Author's Note: Here's where some other authors I've seen would apologise for the lateness of the next chapter. I am not those other authors. If it's late, it's late. I will, however, apologise for the shortness of this chapter. It's just far too short, even for a short story. I shall make it up to you on the next chapter. I promise!

P.S. Anyway, here is the latest chapter. I'm getting a bit suspicious about the number of people reading this story. There are people reading it, right? Other than the three people that have already reviewed it, that is... If not, well, I guess I might just stop wasting my time on this fanfic and start work on a new project. No point in keeping alive something that no one reads...

Chapter Three: By the Way

Sam suddenly woke up with a start, sitting up in her bed, to find herself in a cold sweat.

Something was wrong. She didn't know why she felt that something was wrong, but she just did. It was almost as if… As if what? Sam couldn't be sure. All she knew was that she felt as if something terrible had just happened, but she couldn't be sure as to why she felt like that. It was almost as if there was something in the air, something in the way her clock sat there so quietly on her bedside table, something in the way that the darkness of the night settled in the room and something about the way the air seemed so unnaturally still.

It was almost like the way Danny could sense ghosts.

Danny.

Sam didn't know why she had suddenly thought of Danny like that. It was strange how she thought of Danny in that way. It was almost as if… Her thoughts suddenly trailed off, as sudden realisation dawned on her.
"No!" she exclaimed. "Danny!"


Tucker suddenly woke up with a start, sitting up in his bed, to find himself in a cold sweat.

It was strange now that he thought about it. He had had a strange dream about Danny. No, strange wasn't the right word. Chilling was the word for it. It was an unsettling dream… No, a nightmare.. It was a chilling nightmare that Tucker never wanted to see become a reality. Never would he want to see Danny sealed away in a coffin, never to return again… No, he'd never want to see that.

Suddenly, his PDA started beeping, almost as if it was agreeing with his very thoughts.

Tucker reached out to grab it from the bedside table.


All his dreams seemed so real.

Were they real?

Danny couldn't be sure, as he lay there in his bed underneath the sheets, his head resting on the soft pillow, staring up at the white ceiling of the Dorm Room as a sliver of sunlight streamed through the partially closed curtains to land on his face. All he knew was that in the night, he had gone to sleep in the hospital bed, listening to the eerie silence that seemed to smother him.

Now he was in the Dorm Room of Streete Court High.

The raven-haired youth sat up and looked around him. The room was exactly as he had left it before awakening to find himself in Roslyn Hospital. His posters lined the walls here and there, and propped up against the wall beside the radiator was the guitar that Alex had found for him, still there with its black shoulder strap hanging limply beside it. There was no doubt about it. He was back in Streete Court High.

Yet he was convinced that this school was the dream and that the hospital was reality. Was he wrong or was he merely dreaming again? Which was the dream? The hospital or the school? Was it possible that they were both dreams and that he was in some never-ending coma, possibly the result of the accident in his parents' laboratory? Perhaps he hadn't become a half-ghost after all. Perhaps he was still one hundred percent human, but what would that mean for him? That he wasn't special or that he wasn't a freak?

Suddenly, the alarm clock on his bedside table suddenly started beeping viciously, as its digital face proclaimed the time to be seven o'clock. If he was to be ready in time for breakfast, he had to get up and get washed and dressed in school uniform.

Thoughts of reality and dreams suddenly dissipated.

Hunger grew in his stomach and it was the only thought he had in his mind. It drove him into a blur, as he washed and got dressed before rushing down towards the Dining Hall.

"Danny!" greeted Alex, as he stepped back to narrowly avoid being crashed into by Danny. "How're you? Sleep well?"

"Sure did," was Danny's reply. "I'm starving."

"Famished, huh?" laughed Alex, as he turned to look momentarily at the queue of students waiting to enter the Dining Hall. "Well, you're in luck. Breakfast's about the only time when you can eat loads and get away with it."

