ShadowKingLegette slams his hand down on the ringing alarm clock set on a secret shelf compartment located on the bottom of his deck as he yawns. Right after, he lifts his head and accidently bashes his head against the wood situated above his head.

"OW!"

The author gently massaged the throbbing lump he now had.

"Forgot I had slept in my office last night... But yeah thanks for Fav-ing Following, Reviewing and Reading people."

Now onto one reply...

To (The Champions): Thanks for worrying about my well-being and volunteering to help. I'll keep your offer in mind. And I hope you and everyone else don't catch the virus either.


An hour or two later, that eagle happened upon a black door located in a dark corner of the Ghost Zone all by itself with a cracked red heart displayed on it's surface hidden. After landing its talons on the stone surface beneath its feet, the flying creature transformed into a short man with grey hair and a bushy mustache. He wore a dark formal jacket, grey pants, red vest, and a dark bow tie around his neck. As he stepped up to the door, he straightened out his tie and smoothed out his mustache. Then he knocked on the door three times. No noise came from the other side of it.

After a few seconds, the small man said, "It's me so you can stop pretending you're not home."

Like the phrase was somehow the equivalent to 'Open Sesame', the door creaked open. Once it had, the man with the bushy mustache laid eyes on the figure before him. It was a shadow, rather a shade-type ghost with spooky red eyes, tall dark spiky hair, and a ever swaying tail. It also had purple lipstick coated around its lips and its figure was slender like a woman's build.

"Thanks for the compliment," smiled the shade woman showing her unnaturally sharp milk white teeth.

"Uh... you're welcome?" said the author not expecting a certain wall to be broken in this story.

"If you're done playing nice with the author..." interrupted the small impatient man making his way inside past the woman. "I have the latest digest."

"You better go," advised the shade. "Before Bertrand throws a hissy fit and changes his mind."

"Short temper, am I right?" joked the author.

"Haha! Good one."

"I'm waiting!" yelled the small man standing not too far behind the shade.

"All right, I'm coming." responded the shade ghost closing the door shut, then making her way past large fishtanks with predator-like ghost fish inside and following behind her guest.

After, she made it to a staircase and walked... er floated downstairs to a larger area with sophisticated furniture, a large flatscreen TV mounted on a wall, and a large bookshelf covering the entire east wall. Did I also mention that there were large shark-like ghosts swimming around in the floor? Because there were large undead predators moving about in the floor. And last but not least, the area had dim lighting.

The small man had crossed his arms after jumping up and setting himself down on a long couch. He looked annoyed.

"I know you were talking about me..." sourly stated the bushy mustached man.

"Like you don't talk about me with your Underzone circles," casually dismissed the shade.

"That's different."

"How so?"

"I don't do it when you're around."

"Point taken. Now what do you have for me?"

"First, Walker and company managed to track down that plant ghost they were after."

"Undergrowth?"

"The one and the same."

"How did that go?"

"Let's just say at least half of his subordinates are pushing up after-daisies. Also, the warden will have to try and pluck that thorn out of his side another day."

"Figures. He managed to catch Vortex by dumb luck."

"If it wasn't for the fact that Vortex froze Technus' realm while on one of his rampages, the ranting scientist wouldn't have had a reason to invent that barometer thing in an act of payback."

"And then Walker bought it from him after seeing how useful it was in dealing with weather brain."

"Yep."

"Enough about that. What else do you have?"

The short man hummed before continuing.

"I heard a rumor that some weird buzzing doohickeys were moving about in various parts of the Ghost Zone."

The shade raised a brow.

"What?"

"I said..."

"I know what you said. Is it true?"

"Not sure."

"Why not?"

"Because everytime I go to check it out they're never there. For all I know, someone could be pulling a prank."

The shade folded her arms.

"Fine. We'll bench this matter for now. Anything else?"

Then the short man went on to divulge other interesting events that were transpiring. From illegal smuggling activities to the sudden shift in power in some middle aged kingdom. All of which Spectra didn't bat eye about.

When it was time to reveal last piece of news however, a smirk formed on the small man's face.

"Well," he began with a slight pause. "This last bit of intel you will find most... interesting."

The woman's brow perked out in curiousity.

"In what way?"

"While making my rounds, I spotted Skulker heading in a particular direction he doesn't often travel. At least... not since before Christmas."

Understanding the implications of Bertrand's words, the shade beamed, "Oh goodie! Please tell me he caught the two...!"

"He didn't. In fact, I don't think the boy was there."

"What? But you said..."

"I wasn't finished. Although the kid was gone, that didn't stop Ember and Skulker from locking lips with one another for almost 10 Mississippis."

"That is interesting!" the pointy haired ghost exclaimed. "Ember sneaking around with her ex while Phantom is nowhere in sight! It reaks of a disaster waiting to happen!"

"I figured you'd like that bit."

"I could use this to my advantage. In fact, I could speed up the process if I were to nudge tin butt two in the right direction. Bertrand, for now I want you to keep an eye on Emmy and Cutie Pie. Everything else is on the backburner for now."

"That'll make my job much easier. Traveling all over the Ghost Zone is tiresome."

