Demon X Reaper

by Brandon Storm

"As he fell from the sky, the life leaving his body, she too felt like the life was going to leave her. As she desperately sought to restart his still heart she realized that this is what he felt all along, not the dozens of the dead buried beneath the soil, not the thousands of monsters that had sprang forth from their remains. It was this." For those looking for Long hard Road

1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: And I'm Back! Yes after a month long absence Brandon Storm is back! First off for all of those of you who aren't aware there is already a first installment of the story Titled Rosario Grim that you should definitely read or else not understand a thing that's going on in this story. Also my previous beta BubbaJack is also returning to continue to work with me for this story. Secondly I would like to give a fair warning regarding the sexual content of the chapter, and I'm making a few edits to this chapter just because I read over it and found some mistakes I made the first time.

As before:

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Nergal"

But I've removed the *SOUND* bit from my writing on the recommendation of Bubs, your opinion people?

---

"Not good at all."

The room appeared to be a conference center of some sort, 7 screens surrounded a pair of shadowed individual's, only one of whom were seated.

"The situation is worst than we feared sirs..." a hologram popped up between the screens and the seated man, it showed a beast of a creature, a predominantly black body with parts of it's skeleton over grown to the point that it jutted out of the body in a crude exo-skeleton, it's only identification being the line of text that circled the bottom 'Demon Reaper' "the beast has begun to manifest his former level demonic power..." the hologram swapped images to the Halloween Town rampage, specifically the original form of the Demon-Reaper, just to provide a general idea of what was meant by the phrase 'old power' "he was able to easily defeat a horde of A-Ranks and three S-Ranks at his current level of power."

"Is it possible that he can be recruited?"

"Doubtful his goals run contradictory to ours, and he's too powerful for even our great lord and master to force the issue."

"We cannot allow anyone of such a level of power to exist!"

"You would face the Grim Family!? This is Madness!"

"We should have wiped out the entire Grim Clan long ago. The Bitch violates the very law of nature and the worn out Reaper should have been replaced decades ago!"

"Gentlemen we are getting off topic" the seated man drew the group's attention to a third hologram, it looked like a small bell, attached to a set of Brass Knuckles for a grip, and had the twisted face of a roaring demon carved into the opening "a trap is already set..."

---

The former ruler of the Ghost Zone awoke with a gasp, his eyes shot open as he sat up. Dan decided to give the old man some space first, after all he wanted to get as much fun out of the dethroned king as he could before he tore him apart. The King rose slowly, decades of lethargy on top of millennium of sleep before his brief escape so long ago had weakened him if only slightly.

"Who dares disturb Pariah Dark, the first and last true Ghost King!?"

Considering that he was a ghost, he aged remarkably well, and his imprisonment in the sarcophagus accounted for his lack of a wardrobe change. His armor was entirely black, with the exception of the green skull shoulder pads he wore, and the red interior of his cape. His breach cloth, boots, and gloves were all grey, but his face was completely white, he wore a mask that failed to cover any significant portion of his face but had two large horns sticking out of it, the left broken long ago, but both stood in front of the massive main of green fiery hair similar in many ways to Dan's own, he couldn't help but wonder if that meant they were on similar levels. But the most significant piece of his wardrobe that he was wearing was the green ring on his left hand, the Ring of Rage, partner to the Crown of Fire in Dan's possession. The King squinted his green eyes at the figure, he admitted that he expected another millennium to past before one so foolish to open his sarcophagus again appeared, now not only had such a fool appeared but he was the spitting image of the abomination of a child that had locked him away so long ago.

"So the child lived long enough to pass on his damned blood. How quaint."

"Yes I have left behind a legacy, as the ghost who put you back into cage."

Not a descendant or even the offspring, this was the same ghost!?

"What do you want ghost child!?"

"The real question is what do you want" Dan asked as he held the Crown of Fire for Pariah to see?

"My Crown!?"

"Yep, which together with your Ring of Rage is the key to ultimate power..." Dan suddenly turned his hand with the Crown intangible as he shoved it into his chest and left it there as it turned tangible again, merging it with his molecular structure "and if you want it your going to have to rip my heart out to get to it!"

"So that is it: I was beginning to wonder if you had turned into a fool, but now I see that you've gone insane...!" Pariah's fists suddenly started glowing as he donned a set of makeshift ecto punching gloves "very well than! Come on fool! I shall extinguish the stain of your existence on mine forever!"

Dan kept his insane grin as he mimicked Pariah's ecto enhanced fighting stance.

"Bring it on old man!"

---

Three days the Castle of Grim has been in a uproar, at night it's halls echoed with the sounds of a monster that at a any given point in time would laugh hysterically, cry frantically, or scream very loudly for all of the castle to hear, the halls would suddenly become a death trap, you'd have to be very careful not to step on any of the tentacle like creatures that appeared from portals at random all over the castle less you lose your soul, only for it all to disappear at sun up, then the many creatures that wandered it's halls would file complaint after complaint after complaint about the monster that would kill them all without a second thought, with demands to remove him from the premises. Three days ago the Eldest son of the Grim Family came home. The young Jiang-Shi had to be given credit, every morning only she would venture into the heart of the death trap to awaken her young master: her tool of choice a ten foot long stick.

"Lord Junior..." the young girl attempted to awaken the sleeping mass of Nergal flesh the best was she could think of, poking him in the face "you have to wake up before you destroy this castle many times over."

Finally the sleeping Nergaling took notice of the stick up his nose, working on instinct if nothing else he grabbed the 10 foot long weapon, pulled Deshiko over with it, and grabbed her throat while simultaneously pointing over a dozen razor sharp weapons at her head.

"Don't jump down my throat, you were the one who slept in."

Junior retracted the blades as he put his servant down, breathing in he also retracted the death traps he unknowingly planted throughout the castle during the night, before he re-assumed his human form. His body was still covered in scars from his fight with his evil twin, the most notable of which was the one located directly between his mismatched eyes, a direct consequence of being stabbed with a reaper's scythe over and over and over again, only his vast necromancy skills had reduced them to this level of visibility.

"Was it really necessary to stick that thing up my nose Deshiko?"

"Should I have the others send another one in" Deshiko asked ignoring the question?

Junior looked to the direction that Deshiko was pointing to and let out an groan, for this very reason he stripped his room of all valuables long ago, and that was before the demonic powers settled in. That said there were still a few bare necessities such as a bed, which he now realized he had torn to shreds during the night.

"Make it so."

That said the room still featured a spacious walk in closet. Unlike some of the female residents of the castle Junior didn't see the need in constantly keeping it crammed full of clothing so it also made for a convenient, if not a some what cramped, secondary bed room that provided enough protection to keep him from destroying the valuables he kept there in. Junior tapped his scythe-sword on it's skull guard awakening the living weapon with a dramatized yawn and causing her to assume her humanoid form. Deshiko could not figure out for the after life of her why Harror assumed a form that so closely resembled their mother Mandy considering their terrible relationship with her. There was a rumor going around the castle that Junior's one and only condition for going back to school was that he must be as far away from her as possible.

"Good morning grouchy head."

"Morning Harror."

Junior got jeans from the closet and put them on, followed by his new skull belt, his coat followed, securing the belt straps around his chest, followed by picking up his new cell phone and checking for messages of which there were none, finally he got on a pair of sandals, figuring that they wouldn't be destroyed by his transformation process and more specifically the heinously over-sized toe claws that followed suit.

"Shall we?"

"Thought you'd never ask!"

Harror took the form of a massive scythe, which Junior then swung across the room and cut open a portal into one of the castle's many living rooms, if memory served him correctly his mother said that they were eating in that room today, but by the looks of things no one else was there yet, great the castle had it's own GPS system, he has the ability to reaper step from place to place instantly and he still got lost in this ridiculously oversize building.

"Great, we're lost again."

"You wanna call mom and ask where the hell we're suppose to be?"

"Not my fault she got the directions wrong. If she wants me over there so badly then she can get her damn directions straight!"

To this end Junior sat in a recliner and reclined as he decided to take a break from the inhabitants of the crazy castle, in other words his family.

---

The room, if you could call it that, had barely changed over the past five years, it was do in large part to the fact that the person to whom this room belonged to had bare stepped foot in it in five years. Instead of room the more accurate term would be a bed, which the occupant only now realized that she had outgrown, and vanity that someone had precariously placed onto a cliff that over looked a fiery pit on the edge of Hell. For now she was just using the vanity, she had bought a bottle of black nail polish the other day and wanted a bit of privacy to put it on. Unfortunately doing so in her father's former home were not the most ideal of circumstances, this entire place came with a lifetime of nightmares, on the other hand it felt right in a way, between her bright red skin, black horns curled around her head, and demonic stegosaurus like tail she certainly looked like she belonged in hell.

"Mimi can we come over?"

Mimi looked over to the sound of the voice and spotted two other noticeable inhabitants of the Land of Tainted Souls. The first another devil, large and muscular, what was left of his horns were coming out of his forehead in centimeter long finely ground stubs, and a rather noticeable metal gauntlet for a right hand, the most important detail was that he was Mimi's brother Hell-boy. The second of the two individuals was a giant spider, in spite of it's numerous terrifying features, including but not limited to over-sized drooling fangs, multiple eyes, and the general appearance of being torn apart and stitched back together again as some bizarre franken-spider actually seemed to be quite friendly, he was Jeff Mimi's former nanny. Mimi waved the pair over as they joined her at the vanity, the grotesque scent of nail polish on top of the ever omnipresent smell of sulfur was a rather nasty combination.

