have not yet returned from their expedition," the other shrine guard explained, revealing that Frostbite, and a great number of their experienced soldiers were currently absent from the village.

The silhouetted siblings began glancing around from their aerial view, giving no indication that they were even paying attention; but they had been, and acknowledged the guards by glancing back down at them with solid, glowing, blood red eyes and toothy smirks revealing pairs of razor sharp fangs.

They quickly flew over and landed on the top of a nearby watchtower made of ice before the silhouetted Dani raised one arm and began charging a sphere of red ecto-energy the size of a beach ball that she then threw in the direction of the royal palace. Following a massive explosion that shook the entire village, a large section of the palace's battlement wall blew out, exposing the halls within.

All of the Far Frozen residents gasped in dumbfoundment of the sudden attack on the palace. None knew what to do. This was an attack on their village, from a pair of ghosts that they revered as heroes. Something was definitely wrong here; this was not like them to openly attack them; and they weren't finished.

The silhouetted figure of Danny raised both arms over his head and cupped his hands together before forming a ball of pulsating red ecto-energy between his palms before he threw his arms down, releasing the energy and causing another explosion directly below their feet that caused the entire icy watchtower to completely collapse. The resulting collapse sent a cloud of icy dust and debris billowing upwards, shrouding the already silhouetted specters from view.

This second explosion and building collapse triggered mass panic amongst the majority of the Far Frozen Residents that had been witness. Younglings ran towards the protection of the village elders whom ushered them into the safety of the wooden huts as the two shrine guards shielded themselves against the icy cloud of debris that had already begun to settle.

"What are they doing!?" one guards asked in panic, looking towards his comrade for direction.

The second guard grit his teeth and wrapped his claws around his spear much more tightly, as if afraid of losing it. "I don't believe these creatures are whom we think they are," he admitted. "And I also believe, Lord Frostbite may agree," he growled, glaring through the thinning cloud of icy debris as the two specters slowly began to come into view through the haze.

The creature's shadows quickly descended towards the snow covered ground, the speed and force of which alone was enough to create a breeze that cleared the air and allowed the Far Frozen guards to get a better look at these two attacking specters.

While their general appearances; their suits, hair, and even some facial features; were noticeably similar to those they were mistaken for, there were distinct differences that clearly set them apart from the heroic specters they so closely resembled. These two had ghostly green skin and pointed ears. Their teeth were fanged and they had glowing red eyes. They were cackling amongst themselves joyfully, quite content with the panic and destruction they had already caused, with such minimal effort.

"You creatures are not welcome here!" the second guard threatened them, holding his tightly held spear at the ready. "Leave now while I'm still generous; or we will be forced to prove our superiority!" he demanded of them with no hint of remorse towards them.

They only continued to chuckle joyfully whilst smirking at the two guards, though Danny's lookalike had begun cracking his knuckles, as if preparing for a well anticipated fight.

This only put both guards further on edge. If these lookalikes were anything as powerful as those they looked like, then they would need reinforcements; but the majority of their fighters were still off on a hunting expedition and wouldn't return for quite some time. The only fighters that remained in the village to protect the younglings and the elderly were themselves and three of the palace guards, whom had by now left the partially destroyed palace in favor of discovering the cause of the watchtower collapse. As they quickly approached, they saw the two specters from behind and beamed at seeing them until they were halted by the shrine guards.

"STOP!" the second guard bellowed at them, sticking out his hand to halt their progress, and to prevent them from getting any closer without having their guard up, or their own spears at the ready. "These creatures are not whom they appear to be!" he warned the palace guards, whom looked back towards the sibling lookalikes with worry and confusion, but nonetheless, didn't approach any further.

The Dani lookalike slowly proceeded to look back at the palace guards over her shoulder before she turned to fully face them, putting her back to the Danny lookalike. She continued to chuckle joyfully as she proceeded to begin cracking her own knuckles, clearly in anticipation of a fight. This action was enough to convince the palace guards to put up their guard and raise their spears defensively.

"Who are you, really?" one of the palace guards demanded of the two specters.

"What is it that you want?" another palace guard added, their grips on their spears tightening.

The Dani lookalike responded by simply raising her hand and charging another sphere of red ecto-energy in her palm, and she was aiming it directly at the palace guards.

"Evasive action!" the third palace guard shouted frantically, warning the others of what was about to happen so suddenly.

The Dani lookalike fired the now pulsating ball of red ecto-energy at the three palace guards, but they were ready. Two dove off to either side to avoid the oncoming attack while the third defiantly stood his ground. Throwing his spear to the side, he charged both of his clawed hands with blue freezing energy that he fired back at the pulsating ball of red ecto-energy, encasing it in a ball of clear ice that he then caught in his clawed hands. He looked up and glared at their attacker with squinted eyes.

The two palace guards that had dove out of the way to either side rolled into kneeling positions before they used their free hands, their occupied hands still holding tightly onto their spears, to charge up their own blue freezing energy that they then fired at the Dani lookalike. She reacted swiftly and raised her other hand before firing twin beams of red ecto-energy at the oncoming beams of blue freezing energy. The beams all collided and exploded, shrouding the space between them in icy smoke.

While that little scuffle was happening; the Danny lookalike had begun charging red ecto-energy into both of his hands as well. The two shrine guards wasted no time in firing off their own beams of blue freezing energy that struck the ground where he had been standing, covering the already snowy ground in a thin sheet of ice; but he had avoided it by speeding forward through the air, passing between the two guards and their beams of freezing energy with such incredible speed that he appeared to be nothing but a blur before he reappeared behind them with his hands still glowing with red ecto-energy.

They only had enough time to register that he'd simply vanished before they were blasted from behind by a pair of red beams of ecto-energy. "ARGH!" they both screamed as they were blasted forward, directly towards the Dani lookalike. She smirked as she spun on one foot, lifting her other leg and swiftly kicked one of the guards, sending him flying into the other before they rebounded off one another and passed through the veil of icy smoke that had formed as a result of her own scuffle, and straight towards the two palace guards whom had fired back upon her previously.

"Huh?" they both gasped in shock when the two shrine guards were blasted through the veil of icy smoke. "UFF!" they all grunted when they collided with one another and were all thrown backwards by the force of the collision, sending them crashing into the snow some distance back from where they'd started. When the dust had settled, they were in two distinct piles of two.

The imposters delighted in the Far Frozen's defeat, but they had missed one. They both looked up at the sight of said fifth Far Frozen Guard that had jumped high and now hovered overhead. He glared down at them and growled ferociously as he pulled back one of his arms as he prepared to throw the ball of ice covered red ecto-energy that he'd frozen over earlier in the scuffle.