And Alex sure didn't lie. Danny found himself eating truckloads. It was a big hearty breakfast that contrasted greatly to the meek tasting stuff he had eaten the last night only in quantity. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, cereal, all washed down with the blandest-tasting orange juice he had ever found himself drinking. He could tell that he would have to get a taste for the food that was served here, which tasted suspiciously of nothing.

"I guess you weren't kidding when you said you were starving," commented Alex, as he dabbed away some milk from the side of his lips.

"Certainly wasn't," was Danny's abrupt reply. He wanted to lean back slightly, but seeing as he was sitting on a bench and not in a chair, that proved to be something he wouldn't do. "Hey," he said, as he glanced up at the clock that hung above the door, "isn't it a bit early for classes?"

Alex nodded.
"It certainly is," he agreed with Danny. "It's just in time for an Assembly, though."

The School Assembly was held in the room above, which was a grand chapel with gold gilt and wooden floors and great wooden pews. Great stain-glass windows lined the walls next to ornate pillars that stood against the walls as if to keep them up. It was evident that much money had been spent on this vast, ornate chapel, the great huge golden cross that stood at the altar at the far end, and the five wooden seats that sat at the back of the chapel, each with a Latin inscription marked on it to identify who sat in it.

And seated at the vast organ to one side of the chapel was one of the teachers, dressed in the black gown associated with teachers, waiting patiently at the keyboard.

"I'm not really…" began Danny and then trailed off.

"That's okay," said Alex, "nor am I."

Suddenly, the music teacher began playing on the organ. It was one of those medieval pieces that sounded altogether menacing and he played it so loudly that the floor seemed to shake. It was almost as if he was launching a musical assault against the pupils, shouting at them through organ music, menacing them through music and all the pupils stood in response to the great cacophonous melody that echoed around them and seemed to want to shake the glass out of the windows.


"Come on, Tuck'," called out Sam, as she waited at his door, tapping one foot impatiently on the step. She looked at the watch on her wrist and then looked back up at the wooden door, staring at it as if willing to open. "What is taking him so long?" she wondered out loud. She then waited a little longer.

There was still no Tucker.

What was taking the nerdy geek so long? It wasn't as if Tucker had any makeup to put on and he had most of his stuff in his backpack anyway.

Sam banged on the door.
"Tucker!" she shouted. "Would you get a move on?"

Yet she wasn't angry. Sam couldn't be angry. She was far too afraid to be angry. It was the dream she had woken up from in the morning. The dream was so vivid. It had been so… No, it wasn't a dream. It was more of a nightmare than a dream and as every second passed, the nightmare seemed more vivid, as if it was clawing its way into the world of reality, to make itself real and true.

Danny was in trouble. She could feel it. There was no doubt in her mind. One of her best friends was in trouble and needed their help and if someone didn't hurry up, by the time they got to him, it would be too late.
"Tucker!" screamed Sam. "Get a move on!"


The organ music stopped as all the teachers left the Great Chapel.

Soon after, the pupils filed out of the two double doors of the Great Chapel and amongst them were Danny and Alex.

"Reverend Fordyce tends to be obsessed with death," explained Alex, as they walked out of the Chapel. "I don't remember any of his Sermons being about anything else." He smiled. "So, what do you have first?"

"Biology 1," was Danny's reply, after he picked his timetable out of his pocket.

Alex laughed.
"You mind if I take a look at that?" he asked.

"No."

Alex laughed again, as he took a look at the timetable.
"Looks like we have all the same classes," he told Danny. "Cool." He then slapped a hand against Danny's back as he said, "Come on! The lab's this way."

A shiver ran down Danny's spine, as his breath became mist like as if from extreme cold. He looked around him, as the coldness enveloped him like a blanket of ice cold air. That shiver, that coldness, was a sign of a nearby ghost.

"Say, Danny, is something wrong?" asked Alex curiously.