"It still amazes me that boy was able to pull something off like that. I mean you think of reapers as the type to cut off bits of people not grow back new ones."

Mimi eyed the gauntlet curiously, shooting her suspicious looks towards her half brother.

"What this thing? Don't you worry about me I never had a 'real hand' and the one I did have is locked away in that nightmare death trap your boyfriend calls a home so it's safer there than down here with me surrounded by cut-throats who could actually be powerful enough to steal the bloody thing!"

The only reaction the devil or spider could give was to blink twice.

"I just wigged out there a little didn't I."

"Yah pretty much."

"Right you guys can do, what ever it is you do. I got... ruler things to do."

Hellboy opted to leave the awkward situation as it was and left Jeff and Mimi to their business. Jeff procured a brush from Mimi's vanity and proceeded to do her hair while Mimi preoccupied herself with her nails.

"So have you heard from your new friends since school let out? Got any plans with them? I could cater..."

"~Con Los Terroristas Ey Shake Ey Shake.~"

Mimi looked over at her cell phone which was also on the vanity, seen quite clearly was Chi's picture indicating that she was the caller.

"On the subject looks like we have one now."

Jeff took the liberty of answering the phone, oddly enough rather than any sound coming out of it black goo pored out, which then formed into a demonic cat: black with the exception of a white underbelly which extended to the face, two sets of horns in place of ears, and perhaps most bizarrely of all fire coming out of her eyes and the tip of her tail.

"Hello Mimi darling" the cat said before turning her attention to the spider "Jeff" she said with a hint of venom.

"Chi."

The cat known as Chi decided to join in on the personal grooming, licking her paw then brushing her head with it, as she got down to business.

"I was wondering if you had any plans for the month off..." Chi pawed Mimi's cell phone, bringing up a notice from the school about various field trips to the human world "cause all the teachers are taking their clubs out on field trips to the human world. Apparently our club is suppose to be off to Japan to do 'investigative journalism'... at a beach resort."

No one could deny that Mimi has a great poker face, she perpetually wore the same emotionless expression that gave the impression that her face was stuck that way, her tail on the other hand was not nearly as cooperative as it was currently wagging so much that it was smacking Jeff in the face, several times.

"I do believe that is a yes" Jeff said before he lost consciousness.

"Excellent! I do believe the occasion calls for a new swim suit..." Chi continued to paw the phone, bringing up a fashion catalog "I took the liberty of sending you a new lineup, and a app that lets us see what you look like in all of them..." the cat sent Mimi a coy look "of course it requires that you're not wearing anything at all. We wouldn't want a obstructed view now would we?"

Mimi only rolled her eyes in response, but again her wagging tail told what her poker face did not.

---

The look of Terror on their faces were obvious. She said 8:30 AM approximately, it was now 8:50 AM approximately and neither of the older Grim siblings had arrived for breakfast, and if there was one thing about the queen of Grim-Skull that the younger of the four siblings knew, it was that their mother did not like to be kept waiting. And then suddenly before you could say release the hounds Minnie walked into the dining room and took her seat next to the twins.

"What tis for breakfast mother?"

Minnie looked exceptionally unusual today, although her clothes were clean and undamaged the fresh claw marks on her cheek indicated that she was in a fight recently, and one of her buttons on her vest jacket had been miss-buttoned, a unusual mistake for the young princess of Grim Skull.

"Whad happened to you?"

Although the Patriarch of the family, the Grim Reaper from whom the family was named, had no need of or ability to consume food he always made it a point to take the necessary time out of his otherwise packed schedule to join his family for their meals. The precise reason why being to find out what they had planned for the day, or find out whatever potentially disastrous situation they had gotten into before Breakfast, which he had reason to suspect was the case with his eldest daughter.

"Whatever doth thou mean father" Minnie asked the question with a touch of unease?

"Yah lookin even more cud up dan usual!"

"I twas ambushed whilst on mine stroll around the castle by a group of Basilisk. They damaged mine clothing prompting me to change them explaining mine tardiness for which I hope I hath been excused."

"Basilisks don't have claws Minnie."

"They also art nay suppose to hath two heads and breath fire. Which reminds me where is mine brother?"

Half truths, everything she said was true but she didn't answer the question, then she changed the subject. But she did raise a fair point.

"DESHIKO...!" the young Jiang-Shi in question appeared at the door leading into the room "where the hell is my son?"

"Lord Junior said you were planning on having breakfast in living room four, so he reported there when he woke up and has been waiting for you since."

"Idiot can't follow simple directions: go get him!"

Deshiko gave a bow before she left for the living room.

"Thine poor relationship with mine brother..." Mandy shot her daughter a glare as she chewed her eggs "is not just his fault" Minnie slightly growled!

While Minnie and her mother had their verbal sparring match Deshiko walked down the hallway to the living room that Junior was occupying, observing that the reaper was lost in thought in his cell phone.

"She told you to go to dining room four not living room four sir" Junior put the cellular away and picked up Harror in it's place "although I suspect you already knew that, sir."

Ignoring the Jiang Shi's accusations Junior reaper stepped into the dining room, sitting next to the older of his two sisters, which it should be noted was as far away from his mother as possible without having to directly look at her.

"What's for break..." Junior suddenly froze up, using Nergaling shape shifting to enlarge his ear to pin point the sound that he had heard "oh what now!?"

Much in the same way as he arrived Junior disappeared through another reaper portal, looking out the window he had gotten about as far as the front porch before taking off again, much to the anger of his mother.

"What the hell is...?"

"If yah done barkin like a dog he's goin to da ouder perimetah for some reason" Grim informed his wife.

"Deshiko, the radio...!" as ordered Deshiko handed over her radio, which Mandy used to contact the outer perimeter "would someone over there mind giving me a reason why I shouldn't throttle my son?"

"They're everywhere! We need reinfo..." was all that came out before a chunk of static cut the guard off.

"Well that answer's that question."

---

"Come on Yukari up you go."

Ms. Nekomone helped the young witch Yukari Sendo onto the bus. Joining her fellow classmates from the news paper club was the pink haired vampire Moka Akashiya, blue haired succubus Kurumu Kurono and purple haired snow woman Mizore Shirayuki. All of the girls were dressed in white button up t-shirts and short skirts.

"So what are we going to go pick up the perv next?"

The bus closed it's doors as it entered it's inter-dimensional portal leading to god knows where.

"I'm afraid not Kurumu: Ginei has fallen behind quite a bit on his grades..." Ms. Nekomone's eyes opened just a crack as she eyed Kurumu knowingly "as such Ms. Ririko is making him stay behind to study and improve his grades."

Kurumu shamefully avoided the gaze of her teacher, fully aware of the fact that she technically didn't pass either.

"Then we're going to the City of Aku then..." the unusually talkative snow woman spoke up "I've always wanted to go see it."

"Then I'm afraid you're going to be a little disappointed Mizore. Chi and Mimi called ahead and said that they would be meeting us in the human world. We're off to castle Grim-Skull to pick up Junior and Minnie."

Yukari looked up at that comment, slightly scared, something that Moka had noticed.

"Yukari? What's wrong?"

"I-I-I've heard all sorts of rumors about Grim-Skull: if the rumors are true then the mountain that the castle rests on is a massive flying warship that the queen of the castle, Junior's mother, used to tear apart the whole area before she crashed it into the mountainside and put the castle on top. Also the mountains are suppose to be surrounded by a vast desert that is inhabited by thousands of un-dead creatures."

"A giant flying fortress Yukari: really doesn't that seem a little far-fetch" the succubus scoffed?

"And a army of the roaming undead isn't" replied Mizore?

"Well Junior's parents are suppose to be necromancers so..." a look of terror creep across Kurumu's face as what she said dawned on her "that's actually possible. Yukari exactly what kind of undead are we talking about here?"

"I don't know..."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Nobody's... kind of... made it out of that desert alive."

"Great."

"Well that's not a problem right? I mean we aren't going into the desert right" Moka said nervously?

"Nope."

The girls suddenly looked at the driver suspiciously.

"What do you mean nope?"

No sooner had Kurumu asked then she received her answer, the bus exited the portal and arrived in the desert. Already the signs of battle were everywhere, the sounds of clashing weapons and roars of brawling monsters, but what had the students full attention was what the bus driver had yet to explain.

"Simple fact is that something is keeping the bus from appearing at the castle itself, so we have to drive there instead."

"Through a desert full of zombies!?"

"I can assure you Kurumu zombies are the last thing we have to worry about here: here's a couple now."

The bus drove up a long-side a pair wrestling on the ground, one of them looked like your stereotypical zombie, rotting flesh, rabid and cannibalistic, he wore worn old fashion armor plating that clearly hadn't been removed in months. The second figure looked very much alive, if not for the exception of the ghostly white skin and dressed in white military cameo, he was also carrying what looked like a double barreled shot gun, but at the end was some kind of halberd attachment. Both of them looked like they had been at it for a while if the amount of the ash covering them was any indication.

"Excuse me..." the zombie in slightly better shape looked up at the bus driver as he poked his head out of the window "but would you please direct us to the castle Grim."

"It's on top of the big skull shaped thing that fell out of the sky about decade back."

"'Fell out of the sky'" Kurumu said slightly mortified?

"'Little implausible' eh" Yukari said with a air of superiority?

The Jiang-Shi broke the neck of the ghoul incapacitating it and allowing him to get up and point out to his left

"You're not going to get up there in that thing. There's a outpost a couple of miles in that direction..." the white skinned zombie pointed to a distant hoard off the ghoulish creatures who had converged on the outpost "you can get security clearance and a ride up. Or devoured by ghouls which ever one comes first."

