Hey everybody! Sorry this is late, but I'm sure you've read the authors note I posted earlier already. You already know what's happening. I'm honestly glad I was able to post this at all, even if it isn't all that exciting.

Either way, posts will keep coming, though things are still chaotic right now. Smoothly, but moving is chaotic. But they're still coming.

Without further adieu, I hope you enjoy!

Despite the random events happening around Amity Park, things remained relatively calm around town. Though, if that calm was tinged with a bit of anticipation, it was something everyone pretended not to notice. That was the thing about small towns; a sense of foreboding solidarity that could break if someone got careless.

So, when Kanaya quickly enrolled into Casper High, along with the other two Maryam's deciding to take their businesses here for now, Karkat decided to distract himself with that.

"And this is the gym. I probably don't need to explain what this is for." Karkat waved his hand lazily at the place, shrugging nonchalantly. Despite volunteering for this, he really hoped that he wouldn't have to welcome wagon every new student from then on. "Casper High isn't exactly the most high tech of places, but it's a good school anyway. At least the teachers aren't negligent."

"It has been a while since been to an actual brick and mortal school." Kanaya awkwardly added. She fiddled with some of her recently acquired books. "It seems like a very interesting place. Hopefully no ghosts pop up…"

Karkat and Kanaya cringed at the mention of it but kept going. It'd been like this all day anyway.

Both were a little ashamed to admit it, but they'd been pretty awkward with each other since they first met, something that didn't appear likely to change. It wasn't that they didn't like each other, it was just the weird things that had to surround their meeting. Ghosts, weird family drama, and the fact that Kanaya was technically Karkat's aunt made for a weird combination.

That's why he made sure Aradia and Sollux would help him.

"Ah, yes, Casper High. The most mediocre place on Earth." Sollux sarcastically remarked. He didn't really believe that, but he did believe in being dramatic, so he had to say something to that effect. "I really hope you don't hope for accolades here. Brightest minds don't really form around here often, except myself."

"Don't listen to him. You get one near perfect score on the SAT's and suddenly you compare yourself to god." Aradia rolled her eyes, laughing quietly. They weren't joking about the SAT score, but again, they were exaggerating. "I would avoid some people that are around here, though. Some are just toxic as all hell."

"That can't be entirely true." Kanaya said in what the group could only call a "mom voice." Whether it was the tone or the way she said it, that was they officially decided to call it. "No one is toxic without reason."

"Yeah, but some of them just hate us, so you might want to look out if they figure out we're related. Especially the goth kids." Karkat mumbled to himself for the next part, eyeing Aradia. "Though, that's mostly Aradia's doing. She keeps on pranking them every couple of weeks because of it.

"Hey, it's not my fault they decided to encourage me to keep doing some really bad habits back when I was thirteen. I'm just getting even." The girl didn't bother mentioning that the split had been years ago. "Though, there is only one person I can say you should really avoid talking to."

"Trizza Tethis. She's what you might call the Queen Bee, but she doesn't actually control all that much around here. And that it's an insult to bee's themselves." Sollux rolled his eyes. He really hated that saying. Why did everything related to bees have to negative? "Her dad is rich and spoils the hell out of her, along with funding some things within town. That makes her think she has leeway in everything."

Coincidentally, they couldn't help but overhear some very loud chattering coming down from another hallway. They stopped, recognizing the voice being the one person they'd told her to avoid.

"Speak of the devil, and she appears wearing Prada. Let's go help whatever poor souls decided to end up in her path today." Aradia already hurried over and looked past the wall, acting like this was a stealth mission. She snorted, though her amusement was piled under pity as she looked back at them. "It's Feferi and Eridan. They do not look happy to be there."

The others caught up, eventually getting a glance for themselves. She wasn't lying, as Tethis was currently talking the two other rich kid's ears off. It was a testament to Feferi's patience that she was able to keep up a calm front, though the strained smile was obvious. Eridan looked like he'd checked out much earlier, most likely as a way to not incinerate Tethis where she stood.