"RAGH!" he roared as he threw the ice covered red ecto-energy back towards the ground between where the Phantom imposters stood, hoping to catch them both in the blast.

It exploded on impact with the ground, as expected, enshrouding the two specters in more icy smoke; but one soon emerged, having been blown backwards by the explosion. The Danny lookalike's feet dragged through the snow, leaving parallel trails in his wake before he came to a sudden stop, still managing to stay upright. His arms hung by his side and he hung his head so his snow white hair hid his face from view.

The Far Frozen guard scanned the ground for the other specter, but was caught off guard by a blow to the back that sent him crashing back to the ground. The Dani lookalike had somehow managed to dodge the attack, evading the explosion, by flying up with enough speed to not be seen by the Far Frozen warrior and got behind him where she raised both of her fists over her head and slammed them down in his back, sending him falling from the sky.

He landed in the middle of a crater that had formed from the explosion of the attack he'd thrown, uplifting yet more icy debris that lingered for only a moment before finally settling, revealing the Far Frozen guard to still be conscious and struggling to his hands and knees. Upon standing, and holding the side of his head to clear it, he found himself facing the Danny lookalike, still standing where he'd slid to across the snowy ground.

He growled menacingly at the impostor specter before chancing a glance at a spear that had been dropped by one of the other guards now sticking out of the snow. He glanced back at the Danny lookalike, hoping that he wouldn't have seen him looking at the dropped spear that he could use to more effectively fight back and defend himself with. The imposing specter may, or may not, have noticed, but he wasn't going to give this Far Frozen warrior the chance to claim it.

Looking up, he revealed his eyes glowing a bloodthirsty red as he smirked, barring his razor sharp fangs in psychotic amusement. He lunged for the Far Frozen guard before he could move and landed a powerful kick to the much larger ghost's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and making him fall to his knees. The imposing specter then spun around and roundhouse kicked him up into the air where the Dani lookalike was waiting for him.

She let him pass by her, only to grab onto the end of his tail, preventing any further ascension, before she began to spin him in a circle like a top before she released him. He was sent flying back towards the partially wrecked palace where he was sent crashing through another wall, causing it to collapse, and further destroying the palace, knocking him out cold in the process.

The Dani lookalike descended and landed in the snow next to the Danny lookalike, both smirking with delight over their overwhelming victory over the Far Frozen guards. Hearing a small whimper, they both took on looks of intrigue before turning towards the nearest wooden hut where a pair of yellow eyes and icy horns could be seen peeking out through a window before they ducked out of view upon being spotted.

The sibling lookalikes returned to smirking in realizing that there was yet still more fun for them to be had. Charging up more red ecto-energy in their hands, they jumped into the air and fired upon the wooden hut, blowing a massive hole in the thatch roof and setting the rest on fire.

The wall suddenly exploded outward as one of Far Frozen elders smashed through it in a desperate attempt to escape the burning hut. Two very frightened younglings were tucked under each arm. Landing in the snow, the elder instinctively pulled both younglings in close, shielding them with their arms as they growled threateningly at the sibling lookalikes that smirked down at them with amusement, but decided to instead turn their attention to the rest of the village that was left to their enjoyment.

From the mouth of the tunnel that led into the icy realm appeared several large, dark shadows that turned out to be the hunting part returning home. Several Far Frozen warriors led the pack, all carrying their spears in one hand while carrying large green moose-like ghosts with black antlers and singular, cycloptic eyes, over their shoulders. Near the middle of the pack was Frostbite, carrying two of the creatures over each shoulder whilst speaking encouragingly to the much smaller younglings that had accompanied them on their expedition.

"You did well for your first hunt," the Far Frozen leader encouraged the younger warriors. "Far better than I could have imagined," he reassured them.

"But Lord Frostbite, mine got away," one of the youngling warriors said with concern.

"And I broke my spear," another voiced his own concern, glancing at the spear he carried, revealing that its middle section was tightly bound with cord. "My only means of defending myself is a defective weapon."

"Hey, don't complain," the third youngling warrior scolded his fellow warrior. "At least you didn't get bitten by your Unu-Okulhava Mazo," he said, holding up his arm, revealing that it was tightly bound in fabric that was slightly stained green with blood.

Their bickering only made Frostbite bellow with laughter in amusement. "Young ones, you do not give yourselves enough credit. You did much better than most on their first hunt, myself included," he continued with a chuckle and a broad smile. "Most of the older warriors have lasting reminders of their first hunts," he informed them. "Missing horns," he said, indicating a warrior ahead of them that was missing one of the horns on his head that were made out of ice; "Stubbed tails," he continued, indicating another warrior to their right that was indeed missing the tip of his tail, and the icy spike that would've protruded from it like the other warriors; "Gouged eyes," he said, thumbing over his shoulder to the warrior to his immediate left that grumbled and scowled at him for being singled out with his one good eye, the other being covered with an eye patch; "Lost limbs," he finished with a mysterious word of caution as he held out his left arm for them to see whilst balancing the dead creature on his shoulder, reminding them that it was made of ice, with the bones clearly visible within. This sent terrified shivers down their spines, but otherwise brought their bickering to an end in understanding that things could indeed have gone much worse for them.

"Lord Frostbite!" someone called from the front of the pack before several of the warriors shifted aside to allow another warrior that had been near the front to pass through so he could get to their leader. He appeared to be in a panic. When he had the Far Frozen leader's attention, he continued after catching his breath. "My Lord, the village, it's been attacked!" he announced for all to hear.

A collective gasp sounded from all of the warriors except for Frostbite himself whose eyes widened in both fear and fury. "Everyone, make for the village without haste!" Frostbite ordered without hesitation upon being informed of this harrowing news.

The warriors lightened their loads in order to move faster by dumping their prey in the snow near the icy tunnel entrance before they all sprinted towards the village in the distance. Their strides only increased when they saw smoke rising from behind the icy knoll their village lay beyond. Coming over the top of the knoll, they stopped briefly to take in the sight of the village below.

Almost all of the wooden huts were either in complete shambles or up in flames. The palace still partially stood in the distance; several of its walls had been blown out, and so left the interior exposed. More smoke rose from its other side where the arena was located as well. It hadn't escaped the carnage that had befallen the rest of the village, which had effectively been razed to the ground, and only recently too.

"Spread out and search for survivors!" Frostbite bellowed upon taking in the forlorn sight before him. "Assist the wounded and search for the culprit who did this!" he ordered of his fellow warriors.