"Right thanks but I think..."

"Hey you hear that" Mizore said cutting Kurumu off.

All the girls followed Mizore in sticking their heads out the window and listening for what Mizore heard, the one to hear it most clearly was the cat-like Ms. Nekomone, with her extra set of cat like ears.

"Sounds like a ghostly, haunting wail of doom & gloom: that must be Junior!"

"Makes since, lord Junior went there to aid our Jiang-Shi forces."

"What!? Step on it" Kurumu shouted notably more enthused about jumping into a mosh pit of doom then she was moment ago!

Not one to argue with the phrase step on it the bus driver bolted off again, just in time for the Ghoul to wrestle his opponent to the ground again.

"I hate this job!"

---

Rotting bits of flesh and bone were flying out from the hoard of ghouls, like something from within was tearing them all apart. In the center of the chaos a all too familiar Reaper Nergal and all too fearsome for even the ghouls as he departed the creature's from whatever was left of their souls: tearing into them with his bare claws and biting into them with his teeth.

"UGH! THAT IS DISGUSTING! SERIOUSLY DO YOU KNOW HOW BAD THOSE THINGS SMELL!?"

Harror however preferred to sit out of the fight atop the dysfunctional cannon that once defended the outpost.

"No worst than we do..." another ghoul broke his teeth on Junior's skin, and for his troubles was sliced apart by his wing "and it certainly doesn't bother them!"

Junior grabbed the carved up corpse's torso and bite into and ripped out it's soul before swallowing it whole.

"Speak for yourself I showered today! And you're going to ruin your stomach if you keep eating those!"

"I'll make myself a new one it's not a big deal!"

"Says the person talking about his guts like he's knitting a toque..." Harror did her best to divert her attention away from the gruesome sight she spotted a dust cloud coming at them from the distance "say bro: isn't that the bus that hauled yah off to school way back when?"

Junior Reaper stepped to the top of the gun, forming a set of Nergal Binoculars he used them to confirm Harror's suspicions.

"What are they doing here!?"

"No idea: maybe they called ahead."

"I already checked my messages this morning Harror."

Harror only just grinned in response as she gave her brother a finger taunt and he handed over the phone.

"'From Yokai academy: Field trip notice for all clubs, Newspaper Club to go to the Witch's Knoll in 8 hours.'"

"That wasn't there this morning."

"It was sent at midnight! Face it bro: you don't know how to use a cell phone!"

The two decided to go stop their club-mates from being devoured by a hoard of ghouls. One jolt of reaper stepping later and Junior was standing on top of the bus, he stabbed Harror's weapon form through the roof and allowed her to drop down into the bus much to the surprise of it's passengers.

"Don't ask questions just plug your ears and duck for cover" Harror said taking her own advice!

The others weren't quite sure why they would do that, then they saw Junior dig his claws into the roof as if he were bracing himself for impact, and the group ducked just in time to hear it. Junior had found a way to make his deadly Ghostly Wail even deadlier, using the wail to fire ecto grenades formed in his mouth at the the hoard of ghouls that had turned their attention to the bus. The ash kicked into the air with each shot did nothing to obscure the terror of a reaper's aim as he devastated the hoard with a combination of precision aim and explosive artillery that probably made the point of precision aim moot. Soon the bus arrived safely at the out post, a little battered from the explosions but no worst for wear. With that out the way Junior jumped back down to to ground level and returned to human form as he entered the bus.

"Everyone okay?"

"WHAT" was the only response to Junior's question!?

Junior face palmed himself as realized that he had deafened the passengers of the bus, with a wave of his hand a wave of necromancy healed their damage ears.

"Everyone okay" Junior repeated?

"We're okay."

"Nothing we haven't been through before."

"What was that about, they looked like zombies" Yukari asked?

"Zombies yes, Ghouls more accurately."

"Ghouls!? I read about them! If legends hold true they are the end result of a evil spirit possessing a human corpse to feed upon the living."

"Where the heck did you read that garbage!?"

That had gotten the group's attention, though Junior seemed far more interested in something outside at the moment, Moka attempted to follow him though Junior cut her off.

"Watch your step!"

Looking down Moka saw that the ground had been littered with bits of rotting corpses, one piece, a severed head with bits of throat and spine sticking out of the neck, apparently still very much alive it opened it's mouth and snarled at her, in response Junior kicked the head off into the distance. Moka leaped backwards through the air with a shriek and landed on the bus driver's lap with a thud.

"They're still alive! Those things are still alive!"

"Wuss."

Junior walked over to a garage door and was about to open it when another Reaper opened the door from the other side. Like Junior he looked to be among the living, the end result of a dose of Encroaching Doom Syndrome. Aside from the dark colored cameo print uniform, obviously meant to distinguish him from the class of soldier they saw wrestling the ghoul, he also had a turban wrapped around his head, part of his desert combat uniform. The most obvious sign that he was a reaper was the sniper rifle on his back with a pair of scythe blades for a kickstand.

"Sir! The APG's are back online, we can..." he said as he realized that the ghouls had already been torn to shreds "deal with the ghouls that you already tore apart."

"No shit Sherlock! Now get this mess cleaned up, it stinks out here!"

"Yes Sir!"

The Reaper took out what looked like a book of sticky tags from the pouch on his belt, biting down on his finger he used the bright red liquid inside to write out a number of Chinese-esque symbols and threw them into the ash, forming heads around them and then growing into full Jiang-Shi bodies, clothed in the same white cameo uniforms that the earlier soldier was wearing.

"Listen up, we need to get this mess cleaned up! Orders from the top."

The Jiang-shi got to work picking up the bits of the ghouls and carrying them inside. With that out of the way Junior waved the bus inside.

"You can come out now! There aren't any ghouls in here!"

The girls began to climb out of the bus, they looked across the hanger to see the Jiang-Shi wheeling the various parts of the ghouls Junior hacked up into the hangar in wheel barrels, many of them having been staked together as they were still moving.

"For the most part. Lets go into the break room there isn't as much weird shit in there."

"'As much?'"

The girls watched at the Jiang-Shi dumped the parts that they had collected down the chute, a mixture of screaming in pain and a working blender followed.

"I think I'm going to be sick" the succubus proclaimed!

Mizore grabbed Junior by his hood, yanking him into the bus with the others.

"No offence Junior but I've seen enough of this nutty place to last a lifetime."

"Fine, fine..." Junior took a seat on the bus "but I can't stay for long, my mother is hosting a family breakfast and I'm suppose to be in attendance. Technically speaking I wasn't even suppose to save this sorry excuse for a outpost."

Kurumu gripped her groaning stomach at the mention of food.

"Please don't mention breakfast!"

"Um Junior..." Junior turned his attention to Yukari, whom was looking around visibly nervous "you said I was wrong about the ghouls. I'd like you to explain please."

"It's nothing complicated, ghouls are just what happens when reapers slack off. Basically when we don't reap a soul, in other words kill some one, then the bloke that we were suppose to reap body eventually becomes unable to sustain the soul, as the heart, the container of the soul, decays the soul is destroyed, the ecto, the raw materials of the soul, is dispersed through the body and the whole shambling mess of a body just becomes a big pile of decaying nerves, like a feral animal. And like any animal they go looking or that which sustains them."

"More ecto" the curious witch guessed?

"More souls" Mizore answered grimly.

"Sir..." the group looked towards the reaper soldier, he had a cell phone held out at arms length directly towards Junior "it's for you sir."

There was only one person that Junior could think of that would be calling him right now, and lets just say for now that reaper had a good reason to treat the device as if it were made of radioactive bubonic plague. Junior accepted the phone as, with no small measure of reluctance, he said...

"Hello mother."

With practiced ease and cat like reflexes Junior shot his arm out at arms length as a clearly female, not to mention extremely angry, voice yelled at him over the phone.

"Ah, aren't you going to answer that" a slightly concerned Moka asked?

"It's best to wait until she's out of breath..." on the subject Junior noticed that the phone had stopped with it's shrieking, leading him to continue the mostly one sided conversation, if it could even be called that at this point "if you're done now I would like to point out that if not for that damned jamming device I would have been here and back by now! Have I mentioned that I would like to have that thing taken down? Great see yah in a minuet."

Junior hung up the phone and toss it to the reaper before he got up and walked into the garage, he signaled his companions to sit down as he sat on the hood, then he hacked open a portal with Harror and let the bus drove through.

---

The Ghost Zone echoed with the sound of thunder as he slammed into the stone, the ghostly earth crumbled beneath his very presence as he touched it, sadly this was not by choice. The once King of the Ghost Zone had been flung from his own castle like a rag-doll. The perpetrator in question was flying at him like some possessed rocket, Pariah was the first to admit he had underestimated the lunatic, that wasn't a mistake he was inclined to make again.

"Have at thee!"

Pariah wrenched the mace from his right thigh with his left hand and swung it at Dan, no later then the very instant that the first spike would have pierced his skin was the lunatic of a ghost was replaced by a equally insane human, the ghostly weapon passing through the mortal like the nothing that he was, and not a second later than when the mace left then did the something replace the nothing, and for the second time that day was the Ghost King rocked out of his senses. The deafening sound of the Ghostly Wail sent Pariah flying to the other side of the infinite void that was the Ghost Zone, leaving giant gaping holes into every solid mass that he encountered, until he finally crashed into the rock that stopped him, rubbing his aching head as he only barely came to comprehend the god-like amount of power that his foe actually possessed.