With some faint amusement, Karkat couldn't help but feel like they went through the final right of passage when it came to living in Amity Park. Everyone had to deal with Tethis at least once in their lives.

"Come on, let's help them out before ED explodes. It would be funny, but I'm not in the mood to deal with a temper tantrum today." Sollux pulled out his phone, already having a plan in mind. "You guys wouldn't mind distracting her, right?"

"Let's do it. No one deserves to deal with Tethis." Karkat was being truthful, though he did wonder how close Eridan was to blowing his secret just to get away from Trizza. God knows how he understood that feeling. "Kanaya, you're coming with. Might as well get your own talk with her out of the way."

"Do I have a choice?" Kanaya didn't seem to, the young girl having to quickly catch up as Aradia and Karkat moved to the trio in the hallway. "I guess this is normal then. Is this what people my age really like doing?"

It took them a few steps to get there, despite Kanaya taking a moment to catch up. Trizza hadn't noticed them at all, still talking some kind of insane nonsense Karkat could barely parse, though the other two rich kids did. Feferi looked positively relieved, while Eridan subtly motioned towards Trizza with open disbelief on his face.

Karkat just shrugged, deciding to interrupt Tethis before she really got going. This wasn't even her final form.

"Hey, Tethis! I think you've tortured these two long enough, maybe you should give them a break." The halfa did his best to not to smirk at the instant change from braggart to utter disgust. At least he had an effect on people. "I'm surprised they haven't dropped dead yet from boredom."

"Oh god, what the hell do you want?" Tethis turned curtly to look at Vantas, promptly putting her own performance as a respectful human being aside. "If you're going to brag about your lunatic dad, save it. Just wait until someone decides to break open his portal and find out it's all a lightshow."

"Seriously? You're one of those people that believe that crap?" Aradia raised an eyebrow, wondering how the victim of a ghostly artifact could believe that. There had been some naysayers since Spades showed the Ghost Zone, but she was surprised to see a few in town. "You really can't admit when you're wrong about anything, can you?"

"I'm not wrong when it's pretty obvious that Spades finally cracked and decided he didn't want to be a laughingstock anymore." Trizza did have some merit to that theory, but Karkat couldn't give her credit since that comment only served to piss him off. "And when he give it up, I'm pretty sure they'll throw him in prison for it. So many people are claiming they've seen such off the wall shit…"

"And you aren't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that?"

Karkat blinked, along with Tethis. He gave a look to his left, seeing Kanaya's face screwed up into a frown. Guess she had some fire to her after all.

"I'm not exactly involved with more physical sciences, but if enough people are reporting the same thing with little variation, that seems to prove something is going on." Kanaya shrugged, frown not moving. "There is a difference between not believing something and purposely ignoring evidence."

Trizza narrowed her eyes, not appreciating this new person just deciding to up and dispute everything she was talking about. That usually resulted into arguments.

Karkat almost laughed as Kanaya unknowingly (or perhaps willingly) pissed of Tethis, making him take a step back and move around them as they started, moving towards Feferi and Eridan.

"Congratulations. I'd say you're hazing here is complete since you finally got on the bad side of Tethis." Karkat said in a hushed voice. It wasn't like he cared that anyone heard him, but he didn't want to cut the argument down in its infancy. "Of course, there rarely is a good side to her, so good job on surviving a few minutes."

"As much I don't want to agree, I'm really glad you stopped by. I'm not sure if she was trying to suck up to us or tick us off." Feferi side eyed the two girls, the distraction welcomed. "I think she's a little put off by our parents trying to buy out so many businesses here. Oberon's got some people really nervous too."

"Well, you won't have to worry about her for much longer." Aradia joined in, counting down on her fingers. "As long as Sollux is keeping pace, he should be done in about three, two, one…"

Trizza, who was in the middle of a rant directed at a thoroughly peeved Kanaya, suddenly went ramrod straight as she felt a shock go through her system. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket, which was starting to fizzle and spark a bit.