"No," was Danny's slow, drawn out and reluctant reply. "Nothing's wrong."

"Hey, what's that smell?" exclaimed Alex curiously, as he sniffed the air. "It smells like…"

Suddenly, a terrifying screaming of sirens sheared through the silence, as thick black smoke poured out from up ahead. The noise of the sirens was loud and seemed as if it was powerful enough to cause their skulls to cave in, so loud was it. Even covering their ears was not enough to muffle the sound of the cacophony of sirens that screamed at them, and soon the students began to join in on the screaming, their voices echoing through the corridor.

And up ahead was a burning figure that seemed aflame with apparently no legs and a mist-like tail in their place…


Zeross would have risen from his chair, were he not practically tied down to it by the wires that ran from it and into his body and the ivy that now wrapped around his purple robes, entwining the strands of his grey beard and hair.
"What is happening?" cried out Zeross in disbelief. "Why can't I see the Image of the Dragon King anymore?"

"Dragon King, sir?" exclaimed O'Donnell with a raised eyebrow.

For a while, there was no reply from Zeross, as if he was thinking carefully about what he had said.
"Shou Ge Wang, I meant to say," he corrected himself carefully, pronouncing every syllable slowly and deliberately. "Guardian of the Threshold, Servant of the God of War, Servant of the Great Judge, he who walks in the Realms of the Living and the Dead."

"Ah, I see. Shou Ge Wang," said O'Donnell with a slow nod of his head. "It would seem you get those names mixed up quite a lot."

"A ghost has broken through the firewalls, sir," came the reply from below.

A horrified expression spread across Zeross' face.
"This will not do," he said sternly with a shake of his old, grey head. "The Shou Ge Wang's image is lost from me. This ghost, this ghost that dares to penetrate the firewall, how come its personality and very essence were not fragmented by the Sacred Flames?"

"Something is wrong here," agreed O'Donnell with a slow nod of his head. "Though the flames are digital now, the ghosts still can't have gotten through. After all, ghosts are nothing more than electromagnetic disturbances, as you may know Sifu. A digital firewall would be no different from a real wall of flames in preventing the ghost from getting through into the Artificial World. In fact, a digital firewall should be even more effective as it would disrupt the ghost's very essence and rip it apart."

Zeross didn't make a sound, as he looked at the different screens in front of him.
"Have that ghost removed," he called out sternly to the technicians. "If the ghost interacts with the Shou Ge Wang, there is a good chance he might awaken from the drug-induced stupor we put him in."

"No!" shouted O'Donnell suddenly, as a sudden flash of inspiration hit him. "Leave the ghost alone! Let him interact with the Shou Ge Wang."

"Have you gone mad, O'Donnell?" protested Zeross in horror. "You know that as long as the Shou Ge Wang is conscious our Fate Determination Machine can never work."

O'Donnell smiled wolfishly.
"Ah, yes Sifu, but may I remind you of the often quoted proverb?" was O'Donnell's reply. "Keep your friends close, they say, but keep your enemies closer."

Zeross didn't respond, as he turned over O'Donnell's words in his mind. Then he nodded his head, making approving sounds as he did so.
"Yes, yes, you're quite right," he agreed. "Quite right, indeed. We must know more about this young Shou Ge Wang and what he is capable of doing." He remained quiet for a while and then said, "Now we shall see why Yen Lo Wang chose the boy to be Shou Ge Wang." He then raised his eyes up towards the concave mirror set high above him. "Yes, now we shall see the true power of this Shou Ge Wang."


Danny peered round the corner and then ducked back. The ghost was a strange entity that Danny had never seen the likes of before. Its head was like an upside-down bucket and flames with eyes and a mouth cut out of the metal. Fires raged within its head making the eyes and the mouth glow a bright red and the bottom half of its body was like that of a genie's, only made with smoke instead of anything supernatural and smoke billowed out of its right arm, which was like a flamethrower.

