Chapter LXIII

Plasmius fazed through the ceiling of her bedroom. The black, purple tinged rings she had seen so many times before appeared around her waist and transformed her back into Vanessa Masters. The woman fell onto her bed and let out a heavy sigh.

"MmmSkulker?" she mumbled through the pillow that covered her face. "Please tell me you recorded that."

The air next to Plasmius' bed flickered as Skulker's cloaking technology dissipated. The hulking humanoid robot appeared, looking down at his employer with concern.

"Of course I did," he replied. "Care to explain why that particular crisis was so important?"

Vanessa rolled onto her side and looked at the robotic shell. Her eyelids drooped and the dark circles that stood out so predominantly under her ghost form's eyes were beginning to show through on her human skin.

"Care to explain why you're standing in a single woman's room uninvited?"

"I was invited here."

Vanessa smiled. "I don't remember inviting you. Perhaps you should . . . refresh my memory a bit?" She reached out and grabbed Skulker's belt buckle, but her fingers slid off as she rolled onto her back laughing. "Look at me," she giggled. "I'm so pathetic."

Skulker rolled his eyes. "You are not pathetic, you're just drunk."

Vanessa gasped and glared at her hired hand. "How dare you make such an accusation!" she said mockingly. "I most drunk am not certainly . . . wait-"

Skulker rested his hand gently on her forehead. "Thermal readings show that you have a temperature of eighty one point one."

"So it's a little low," Vanessa said. "Probably from being out in the cold for so long. Maybe you could see just how cold it was outside if you get me out of these clothes."

"Its early spring," Skulker replied, ignoring her last remark. "And, being that you're half ghost, your body temperature is twenty degrees lower than that of a normal human to start with. Your current temperature indicates that you have a fever, or some other form of human illness. I guess that explains your unusual and . . . risqué behavior."

Vanessa coughed loudly as if to verify the mercenary's claim. "Skulker, be a dear and make me some soup?"

The ghost turned intangible with an upset look displayed on his robotic features. "Of course," he muttered as he sank through the floor. "It's not like I have a niece that may require my assistance on the far west coast."

Vanessa frowned once Skulker was gone. How was she going to explain to him that his niece had been killed in the battle at Axion Labs? He surely wouldn't take the news lightly. She turned on the television and sighed with relief at the caption on the bottom of the screen.

Professor Robert Faluca: Survived Phantom Attack at Axion Labs.

The anchorwoman on the television, Amity Park's Tiffany Snow, was explaining how Faluca, Tucker Foley and Sam Manson were saved by an unidentified ghost after the office was attacked two days earlier.

". . . unsure as to the nature of the ghost's attack on Professor Faluca's office, but details will be divulged at the interview given by Professor Robert Faluca, who survived the attack."

Just as she finished her sentence the short, heavyset man took his place behind the podium that was erected on the center of the stage at the town hall. Samantha and Tucker took their seats near the back of the wall next to Maddie, Jazz and Jack Fenton. The chattering amongst the crowd died down immediately.

"I would like to start this meeting off by saying thank you to everyone who has supported the Fenton family throughout this ordeal. I know I speak for all of us when I say that there is no possible way to relate to what you had to go through, but we will continue to be there and give our support regardless."

Applause erupted from the mass of reporters gathered in the expansive room. Robert held his hands up to quiet them.

"My first order of business is to attempt to clear up as much of the ambiguity created by this mess as possible. Now I know everyone in this room and everyone watching this broadcast believe that Phantom was the ghost responsible for all the damage done in the past week or so. That is not the case-"

Questions and protests exploded from the crowd as if a cannon had been fired.

"Please, please, everyone, settle down," Mr. Faluca said loudly. The rambling quieted, but took longer to evaporate than it did initially. "I know this comes as a shock to you, but it is the truth. The ghost in question bore no resemblance to Phantom except for its green eyes. That proves nothing, however, as studies indicate that green eye color is evident in almost seventy five percent of all ectoplasmic entities."

"How do you explain the logo on his chest then?" shouted an accusatory inquirer.

"In direct contrast with eyewitness reports, photographic evidence of Phantom is scarce. Intelligence indicates that Phantom had adorned himself with his logo several days prior to the rampage of the other being that masqueraded as him. The logo itself means nothing other than a way for Phantom to be easily identified as a superhero and the other ghost used this in order to fool everyone into thinking he was Phantom."