"What are you!?"

Pariah had little time to ponder the answer to his question. The ruckus that Dan had kicked up when he sent him flying across the Ghost Zone had attracted nearly every being there in, he was surrounded on all sides, he even recognized a few, the allies of the child, or the lunatic as he was now, that had locked him away mere decades before, and who was now tearing him apart. It would appear that his earlier defeat had given them back bone, or perhaps it was the sight of the holes that he left in every structure possible on his way here that was responsible for their new found courage.

"Pariah Dark...!?" Skulker had hoped to never lay eyes on that being again, not even he, the greatest of the Ghost Zone's warrior's, would dare to release that monster from his cage, regardless of the enormity of the surprise the hunter was in for a second "Phantom...!?" a common enough term in the Ghost Zone, being the name of a entire class of ghost and all, but out of respect to he who had first donned the name as his own no ghost had dare to don the name them-self, at least not do so and still live, but despite all the odds against him appearing again after five years of absence here he was "it's good to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same hunter" the ghost responded venomously.

At least now with Danny Phantom on their side they could beat Pariah. Skulker activated the megaphone function of his suit, preparing to co-ordinate a attack on Pariah.

"Listen up! We only got one chance to do this! On my mark fire everything you got at him! 3...!" all the ghosts armed whatever weapons they had, or simply held their appendages out a arms length "2...!" spheres of ecto gathered at the barrels of guns, the tips of blades, or the palms of hands depending on their choice of attack "on...!" suddenly Skulker had been interrupted by the fist of Phantom through the face of his suit.

"Who said you could join in!?"

Dan crushed Skulker's ghost form, shocking the crowd, and taking advantage of their moment of flabbergast Dan unleashed a massive ecto-ray Kame-hame style at the massive hoard from right to left. At first there were explosions, forceful discharges of energy from the charging attacks that had been aimed at Pariah, a few attempted to counter the attack by combining their power in a massive discharge against the ray in hopes of countering it, all their arrogant act of defiance did was exhaust their energy reserves and made it that much easier to be obliterated, others approached the situation more intelligently forming their gathered energies into a shield to deflect the attack, that didn't last any longer than a single moment, the final few did the arguably most intelligent thing and simply ran, not that it helped much against Dan's quick reflexes and over powered beam attack.

"Ruthless and crazy..." Pariah looked Dan over again "under different circumstances we could have been friends."

"Sorry old man! Yah aren't my type!"

---

The Grim family minus one were waiting outside of the Castle gates. The minus one consisted of the eldest child Grim Junior who rode into the courtyard on the hood of the bus from the Yokai Academy.

"What's for breakfast?"

"That was three hours ago Junior!"

"Huh, that's strange, with my reaper step I could have been there, wiped out a hoard or two of ghouls with my Wail and been back here in time for a mid morning snack with my brother and sisters..." Junior boldly got into his mother's personal space, his goal rather than suicide was to emphasize his point "you wouldn't have any idea what could have slowed me down do you" Junior asked, practically puking sarcasm?

Mandy's response was quick and simply, numerous bullets to Junior's face that caused him to slowly back away as he quickly regenerated.

"You should consider getting a new since of humor boy!"

"Oh you thought that was a joke...?" Junior suddenly changed to a very serious tone "that's strange? Because I wasn't laughing!"

While Junior and his mother had their shouting match Minnie had made her way over to the bus with Kurumu standing in the doorway.

"Is it like this all the time?"

"Only when those two are in earshot of each other."

"MINNIE!"

Minnie failed to move in time to avoid her vampire friend pouncing on her, knocking her to the ground, and hugging the stuffing out of her.

"Tis good... to see thou... again Moka... please remove thineself!"

Upon realizing that she was crushing her best friend in a death hug Moka released her.

"Nay apologies art necessary mine friend...!"

"I don't see how the hell I'm suppose to be joking right now stuck inside this mad house with YOU!"

"At least between us."

"If you want out of here so badly then you can leave! The bus ready to take you god knows where is right there!"

"FINE I WILL!"

With a huff Junior stormed onto the bus and Minnie followed him, Deshiko fetched their bags from their rooms, having not bothered to unpack in the three day interim since coming home. Unfortunately, and as the bus driver pointed out, the jamming device that kept them from opening portals was still active.

"I'll be right back" Junior said as he left the bus.

"Pardon mine asking driver, but doth this vehicle hath seat belts?"

"Nope."

A suddenly very nervous Minnie sought stability as she grabbed onto the nearest pole with both hands.

"Minnie, why do you look scared all of a sudden" the Succubus asked?

"Hang on for dear life if thou wish to keep it!"

"Huh!?"

Kurumu jumped about a foot into the air as green claws dug into the floor and wall of the bus, looking out the window she spotted Junior's bladed wings uncurl as it dawned on her what he was doing.

"He isn't...?"

"He is."

Suddenly Junior, in full Nergal glory, lifted the bus off of the ground, and taking a moment to position himself underneath he hurled it across the desert, then he spread his wings and flew after it, landing on top of the bus he dug his claws and tail blade into the roof while at the same time growing his wings into a make shift parachute allowing the bus to land safely on the ground. Of all the people in the bus the driver seemed the least frazzled who was casually leaning back in his seat working on his crossword puzzle when Junior knocked on his window.

"What's a eight letter compound word meaning 'to over do something'?"

"Over-kill. Can you use that portal thing yet?"

"Lets find out..." the Bus Driver pulled on a trigger causing a portal to open in front of the bus "And we are in business."

Junior climbed into the bus and returned to human form and took his seat.

"You could warn a girl before you pull a stunt like that" Kurumu said as she pulled her elongated claws out off the seat!

"What's the matter cow girl? Can't take the heat" the ironically cold snow woman responded?

"Says the one who turned into a literal snow woman?"

"At least I didn't do that" Mizore pointing out the young witch about five feet in the air hanging on to a support pole for dear life.

"Wh-wh-where's Moka" the nervous Witch stuttered?

Minnie looked up to see that Moka had dug her hands and feet into the ceiling.

---

Mandy solemnly watched as the bus left through the portal, her youngest children at her sides.

"How long will they be gone this time" the young girl asked?

"A week at least, they'll drag it on for a month if they can manage it, after that they'll be going back to the school..." if you could somehow look past the scowl that the woman perpetually wore, the glare that bore a hole into every surface that she looked at, the over whelming dark aura that constantly pored out of every fiber of her being, you could see the sorrow in the queen of Grim Skull "I know you miss them, but right now this castle is about the least safest place for those two."

"But why..." now Manny had spoken up "this whole thing is stupid, nothing and no one is stronger than big brother" Manny said, as curiosity and concern tainted the young boy's otherwise confident word's.

Mandy playfully messed up the young boy's hair, hoping to dull his concern if only slightly.

"Might isn't everything, knowledge can be just as dangerous: and as of three days ago this castle became home to knowledge that can kill them."

"On da subject yah might wanna go check on da prisoners."

The lord and lady of the castle opted to walk to the lower levels of the castle, the dungeons, this particular area was cleaner than most, that was because it was a medical ward. It was smaller than you'd expect, but was perfect for a castle that primarily housed the dead instead of the living, it was for this reason that when they took in the refugees from the tear through the underworld that was going on they had opted for 'meat ball' surgery, those that weren't expected to 'live' would be passed over, those that had a chance took top priority, while those with a better chance waited to get their injuries treated. The focus of Mandy's wrath right now was a unique exception, he had information that she wanted and would not get any treatment until she had it, leverage if you will.

"This is a sorry state to find you in..." the green haired man looked up at Mandy's words, he was brooding, which meant he had time to think "after all that big talk I heard about you I meet you in this sorry state."

"And what of you? The ruthless 'Bitch Queen' I heard so much about is taking in refugee's now?"

"Enemy of my enemy as they say. They'll make for useful shock troops after I'm through with them."

"Against the man that did this?"

"Anger and a thirst for revenge are strong motivators."

"Is that why you have made their enemy yours? Has this enemy of theirs enraged you?"

Two familiar faces peeked out from the corner of the door. He had recognized them instantly, though he never saw them before.

"Or is it something else."

The two parents spotted the twins hiding behind the door, Grim went after them getting them out of visual range.

"Oh yes it's obvious to me now...!" Pariah Dark lifted himself out of the chair, now towering over the queen of Grim Skull "you're the fool that squeezed those two out from between your legs, his children!"

"I'm no fool Pariah, Dan is as good as dead."

"I'd like to see that."

"And you will, now tell me about what you know about Dan."

Pariah smirked, much like Mandy he intended to use whatever leverage he had at his disposal to get what he wanted.

"I'm not sure, the first time I met him was some time ago, and my memory is quite foggy in my old age."

"I don't have time or this" Mandy muttered!

---

Now that all the pests had been dealt with Pariah and Dan could get back to what they were doing.

"Now where were we?"

Pariah delivered a ecto enhanced punch to Dan sending him flying, momentarily sated he was surprised when he felt someone tapping on his shoulder from behind, spinning around and attempting to backhand the offender only to be left when Dan not only grabbed the arm but judo threw him as well.

"I had forgotten you could be in two places at once."

"Two...?" Dan split into three copies of himself, which with the one Pariah sent flying brought the total up to four "you need to get your eyes checked old man!"

One of the Dan's blasted Pariah with a Ghostly Wail sending him flying at the Dan that he knocked across the Ghost Zone, then in a cruel twist of irony the Dan's began bashing him back and forth like some bizarre game of catch, before the Dan's decided to end the game by blasting Pariah from above sending him crashing into the 'Ground', a massive cemetery located at whatever could be called the bottom of the Ghost Zone.