He knew he had to fight against this strange fire ghost with a burning head and a right arm like a flamethrower. Yet, he could not do it in this human form. No, he had to 'go ghost', as he liked to call it. If he concentrated enough, he would be able to transform into his ghostly, white-haired alter-ego with the glowing green eyes and the abilities of a ghost. Only in that form, would he be capable of fighting this fiery apparition.

There was no way to really explain how he did it. The transformation just happened, like the way you just happen to be able to move your arm without you even thinking about how to do it. Perhaps, if someone studied him, they'd be able to find out how he was able to transform, but Danny certainly wouldn't allow that to happen.

In a flash, Danny's hair became snow white and his eyes glowed a ghostly green. His school uniform was replaced with a black suit with gloves and belt and boots that were as white as his hair. He had transformed fully into his ghost form.

Quickly, Danny grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher.
"All right!" shouted Danny, as he stepped out from round the corner to face the fiery ghost that had sent the students and staff fleeing. "It's time for you to cool it!" He then flung the extinguisher into the air, before firing an energy bolt straight at it, which penetrated the metal and caused an explosion that sent foam flying through the air to splatter on the fires and extinguish them.

"Feng Huang!" roared the fire ghost from underneath the foam. It roared and then burst into flames that burnt away the foam, before sending a jet of flames flying towards Danny from its flamethrower-like arm. "Shou Ge Wang!"

Danny became intangible and in doing so became invisible and insubstantial, allowing the flames to go straight through his body. He then flew around the plume of flames and his hand started to glow with an ethereal green, before he fired a beam of green ghostly energy from said hand, aiming it straight at the fire ghost.

The beam of energy struck the fire ghost in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

"Ha!" cried out Danny triumphantly and then got a face full of flames.

"Feng Huang!" cried out the fire ghost, as it floated back to its feet. "Shou Ge Wang!"

"Okay," said Danny, as he got back up to his own feet. "So I underestimated you. Big deal." He then spread his arms outwards, forming a plane shield of ectoplasmic energy that deflected the fire ghost's flames and sending them flying back towards the ghost.

Big mistake. The flames didn't seem to do any harm to the fire ghost. In fact, it seemed to make the ghost seem bigger than he was before.

There was a roar from the Fire Ghost, before it smashed both hands down on the floor. The wooden floor burst into flames and a wave of flames rushed straight along towards it, the tips of the flames reaching high enough to scorch the ceiling above. And they left a charred trail of wood in their wake, as they rushed towards Danny like a tidal wave of flames.

Danny sighed, as he became intangible again, allowing the flames to pass straight through him without harming him. It didn't seem as if this Fire Ghost was intelligent enough to realise that its attempts to harm him were completely futile. Well, that didn't matter. All that mattered was that defeating the Fire Ghost before it could harm anyone and then and capture it in… And his concentration lapsed, allowing the Fire Ghost to get the better of him.

With a roar, the Fire Ghost rushed straight at Danny and crashed straight into him. It pinned him down to the wooden floor, his flames flickering around him violently and burning into the young white-haired half-ghost.
"Shou Ge Wang!" roared the Fire Ghost. "Feng Huang!"

"Get off of me!" cried Danny, before he concentrated and let rip with a blast of ghostly energy that flung the Fire Ghost off of him.

He may not have had the Fenton Thermos at hand, but Danny was sure that he could beat this Fire Ghost somehow. He had to. There was no other choice, no other option open to him. He had to find a way to defeat the Fire Ghost or face the severe, burning hot consequences.

Yet how was he to do it?

"Me am Feng Huang!" screamed the Fire Ghost again, before his right arm turned into a sword of fiery flames that flickered and danced, before becoming as solid as the metal. And it continued to glow a bright, fiery red, as if it was a red hot iron poker with tiny wisps of white smoke curling off its blade like tiny little ghosts attempting to escape a fiery inferno. "Must eat," it groaned, before it rushed straight towards Danny.