"Fucking hell, not again!" Trizza was already heading outside, most likely to make sure this one didn't explode on school property. She'd gotten in trouble last time Sollux decided to pull this stunt. "This isn't over!"

The group watched her leave with a faint amount of amusement, though the ones not used to this gave the boy who did it some wary glances.

"As much I don't like knowing you can make my phone explode, I think I'm actually relieved to see you." Eridan rolled his eyes as Sollux could only smirk. "Don't get used to it. And if you explode my phone, I will find out where you live."

"Careful there, ED. I might start interpreting some very interesting signals." Sollux didn't bother taking in the other boys flushed, if only slightly outraged face. He gave a raised eyebrow toward Kanaya, one that somehow gave off a sense of approval. "Good job on making Trizza angry at you within two minutes. At least you got your rite of passage out of the way."

"It wasn't my fault she was being inaccurate. Spreading false information can be as bad as creating it if she's doing it out spite." Kanaya muttered a few choice words under her breath, legitimately angry over this. "Especially since what happened to Spectra was something I did see with my own eyes. Along with the giant cat thing."

"A weird hill to die on, but not a bad one, I guess." Aradia didn't really seem to care what it was that started it. As long as it made someone they didn't like mad, she would accept it wholeheartedly. "Though you're on her list now. Maybe try and avoid getting your name out there too much. She isn't threatening, but she is annoying."

Karkat laughed a little at the mention of that. Truer words never said, at least in his opinion.

He couldn't help but feel the joy slip out of him as he felt his ghost sense act up. Making sure no smoke left his lips too fast, he sent a look towards Eridan to check if that wasn't just a fluke. Considering he was trying to prevent anyone else from seeing his eyes, he had a feeling that he did.

"Hey, Eridan, you said you needed something from one of the teachers here, right?" Karkat let the lie slip out, waiting for the other teen to respond. "Something about joining a club around here?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, that. Been trying to find something." Eridan was quick to catch on, waving nonchalantly as he desperately thought up of something. "Dads been hounding me on doing some extracurriculars and I've been putting it off. Know anywhere to go?"

"Yeah, just the place. Follow me." Karkat gave a look towards Sollux, who seemed to know what's up. "Kanaya mentioned she wanted to become and TA. Try and find Lancer, he'll have something for her."

"Got it, KK. Make sure to come back quick, though." Sollux immediately turned around, deciding to take charge of the group. "Alright, everybody, let's find Lancer before somebody else does. Can't keep dilly dallying."

"Did you just seriously say dilly dallying?"

"Shut up, AA."

Karkat was already moving away from the conversation, Eridan in tow. He could barely pick up the ecto-signature through instinct, but it was enough so that he could take the lead.

"So, not that I don't appreciate what happened back there, especially with that new girls help," Eridan started to question, raising an eyebrow. "But who was that? You don't seem like the welcome wagon type of person."

"Kanaya Maryam. Saw two ghosts last week with her family, one of them involving Spectra. She's kinda my aunt." Karkat spared a glance to see the quarter-ghosts face. He honestly looked even more confused than before. "It's a long story."

And he really wasn't sure if he wanted to say it. Right now, he just wanted to find this ghost of the week instead.

So far, the search had been pretty uneventful. Eridan hadn't been totally lying about finding a club, which did lead them to finding some flyers that he could use, along with helping with their lie. At least the fact that they hadn't found anything pointed to this ghost either being friendly or not powerful enough for an outright attack.

Unfortunately, that meant conversation had to fill the void of an empty search, something he didn't really want. And not because Eridan was hard to talk to.

"So, uh, Kar? There's something I've been meaning to ask for a while. Since the camping trip, I mean." The half ghost would've thought that Eridan was asking him out if it wasn't for the fact he looked awkward in a non-flustered way. "Something weird has been going on with my dad and I wonder if you'd know anything about it."

