It's finally happening!


Chapter 31: Stormfall

Danny, in his basement, was getting suited up for battle. With some additional upgrades to his suit in the form of an advanced thermos-ray and a device that cloaked his ghostly signature from the city defense system, he was ready. In the tiny storage compartments in his belt, he had ecto-adrenaline cream for emergencies, a few extra signature-cloaking devices in case he found ghostly allies in the field, and last but not least, there were specter deflector pucks; tiny pucks that stuck to a person with the power of a full-size specter deflector belt.

Sam also had a suit of her own: the MK-24 Spirit Suit battle armor. Inspired by the first Red Huntress suits, the old Guys in White battle suits, and the Ecto-Skeleton from long ago, and with a design sleek and fierce to make ghosts wary of it's power, this extremely advanced battle-suit had amazing capability. It granted the powers of flight and intangibility. It had armor thin and light and completely ghost-proof. It had a variety of weapons including wrist blades, blasters, homing plasma bullets, and of course the thermos-ray.

A few blocks away, Tucker and Valerie were getting suited up in the same Spirit Suits. Well, almost the same. Tucker added his own modifications for hacking and controlling technology, and Valerie's was made in red metal and flew with the glider she was more accustomed to.

The four linked up their communicators and went out into the field. Somehow, the ghost shield around the city suddenly failed (which Danny was guessing wasn't a somehow). Luckily, the city defense system was in perfect working order.

For an hour straight, they fought. Ant ghosts seemed to come out of nowhere. Swarms of them rained upon the city. One would be defeated then fade away, but their belt would fall to the ground and out came hundreds more from a hidden pocket. Luckily, the new ones didn't have those satchels.

Eventually, a flash of green burst open in the sky. Big green armored ghosts burst through, led by none other than Yoltrun the shapeshifter. After them, came a big blue ghost wrapped in green and purple pelts. He held a purple staff with a glowing green orb in the mouth of a stylized lion's head at the top. He held it and roared. Out came ghost animals of all kinds. One by one, bigger and bigger beasts came through. Almost immediately, they started wrecking the ant ghosts.

More ant ghosts came swarming through the portal. There were hundreds more, each with a pocket of even more, that made it through before it finally shut. The defense system was overwhelmed. The Guys in White were doing absolutely nothing helpful (it was a miracle they still even existed). The Ghost Defense Force, a newer branch of the military dedicated only to fighting ghosts, wasn't even ready for battle. Team Phantom needed a new strategy.

"Ok, team. New plan," Danny announced. "We've gotten nowhere in the past hour. My parents still haven't arrived from Florida with their tech, the GIW and GDF are useless as always, and these guys just keep multiplying. The new ghosts are on our side, even though they brought through hundreds more ant ghosts, so don't shoot them." Danny paused to blast a few ants chewing on his arm. "Valerie, I need you to get to my ghost portal. Gather up all our allies, and I mean all of them. Remember to keep up the lab's ghost shield until the portal is closed."

"Roger that!" Valerie yelled over her ectobombs.

"Tucker, get to your lab and shut down all the ghost turrets. We have too many allies and not enough camouflage devices. While you're there, bring out the Omega Armor."

"The Omega Armor? Yes! Finally!" Tucker said in excitement.

"Sam, try to organize our allies best you can. You're their boss now."

Sam laughed ominously. "We're gonna have some fun."

"Ok team. Go for it!"


Alex sat in that quiet house in Heather's odd, slightly creepy side-realm of the ghost zone. He was bored, and he decided to practice with the gauntlet.

First off, he gave himself ghost powers. He wasn't gonna admit it, but he was a little jealous of Heather cause of that. He used his new ghost form to fly to the very end of this little pocket-dimension and see how far he could go. Turns out if you go far enough you just fade back into the main ghost zone.

Next, after finding his way back to that safe little door, he repaired the magically collapsed roof. He also made a huge, super high definition TV, and all the latest game consoles. Then, he made a top-range gaming computer. He went to his room, and changed his bed mattress to the most comfortable mattress he could imagine. He was running out of ideas.

