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"Contrariwise," Valerie Gray read, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

As she mulled over that line, Valerie wished for the fiftieth time that she didn't have to do this extra credit book report on Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.  But then again, such was life.  You had to do things that you didn't want to on occasion in order to traverse through the tough times.

And boy, did she know about tough times.

The life she had treasured had been obliterated by ghosts.  In response–and with the aid of a very special benefactor–she decided to revisit this injustice upon all of ghostkind, and make them feel the very same pain that she felt every day.

But that was just part of her existence.  By night, she was a ghost-hunting vigilante; by day, she was a lowly cashier at the Nasty Burger.  It was something that took quite a bit of time out of her life, and she always regretted that she wasn't able to devote herself to her ghost-hunting all of the time.

Valerie then began to read the book again, skimping over the line about Alice being merely part of someone's dream.  Yet, about halfway through the section, her cell phone rang.  Checking the caller I.D., she saw it to be Tucker Foley.

"Yes, what is it, Foley?" she asked, annoyed that the techno-geek was interrupting.

"Val!  You've gotta help!" Tucker shouted from the other end of the line.  "None of us know what to do!"

"Whoa!  Cool your jets, Foley," she said, trying to decipher the boy's speech.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean Danny ran away!  He called earlier, saying he was leaving for good!  We searched everywhere for him, and we can't find him!"

Valerie's throat constricted as Tucker said the words.  Danny had run away?  But why on Earth would he do that?  And if he did, where did he go to?

"Tucker..." she managed to say, "I'll be right there.  Just tell me where to meet you."

"Well, we've already got a pretty good idea where to start..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Now cloaked in the comforting guise of her black-and-red nanotech battlesuit, Valerie sped across the Amity Park skyline towards the park fairgrounds–the last place Danny had been seen–to meet Sam Manson and Tucker Foley.

And hopefully, find out what had prompted Danny's extreme actions.

There was a certain something to having a secret identity that Valerie appreciated.  Without her human face, nobody knew who she was beneath her mask.  Without her human flaws, she was free of weakness, sorrow, and guilt.  It was truly liberating.

However, the secret identity came at a price.  Because of her duties that she had, she had great concern over how to express her feelings towards a deeper relationship with Danny.  She couldn't risk losing him or seeing him get hurt just because she wasn't able to prevent him from getting caught in the crossfire.

But that didn't mean that she was just going to ignore him.  She still had great concern over his well-being, and she was going to protect him from anything that would dare to harm him.

Especially ghosts.

As she landed somewhere in the forest near the center of the town, Valerie's jet sled converted itself back into a nanite cloud, along with the rest of her suit.  Now back in her human guise, she quickly trekked through the wooded terrain, making record time in reaching the spot near the red-and-black tent where she'd met Danny that morning.

And sure enough, Sam and Tucker were there, concerned expressions on both their faces.

"Alright, I'm here..." Valerie panted.  "Now could someone please explain to me why you told me to come here of all places?"

"Because," Sam replied, gesturing to the dual-colored cloth, "this guy in the tent that we saw earlier today... I think he's got something to do with this."

"Solitaire?" Tucker asked.  "But why?"

"I don't know," Sam confessed.  "I just have a bad feeling about him..."

Valerie sighed.  "Fine.  But if we don't get any leads, we do this my way.  Alright?"

"We'll see..." Sam said evenly.

With Sam leading the way, the three teens peeked into the tent to find Solitaire sitting at his little table, performing a complex one-handed shuffle with his deck of cards.  Then, the goth cleared her throat quite loudly, possibly intending to prompt a reaction from the fortune teller.

But none came.  He simply sat there and said, "Ah... I had a feeling you three would come..."

Valerie and Tucker followed Sam as she marched right up to Solitaire and pointed her index finger at him like a pistol.  "Alright, you creep, enough with the cold reading!  Where's Danny?!"

No expression crossed Solitaire's face.  "Your young friend?  How should I know?"

"You were the last one to talk to him in person!" Tucker said, joining in the yelling.  "You should know!"

"Well, I don't."  The man's voice was uncannily calm.  "So if you three will just leave my tent..."

Valerie had then had enough.  Stepping forward, she slammed her fist down on the table, her bracelets clattering with the wood.  "Listen here, you... Danny's a friend of mine.  And if you think that we're gonna leave just because you say that you don't know anything about his disappearance, you're out of your mind!"

Finally, a reaction came from the fortune teller.

But it wasn't what Valerie expected.  She'd expected something like fear or anger or even compliance.

Instead, the man's thin lips creased into a smug grin.

"You three really are smarter than I gave you credit for..." he said, a hint of arrogance lining his deep, cavernous voice.  "However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you interfere with my plans."