"Big Mistake!"

Suddenly Pariah shot his hands into the air, and with them a army of skeletons emerged from their graves and flew into the Ghost Zone to attack Dan.

"I got this weird feeling of Deja Vu!"

Still grinning psychotically, Dan devastated the army with a scream of his Ghostly Wail, sending all of what little remained of their remains at Pariah's feet, a skull managed to briefly make it to the ground intact before Dan landed on it.

"Are you done wasting my time old man?"

"Indeed."

The two bull-rushed each other, punching one another in the face at the same time, both spat blood from the injuries they received, but Dan was still grinning. Pariah made the next move attempting to slam Dan into the ground with his outstretched fist, instead he only succeeded in flipping Dan over who now slammed him into the ground instead, and followed up by throwing him a fair distance through several tomb stones. Dan followed up the attack with another bull-rush, grabbing Pariah by his face and slamming it through the rows of graves before pinning him to the ground.

"Nothing personal old man."

"You think you can control it? The power of the Ring and the Crown you Fool?"

That seemed to get a laugh riot out of Dan. Squeezing Pariah's head to the point that it was just in crushing distance.

"Who said anything about controlling it? I'm just gonna let it out and point it in the right direction!"

"Fool! You speak of nothing but madness!"

"Always a good way to make sure you have a great time!"

With that done Dan stood up as he stomped Pariah's head even farther into the ground. Then he hit him with his most powerful Ghostly Wail yet, the shock wave alone leveled every tombstone in the massive graveyard, the echo of the blast could be felt reverberating through every realm of the Ghost Zone, and heard in every land of the Underworld. When the smoke finally cleared Pariah was gone, the only thing left of him was the Ring of Rage. Dan picked up the ring and held it in his hands for just a brief moment before he crushed it between his fingers.

"Sneaky little Minx..." Dan showed off a sly smirk as he looked upwards to the depths of the Ghost Zone "well, I guess this means that it's time I payed you a visit Mandy, I was wondering how my little boy is doing anyway."

At that time, on the other side of a dimensional rift that was opened just a few moments ago, the Grim Reaper was using a levitation spell to drag away Pariah Dark's unconscious body, Mandy having joined him.

"How is he?"

"Bruised, he'd be in whadevar afterlife comes affer dis one if not fer us."

"Get him to the infirmary. Junior and Minnie are home so we can set up the dimensional jamming device."

"Dey'll probably want tah have a chat wid our prisoner."

"They are not to know about Dan" Mandy snapped!

"Then what will we tell da boy? Yah know he ain't gonna be happy about bein stuck inside da castle."

"I don't really care."

"An yah wonder why da boy doesn't like yah!"

---

The Bus came out of tunnel in a Japanese city, contrary to the devastation across seas in North America Japan was still a thriving ultra-modern Nation. But still there was a hefty police presence, signifying that something was amiss.

"What's with all the guys with guns" Yukari asked nervously?

"The military is paranoid..." everyone looked to Junior, waiting for him to explain "ever since what happened six years ago everybody thinks that they're going to get invaded by monsters."

Junior popped open a bottle of water and quickly gulped it down, having not explained what he was talking about Moka decided to ask.

"What happened six years ago?"

"Mimi's father tore apart North America. I think it was called the butchers war."

"Wow! Seriously?"

"They don't call them the big five for nothing Kurumu."

Trying to take his mind off of the topic at hand Junior directed his gaze out the window, and was surprise to say the least when he saw himself standing by the road hitch hiking. At least that's what it looked like at first, following the path of the pointed finger he saw a woman sitting on a street light.

"What the hell?"

"Don't let the Demon screw with you on your vacation bro."

"Regardless I sense something amiss."

The bus soon left the police state of a city and began driving on a road that cut through a sun flower field, upon arriving the girls pored out of the bus eager to get out of the stuffy and cramped vehicle and into their vacation.

"Oh it feels so good to be out of that stuffy cramped thing...!" Kurumu eyed the beach with a smirk, and Junior's bare although scarred torso hungrily after he undid the straps on his jacket "I say we hit the water!"

Mizore suddenly grabbed Junior around his arm, pulling him in closely.

"Not all of us can go into that water Kurumu! Why don't you stay on the beach with me and have some shaved ice Junior?"

Yukari hung onto Junior's left arm, obviously trying to sway his decision.

"No! Play Volley ball with me!"

"Hey...!" Kurumu hooked Junior around his neck "I called dibs on him first!"

"Oh for the love of!"

Junior jumped into the air girls and all, back flipped and slipped out of their grasp in the process, before landing on the bus and expertly catching each of the girls and setting them on the ground.

"Ms. Nekomone, we're here to do investigative journalism correct...?" the cat eared teacher nodded jovially "then excuse me while I go investigate something."

Before the girls could dog pile on him again Junior suddenly bolted off into the sunflower field, Mizore naturally went after him only to discover that he had Reaper stepped out of sight.

"Damn! Why does he always do that!?"

"And here I was hoping I could pull him away from Mimi once he saw me in a swimsuit!"

"Excuse me...!" the pouting Snow Woman turned her attention to Kurumu "what makes you think that he'd fall for you cow girl!? If he hasn't been turned on by your constant sexual harassment by now then what makes you think he ever will?"

"This from the girl with the libido made of ice?"

"Hey! I'm here too!"

"Come back into this conversation when you grow a pair as big as mine chess board!"

"Oh Really!? And how has that been helping you cow girl!?"

"Why you little...!"

The argument was suddenly interrupted by a iron flying by the girl's heads and smashing into the bus, bending it slightly and pushing it back a foot or so. Looking at the direction of the thrown projectile the girls could see Chi and Mimi dressed in vacation wear, the latter tossing a iron up and down as if she was testing the weight of a baseball she was going to throw.

"Uh hey guys" Kurumu nervously greeted.

"I forgot that we were meeting them here" Mizore stated.

Chi was dressed in a outfit from her Akucci line-up, which in this case consisted of a dark blue tube shirt, a short jean skirt and a white sweater shirt which complimented her lavishly long red hair, currently pale skin, and bright green eyes quite nicely. Mimi was wearing a dark purple Seifuku, complimented by a neck tie that was colored a putrid yellow, the white scarf she was wearing seemed to make her look even scarier, if for nothing else than the fact that it covered her mouth and drew attention to her piercing eyes.

"Now than here's the way I see it: option A we can go down to the beach and have a nice quiet vacation without the bone head and figure out where he is when he starts ripping the place apart, or option B you lot can go wasting your time looking for him only to find him when he starts ripping the place apart anyway."

"The Shadow spawn doth present a point, given the two options I prefer an actual vacation than chasing mine brother through a sunflower field..." Mizore, Kurumu and Yukari began making their way into the sunflower field "presuming of course that he is even in there. With his Reaper step he could be anywhere from the The North pole to the City of Aku."

The girls reluctantly made their way towards the Beach, having had their hopes of a sun flower romance shot down.

"Ms. Nekomone, you and the ladies are going to have to grab your bags and head for your rooms, the bus needs a few repairs..." the driver said, waving to the extensive damage done to the bus within the past few hours.

"Alright girls you heard the man, everyone grab your bags and head for your rooms."

"Allow me Ms. Nekomone."

"Let me help Minnie!"

Moka was quick to come to Minnie's aid, between the weeks of sickness she shouldered from that damned eye and the brutal 'treatments' at the hands of whatever mad scientist her mother had in her employ she had her doubts that Minnie should be doing anything strenuous right now. However as Moka came to Minnie's aid she spotted a sliver of gold dragging a bag in the back forward.

"What the...?"

Moka's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by Minnie holding her luggage in her face.

"I thank thee, Moka."

"Oh for the love of: CAN YOU TWO JUST GET A ROOM AND MAKE OUT ALREADY!?"

"Verily, and thou can get thine own luggage harlot!"

Minnie dropped the remainder of the girls bags on the ground while she and Moka headed inside, leading the rest of the girls to shoot Kurumu dirty looks.

---

Since the destruction of Megaville it's park had become a overgrown forest, no one had known how all the trees and plants had grown so quickly, in truth few were even aware of it, fewer dared entering the new dark continent to find out. And yet as Mandy surveyed the area from the comfort of her husband's cloak of invisibility she could tell that a military base had been set up in a massive blast crater that included the forest. She was joined by another Reaper, only able to see her by virtue of his own cloak of invisibility, which was also how she could tell that he was in the kneeling position with his dual sickle pistols holstered in his belt.

"Sorry for the wai..."

"I lack the time for formalities: progress report short version!"

"Six years ago, prior to the 'Him incident' a large explosion believed to have originated from the target's laboratory leveled six city blocks of the city. All Faunas and Flora caught in the blast has been infused with the same 'ghost gene' found in the twins DNA and our EDS."

"I know that what about the soldiers?"

"Not a human among them, all members of a military organization dubbed Fairy Tale. They have been trying to isolate the gene from the biological specimens they've collected and splice it into themselves: thus far their efforts have been... disturbing."

"And the target?"

"Based on the information you gave us and that we've already acquired we believe we may know where he's been imprisoned."

"'Imprisoned'?"

"Yes Madam: shall I take you there?"

"At once!"