He put his favorite games on the game consoles and played them for a while. He got a bit lonely, so he turned on his computer and hopped on discord to see who was online to play some games with him. (Of course, he also had to make a magical connection to human-world internet, as the ghost zone internet was still separate.)

The main discord server he was in, though, a pretty small group of all his friends (which everyone but Ray and Heather were in completely different states), was blowing up with messages. Everyone was asking if they were ok, but were a bit concerned on getting no response.

AlexTheWarrior: what's going on guys?

BlueCinders: dude isn't ur town like blowing up rn?

AlexTheWarrior: i'm kinda out of town

Daybeaver: bruh you're lucky

BlueCinders: dude look at the news

Alex, panicking, found a live stream of ghosts absolutely wrecking Amity Park. He watched for a good minute, then tried to call Heather and Ray, but even with a magic earthly connection they didn't answer.

AlexTheWarrior: DUDE WHAT

Daybeaver: bro are you good

AlexTheWarrior: I WONT BE 0.0

AlexTheWarrior: HEATHER AND RAY ARENT ANSWERING THEIR PHONES

BlueCinders: brooooo...

Alex had a new moral dilemma on his hands. More of his friends were popping online and asking about Heather and Ray. It was a pretty close gaming group, after all. Knowing he could do something about this, he almost went to help them. But then again, he was warned to stay away and protect the Gauntlet.

AlexTheWarrior: so long story short, and ask like zero questions, I can do something to help this

AlexTheWarrior: buuuut if I screw up the entire world is probably gonna explode

AlexTheWarrior: and Heather told me not to do the exact thing I'm thinking of doing...

Firefrost77: what is this thing and what does it do to help

AlexTheWarrior: like i said ask zero questions

Luna: if the help actually helps, go for it, i just hope you're exaggerating the world exploding lmao

BlueCinders: yeah hes exaggerating but it still must be pretty bad

AlexTheWarrior: ok I'm gonna go... if I do decide to do the thing you'll know about it

He shut down the computer and hopped out of the chair to pace around the room. He turned on the TV to the news. Scenes of battle played in a constant live feed.

On one hand, he could go help. But on the other hand, what if he screwed up and lost the Gauntlet?

I suppose I could practice with the glove, he thought. So, that's exactly what he did. He made a battle arena under the house and created an army of blue ant ghosts that would listen to his every command. He went into his new ghost form and commanded the ants to attack him. With only his new ghost powers he fought them off one by one. He repeated that for a while, getting better and better each time. He kept bringing in more and more ghosts to fight. Whenever he got tired, he energized himself with the gauntlet. When he felt he had enough practice, he wiped the ants from existence.

That's when he realized he didn't even need to train. He was in control of all of reality. He could just wipe the attacking ant ghosts off the face of the Earth. Send them all back to the Ghost Zone, or just erase them from reality entirely.

He had to remember not to let the power go to his head. Typhon told him that the most dangerous thing to do with the Gauntlet is to think of everything you could do. Potential for power is the downfall of the wielder of the Gauntlet.

But of course, this was a special case. He could get rid of his ghost powers, cause that was power he didn't need. The new stuff in Heather's lair could stay, he decided, as long as it stays put. That was pretty reasonable, cause it wasn't power.

Well, I might need the ghost powers until after the ant situation is over, he reasoned. So he kept the power. He definitely needed to remember to get rid of them later.

He wished he could have someone to talk to about this. Not just in obscure code, but with someone that knew the situation. His final choice was to wait two hours and if the assault on the city wasn't stopped by then, he would step in. He just hoped the city would still be standing by then.


Tucker got to his house and was able to activate his ghost shield. A few dozen ants thunked against it. They kept thumping on the shield trying to break through. Fortunately that wasn't possible.