"Ask away." Karkat sincerely hoped he didn't ask anything, but it'd look suspicious if he told him no. Oberon and him had an agreement, one of which the older halfa barely seemed to hold on to. "I don't know how I can fix it, though. I usually punch my problems away."

(Being a superhero is just a coping mechanism.)

Karkat smothered the chill and kept walking.

"He seems to be more irritable for some reason. I don't really know why, but he's been like that since the trip." Of course he was. Karkat had stopped his murder attempt. "I think it might have to do with what happened with that ghost wolf. You two did fight it off. Did something happen there?"

"Nothing much. The thing didn't go down easy, that was for sure. I think it must've surprised because of how vicious it was." And how he had been just as vicious. Karkat could've killed a man that night if he wasn't careful. "We were able to take it down, though. Nothing else can be said about it."

(Your life has certainly become a long line of trauma's, hasn't it?)

"Yeah, I guess. That wolf took everyone by surprise. Though, I don't think that's all. He sometimes talks about other stuff too." Eridan shrugged. It clearly bothered him, and he definitely wasn't sure what to do. "I remember hearing you guys talk before the fight, I think. Were you guys arguing about something before the wolf came?"

"…We were talking about my dad and his role in all of this. About what happened to us. Some things were said, but nothing too serious." Wounds weren't serious, apparently. Especially if they dug deep and still hurt sometimes. "Just a difference in opinion."

(You're not even accepted by one of your own kind.)

…They need to find that ghost. Now.

He stopped cold at the entrance to the shop classroom, his ghost sense practically yelling at him. He would've stopped to wonder about it if he didn't badly want to get out of this conversation so much, causing him to open the door fairly quickly. It had the desired effect when he saw what was going on in there.

The good news that no human was inside. The sight of flying circular saws and various other electrical tools would've caused a panic. There was also a significant amount of discarded parts floating around, mashing themselves together into various devices, before either separating again or moving to some different location.

Karkat lit a hand up, along with a thermos, motioning for Eridan to do the same. Karkat was pretty glad that he had backup on him, especially since this power seemed strangely familiar.

A lot of the "finished" products that came from the various components working together were going to a common place, which meant they were heading there too. Karkat cautiously moved forward, following the pieces with trepidation. As he did, he could hear more intense work happening in the back, where more of the heavy machinery was.

The halfa turned a corner, a glowing hand raised as he looked at the glowing figure of…

"Horuss?" Karkat blinked, hand falling a bit as the glowing figure stopped to look at him. He stopped before correcting himself, frowning deeply. "Wait a minute, who the hell are you?"

The guy he assumed was Horuss only tilted his head at him before humming slightly. He went back to work on one of the buzz saws, barely paying any mind to him.

"So you've found me first. Interesting. I did hear you had a sense for us, but I wasn't entirely sure how reliable it would be." The ghost looked again, noticing a very confused Eridan. "And you brought the other one too? Even more interesting."

Karkat looked over the ghost again. He really did look like Horuss, but a second glance made him wonder how he thought that in the first place.

Despite having the same skin color and hair as the other ghost, there were a fair number of differences separating the two. While Horuss wore his hair slightly shorter, this ghost had their hair done simply, falling down his back. He didn't wear much in the way of headgear, only a pair of broken sunglasses that sat upon his nose haphazardly. A black tank top, a plain pair of work pants, black boots, and gloves were the epitome of his outfit, simple but effective.

"And before you ask again, my name is Equis. I understand your confusion when it comes between me and my brother, but I might as well correct you now." Equis, as he called himself, frowned as a spark occurred, singing his hand. "Fiddlesticks. This contraption is much too old to usable."

"Yeah, well, school are underfunded nationwide. Casper High is certainly not an exception." Karkat let the ecto-energy in his hand dissipate, becoming very confused. "Horuss mentioned you. Didn't say much, but I'm surprised you're out here."

"I wasn't even sure he had a brother." Eridan tried inserting himself into the conversation, clearly unsure of what to do. "Then again, I don't think I met him yet. Not sure how to talk to him, actually."