The reaper opened a portal and Mandy stepped through, the sight was unexpected to say the least. By the looks of things a tree had sprung up in the middle of the road, the remains of a number of men wielding mutilated Chainsaws looked like they died when the tree grabbed them by their feet and a number of icicles skewered them through their heads. The tree itself was quite unusual, by the looks of things it was covered in frost and dotted with Icicles, despite the fact that it was 106% Fahrenheit outside, and it had a number of green eyes coming out of it's trunk.

"The tree drew our suspicions because it has ecto running through it's veins, a large portion of blood-blossom DNA, and appears to be a E.V.O. of some sort."

"A eve-what?"

"Nanite infused mutant madam."

"Oh why do I keep coming back to this fucked up planet? Do you think that he's in there?"

"The tree has a number of similarities to something from a report you filed madam, it seems to be a improved version of the tree prison that Plasmius attempted to use on lord Junior."

"That doesn't make any since, why would Vlad use a older version of something like this?"

"Ah-hem...!" Mandy and the Reaper looked over to see a group of soldiers with their weapons trained on them "for those of you who aren't aware invisibility cloaks don't double as inaudibility cloaks!"

Mandy and the Reaper dropped their hoods, the latter training his pistols on the enemy soldiers.

"So the hated and feared Queen Bitch thought she could just march in here and take whatever she wants? On the bright side you did lead us to Phantom, for which we aught to thank you, so we'll try to kill you quickly. You know how your husband can be."

"Oh for the love of!"

Mandy grabbed one of the sickles from the reaper and used it to cut a large swath into the tree. The tree tried desperately to heal itself of it's injury but it was clearly in vain as the being within was clawing to get outside. The Reaper grabbed Mandy and pulled her to safety through a portal just in time for a immensely huge Ghostly Wail to level an entire city block.

"Impressive."

"I've seen worst, come on we need to get down there!"

The scene had changed dramatically, whereas before it was positively sweltering it now looked like a winter wasteland. The figure responsible was on his knees breathing heavily, 6 years stuck inside that tree hadn't done him any favors. His appearance was quite ragged, the suit he was wearing was black hazard suit with white gloves and boots, on top of which he was wearing a white hoodie. His hair had been allowed to grow without restraint now reaching down to his rear end while the beard on his face was allowed to reach down to his abs. His muscles had become weak and worn from lethargy and his left arm looked as if it had been fused to the tree itself, which was also rooted into the ground and thus giving him a great deal of difficulty removing.

"Great!"

"So this is what happened to the great Danny Phantom..." Danny spun around as best he could to come face to face with Mandy "you're certainly a sorry sight Phantom."

"Mandy...?" Danny took a moment to take in Mandy's full figure, mostly her low cut outfit from hell "why the heck are you dressed like a whore!?"

---

The girls somewhat enthusiastically threw their clothing up in the air, Moka was wearing an exotic white one piece, Kurumu a skimpy black string bikini, Mizore a pretty in purple one piece, Yukari a cute little orange number, Mimi in a new red one piece with the back opened, Chi in pink String Bikini, and Minnie who had fore-gone wearing a swim suit altogether and was instead wearing a white sundress with a straw hat over her plug-suit.

"So any ideas on what we should do ladies" Kurumu asked the others?

"Well between the seven of us we got enough for a three on three game of volley ball and a judge. Any objections" Chi suggested?

"Who's on who's team?"

"Well if we do couples me and Mimi can get paired up against Moka and Minnie."

"You and Mimi aren't a couple Chi."

Only Mimi's immense super human strength kept Chi from tearing the snow woman's head off, even then the drawn claws and flailing arms were rather obvious indicators of intent.

"Let me at her! LET ME AT HER! LET ME...!"

Chi's chant was suddenly interrupted by Mimi pulling her in for a kiss, and held it in spite of Chi's adrenaline fueled struggles.

"Wow..."

"I guess we still stand a chance after all."

Mimi finally released an out of breath Chi once she had calmed down.

"Knew you... cared" an out of breath although smiling Chi proudly stated!

Now that the issue of teams were sorted the group set a volleyball court up, with Chi, Mimi and Kurumu set up on one side and Moka, Minnie and Yukari one the other side with Mizore taking up the position of point keeper. Mimi was the first to serve, she threw the ball into the air and spiked it with her super human strength, Moka was barely able to duck out of the way in time for the ball to crash into the dirt leaving behind a small crater.

"Point Mimi."

"Is that how it shall be then...?" a slightly annoyed Minnie removed her gloves then cracked her fingers, letting the sparks between them fly freely "very well then...!" Minnie purloined the ball from the dirt and threw it into the air "HAVE AT THEE" Minnie screamed as she slammed her fist into the ball!

The ball nearly reduced Chi to mush, thankfully though her shape shifting abilities allowed her to redirect the otherwise form crushing blow at Moka. Minnie reached out and yanked off the Rosario just in time to unleashed the vampire, turning the sky red, the sea a deathly shade of purple, the pink haired girl silver, grew out her bust and butt ever so slightly, and her green eyes red. The transformed Moka shot the ball to the other side of the court.

"This is crazy!"

"Let's get outta here!"

While the weaker of the team members and goal keeper wisely choose to evacuate before they got caught in the crossfire the Reaper and Scythe duo of Junior and Harror watched the volley ball turned sphere of holy-damned super heated plasma from the relative safety of the sun flower field, with looks of impatiently annoyed and sadistically giddy respectively.

"This is the reason why S-Ranks shouldn't be allowed to play competitive sports!"

"You gotta admit though that it's fun to watch bro!"

"Touche..." Junior returned his attention to the hole that he was digging and reached inside "but we have more important things to worry about right now" Junior said as he pulled out a human skull.

---

"Do you need a hand with that" Mandy asked the recently freed Phantom?

Danny looked down at his arm for a moment examining it, he attempted to phase it out of the ground only to discover that his arm was deeply rooted, he tried to move it only to discover that he neither had any feeling in it nor had he the capacity to move it. By the looks of this his arm had been entirely replace with a chunk of tree that he now needed to remove.

"That won't be necessary."

Phantom formed a hatchet made out of ice in his hand and with practice ease that suggested that he was all too familiar with the process proceeded to chop his arm clean off, before sealing the open wound with more ice.

"Impressive, most people lack the necessary resolve to remove a limb that has become a hindrance to them."

"Not like I could do anything with it. Now would you mind answering my damn question already!?"

"Why am I dressed like this? It's actually quite the popular fashion choice for female rulers in the Underworld."

"Huh? I always wondered where you disappeared off to, what has it been ten years?"

"Sixteen, six of which have gone by while you were in that tree."

Danny was taken back by that statement, more than just slightly surprised he was in complete shock.

"Get out! Seriously!?"

"Quite; see for yourself."

Danny let out a loud whistle, amplified by the use of a Ghostly Wail. He had no intention of doing anymore damage with the sonic attack but Mandy could tell from the twitching of his ears that he was using it as a form of echo location. From what Danny could tell the entire city was in a state of disrepair, all of the plants and more than a few of the animals had become over grown, and the only people around where them and the military personnel who had set up shop in the city, which he had a great many doubts were even human.

"What happened here?"

"Near as anyone could tell: you did."

"Say what? I thought I was the one stuck inside a tree?"

"You were, your lab was not, from what I know about a month after you disappeared your entire lab exploded taking six city blocks with it."

"Sounds like the symptoms of a neglected Ghost Portal."

"Ghost Portals explode?"

"Only when you don't change the ecto-infiltrator every six months."

"Right well from what I understand the people caught in the blast started to show the same kind of powers as you did. They might have stood a chance too had he waited long enough for them to learn how to use them."

"Who is he?"

"Him."

Danny looked around, aside from himself and Mandy the only other person there was the Reaper.

"He did this?"

"Not that stooge the Demon lord known as Him. Some nonsense about being so feared that no-one will speak his true name Kare."

"I can see why he'd prefer to go by Him."

"Indeed, he used the chaos to descend upon the city, by the time anyone could mount a defense Him already had a foothold in the city."

"So what did he want?"

"His Daughter, Blossom's little girl Mimi."

"I always wondered why Blossom never talked about the father."

"Every hero in the city came to the Utonium family's defense but in vain: over the years Him had managed to earn their ire and hatred. As a devil he feeds off of it, grows more powerful. They never stood a chance, every-one of them fell like domino's. Without any super heroes to keep them in line the super villains that they fought were allowed to run wild, and they tore this continent to shreds."

"Cute: so what are you doing here all mighty ruler of the underworld?"

"Your evil twin is back."

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"Go ask Walker after you get yourself put back together..." Mandy threw a USB drive at Danny whom caught it in his remaining hand "afterwards I'd like to see you at my home, the coordinates are in there with more information."

Danny checked his watch, only to realize that he couldn't press any of the buttons.

"My hands are a little full right now can you push this green button for me?"

Danny held out his hand allowing Mandy to push in the green button. Suddenly a large cylindrical tube appeared from a portal at their feet.

"What is this a TARDIS?"

"That 'bigger on the inside' crap? Don't be ridiculous..." the doors of the tube opened to reveal a semi-cramped elevator like space "it's a elevator."

Danny entered the 'elevator' and let it close behind him, sinking back through the portal and when the doors opened again he was in a large laboratory complex. A hologram appeared at the entrance of the elevator, he was African American, wore square glasses and a green suit.

"Welcome back Danny."

"Thanks Tuck."

Danny made his way to the bathroom as the Hologram followed him.

"With all do respect Danny: you look like crap."

"Apparently I've been stuck in a tree for six years. How's Ivan?"

"Okay, as far as he's concerned you've barely been gone five minuets. The benefit of setting up your base of operations inside the gap of a inter dimensional portal I guess."