There was noise coming from the basement lab. Tucker armed his energy blaster and switched to a new, empty canister on his thermos-ray. He slowly stepped down the stairs to find Ray beating away a couple ant ghosts with a baseball bat. He leaped into action and blasted the two ghosts into oblivion. They poofed away in a puff of glowing green smoke.

Ray didn't stop there. He charged at Tucker with the bat, which was understandable cause of the helmet. Tuck used the suit's boosted strength to stop the bat in one hand and his other hand to remove the helmet.

"Dad?" Ray asked.

"Raymond." Tucker was relieved for a second. Only a second. "You're in huge trouble!"

"Dad, we have more important things to deal with right now." Ray moved some boxes, revealing a badly injured Heather behind them.

"Oh, oh no." Tucker opened a cabinet, filed through some various tech, and pulled out a tiny vial of green goo. He opened it up, using the eyedropper cap to drip one single drop into Heather's mouth.

In just a few seconds, her wounds healed up. A few seconds later, she woke up.

"Hey, what was that?" Ray asked.

"Ecto-adrenaline. The most pure ghost energy you can get in a physical form."

Heather, finally knowing what was happening, jumped in the air and switched to her ghost form. "Leave us alone! Let us do what we have to do!"

Tucker simply sighed and activated his thermos-ray. Heather was sucked right in.

"Dad, what did you do?" Ray ran to try to grab the thermos-ray off his dad's wrist. Unfortunately, it was built into the armor.

"Heather is putting herself and..." he paused, "and you... in danger." He removed the canister from his thermos ray and put it in his suit's pocket. "Danny doesn't want any of you getting hurt. Speaking of that, where's Alex?"

"He's safe. I'm not saying where."

"This isn't a game! This is real life with real consequences! I have decades of experience with ghosts. But you're even younger than I was when I got caught up in the ghost stuff. You shouldn't be dealing with this stuff on your own, especially with a Reality Gauntlet involved, which you three also are keeping from me."

Ray did his best to make the most piercing glare he could. "You will never find him! He's hiding in the ghost zone with the Gauntlet and you'll never figure out where! And even if you do find him, you wouldn't even get close to him!"

That piercing glare was more than just piercing. Tucker saw, just for a second, a flash of purple in his eyes. He put his helmet back on and used his scanner on Ray, which revealed a cloud of purple ghost energy surrounding his son through the helmet's HUD. It was very similar to an overshadowing. But something was off.

Tucker held one hand behind his back and activated a very special ray on his suit's wrist-blaster. "Raymond, close your eyes for just one second, okay?" he asked in the gentlest voice. He took off his helmet once again to emphasize a face of sympathy.

Ray listened and closed his eyes. Tucker quickly blasted that ray, designed not to hurt humans but to push out a ghost overshadowing one. A big purple cloud erupted from Ray's back. The cloud laughed, which made Raymond open his eyes in surprise.

The glowing purple cloud formed in the shape of Karma, complete with hood, creepy sharp teeth, and three-clawed hands. As the cloud formed, four hands appeared to "grab" Ray in a bear-hug from behind. Cloud-Karma's head rose above Ray's, and all it did was laugh. Just a few seconds later, the cloud was sucked right back into Ray.

"You really did make a deal with Karma," Tucker said sternly, "and now you're paying for it. Karma showed you his Eye, and now you're forever cursed and his servant."

"Dad, wait, I can explain!"

"Go to your room, Raymond. Stay there. You're being mind controlled. Stay in your room no matter what your mind is telling you. Be completely conscious of your thoughts, that'll keep it at bay. Trust no one but me, your mom, and Heather's parents, and stay in your room until we come get you." At least if the curse leaves the house standing, he added to himself.

That terrified Ray. Mind control? Seriously? In an instant, he went from confident to questioning his every thought. "Fine, I'll go," he said.

He went upstairs to his room, just like he was supposed to. He sat in his dark closet with only the light of his phone and played some mobile games to distract himself. He was smart. He knew not to trust himself. And that was the most terrifying part of it.