"Yes, my brother is quite reclusive. I was surprised to hear he was an acquaintance of yours. He can be solitary sometimes." Equis shrugged. He was awfully casual about all of this, especially for someone supposedly related to the awkward engineer. "Then again, apparently you did meet through my moirail, so I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Right, Nepeta. That was a surprising day for everyone." Karkat was starting to tire of the small talk. This was a weird day as is dealing with an adopted aunt and Tethis, so he just wanted to cut to the chase. "Look, it's not like it's not cool that you're here and all, but can you explain what you're doing out here? It's a little dangerous for a ghost without an accessory to walk around out here."

"Ah, right. I was actually looking for you. I was going to directly talk to you myself, but I couldn't help but notice… this." The ghost gestured vaguely to everything, mostly the run-down equipment that made Casper High's shop class. "I may have decided to improve things a tad. And then went overboard."

"Not gonna lie there, but I think this is a definite improvement." Eridan cautiously poked one of the fixed-up machines. It did look a lot better than it usually did. "I have a take a class here and I'm pretty sure one of these are literally out to get me."

"Why are you looking for me exactly? Nepeta hasn't said too much about you, but I do know you aren't exactly the social type." The halfa couldn't help but have some alarm bells ring. Nepeta only mentioned her moirail in passing, but he wasn't lying about what she said. "Is there some kind of problem?"

"In a manner of speaking. I wouldn't normally care about it, especially since it technically is not my business, but since you're in contact with Horuss and Nepeta, I think they would." Equis, without warning, grabbed onto one of Karkat's hands. He pulled him close, whispering slightly. The halfa could see his eyes better now. "Especially considering who is involved with all of this."

Karkat ignored the part of him that screamed to immediately fire at Equis for touching him, noting the weird way the ghost's eyes moved. They motioned to where Eridan was standing. What was he implying here?

…Dualscar.

"I've heard that something will happen here to this 'Amity Park' of yours, and I felt the need to give you fair warning." Equis pulled his hand away, motioning for the tools around him to quick their pace. It looked like he was finishing up whatever improvements he was giving the tools around here. "It would be foolish not to heed my advice. Do not make my trip here be in vain."

And with a clang as the tools dropped into their places, Equis vanished from sight. It was obvious he just went invisible, but the theatrics did lend some shock value to it. Honestly, it was almost the exact opposite thing he would've expected a member of Horuss's family to do.

"Jeez, I'm starting think that guy was trying too hard. Even if it was kinda cool, I guess." Eridan rubbed the back of his neck, looking around at the place. "I guess he wasn't all bad, though. What was he trying to warn us about, though?"

"I don't know, but that guy sweats like racehorse. I'm pretty sure I'll need to deep clean my hand before this is all over." Karkat also made note that Equis definitely seemed stronger than he looked. His hand was sore, despite the contact being brief. "Could've gave me some warning too. A handshake like that could…"

The halfa couldn't finish his sentence as he noted something different. Equis had slipped him something during their strange little conversation.

It was a tiny, black, flash drive that looked delicate to the touch. Obviously, it had been taken care of intimately by the ghost, judged by the fact it had little damage on it. The fact that the ghost already seemed familiar with this technology, despite being stuck in the Ghost Zone, implied something.

"…Hey, Eridan?"

"Yeah?"

"I thinks it's about time I introduced you to a few more ghosts. We'll probably need their help for this one."

He was planning on visiting Horuss, anyway. He needed some upgrades.

Again, this is related to more foreshadowing than actual action, but it does set up some stuff I want to start hounding on. Hopefully this is satisfying enough for now.

If anyone feels like they have questions for me about this fic, the other one I do, or about future ones, feel free to look up my Tumblr. I'm free to answer your questions. I don't think I'll take requests, but sending me ideas you'd like to see in the future would be appreciated and make this move a lot easier for me emotionally.

Thank you, and I'll see you all next chapter!