Splitting up and spreading out, the warriors made their way through the destroyed village, using their freezing powers to extinguish any fires they came across, and aiding any village elders they found lying unconscious in the snow, or sifting through destroyed wreckage to find yet more elders trapped within their destroyed shelters. Frostbite himself was scanning the sky and nearby mountainside for any unusual movements, trying to find where the culprit may have been hiding, if they were still nearby.

"Lord Frostbite!" one of the soldiers called out to him. He promptly diverted his eyes away from the mountainside and gave the warrior his undivided attention. He was being waved over towards a partially destroyed hut by a pair of warriors whom had looks of urgency on their faces. He hurried over to them and found one of the village elders in the snow underneath an animal hide that had kept them hidden. "He's still alert," the warrior calmly informed his leader as he approached.

Frostbite knelt by the elder's side, placing one hand under their head to help support it and another on their shoulder to comfort them. "My Lord," he croaked, managing to open one eye to look up at the Far Frozen leader. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "They came out of nowhere," he explained. "The guards were overwhelmed; we did all we could, but we didn't stand a chance against them," he groaned before going into a coughing fit.

"What of the younglings?" Frostbite asked with concern, but also with a hint of urgency in his tone. He knew full well that they were in the care of the village elders whilst he and the hunting party were away. Their protection was a priority in this case.

"We told them to flee into the caverns while we held the creatures off," the injured elder informed him. "We only just barely managed to cover their escape before we too were vastly overwhelmed," he coughed.

"By who?" Frostbite asked with yet more urgency. "Who, or what, did this?" he asked, meaning the village and its people, without physically indicating the destroyed village around them.

"They can only be described as monsters," the elder wheezed. "Cold, heartless monsters with a psychotic bloodlust in their glowing red eyes. They show no fear, they give no mercy, and they delight in the destruction of everything around them," he coughed, his one eye glancing over to the wrecked hut he'd been found near. "It was enough to send cold shivers down even our spines," he warned.

"Lord Frostbite!" another warrior called out to their leader, who spared a glance at him, but otherwise didn't leave the elder's side.

"What have you to report?" he asked of the approaching warrior.

"All of the elders have been accounted for," he reported to the Far Frozen leader. "There are no fatalities, but also no sign of the younglings. One of the conscious informed us that they were sent to hide in the caves when the attack occurred," he informed his leader. "I've already sent a small troop to the mountains to locate them," he explained, revealing that the issue was already being resolved. "Also, no sign of the attackers," he continued. "It may appear that our sudden return may have scared them off," he theorized.

Frostbite nodded his head in agreement, but a sudden coughing brought their attention back to the elder whom Frostbite still knelt beside. "No," he disagreed with the younger warrior's report. "You have not encountered these creatures like we did," he informed the younger warrior. "They do not run in fear from us. They attacked without abandon and took delight in our overwhelming defeat. We were nothing compared to them, they will only see your return as a more worthy challenge," he scolded the younger warrior, who shrunk away from being told off, but also in fear of what his elder was describing to him. "They will come back," he warned.

BANG!

Suddenly, the entire valley in which the village was located was rocked by a massive explosion that issued from the mountainside. All of the warriors turned towards the mountains to see smoke billowing out of one of the caves before another explosion went off, this one sending the warriors that had been sent to scale the mountain to search the caves for the younglings, flying through the air and crashing into the snow at the base of the mountain, unconscious.

"The medical research facility!" one of the warriors gasped in shock at seeing smoke now billowing out of the cave entrance to said facility after the second explosion.

"That's where the younglings are hiding," the wounded elder informed the group at large, much to their horror. "It is too late," he sighed. "They have returned. They are coming."

BANG!

A third explosion shook the valley, and a third plume of smoke rose from yet another cave before something emerged from the smoke, flying through the air at a fast pace. Frostbite gazed upon the entity that was now flying away from the mountainside where the explosion had occurred. His eyes squinted as he thought he recognized the white suit and cape of the black-haired specter, carrying some sort of staff in one hand.

"Plasmius!" he growled angrily. "Has he not learned by now!?" he asked in aggravation and building fury. Seeing the malevolent specter fleeing with a malicious grin only served to infuriate Frostbite further. Grabbing a spear from one of his fellow warriors, the others followed his lead in preparing to throw them at the evil ghost fleeing the scene. "For attacking our village again, I hereby sentence your afterlife to eternal solitude in the Unworld!" Frostbite bellowed, throwing his spear in Plasmius' direction.

"To the Unworld!" the Far Frozen warriors cried out before they too threw their own spears into the air, ahead of Plasmius.

"Hmm?" Plasmius questioned upon seeing the thrown spears coming straight towards him. "Heh, silly snow creatures and their little, pointy sticks," he chuckled with amusement before he raised the staff he was carrying, and pushed a button at the top, causing it to suddenly glow with blue energy.

From afar, his figure appeared to vanish in a flash of blue light, and in the very same instance, all of the thrown spears were suddenly redirected in mid-air, and began plummeting back down towards Frostbite and the Far Frozen warriors that had thrown them.

"YAAAH!" several warriors screeched in terror upon seeing their weapons suddenly being turned against them, but Frostbite calmly took a step forward and raised a hand as it began glowing with blue freezing energy. He shot a beam of freezing energy into the air where it collided with the incoming spears. In a flash of light, the tips of the spears were suddenly imbedded within their own individual cubes of ice that threw the returning spears off course, sending them plummeting towards the snow covered ground and scattering them at the Far Frozen warrior's feet.

Frostbite only took a moment to observe the scattered spears on the ground before he shifted his gaze back up to where Plasmius now hovered just above them. He glared up at the evil specter with irritation whilst Plasmius just smirked down at him with amusement.

Frostbite's gaze then shifted slightly to the staff in Plasmius' grasp; he quirked an eyebrow upon recognizing it for what it truly was; knowing that he was at a severe disadvantage so long as it was within the evil specter's control.

"I see you've acquired yourself a new toy," Frostbite grumbled with irritation, his eyes squinting in suspicion as he continued. "Taken from the Master of Time himself, no doubt; though, it is highly unlikely he simply handed it over to you," he commented. This had the result of sending hushed whispers through the crowd of warriors behind him. "Tell me, how is it that you came about stealing Clockwork's staff?" he asked, hoping to buy enough time for the three youngling warriors to sneak up behind Plasmius whilst he was distracted.