The white-haired Phantom split in half even before the fiery blade cut through him. He backed off and then reformed, joining together again with no break in his body as if he had never been divided into half. Danny then had to duck to avoid another swing of the blade of flames, before clenching his fist and letting ghostly energy accumulate in his right hand and then letting loose with the strongest upper-cut he could manage that flung the Fire Ghost's head back but seemed to do nothing else.

In fact, a smile had formed on the Fire Ghost's face and when it lowered its head to look at Danny, the white-haired phantom boy could clearly see the mouth full of metallic grille and the fires that burnt behind it, reminding him of a barbecue grill. And seconds later, fire billowed out from the mouth and engulfed Danny, hitting him and burning him.

Danny fell backwards, burnt and charred. He couldn't believe that he was unable to defeat this ghost.

In a sudden flash of realisation, Danny noticed that the corridor was charred and bits of it were now on fire and blazing merrily. If he was to continue fighting the Fire Ghost, it would have to be somewhere else, somewhere away from this building. He cursed himself for being so stupid and blind to what was happening around him. How could he have been so caught up in fighting the Fire Ghost that he forgot that the Ghost was practically burning the place down?

"Must eat," droned the Fire Ghost unintelligently. "Must eat Shou Ge Wang," it roared, before rushing straight towards Danny.

In a split second, Danny leapt out of the way.

His mind was in a jumble. He realised he had to do something or else the fight would end up destroying the entire school. There was no doubt about it. He had to lead the Fire Ghost out of the school, hoping that it would cause as little damage as possible as it followed him. But where could he fight it? Where was the least likely place of someone being harmed?

Suddenly, a great burst of inspiration hit Danny as he remembered what was out back.
"Hey, ugly!" called out Danny and then made a face at the Fire Ghost. "What's up with that ugly spot on your head? Oh! I'm sorry. It's your face!" He then laughed for extra effect and took off down the corridor, flying down it as fast as he could.

"Shou Ge Wang!" roared the Fire Ghost, before it flew off after Danny.

Good, thought Danny, as he turned to see the Fire Ghost chasing after him. Now all he had to do was head out towards the lake out back. If he could dunk the Fire Ghost into it, he could extinguish it for sure. There was no way that the Ghost would be able to boil the lake's water off. Surely that lake would be able to extinguish it for sure? Right?


"What do you mean he's been transferred?" protested Sam angrily, as she stood at the receptionist's desk.

The receptionist just glared back at Sam as angrily as the Goth girl.
"Daniel Fenton has been transferred to the Maudsley Institute on Dr. Fordyce's orders," repeated the receptionist for the fifth time, calmly and sternly. "He's been ordered into isolation and I'm afraid no one can see him now."

"But we're his friends," protested Tucker.

"Wait! Wait!" interrupted Sam suddenly. "You're telling me that this Fordyce has got our Danny locked up in the mental institute?" she asked angrily, upon remembering being told about the Maudsley Institute opposite the main hospital building. "What is wrong with you people? Danny's not mad. He doesn't need psychiatric help."

The receptionist shook her head.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you why Dr. Fordyce asked for Danny to be isolated," she told Sam. "Doctor-patient confidentiality," she then said, as if it was the only explanation that was needed. "Now if you would please be so kind as to leave the premises?" asked the receptionist.

"We're not leaving until we get to see Danny," protested Sam.

"Whoa, Sam, calm down," called out Tucker, upon realising how aggressive Sam was getting. He then said to the receptionist, as he started tugging on Sam, "I'm sorry about that, really. Come on, Sam, let's get going."

"No!" cried Sam, as she shrugged free from Tucker's grip. "I'm going to find out where Danny is and I'm going to see him now." She then walked back round to behind the desk.

"Hey! You can't come back behind here!" protested the receptionist.

"Just watch me," retorted Sam.

"Security!" cried out the receptionist. "Security!"