Puzzled, Valerie asked, "What do you mean?"

Instead of a verbal answer, she got a physical one.  Taking the card deck he'd been shuffling, Solitaire drew three cards off the top and tossed them at the three kids.  Before she knew what was happening, the cards had each grown to the size of rugs, and had wrapped around the three, rendering their arms bound and helpless.  The rest of the card deck was now floating around Solitaire, circling him like a miniature tornado.

"I was planning on my hostile takeover happening next afternoon," he said gravely.  "But it seems that you've forced my hand."

Valerie then watched in horror as the cards implanted themselves in the earth beneath their feet.  A split second afterwards, glowing emerald erupted from the ground, sprouting upwards like beanstalks.  One in particular, plateau-like in design, started to raise the four people into the air as the rest of the crystals ripped the tent to shreds.

Up, up they went to dizzying heights as the city of Amity Park became smaller and smaller beneath them.  Looking down, Valerie saw numerous crystals identical to those in the tent sprouting up all around town.  Panicked citizens were fleeing for their lives as their homes were encased in cold, unforgiving emerald.  Seas of people surged into the streets, desperately trying to flee the onslaught of growing mineral terror.

The air started to become thin as they rose to the heavens, the three teens gasping for breath in the night sky.  Luckily, the situation didn't endure, as the crystals that had grown all around them were now encasing them in a protective, green-tinted dome.

Finally, the great uprising of the emeralds had stopped.  Valerie, Tucker, and Sam looked down: they seemed to be miles above the city, which was now fully encased in glittering green crystal.  Below, the entire population of Amity Park had been driven from their metropolis, congregating in a deluge of humanity that was now roaring with disapproval.

Looking back to Solitaire, Sam shouted, "You monster!  It was your fault Danny left!  You're a ghost!!!"

Sure enough, Valerie witnessed Solitaire's skin change from flesh colored to a sickly green hue, which spread like a disease over his body.  His eyes, once emerald green, were now a bright crimson, glowing with malevolence.

"Indeed, child," he said smugly.  "But it's far too late for you to utilize that knowledge.  This city is mine to command and control.  And you three... are my prisoners."

And within the new crystal tower that cast a mighty shadow over the exiled citizens of Amity Park, a completely new world began to take form.

(cut to commerical...)

Description
"Contrariwise," Valerie Gray read, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

As she mulled over that line, Valerie wished for the fiftieth time that she didn't have to do this extra credit book report on Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.  But then again, such was life.  You had to do things that you didn't want to on occasion in order to traverse through the tough times.

And boy, did she know about tough times.

The life she had treasured had been obliterated by ghosts.  In response–and with the aid of a very special benefactor–she decided to revisit this injustice upon all of ghostkind, and make them feel the very same pain that she felt every day.

But that was just part of her existence.  By night, she was a ghost-hunting vigilante; by day, she was a lowly cashier at the Nasty Burger.  It was something that took quite a bit of time out of her life, and she always regretted that she wasn't able to devote herself to her ghost-hunting all of the time.

Valerie then began to read the book again, skimping over the line about Alice being merely part of someone's dream.  Yet, about halfway through the section, her cell phone rang.  Checking the caller I.D., she saw it to be Tucker Foley.

"Yes, what is it, Foley?" she asked, annoyed that the techno-geek was interrupting.

"Val!  You've gotta help!" Tucker shouted from the other end of the line.  "None of us know what to do!"

"Whoa!  Cool your jets, Foley," she said, trying to decipher the boy's speech.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean Danny ran away!  He called earlier, saying he was leaving for good!  We searched everywhere for him, and we can't find him!"

Valerie's throat constricted as Tucker said the words.  Danny had run away?  But why on Earth would he do that?  And if he did, where did he go to?

"Tucker..." she managed to say, "I'll be right there.  Just tell me where to meet you."

"Well, we've already got a pretty good idea where to start..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Now cloaked in the comforting guise of her black-and-red nanotech battlesuit, Valerie sped across the Amity Park skyline towards the park fairgrounds–the last place Danny had been seen–to meet Sam Manson and Tucker Foley.

And hopefully, find out what had prompted Danny's extreme actions.

There was a certain something to having a secret identity that Valerie appreciated.  Without her human face, nobody knew who she was beneath her mask.  Without her human flaws, she was free of weakness, sorrow, and guilt.  It was truly liberating.

However, the secret identity came at a price.  Because of her duties that she had, she had great concern over how to express her feelings towards a deeper relationship with Danny.  She couldn't risk losing him or seeing him get hurt just because she wasn't able to prevent him from getting caught in the crossfire.