The small man hopped down onto his feet and was about to make his way to the stairs until the shade blocked his path. Bertrand looked up and saw hunger in the features of the shade's face as she licked her lips. He gave her a flat look.

"Must you?"

"I haven't had anything in a while so I'll just have to settle for what's available."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Fine... Just make it quick."

Not too long after that, Penelope Spectra landed in front of a cabin situated at the far end of a floating island. As she stepped up to the 'unwelcome' mat in front of the door, she smoothed her business suit and checked her features with a small pocket mirror which she flipped shut when she felt that she was at her best. After knocking gently a couple of times on the wooden door, the entrance barrier came open inwardly to the left.

Once it had, the owner thereof roughly asked, "What do you want Penelope?"

"Skulker," smiled the red head to the mechanical ghost. "Always the charmer I see."

"Hmph."

Spectra picked up on his 'get to the point or get lost' huff and giggled as if he said something amusing.

"Don't be so sour. After all, that's what prey does. And elite hunters like ourselves are above such miniscule tendencies. Am I right?"

The hunter stared at her seriously for a few seconds before his metal mouth formed a smirk.

"You're not wrong."

"See? Doesn't that feel better? Now invite me in so we can talk hunter to hunter."

"Fine. But it better not be about anything cute," said Skulker before stepping to the side followed by the red head stepping a high heel or two inside his abode.

Sometime later in the state of Wisconsin, inside the mansion owned by Vlad Masters, the billionaire stumbled about in his lab while clutching his head with both hands.

"No... I won't! You can't make me...!"

He crashed into a machine and his facial expression showed confidence alongside a smirk.

"Of course I can. I'm you remember?"

The cheesehead fell to his knees with clenched fists.

"I don't care! This is my body! Not yours!"

A dark morph ring appeared around Vlad's waist.

"Be that as may, you have been surpressing your true nature for a while now and I think its time for it to resurface."

The billionaire rose from the floor to float in the air. Then his morph ring split in half followed by going up and down in opposite directions thus transforming Vlad Masters into his ghost like nature.

"Ah," sighed the dracula looking ghost in relief. "You know... you may actually be right. I have missed this."

His red eyes gleamed a menacing bright red as he directed his eyes to the monitor on the wall to his left.

"Computer, has any of my probes narrowed down the location of any unique ghost items?"

"Affirmative," responded a computerized female's voice that sounded eerily similar to Maddie Fenton's before the monitor displayed a blinking dot amidst many yellow vertical and horizontal lines on top of a green canvass."

"Excellent. Transfer the location to my Plasmiwatch."

When Vlad's wrist device beeped, he turned and walked towards the ghost portal. After closing the distance, the billionaire hopped into it and flew off. About 30 minutes later, the halfa came across a sleeping behemoth of a ghost. It had four arms with threatening claws, razor sharp teeth, red fur, and a long tail that curled around a rectangular prism glass case.

"So this is where it was hiding," observed Vlad. "This beast must have been guarding it. But no matter, I'll just sneak up and phase my hand though the glass."

Quietly, the halfa proceeded to do as planned. Once he was hovering over the glass case, he made his hand go intangible before attempting to grab what was inside it. To his surprise the glass surrounded itself with glowing green energy that shocked Vlad's hand.

"Ow!" cried the halfa pulling his hand back. "What in Bart Starr's name...!"

But before he could finish that statement, the behemoth cut him off with a monstrous roar. The billionaire turned his head to the left to see the monster glaring at him in fury. And then it used its oversized hand to smack him away.

"AGH!"

After flying away about nearly 50 yards, Vlad managed to recover from the blow.

"Grr... I was hoping to avoid getting my hands dirty but if that's what you want then so be it."

The dracula looking ghost clenched his fists and they glowed with purple energy. Then the behemoth flew towards him at full speed and attempted a claw slash. Unfortunately for the creature, Vlad popped out of existence a second prior to being hit. Before the red furred monster could locate him, the billionaire appeared at the creature's midsection and landed a powerful uppercut, thus sending the behemoth flying high. As it ascended, Vlad concentrated and created 3 duplicates. Once he had, the copies channeled their energy and used it to lasso the creature into place as the original Vlad motioned towards its tail.

"Sorry, but this is checkmate."

The halfa grabbed the container and pulled it away from the beast's tail. Once the creature realized that its property was about to be taken away, it opened its mouth and fired a huge wave of purple fire. On reaction, the billionaire created what appeared to be a mirror shield out of his palm and the attack bypassed around Vlad instead of burning him to a crisp.

"Dull creature. You just don't know when to give up."

The billionaire's duplicates all at once channeled a severe shock to the behemoth through the ecto binds and the monster cried out with a terrifying shriek as a result. Vlad smiled in satisfaction.

"See? Checkmate."

Once it had passed out, the three duplicates undid their binds and the behemoth fell into the depths of the Ghost Zone. Following that, the duplicates merged with Vlad and the billionaire directed his focus to the glass casing.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes. I remember."

Vlad attempted to smash a glowing fist against the object in his hand but glowing green energy surrounded the case like before and halted his action with shock.

"Gah!" His hand retracted as he grimaced. "Confounded case...! It must be enchanted or something. Looks like I have to take it back to my lab and run some tests."

With that said, the billionaire flew off.