The door splintered into a myriad of toothpick-sized fragments that scattered through the air and as Danny sailed through the air, after having been thrown through said wooden door, he wished he had been quicker at making himself intangible. It certainly would have saved him from the pain of being thrown through such a thick door and as he landed on the stone floor, skidding across the uneven tiles, weeds growing from their cracks, he couldn't help but think that he had done something wrong.

The Fire Ghost roared, as it clawed its way through the broken doorway and floated towards Danny. Its eyes glowed with a fiery hatred, as flames burnt in its open mouth and a thick smoke started belching out of its grille-like mouth.
"Burn! Burn! Burn!" chanted the Fire Ghost, as the smoke started to cloak its body. "Burn everything!"

It then inhaled deeply, or apparently inhaled deeply, before spitting out a ball of flames straight at Danny.

The half-ghost became intangible this time round and avoided being hit by what appeared to be flaming ectoplasm.
"Not this time round, hothead," said Danny, as he rushed straight at the Fire Ghost. He then grabbed the smoke-like tail of the Fire Ghost that it had and pulled with all his might, as he spun round, hoping that he'd be able to spin the Fire Ghost around him like an Olympic athlete does with the Hammer in the Field Events.

With his supernatural strength, Danny managed to pick the Fire Ghost and spin him round, faster and faster. All he needed to do was get some momentum going before letting go and sending the Fire Ghost flying towards the lake.

"Off you go!" cried Danny, as with one last spin, he let go and sent the Fire Ghost flying through the air.

Yet even that was not enough. Danny knew he couldn't take chances, so he leapt into the air and flew after the Fire Ghost. He tried to catch up with the Fire Ghost and as he did so, he charged up some ghostly energy in his hands, cupping his hands in the style that was so popular amongst those Japanese Manga characters that could fire blasts of energy from their hands. It was the only way to ensure the charge of the blast would be powerful enough. It was the only way.

Danny began counting calmly under his breath, as the Fire Ghost turned round in the air to look at him. He knew that his fiery opponent would try to counteract, but he had to wait. He had to keep back. There was only a slim window of opportunity and he couldn't blow it by firing his energy blast at the Fire Ghost too early, or too late for that matter.

"Eat!" screamed the Fire Ghost, as it aimed its flamethrower-like arm at Danny. "Must eat Shou Ge Wang!"

"Eat this!" cried Danny, as he let rip with a powerful blast of ectoplasmic energy that tore through the air and smashed into the Fire Ghost with such force that it sent it flying down towards the watery surface of the lake.

With a scream, the Fire Ghost crashed into the water. There was a terrible screaming as the water bubbled and steam rose from the mirrored surface of the lake. The Fire Ghost tried to claw its way out, but it was as if the water was gluing him down, weighing him down, and all it could do was scream as its body started to fragment and its fires were quenched with the pure, cool water of the lake, leaving oily traces of its ectoplasm floating in the water like individual fragmented sheets of ice.

It all made Danny shiver. He had never seen a ghost do that before. It was almost as if he had killed the ghost, if such a thing were possible.
"Pleasant," he said sarcastically, before turning round to face the school and then looking back down to the oily remains of the Fire Ghost. He then sighed and flew away, back towards the school.


Zeross watched the image on the mirror calmly, as he sat in his now modified wheelchair that looked as if someone had attempted to convert it into a tank.
"It would seem that that ghost was an idiot fragment of one of the Four Scared Animals, Feng Huang," he commented calmly, as he watched the oily ectoplasm float on the water and shine like oil. "The Shou Ge Wang certainly took care of that fragment."

"Ghost fragments are very annoying," agreed O'Donnell with a silent nod of his head.

"Are you kidding me?" exclaimed Fordyce, as he walked into the darkened room. He removed his hair, or rather his toupee, from his head as he approached Zeross and O'Donnell. "They're wonderful things! I can consume them without any consequences!"