But that didn't mean that she was just going to ignore him.  She still had great concern over his well-being, and she was going to protect him from anything that would dare to harm him.

Especially ghosts.

As she landed somewhere in the forest near the center of the town, Valerie's jet sled converted itself back into a nanite cloud, along with the rest of her suit.  Now back in her human guise, she quickly trekked through the wooded terrain, making record time in reaching the spot near the red-and-black tent where she'd met Danny that morning.

And sure enough, Sam and Tucker were there, concerned expressions on both their faces.

"Alright, I'm here..." Valerie panted.  "Now could someone please explain to me why you told me to come here of all places?"

"Because," Sam replied, gesturing to the dual-colored cloth, "this guy in the tent that we saw earlier today... I think he's got something to do with this."

"Solitaire?" Tucker asked.  "But why?"

"I don't know," Sam confessed.  "I just have a bad feeling about him..."

Valerie sighed.  "Fine.  But if we don't get any leads, we do this my way.  Alright?"

"We'll see..." Sam said evenly.

With Sam leading the way, the three teens peeked into the tent to find Solitaire sitting at his little table, performing a complex one-handed shuffle with his deck of cards.  Then, the goth cleared her throat quite loudly, possibly intending to prompt a reaction from the fortune teller.

But none came.  He simply sat there and said, "Ah... I had a feeling you three would come..."

Valerie and Tucker followed Sam as she marched right up to Solitaire and pointed her index finger at him like a pistol.  "Alright, you creep, enough with the cold reading!  Where's Danny?!"

No expression crossed Solitaire's face.  "Your young friend?  How should I know?"

"You were the last one to talk to him in person!" Tucker said, joining in the yelling.  "You should know!"

"Well, I don't."  The man's voice was uncannily calm.  "So if you three will just leave my tent..."

Valerie had then had enough.  Stepping forward, she slammed her fist down on the table, her bracelets clattering with the wood.  "Listen here, you... Danny's a friend of mine.  And if you think that we're gonna leave just because you say that you don't know anything about his disappearance, you're out of your mind!"

Finally, a reaction came from the fortune teller.

But it wasn't what Valerie expected.  She'd expected something like fear or anger or even compliance.

Instead, the man's thin lips creased into a smug grin.

"You three really are smarter than I gave you credit for..." he said, a hint of arrogance lining his deep, cavernous voice.  "However, that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you interfere with my plans."

Puzzled, Valerie asked, "What do you mean?"

Instead of a verbal answer, she got a physical one.  Taking the card deck he'd been shuffling, Solitaire drew three cards off the top and tossed them at the three kids.  Before she knew what was happening, the cards had each grown to the size of rugs, and had wrapped around the three, rendering their arms bound and helpless.  The rest of the card deck was now floating around Solitaire, circling him like a miniature tornado.

"I was planning on my hostile takeover happening next afternoon," he said gravely.  "But it seems that you've forced my hand."

Valerie then watched in horror as the cards implanted themselves in the earth beneath their feet.  A split second afterwards, glowing emerald erupted from the ground, sprouting upwards like beanstalks.  One in particular, plateau-like in design, started to raise the four people into the air as the rest of the crystals ripped the tent to shreds.

Up, up they went to dizzying heights as the city of Amity Park became smaller and smaller beneath them.  Looking down, Valerie saw numerous crystals identical to those in the tent sprouting up all around town.  Panicked citizens were fleeing for their lives as their homes were encased in cold, unforgiving emerald.  Seas of people surged into the streets, desperately trying to flee the onslaught of growing mineral terror.

The air started to become thin as they rose to the heavens, the three teens gasping for breath in the night sky.  Luckily, the situation didn't endure, as the crystals that had grown all around them were now encasing them in a protective, green-tinted dome.

Finally, the great uprising of the emeralds had stopped.  Valerie, Tucker, and Sam looked down: they seemed to be miles above the city, which was now fully encased in glittering green crystal.  Below, the entire population of Amity Park had been driven from their metropolis, congregating in a deluge of humanity that was now roaring with disapproval.

Looking back to Solitaire, Sam shouted, "You monster!  It was your fault Danny left!  You're a ghost!!!"

Sure enough, Valerie witnessed Solitaire's skin change from flesh colored to a sickly green hue, which spread like a disease over his body.  His eyes, once emerald green, were now a bright crimson, glowing with malevolence.

"Indeed, child," he said smugly.  "But it's far too late for you to utilize that knowledge.  This city is mine to command and control.  And you three... are my prisoners."

And within the new crystal tower that cast a mighty shadow over the exiled citizens of Amity Park, a completely new world began to take form.

(cut to commerical...)