"Lets wait until I'm a little less beat up before I go talk to him."

"Very wise. I would recommend the Rebirth formula for..."

"Tucker, first I'm taking a shower, next I'm getting a shave, then I'm seeing my son, and then we can discuss how to put myself back together!"

---

What mere hours ago would have been considered paradise on Earth had been reduced to a complete smoldering wreck. The Beach had become a casualty of a war between the forces of Heaven and Hell the one weapon of which was a single ball that had been vaporized in the passing back and forth. The responsible parties were standing on the edge of the beach surveying their handiwork, Moka had already been turned back into her pink haired counterpart.

"Ah whoops" Chi rather bluntly said!

"Indeed" Minnie replied.

Suddenly the group witnessed all the wooden stands and damaged docks put themselves back together with a green aura.

"'If there is one fact for certain about mine brother it is that he leaves a trail where ever he goes, mostly consisting of craters and corpses...'" the group turned around to face Junior, who had just arrived with Harror's weapon form resting on his shoulder "and you give me a hard time!?"

"Verily brother" Minnie said with no small amount of shame!

"You lot are lucky that no one saw this nonsense or we'd all be out on our asses!"

"Don't blame us your sister, girl friend, and their girlfriends were the ones who trashed the beach!"

"I don't have time for this, while you lot were making out I was doing actual work..." Junior pulled out a human skull from his coat "I found this out in the sun flower fields."

"Is that a human skull?"

"For the past couple of weeks I've been visiting these fields when I go reaping. A lot of people have been dying here, and I do mean a lot!"

Harror turned back into her humanoid form to get her two cents in.

"We found over a dozen corpses in the sun flower fields. Something chewed them up, spat them out, and turned them into fertilizer!"

"So we're splitting into pairs, Yukari and Kurumu, Moka and Minnie, Mizore and Chi, Mimi and Me."

"Ah no offence Junior but..." Mimi gave Junior an affectionate peck on the cheek, much to a visibly heart broken Chi "Mimi wants to go with you anyway."

"Now that we got that cleared up. Remember guys who ever is doing this seems to be targeting humans, try not to give yourselves away until you see something that could be killing these people off, and if you do see them try to let the others know."

"We should probably get dressed too" Mizore pointed out.

"Oh come on! I didn't even get to go into the water yet!"

The girls, reluctantly, went for the stalls to change while a somewhat grumpier then usual Junior plopped down on the spot.

"Brother..." Junior looked up at his sister, who not wearing a swim suit had no need to go get changed "is there something wrong?"

"It's something about this whole place, it's not right!"

"What doth thou mean brother?"

"Maybe it's the dead bodies that I was sensing, maybe it's whatever had them for breakfast, but there's just something not right about those sun flower fields!"

"Mayhaps thou feel guilty about leaving home so soon after getting back?"

"You mean my prison cell? That woman has barely so much as let us out of the damned castle in the past 10 years! How the heck do you think we ended up so screwed up in the first place?"

"Verily" Minnie sighed sadly.

When the girls got dressed in some summer wear they ventured into the sun flower fields and split into the groups that Junior had assigned them. However now that she was alone with Yukari Kurumu had a disturbing revelation to share.

"Hey Yukari."

The pair were currently searching the south side of the fields for the culprit, working their way inwards.

"What is it Kurumu?"

They could tell why some sort of blood thirsty creature would call this place home. The tall sun flowers were like Savannah tall grass and made it easy for some crouching predator to stalk unsuspecting prey.

"I had a thought: this place is called the Witches Knoll right?"

"Right" Yukari said not entirely sure where this conversation was going.

"Well you think that means that there are witches here, responsible for what's going on?"

"What!? That's crazy talk Kurumu!"

"Not really, they don't call it the witches knoll for nothing. So at the very least something witch related happened here."

"I said no way!"

Yukari stormed off into the sun flower field, Kurumu would have chased after her but she quickly lost track of her in the flowers.

"Great!"

Yukari came out in a clearing, someone had built a house there some odd hundred years ago if the condition it was in was any indication. Yukari took the liberty of slumping up against a tree in front of the house.

"There's no way a witch would do that!"

"Hello there."

Yukari spun around to face woman who had approached her. She was a tall and very beautiful young lady, she wore Gothic Victorian clothing consisting of a pink corset which Yukari noted with some annoyance showed off the bulk of her considerable bust, not in Kurumu's league thankfully but enough to annoy the underdeveloped girl none the less, and a dark black dress that was torn in several places, most notable the large tear running up her dress that scandalously exposed her leg. She had long dark brown hair and bright pink eyes complimenting Caucasian skin. Yukari immediately yanked out her wand in a defensive stance only to realize that the woman had done the exact same thing.

"Are you... a witch?"

"Indeed I am..." the woman lowered the wand and held out her other hand in a friendly gesture "my name is Ruby Tojo, pleasure to meet you!"

Yukari was some what hesitant to trust the other witch. On the one hand it was the perfect way to prove Kurumu dead wrong, on the other hand there was a good chance that she was right and this woman could be very dangerous. Deciding to risk it Yukari lowered her wand and returned the elder witches gesture and shook her hand.

"My name is Yukari Sendo, Ruby Tojo."

Ruby joined the younger girl in front of the tree as they soon struck up a conversation.

"So there's really a witch living at the Witches Knoll."

"Why else would it be called that?"

"So does that mean that you know what's behind all the murders lately?"

Ruby donned a worried look at that.

"Murders?"

"A lot of people have been disappearing here lately, my friend found their dead bodies."

"It wouldn't surprise me, ever since the Butcher's war there's been a lot of unpleasant things running around the world, and it wouldn't be hard to believe that something is stalking around here either: the tall sunflowers..."

"Are just like Savannah tall grass that animals like Hyena's and Cheetah's use to stalk their prey: I noticed that too!"

The two really hit off after that, for hours they talked topics ranging from various magics the two have learned over the years to other witches they have met, of which they were both sad to say that it was limited to small families, Ruby especially.

"My parents died when I was young..."

"What? Really!"

"We were shopping in the city at the time: some drunk bastard came out of no where and ran them over" the older witch venomously spat!

"Oh my! I'm sorry!"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Lady Oyataka has been there for me since the beginning."

"'Lady Oyataka?'"

"My god mother, and fellow witch. I was left in her care after all that happened."

"Can I see her" the bright eyed and excited young witch asked!?

"I'm afraid not..." the look Yukari channeled went from 'squirrel with nuts' to 'kicked puppy' "she's been rather... ill as of late and not up to visitors I'm afraid..." Ruby donned a sad smile as she fondly reminisced better times "how I wished you could have seen her in her prime. The things the three of us could do."

"What happened? I have a friend who's pretty good at healing wounds."

"A broken heart... she loves this place so much" Ruby's voice turned to angry venom as she continued "but now some selfish human company is planning to destroy this beautiful place for some non-sense construction project!"

"That's terrible!"

"Don't worry about it Yukari..." Ruby donned a down right sinister smirk as she continued talking "I got a feeling that it won't be a problem for much longer."

Junior walked out of the sun flower fields, oddly enough without Harror or Mimi.

"Hey Junior...!" Junior looked over to his young witch friend "I'd like you to meet my new friend Ruby!"

Junior turned his attention to the older witch, and noted the general heir of familiarity as he summed up her features.

"Pleasure."

"This is the friend I was telling you about Ruby! His name is Junior!"

"Is he a warlock?"

"Afraid not, I'm just your average run of the mill human."

"Such a shame."

Suddenly a large gorilla like and alligator jawed beast jumped from the flowers and swallowed Junior whole. The all too familiar orange bat winged hamster picked this time to fly in and sit on the plant's nose.

"Hanabake, a type of monster plant that takes on the form of normal plants to soak up the sun light and accumulate natural energy over the course of years and years."

Yukari was surprised to say the least when she saw the beast, she went for her wand when Ruby stopped her

"Don't worry, that Hanabake won't harm one of my fellow witches."

"So you are responsible for the murders!"

"It isn't murder when it's self defense, and I only breed the Hanabake, their choice of diet is not my concern."

"And here I was hoping we could be friends. Junior isn't going to like this."

"And exactly how is he..." suddenly the head of the Hanabake plant, bat and all, was sent flying past the two witches heads and splattered against the door of the house "oh."

Ruby looked over to Junior, who had just clawed his way out of the Hanabake and tore it apart from the inside out, and was in the middle of attempting to brush the slime off of his arms.

"You aren't human are you?"

"Far from it..." with a stomp of his foot Harror's weapon form shot out from the flowers and landed in Junior's hand "but I like to think that I act in their best interests. I'm not sure what you and your plants are up to lady but I know a murderer when I see one, and I never forget a face!"

"What are you babbling about?"

"That's right I didn't introduce myself did I..." Junior swung Harror forward causing her to spring into her scythe form, and grip the handle as he took a fighting stance "I'm the Reaper who escorted all the souls of the people that you've been butchering to their final resting place!"

Suddenly a spike of power shot out from Junior as he formed a channel with Harror, allowing her power to seep into him, green blood gushed from his eyes, mouth, nose and scars that lined his body. The blood flooded over his bones as it formed flesh to replace that which had been converted into ecto energy, bladed wings and a tail sprouted from his back, and his bones came to the surface to form a grotesque exo-skeleton, most notably the skull face which retained Junior's mismatched eyes and scar on his face. The fully transformed Demon Reaper jumped into the air and spread his wings, releasing a roar that let the world know that he meant business.

"And I'm gonna kick your ass!"