O'Donnell waved one of his hands and instantaneously light flooded the room.

It revealed the great large machine in front of them in all its glory. The machine was a strange one with eight spider-like metallic legs sticking out of its bottom to stab into the ground. Each of these were entwined in eight wires that wrapped around the legs to connect to the bottom of one of eight glass columns that rose upwards, filled with bubbling water. These joined to a giant glass sphere in which the water was illuminated by the sparks coming from eight prongs near the top that made the water bubble.

All of this was illuminated by the concave mirror that sat on top of this machinery, which was mounted on what looked like giant, dark, metallic shoulder pads that capped the top of the glass sphere. Attached to this great metallic cap were two strange things like rockets with four spikes on one end to form something like a claw and these spun round the machine in a slow, regular manner.

Fordyce scratched his head, his fingers running across the green of the four leaf clover that was tattooed on his bald scalp and across the Chinese character tattooed in its middle in red ink. He sighed in relief, as his fingers ran across the scalp, as his wig had a very rough and itchy underneath to it that served to do nothing but irritate his bald head.
"So how is the old girl going?" asked Fordyce curiously.

"The Fate Determination Machine is still not running at full capacity," stated Zeross grimly.

"Can't be," protested Fordyce with a shake of his bald head, as the light from the glaring white fluorescent bulbs above them reflected off his mirrored sunglasses. "I put that Fenton kid under quicker than you could skin a cat. There ain't no way he could interfere with the machine now."

"I'd have to agree with you on that account," said O'Donnell reluctantly with a nod of his head. "Perhaps the problem lies elsewhere, Sifu." He then smiled, as he looked up at the concave mirror and remembered the sight of the oily traces of ectoplasm, the remnants of the Fire Ghost, floating on the water of the lake in the Artificial World they had created in Danny's mind. "The ghosts we're using just aren't powerful enough for our purposes. What we need is a more powerful ghost… the Life Ghost."

O'Donnell then clapped his hands and the lights went off again, to allow them to see what was in the concave mirror.
"See those traces of ectoplasm?" asked O'Donnell. "They came from a ghost fragment, an idiot fragment of Feng Huang, the Fiery Phoenix God of the South. If we can create a new ghost from pieces of all the Four Sacred Animals, we'd be able to create a powerful new ghost that will give the Fate Determination Machine the power we need."

"Not again with your stupid Life Ghost," drawled Fordyce in an unimpressed manner. "If there ain't a single day you don't go on 'bout that stupid project of yours, you can glaze my butt cheeks and call me Susan. Look, I ain't saying that it ain't worth it but I ain't sure as Heck letting you getting your hands on that ectoplasm, 'specially not for some damned Ghost you're makin'!" He then turned to Zeross. "Sifu, gimme that ghost's remains. I need ghosts! I live off of 'em and I certainly as sure as Heck can't live wit'out them."

Zeross sighed.
"No, O'Donnell is right," said the old man sternly. "I shall approve the Life Ghost Project. We need a powerful ghost to power the Fate Determination Machine. We need the Life Ghost. Our plans need a fully functioning Fate Determination Machine." He smiled at the very thought of it, as he pressed a button and his wheelchair turned round to face Fordyce.

The bald doctor was suddenly glad of the way his sunglasses obscured his eyes, making it difficult for anyone to see his emotions. He was glad it prevented anyone or anything from fixing on his soul and eating it, like he had eaten many ghosts before.

"Fordyce," said Zeross sternly and then left it at that before saying, "Do you or do you not want to take control away from the Shi Ti'en Yen Wang, the Ten Lords of Death and place it in our hands?"

There was silence from Fordyce.

"I thought that as much," said Zeross in a smug manner. "Now go and get us a sample of the Fire Ghost's ectoplasm, and don't you dare consume a single drop."

"And don't forget to send the Shou Ge Wang up to my labs," added O'Donnell. "We need a small genetic sample from young Daniel Fenton."