"Ahh, yes, quite an amazing tale it is," Vlad mused, as if in recollection. "Although, it is a rather long story filled with violence, death, and betrayal. I'm sure the kids wouldn't be able to handle it," he warned with a smirk, glancing to the side, indicating that he was aware of the youngling warriors sneaking up behind him whom stopped in their tracks, surprised that they'd been found out so easily.

"I'm sure it is," Frostbite responded, not the least bit undeterred by Plasmius' gloating. "But the theft of such an artifact is a severe offense, and does not go unpunished. You must suffer the consequences," he declared as he held up his hands as they began glowing with blue freezing energy.

"He's outnumbered," another warrior spoke up, sounding quite assured of himself. "We can take him down easily," he reassured the others with a confident grin.

"Don't be too sure of yourself," Frostbite cautioned the younger warrior. "With that staff, he may very well be able to overpower all of us if we don't play this carefully."

"You are certainly right to be cautious, but it won't be me you have to contend with," Plasmius, chuckled, earning him a few confused looks from the Far Frozen warriors. "'They never got the chance to really cut loose earlier, and I'm sure they are more than willing to take up the challenge of facing much more worthy opponents," he taunted as he glanced over his shoulder at a cloud of snow that was rapidly approaching them from a distance.

Everyone looked up at the cloud of snow as it rapidly approached, growing ever closer to the pack of Far Frozen warriors. Soon, two dark figures became visible within the approaching cloud of snow that brought smiles and cheers of joy to several of the Far Frozen warriors. Even Frostbite smirked with newfound confidence upon recognizing the approaching specters. His smirk faded however, when Plasmius raised a fist, halting the two familiar specters behind him and the three youngling warriors that had been trying to sneak up on him earlier.

"Oh yeah! Well bring them on!" one of the Far Frozen warriors challenged.

"With the Great One and the Beloved One here and fighting with us, we can certainly take on whatever you throw at us," another cheered with a wide grin, his words causing others to cheer in approval.

"No, you fool," the Far Frozen Elder coughed from behind them, ending their optimism. Grins turned to frowns as all looked to the elder, whom was now standing, but only doing so thanks to the support of one of the warriors. "Do not let their similar appearances deceive you," he warned the younger warriors. "These creatures are anything but the Ghost Zone's greatest heroes," he growled, squinting at Plasmius and the two Phantom look-a-likes that had arrived on the scene. "They are nothing but cold, heartless, monsters."

With that, all the Far Frozen warriors, and their leader, turned their attention back towards the newly arrived specters and observed them more closely. With pale green skin, pointed ears, sharpened fangs, glowing blood-red eyes and flaming hair; these creatures were anything but the heroes they had been expecting to arrive on the scene.

"No," Frostbite was the first to speak with a horrified whisper as he took a terrified step backwards. "What have you done to them?" he asked, his voice shaking with both fear and rage. "The two of them couldn't possibly have been corrupted and enslaved by the likes of you," he snarled angrily.

"Well, fear not then," Plasmius reassured with a mocking grin. "These creatures are brand new creations of mine that I fashioned for the sole purpose of doing my bidding," he began to explain. "They are certainly not the first, but I didn't want them to fail with such general ease against strong opponents. I also didn't want them capable of turning on me so easily like their predecessors have done in the past; so I took extra precautions in order to make them extra durable and docile, being more receptive towards my commands," he explained, revealing his fangs in a toothy, malicious grin, which in turn was copied by the two dark specters, followed by mischievous cackles.

"Well then," one of the three youngling warriors voiced bravely as all three readied themselves to attack the two evil specters. "If they aren't the real things, then we shouldn't feel guilty about taking them out!" he shouted before all three let out ferocious battle cries as they began to charge.

The two dark copies of the Phantom Siblings needed no further provocation, or orders from Plasmius. They continued to cackle whilst flashing toothy grins as they raised their arms and fired simple energy rays at the two youngling warriors on either side of their formation, sending them both flying backwards passed Plasmius and into the snow at the feet of the stunned adult warriors.

"WAH!" the third youngling warrior gasped in shock after halting his attack and watching his two compatriots being taken out so easily. "Grr!" he growled, turning back towards his opponents, only to find himself suddenly winded after a surprise kick to the stomach.

The dark version of Dani stood in front of him with one foot dug into the snow with the other lodged into his stomach after having landed the devastating blow. He only managed to stumble backwards a single step before the dark version of Danny suddenly appeared beside him and spun-kicked him in the side, sending him crashing into and nearby snow drift that left him buried and out of commission, like the other two.

"Tis but a small taste of what they are capable of," Plasmius chided the remaining warriors, all looking quite disheveled. "Those three didn't stand any sort of a chance if your village elders were so easily disposed of during the earlier raid," he chuckled, reminding them of the earlier attack that had been carried out.

"Hmm, yes," Frostbite grumbled with disgust as he glanced to the side at the mountain cliff that overlooked their village, finding smoke billowing out of where he knew the treasure chamber was located. "You conducted your earlier attack in order to keep the elders busy whilst you raided the treasure chamber for the Infi-map again, didn't you?" he asked of Plasmius suspiciously.

"How many times would it be now that it's been stolen from you?" Plasmius chuckled, not even trying to deny the allegations against him. "Four? Three of those times by myself?" he asked mockingly. "You really need better security; or perhaps a new hiding place to keep your things. Speaking of which…" he taunted before arbitrarily cutting himself off as he reached into the folds of his suit. "You really shouldn't keep all of your little valuable treasures and trinkets together in one place," he advised, pulling out a worn and tattered scroll, tied with a purple ribbon. "It makes them easier to steal if they are all in the same place," he taunted, holding the battered scroll for all to see.

All of the warriors looked at the scroll with tilted heads and cocked eyebrows, not really understanding its importance, but Frostbite did. His pupils contracted as his suddenly widened eyes were filled with an intense bloodlust. This was no mere scroll to him. If the theft of the Infi-map only irritated him, then this battered scroll must have held even greater importance if his sudden change in demeanor was of any indication.

"YOU WILL RETURN THAT AT ONCE!" he yelled ferociously, taking a step forward and holding his spear in an attack ready position, threateningly.

"And if I refuse?" Plasmius responded with an amused chuckle.

"THEN YOU WILL TASTE MY WRATH!" Frostbite bellowed as he suddenly lunged forward, raising his spear over his head, ready to thrust it into his enemy.