---

Lord Pain finished pouring a glass of wine for Mandy, she was lounging on the balcony as she watched a platoon of Reaper soldiers train with their sniper scythes. Based on the synchronized movements they were using one might mistake this for an interpretive dance movement of some sort, if not for the lethal weapons in question. Grim walked out onto the balcony to join his wife, and the lord of pain pored a shot of Cyanide for the reaper lord that he gladly took.

"You trained dem well" Grim said knocking back the shot.

"You taught them their necromancy, Finklestein constructed their weapons..."

"An you taught em how ta swing em" Grim said taking another glass.

"Pay attention dumb-ass I'm complimenting you, it doesn't happen all the time...!" Mandy only now noticed Pain poring Grim's third shot "of course you might notice it if you weren't more focus on getting drunk off of your boney ass" Mandy said throwing the bottle over the edge!

"Yer one ta talk. I only drink on occasion" Grim reminded his wife, as he drunk what would be his final glass for the evening.

"On the subject you only drink when something has you on edge: spit it out!"

"Call it a bad feelin."

"How bad?"

"Bad like when Minnie got herself butdered."

"That is bad, but if you wouldn't mind elaborating."

"Reapers can sense when people are about ta die. But we always take a special interest in dose close ta us, our loved ones if yah will. We often top off dere hour glasses or heal em when dey get injured, and dis causes us ta ave a special connection wid dem."

"Like with you and me?"

"Indeed. Now I feel as if someone else dat I'm close to is gonna be dying soon."

"Junior can look out for Minnie. The twins are safe inside the castle."

"But who's gonna look out for Junior?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Dat boy is more fragile den he acts, sure wid dat damn Nergal and his growin skills wid necromancy he's physically indestructible; but what happens if he snaps? Both powers rely on his sanity bein intact; If he does snap his body is gonna rip itself apart, and den nothins gonna be able ta put em back togeder agin!"

"Then all he needs to do is stay sane."

"Yah can't force someone to be sane Mandy!"

"Madness is a sickness that can be treated with time and the proper medication."

"Dere's one problem wid dat plan Mandy..."

---

The full glory of the Demon Reaper floated above the field of flowers that would soon become a field of battle between the under-worldian and witch of the Knoll.

"We may not have time!"

Ruby yanked a bronze hook shaped wand from her belt and angrily pointed it at the reaper.

"I don't know how Yukari came under your influence Reaper...!" suddenly, all of Ruby's clothing was discarded, in favor of a tight dark brown leather cat suit underneath that seemed to be merged with her hair "but it ends now!"

Suddenly a set of six bird like wings popped out of Ruby's back, allowing her to take flight and hover across from Junior. He was the first to strike, the ecto mortar strike that he earlier used against he ghouls.

"Bombarda Maxima...!" Ruby's explosive spell detonated Junior's mortar before he could fire it, engulfing his body in the blast and smoke "you should consider using quicker attacks: I saw that coming..." Junior suddenly appeared directly in front of Ruby through reaper step, completely bypassing the outstretched arm with how close he had gotten "from a mile away" Ruby finished now with a hint of fear in her voice!?

Junior grabbed Ruby by her free arm, and apparently taking her advice nailed her at point blank range with a Ghostly Wail, kept from being sent flying only by Junior holding onto her arm, once he had deemed that she had enough he threw her battered form to the ground.

"Ruby..." Ruby turned over to face Yukari "you should consider surrendering now, the last time he was this angry the guy he was fighting he ended up tearing him apart."

"Don't... underestimate me... Traitor!"

Ruby turned her attention to the Reaper, eyes brimming with hatred, getting back up somewhat shakily she decided to officially remove the kid gloves.

"AVAVAGO!"

Suddenly Ruby's cat suit unraveled, revealing it to be merely her hair wrapped and weaved around her now nude body. As if that wasn't enough of a surprise the hair passed through a hell portal and sprang forth a large semi humanoid demonic dragon creature. The beast bull-rushed Junior, threw him across the sunflower field and chased him like a dog after a ball, complete with bending down, gobbling him up and quickly returning to it's mistress to be sent back to whatever hell it came from to digest the morsel.

"FINALLY! HE'S..." suddenly the big hairy beast exploded in a blast of green, another of the Reaper's ecto-mortar shots destroying the beast from within "dead" Ruby said, with true shock induced paralyzing terror in her voice.

So shocked was she that she didn't even notice the reaper rushing at her until her face was trapped in his iron grip and he had her suspended in the air by it. The bright side after her demon died her clothing had returned, so at least her humiliation was limited to just being caught.

"Next time yah might wanna try something less flashy: it gave me plenty of warning for my slow heavy attack!"

"Don't talk down to me you freak! Sectum SEMPRA!"

Ruby waved her wand up, the magical sword effect of the spell sliced the arm that Junior was using to hold her off. Now freed she used Sectum Sempra several times, reducing Junior's body to several gagged chunks of demonic meat.

"Okay now, that's gotta..." suddenly tentacles snaked out from the remains of the Reaper and pulled him back together again "yah that figures!"

The others, attracted by the sound of Junior's wail, rushed into the clearing in time to see Junior and Ruby's fight.

"Looks like Junior found the one responsible for the murders" Mizore said, in a stating the obvious type of tone.

"YEAH! WE CAN FINALLY GET BACK TO THE BEACH! HEY JUNIOR...!" Kurumu managed to catch the attention of the other wise preoccupied reaper "KICK THAT BITCH'S ASS SO THAT WE CAN GET BACK TO OUR VACATION!"

"What the hell does she think I'm doing?"

Minnie was quick to notice Yukari looking a bit depressed, she seemed to be making a effort not to look into the sky to see the battle.

"Yukari..." the young witch looked up to Minnie, who was now sitting next to her "that tis another witch up there that mine brother tis fighting tis not?"

Yukari sadly nodded.

"I would nay worry about her Yukari, I suspect that mine brother has already smelled the greater conspiracy here and will spare her to learn more."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out..." Minnie turned her attention to Kurumu who had already formed her hands into a time out T "we found the murderer, we cracked the case, can't we just watch your brother beat the crap out of that witch and move on with our vacation?"

At this point in time Mimi came in, devil form and appropriately fire-proof outfit and all, dragging by it's struggling and snapping head one of the Hanabake.

"That is a Hanabake, if mine memory serves be they grow slowly over a period of years."

"I'm going to regret asking, but how many years?"

"If this one's size is any indication, I would say a hundred years..." Minnie returned the group's attention to the fighting above "meaning that this beast is five times the age of that woman up there."

Suddenly the group could hear the sounds of growls coming from all around them, and quickly realized that they were surrounded.

"Beasts, plural" Mizore corrected.

The girls suddenly armed themselves, Moka's inner half assumed a fighting stance and Mimi joined her after finishing off her prisoner, Chi, Mizore and Kurumu drew their claws, Minnie plucked out a pair of lightning bolts from midair and Yukari drew her wand. The girls spotted the hoard of Hanabake emerge from the sunflower fields.

"I wanted spend the day on the beach, soaking up the sun and cooling off in the water, but no you lot just had to go weed whacking! The next time I see Junior I'm gonna..." Kurumu's rant was interrupted by another mortar strike, this one serving the duel purposes of smashing Ruby into the ground and eliminating all of the Hanabake to the north, Junior landed next to the group facing the rest of the incoming hoard, opening a portal behind and directing the group through "hug the daylights out of him" Kurumu said leaping out through the air to give Junior a death hug, and whom side stepped her allowing her to fling herself through the portal.

"With the exception of sexually harassing mine brother and most likely landing quite painfully, I would recommend following the Harlot's lead!"

Minnie received no arguments as the others followed through, Junior took Ruby's battered unconscious form and carried her through the portal before closing it. Once on the other side and seemingly safe and sound Junior took the liberty of sitting down and catching his breath after the long and brutal battle. He was evidently learning that those ecto mortar strikes took a lot out of him, and between Ruby and the Ghouls he had fired a lot of them today. Therefore he was caught completely off guard when Kurumu shoved his head into her bosom.

"Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you so Muc..." Kurumu said before being frozen solid.

"Hasn't he been through enough for one day already..." Mizore said as she held onto his arm "come on Junior..." the snow woman attempted to 'help' Junior by encasing the arm that she was holding onto in ice "I'll help you col..." Mizore was suddenly interrupted by a pot dropping out of mid-air onto her head.

"And you think turning him into a Popsicle is going to help you bloody ice-cube!? Come on Junior I'll heal you up!"

Junior brushed off Yukari as he got up, grabbing a chunk of Mizore's ice he held it to his sore head while Mimi supported him.

"Brother, art thou unwell?"

"The fight took more out of me then I thought: reckless use of ecto on a technique I only just learned about and a headache to top it off. I'm pretty much spent at this point."

Now the young witch was concerned, not for her mostly indestructible if not somewhat tired friend but more for her new friend who had been beaten to a pulp.

"Is Ruby going to be okay, I mean if you're..."

"She won't die, for now. I recommend haling her sorry ass back to the inn and treating her for anything that she'll die from if left untreated. Keep all the non-lethal injuries though, it'll make her easier to deal with when she wakes up."

Mimi helped Junior to the Inn, all the while Yukari's concern for her new friend was growing.

"Ruby, what are you in to?"

---

Review Section:While I wouldn't normally write a response to a review from another story, I due feel like this one deserves a little credit for being the only one to review Rosario Grim's final chapter so...

P.F. Necro: I appreciate your feelings about the story P.F. and in case you hadn't noticed your long wait is over!