Plasmius only looked on with mild amusement as the dark versions of the Phantom Siblings suddenly appeared in front of him with their hands raised and charged with glowing red ecto-energy. Blinded by fury and rage, Frostbite had no way of reacting in time as they released their twin charges, one hitting him in his stomach and the other hitting his left arm, directly above where it met with the ice that formed his forearm.

"RAWH!" he screamed as his ferocious roar became a cry of agony. He was sent flying through the air for a bit before he crashed back into the snowy ground some distance away.

"LORD FROSTBITE!" the Far Frozen warriors yelled with worry after watching their leader being blasted away so easily. They turned their attentions back to Plasmius and the dark siblings, seething with rage of their own.

"Have fun," Plasmius whispered to the dark siblings with a wicked grin directed at the Far Frozen warriors, all preparing to attack with spears and freezing energy.

The dark siblings didn't need telling twice. With their teeth barred, fists clenched and ecto-energy charged, they and their adversaries all lunged for one another, all ready to engage in an all-out brawl.

As fists flew, spears shattered and splintered, and as beams of red and blue energy collided, the village elder barely managed to construct a crudely made icy battlement that would protect him from the nearby fighting. In no shape to be fighting anymore, he merely leaned his back against the snow and tried to calm himself by looking into the distance. It was there that he saw a shadow limping towards him from afar. He recognized the shadow as their leader instantly, though now he was badly hurt, and holding his arm against his side as he slowly returned to the battle sight.

"My lord, you are injured, we should retreat for-" he tried to reason with his leader as he approached, but he stopped upon realizing that the bloodlust in Frostbite's eyes had not been abated. If anything, it had intensified to the point that his once kind hearted eyes now began to glow with a slight tinge of red, indicating the fury that had yet to be extinguished within him. Injured or not, he was still ready to rumble as he set his sights on Plasmius, who seemed quite content with simply floating with an amused look on his face as he watched the dark siblings completely dominate over the Far Frozen warriors.

The pair of dark siblings truly were a force to be reckoned with, despite their uncoordinated attacks with one another. With a series of mere kicks and punches, with energy blasts to finish the job, they easily swept through the Far Frozen warriors, one by one until only two stood. Standing side by side, they charged freezing energy into their clawed hands before taking aim and firing at the dark siblings. The evil twins dodged easily enough, all the while smirking in delight as if merely highly amused by their opponents display.

Flying around to the sides of their Far Frozen opponents, all while avoiding continuous beams of freezing energy, leaving frozen blocks of ice in their wake; the dark twins suddenly lunged forward, catching their Far Frozen opponents off guard by suddenly appearing in front of them and simultaneously punching them in their faces. Forced to relent their freezing attacks, the Far Frozen warriors stumbled backwards, their backs bumping into one another, and causing the other to jump slightly.

This momentary distraction provided the dark twins with all they needed to pull back their legs and swing them as hard as they could into their much larger opponent's stomachs, knocking the wind out of them and sending them flying backwards into the snow some distance away. Wanting to finish the job, and make absolutely sure their Far Frozen opponents would not be getting back up too soon, they both raised their arms and prepared to fire separate charges of red ecto-energy from their palms.

"RAGH!" they both bellowed out before they were arbitrarily cut off. "ARGH!" the dark version of Danny suddenly screamed out in agony.

"What!?" Plasmius shouted in frustration, having been smirking in the direction of the fallen Far Frozen warriors, and not having seen what had just happened.

The dark version of Dani had still fired her beam of energy at the two downed Far Frozen warriors, enshrouding them in a cloud of dust and snow following a final explosion, before she cocked an eye of curiosity at her dark twin, unsure or uncaring, of what was the cause of his sudden dilemma.

The section of his body, from the top of his right collar bone to the right side of his torso had been cleanly sliced through; his right arm and shoulder suddenly falling to the snowy ground in a pool of green blood after having been cleaved right off by a sword made of ice, now stuck in the ground. It had sliced through with such velocity that it wasn't even stained with a drop of green ghost blood. The now useless arm was suddenly stomped on and crushed, puddling into green goop, under the massive clawed foot of a Far Frozen warrior, the same warrior that wielded the sword of ice; the now crushed severed arm melted away, leaving him standing in a puddle of green ecto-plasm.

"The youngling was right before," Frostbite growled, never taking his eyes off the dark siblings; Dark Danny holding his bleeding right side with his left hand, trying to stop the bleeding and staining his suit with his green ghost blood, and Dark Dani, now focused on him and preparing to lunge at him with a sinister smirk, as if she wasn't the least bit deterred by what had happened to her brother, nor sympathized with him in any way, and welcomed the challenge. "The two of you are not the real things," he shouted, his own temper rising once more. He removed the ice sword from the ground and positioned himself to slash out with it once more. "Which means, I don't need to feel guilty about doing this!" he shouted with a ferocious roar.

He slashed his ice sword upward through the air at the same moment the dark version of Dani lunged for him, her fist pulled back and ready to pummel him. She stopped in mid-leap and went wide-eyed as she suddenly gagged before coughing up green ghost blood. She hadn't been bifurcated, as had been Frostbite's intention, but she had received a severe gash that ran from her left hip, up across her abdomen, and ended just under her still raised right arm. She landed on the ground and wrapped her arms around the wound spanning the width of her torso and abdomen, her green ghost blood seeping through her suit and beginning to puddle around her feet.

With the two dark specters having sustained such extensive wounds, Frostbite now felt it safe to turn his attention fully toward Plasmius, whom glared back at him with mild surprise written on his face. Raising his ice sword and pointing it at Plasmius, Frostbite proudly declared, "It's over, Plasmius! You will pay for the crimes you've committed against my people. Now, return the ancient relics you have stolen, and may the Unworld cleanse your soul!"

"Are you sure it's me you want to be focusing on right now?" Plasmius asked him tauntingly, tilting his head to the side and smirking, knowingly. "Perhaps you're not done with them yet?" he asked curiously.

"If you think your little puppets can still fight so soon after having received such injuries, then you are a bigger fool than any specter I've ever encountered," Frostbite responded, bravely confronting his opponent, with no intention of backing down so easily. Even if Plasmius' use of the Time Staff was enough to overpower him, he would not go down without a fight; indicated by his tightening of his grip on the ice blade.

"The only fool here is the one that thinks they would be rendered unable to fight after having received wounds that are only mere inconveniences at best," Plasmius snickered with delight as he eyed something happening behind Frostbite's back.

The Far Frozen leader looked at him with worried concern, his arm lowering the ice blade as he looked back over his shoulder at a sight he'd never thought he'd see. Both of the dark siblings were standing upright, no longer acting like they were in pain; they had even stopped bleeding from their extensive wounds. Frostbite was further horrified to find that their wounds were actually beginning to heal at a much faster rate than he'd expected of them.

The diagonal wound across Dark Dani's chest and abdomen appeared to zip itself back together before her Phantom Suit followed; repairing itself, and leaving no trace of the deep gash that had been inflicted. Dark Danny did seem to be straining himself a bit, gritting his teeth and growling as his exposed interior began to bubble with green ecto-plasm before it grew outwards, producing an ecto-plasmic appendage that morphed into the shape of his arm before solidifying into such; his suit being repaired along with his newly recreated arm. He flexed his new fingers before balling them into a fist prior to glancing towards Frostbite with a smug, self-gratifying grin.

"I incorporated Undergrowth's regenerative capabilities into their genetic makeup when I was creating them," Plasmius enlightened with a smug grin of his own. "A neat little touch, I must admit; they wouldn't be as durable otherwise," he admitted. "And their increased power output only amplifies the rate of regeneration, allowing them to recover from such devastating wounds rather quickly," he added as a bonus.

"Such monstrosities," Frostbite groaned to himself in a horrified whisper; his eyes widened from shock and unblinking, his focus back on the dark twins, now fully healed. "Not even tearing them apart molecule by molecule would be enough to hinder them," he realized. "They need to be completely obliterated from existence," he growled, now fully grasping just how formidable his opponents were.

"A task that you are not up to challenging," Plasmius chuckled before he frowned with displeasure. "Now then, finish this, so we can be off," he growled, issuing the dark twins their orders.

Frostbite's eyes widened again, not from fear or surprise, but from pain and agony as he was suddenly impaled upon a pair of fists to his abdomen. The dark siblings had moved with such blinding speed that he hadn't been able to see their movements and react in time before they each threw a punch to his stomach. This was enough to nearly take his breath away, and even caused him to choke on a mixture of his own spittle and green ghostly blood, now dripping through the fur on his chin.

Luckily, he was still standing; but he knew he couldn't take another hit like that. These things had only managed to get in a few hits on him since he'd engaged them in battle, and yet they'd managed to get the better of him with relative ease. Were the real Phantom Siblings this powerful and just held back against him in the past? He never imagined they could be this powerful; and if they weren't, there was little hope of anyone beating these creatures.

That didn't mean he was going to give in just yet though. Plasmius had committed crimes against him and his people time and time again. He'd stolen valuable artifacts, valuable enough to send even him into a nearly blind rage in a desperate attempt to retrieve them. He couldn't just stand by and let him get away with all of these atrocities. He needed to pull together whatever reserves of strength he had remaining and put an end to all this madness; for the sake of his people, his allies, and most importantly, all creatures in existence, both within the Ghost Zone and the human world.

With the dark siblings fists still digging into his stomach, he latched on to their forearms with his claws, catching them by surprise, and pulled his arms apart to his sides, dragging the dark siblings away from each other. He then brought his arms back together, slamming the two of them together, and knocking them senseless. He used this very brief opportunity to reposition his claws so that they were both wrapped tightly around both of their arms before he spun around, swung them and released them, sending them crashing into a nearby snow bank.

Not wanting to waste any precious time, he quickly grabbed up his ice sword, which he'd dropped when they attacked him, and spun around, slashing it through the air and impacting it into the frozen ground where Plasmius had been standing mere moments before. "Wha-!?" he gasped, his face now frozen with a mixture of fear and dread upon realizing he was gone, and thinking about where he could have gone to.

"Time in," Plasmius' voice called out before Frostbite was suddenly blasted off his feet and into the air by a powerful emission of pink energy from Plasmius' outstretched hand after he'd instantly reappeared at the Far Frozen leader's side, out of the way of the attack that had been meant for him.

"RAAAAAAGH!" Frostbite roared as he was blasted through the air at high speed. He quickly flew across the landscape before crashing into the side of the snow covered mountain.

An explosion soon followed that shook the mountainside, jarring loose all of the snow that had been accumulated on the side. In one long continuous, monstrous roar, the resulting avalanche swept into the valley and through the remains of the Far Frozen village that had been destroyed. Far Frozen residents, old and young, conscious or not, were unable to escape the wall of snow that swept over them, burying them completely. When all finally went quiet, the only signs of the old inhabitance was the shimmering remains of the ice castle in the distance; the entire village had been wiped clean by the snow.

The eerie quiet was soon interrupted by yet another trembling noise. A powerful beam of red energy shot up through the snow pack and disappeared into the vast expanse of the Ghost Zone beyond. When the light had faded, the two dark siblings emerged from the hole in the snow and touched down, looking around in frustration for the Far Frozen leader they'd been fighting.

"Your job is done," Plasmius called out to them from above. They both stopped looking around and glanced upwards with curiosity as Plasmius descended and landed in front of them after having flown up to avoid being buried in the avalanche.

Not too far away, but far enough that none of them were able to notice, the icy arm of the Far Frozen leader himself emerged from the snow, only managing to unbury himself up to his head as he was far too weakened to pull himself the rest of the way free. His vision was blurry and going dark. His consciousness was fading fast, but he was alert enough to catch the last snippets of what Plasmius was saying to the dark siblings.

"You two did well," he congratulated them. "Now I'll be informed of Freakshow's return after he's taken care of Daniel and those blasted girls; assuming he's competent enough to actually finish them off, rather than playing games with them," he growled as he unfurled the Infi-map after having retrieved it from his cloak. "With things wrapped up here, we can begin the next phase of my plan," he informed them as he rolled the map back up and put it away out of sight. "Taking out the remainder of my opposition should be our next priority. I'm sure those fools at Axion Labs have had more than enough time to gather their wits and regroup for another attempt," he snickered as he and the dark siblings began to take flight. "After that, there will be no one left that can challenge me," he declared, his voice trailing off as the three specters flew away from the Far Frozen realm without haste, not realizing that Frostbite had been watching; not that he could have done anything about their leaving anyway, as he had finally fallen into unconsciousness.

The fire crackled in the fireplace of the cavern where Frostbite had just finished recounting his tale to the real Phantom Siblings; their plates shoved to the side, their food long since eaten. Danielle was leaning over the table with her hands gripping the sides of her head; she hadn't taken Frostbite's story well. Danny sat back in his chair with one hand holding his chin as he stared at the stone table they were sat at, deep in thought.

"It's taken us several days to recover to the point we are now," Frostbite continued, concluding his tale for the siblings. "We've been working round the clock in order to rebuild our village from scratch. The old one was buried under several feet of snow that has since frozen solid. Our powers only allow us to freeze, we can't utilize ecto-energy like you can in order to melt it all," he explained. "We did manage to dig out the shrine dedicated to you, Great One," he said in a much brighter tone. "And the entrances to the caves have been reopened," he said, waving his hand to indicate the cave network they were currently inhabiting. "But, that's about it," he said, becoming quite melancholy again as he began to shake his head. "The castle, thankfully, is entirely made out of ice, so was the first thing we repaired. It will serve as a temporary home for the entire village whilst we reconstruct their dwellings. Once that is completed, I plan to send our warriors to your world to aid in the effort," he informed the pair. "But for now, we must look after our own, at least until I can be assured that our elders and younglings will be safe during our absence; I don't want a repeat of what we've already been through," he explained, his tone growing dark with worry.

"How can they be so powerful?" Danielle asked, her face still pressed against the surface of the stone table. "And they can regenerate themselves on top of that. How do we beat something like that?" she asked with grave concern.

"It certainly explains why they didn't seem to take any damage when we were fighting them, despite the energy loss," Danny thought out loud as he continued to ponder over what they'd been told. Thinking back, he'd recalled his previous encounter with the dark version of his sister. "No matter how much I threw at her, she always came back, seemingly unscathed. She just tanked everything, and anything she couldn't defend against, she simply healed herself afterwards whilst she was still enshrouded in smoke, so I couldn't see," he recalled.

"If they truly are superior to you in strength, then fighting them head-on is not an option," Frostbite warned them. "I might have suggested outsmarting them instead, but from what you've described, they are now capable of thinking for themselves, rather than simply taking and following orders."

"Together, it's hard to break their defenses, as they can both watch each other's backs; but I didn't peg either of them as being expert tacticians," Danny spoke up. "Especially when they were separated from one another."

"Yeah, that darker version of you was able to see right through some of my techniques, but otherwise, he seemed more like a brawler than fighter; getting by with brute force, strength and power alone, rather than relying on his own tact," Danielle pointed out.

"Same with your darker self," he agreed, nodding his head and glancing towards her. "For as powerful and formidable as they may have seemed; it was only after they joined together that they became a greater threat," he concluded.

"If that's the case, then splitting them apart may be the best option for going about this," she speculated. "For times when they are together, we'll just have to counter them any way we can with our own tag team until we can split them up."

"We still can't overpower them individually," he reminded her. "After splitting them up, we'd have to tag team them separately in order to take them down."

"But with that regeneration of theirs, we'd have to wear them down first, so their healing factor has less effect," she reminded him in turn. "If their rate of regeneration is linked to their power output, then we need to drain them of their power before striking back and taking them out while they're too weakened to heal themselves," she theorized.

"That still leaves us with how to handle them before separating them," he said, bringing them back to the subject of how to hold them off when they were fighting together. "We never really got to see them fighting together," he reminded her, "but they were able to coordinate an attack that would've done serious damage if it'd hit its mark," he pointed out. "That's proof enough that they are not to be taken lightly, together or apart," he warned.

"Then perhaps we can observe how they fight together, and formulate how to counter them from that?" she asked as a possibility.

"And how exactly do you plan for us to observe them?" he asked her skeptically, folding his arms and looking at her with uncertainty. "While we're fighting them?" he asked hypothetically. "I don't know about you, but I won't have time to watch how they fight together if I'm too busy myself trying to not get my butt wasted," he informed her.

"Right, sorry," she apologized sheepishly, not realizing she hadn't thought that through all the way.

"We'll figure something out," he reassured her, closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat before opening them to stare up at the ceiling. "We need to figure out how to get back home again first," he sighed.

"Without being spotted either," she sighed as well, folding her arms on the stone table and resting her chin on them. "We can't fly back, Vlad will see us coming with the Infi-map again, like last time," she added bitterly.

During the entire exchange going on between the siblings, Frostbite had sat back and watched with a smile as they discussed their situation with one another. Seeing them both planning with one another brought a sense of relief to him, and he didn't want to interrupt them, so he kept to himself. But it was at this moment that he felt he could step in and offer them assistance.

"Our flying machines are undetectable by the Infi-map," he informed them. "I can arrange for one of them to be leant to you so you can travel back to your home portal," he offered. "If you remain in your human forms, then you won't be spotted returning," he pointed out.

The siblings glanced at one another, as if silently contemplating his offer, before they both grinned and nodded their consent towards him. "We'd really appreciate that, Frostbite. Thanks," Danny thanked him sincerely.

"I will see to it personally," he proudly announced as he made to stand from the stone table.

"Umm, actually, Frostbite?" Danielle said to catch his attention before he could leave. "There was something else that bothered me, about what you were telling us about Vlad stealing the Infi-map. You mentioned that he'd stolen something else that was far more valuable. What was it? Do you have other treasures that are even more valuable than a map of the entire Ghost Zone?" she asked inquisitively.

Frostbite's face became quite disturbed at this new line of questioning. He seemed a bit too anxious to answer right away. He looked to the side and scratched the side of his head with his icy claw, perhaps trying to think of a way to not have to answer such a question. Him and his big mouth, perhaps he should have just left that part out of his retelling of events.

"Frostbite," Danny said, standing from his seat with a worried expression of his own. He didn't like that Frostbite seemed to be hiding something from them. "If whatever it is that Plasmius stole was important enough for him to target it, along with the Infi-map, then it's something we need to know about," he urged the Far Frozen leader.

With a heavy sigh, Frostbite relented. "Very well," he conceded before turning to a Far Frozen attendant that happened to be clearing the stone table of the used kitchen ware. "Please see to it that transportation for them is arranged and will be ready by tomorrow," he requested, still sounding quite dour. "And inform the guards at the entrance that nobody is to reenter unless I personally call for them," he ordered, much more sternly, almost as a warning that he and the hybrids were to be left alone.

The Far Frozen attendant seemed quite taken aback by this, but bowed in acknowledgement, hands full of used dishes. "My Lord," he said, excusing himself before he turned to leave, leaving him and the hybrid siblings by themselves.

"What I'm about to tell you is known by only a few, and needs to be kept that way," he informed the siblings, explaining why he sent the attendant away with orders not to return. "Please, sit," he requested as he retook his seat, never having moved more than a step away from it himself. After all three of them had been reseated, Frostbite took a few extra moments to ponder on what he was going to say. "The item which we kept in our possession was a fragile page torn from Sojourn's lost journal," he informed the siblings.

The two Danny's merely blinked in confusion before glancing at one another and shrugged. "Never heard of him," they both echoed one another in response.

Frostbite seemed a bit perplexed by all this, but forged onward regardless. "Sojourn was a nomadic ghost, way back when," he continued. "He traveled the entire infinite vastness of the Ghost Zone, recording and documenting the exact locations of all of his discoveries within a journal he kept on his person at all times," he further explained. "One of his greatest feats is said to have been the discovery of Elsewhereness, of all places," he added, almost in elation upon bringing it up.

"Never heard of it," they again echoed one another.

"And Elsewhereness is?" Danielle questioned, leaning forward on the table in anticipation, despite hers and Danny's ignorance.

"Great Ghosts! You two don't know about Elsewhereness!?" Frostbite nearly shouted in surprise, his shock showing on his face as he gawked at the two of them.

"Half human, remember?" Danny reminded him, shrugging his shoulders. "We aren't too well versed in the lore of the Ghost Zone as you are," he explained their ignorance of the subject.

"Elsewhereness is a realm where all fear, pain, and misery cease to exist," Frostbite answered them, accepting that they had reason to not know about something seemingly so important. "It is every ghosts dream to go there and spend the rest of their afterlives in eternal bliss," he said, almost dreamily before he was brought back to reality. "Problem is, no one knows where it is. Sojourn is the only one rumored to have discovered it, and documented its location in his journal," he explained.

"Why don't you guys just ask him?" Danny inquired.

"If he's nomadic, then making contact with the guy would be a challenge in and of itself," Danielle pointed out.

"He hasn't been heard of, or seen, in a very long time, even by ghost's standards," Frostbite sighed, shaking his head wearily. "The only way of finding the location of Elsewhereness now is to locate his missing journal."

"Which seeing as he kept it on his person at all times, and seeing as you can't find the guy, should also be an impossible task," Danny figured.

"Yes and no," Frostbite responded to his presumption. "No one knows what happened to Sojourn, nor what happened to the journal, per say; but several of its pages float randomly throughout the Ghost Zone," he informed them. "Only a few pages are known to have been discovered; the one we kept in our possession being one of them after it was located by a scout for one of our hunting parties a few hundred years ago. Being an artifact as important as it is, it was imperative that it be kept hidden away for safekeeping, with as few knowing about it as possible. Somehow, Plasmius got wind of it, and it is now in his possession."

"Plasmius doesn't just collect ancient relics of incredible value without a reason," Danny stated as he began pondering. "He must be trying to collect the pages, and took yours when a golden opportunity arose," he theorized.

"That is what I fear may be the case," Frostbite sighed with regret. "If he collects enough of the pages, he could learn of the location of Elsewhereness."

"What would happen if he did find it?" Danielle asked, growing a bit worried over these new revelations. "What would he do?"

"Rule over it, destroy it, charge an outrageous admittance fee to the Ghost Zone's residents, who knows," Danny answered. "Whatever it is, it won't be good for ghosts or humans alike. If what he's doing to our world is of any indication, then I'd hate to imagine what he'd do here if he found a realm of eternal bliss. He doesn't exactly seem the type to retire and take it easy, unless the world around him is up in smoke."

"All the more reason why he must be stopped at all costs, and that page recovered and returned to trustworthy hands," Frostbite exclaimed.

"And anyone up to the challenge has to get passed those dark versions of us first," Danielle sighed, gripping her head between her hands tightly again as she leaned forward over the stone table.

"We've got to come up with something," Danny determined. "This is a heavy burden we must bear, but if we can't get through those things in one piece and find a way to stop him, not only will our world be wiped away, but so will all the hopes and dreams every ghost in existence has of ever finding Elsewhereness."

Frostbite grit his teeth and clenched his hands into fists, slamming them into the stone table hard enough to crack it. The mere idea of Elsewhereness being discovered by someone like Plasmius was absolutely maddening. He looked up from the table at the sound of a chair being pushed away from the table to find Danny standing and looking at him with determination burning in his eyes.

"Frostbite, is the arena in good enough condition for use?" he asked of the Far Frozen leader.

Danielle looked up at him in wonderment of what he was planning.

"It is," he confirmed. "Young Danielle here had been blowing off some steam in it earlier, prior to being brought here," he reminded the ghost teen.

"Good, because we've got until tomorrow to work on some combo moves that could prove effective against those evil doppelgangers of ours," Danny said with fire burning in his eyes. "And hopefully, stop Plasmius in his tracks."

Boy, oh boy. Do we have a bit to talk about here. Let's start with the small things and go up from there.

Firstly: How Frostbite received his icy arm was never elaborated upon in the TV series, so I decided to come up with a small backstory for how it came about. I think it makes sense that he may have lost it during a battle or a hunting trip. Adds a little bit to his character.

Secondly: we get to see the Dark Siblings again for the second time since their introduction in the last chapter of the previous story, A Twist in the Dimensions. And they seem much more different than when we were first introduced to them. They were much more independent, and far more malicious and cold-blooded than they were here. These ones were more under Vlad's control and did as he told them, rather than merely following his orders rather reluctantly. What could have changed about them between the two events? Well, you're just gunna have to wait and see later one, as that will be answered in the coming chapters. And trust me, the events leading up to their "change" in personality will be quite devastating.

Thirdly: We got another retelling of past events. We didn't get a whole chapter devoted to it, like we did with Chapter 7, but it certainly fills us in on what Vlad's been up to since our heroes were off elsewhere trying to figure out how to come home. Chronologically, the story retelling that Frostbite gave happens around the same time that Danny was fighting with Monkey Fist in Paris in the previous story; a few days after they were sent away. It also reveals how Vlad got his hands on the Infi-map. How he'd managed to do so was only hinted at in the final chapter of ATitD, so that little story arc is wrapping up nicely. But, the Infi-map isn't the only thing he got his hands on, and that leads us into the main topic for this chapter.

And Finally: We are given an introduction to the story of Sojourn, his lost journal, the pages that are floating randomly throughout the Ghost Zone, and his supposed discovery of Elsewhereness. No, these are not original ideas of mine, but Butch Hartman himself only recently came up with the lore of it all, and I just knew that I had to find some way of integrating them into the story in some form or another. If you don't know anything about them, you can look for the video on Butch Hartman's Youtube Channel. There, he will go into detail behind the character he came up with, as well as a few other realms and tidbits that may pop up from time to time in these stories. They will all be touched upon here and there throughout the story, and further on down the line as well; so this is not the last we've heard of them.