"If all of this is true then, where was the real Phantom during all of this?"

Mr. Faluca looked in the direction of his latest questioner. "Shadow Phantom, as he called himself during the attack on my office, managed to capture Phantom during a confrontation in the woodland area at the edge of town. Phantom was held captive in a warehouse out at the abandoned docks before he managed to escape. By then Shadow Phantom had already been defeated by the combined efforts of the Guys in White and the Fentons."

"How do you know all this?" shouted a reporter from the back of the room.

"Phantom contacted Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley," Mr. Faluca gestured to the two teenagers seated behind him, "upon his return to Amity Park. They came to me with the information so that I was better able to understand what I had seen and gone through."

"Were you saved by Phantom?"

"No. We were saved by another benevolent ghost named Kitty. She turned the three of us intangible before we could be hurt by the attack that destroyed my office."

"Just how many ghosts were in your office?"

"Four. Shadow Phantom came in order to find a chemical compound to use for his own purposes which were not revealed to any of us. The effects of the element are unknown, as are Shadow Phantom's motives for attempting to steal it. Kitty then arrived with another ghost known as Johnny Thirteen, who tried to stop Shadow Phantom. The Wisconsin Ghost arrived last alongside the Huntress and those four began battling."

"Is this Johnny Thirteen person a benevolent ghost as well?"

"What about the Wisconsin Ghost?"

"Johnny Thirteen could be seen as benevolent. However, his confrontation with the Huntress resulted in his disappearance, so that is up to debate. As for the Wisconsin Ghost? Her pledge to defeat Shadow Phantom eclipsed her pledge to return Daniel Fenton safe and sound. I was able to witness part of her battle with Shadow Phantom, and even in that short time she made no indication of having a desire to save Danny."

"Authorities were forced to place the area under lockdown and, for safety reasons; the press was not given an opportunity to document the fight. Can you describe it to us?"

"No, I cannot. I was moved from the area before I could undergo any harm."

"Danny Fenton went missing at the same time as Phantom, was gone for the same amount of time and was, allegedly, found again on the same night. Can you verify this and, if so, can you explain any relationship between the two?"

"Danny often accompanied Phantom on his patrols, using his parents' anti-ghost weaponry to contain the ghosts that Phantom dispatched. The night of Phantom's capture was no different and Danny was caught in the crossfire. Shadow Phantom, after incapacitating Phantom, held Danny hostage inside his body in order to feed of the boy's body energy to sustain his own form." The audience gasped at the revelation. "Upon his discovery, he was taken into the care of the Guys in White and will be released from their medical facility by sometime tomorrow. I hope that cleared the important issues up with most of you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a job to get to."

The swarm of reporters began shouting their questions at the man once more, but he did not comment. Mr. Faluca exited the town hall and entered the police vehicle waiting for him.

"Officer, I believe you know where to go."

"I do, I just wish I knew how to get there from the ground."

"You don't know how to get to Axion Labs?"

"Gimmie a break, I'm fourteen!"

Mr. Faluca gasped. "Daniel? Is . . is that you?"

"In the flesh! Well, you know, not my flesh . . . So, uh, how've you been?"

Robert smiled as the car began to slowly move away from the town hall. "This takes impersonating an officer to an unprecedented level. I hope you can come up with a good defense when this goes to court."

"Aw, come on, it's me! The town hero! Besides, I've got the cops on my side."

"The boys in blue?"

"Guys in White; the only cops whose rules I actually have to listen to."

"Interesting. Oh, stop sign!"

"Relax, I got it! I can tap into this guys consciousness and bring up some of his more basic functions like talking, walking and, I don't know, maybe driving . . . if I'm lucky.

"So the GIW let you out again?"

"Yup, and this time it's for good. All I needed was some sleep and all they needed was a few blood samples. That shadow ghost really took it out of me."

"You mean Shadow Phantom?"

The officer chuckled, prompted by Phantom's internal influence. "Oh right, how silly of me. I gotta hand it to you, you pulled that off flawlessly. We didn't even come up with a cover for what happened at your office!"

Mr. Faluca smiled recalling how the three teenagers had approached him in his makeshift office the night before to go recap on the last few days, get some awkward explanations out of the way and plan for the future. Namely, the press conference he had just went through.

"The city of Amity Park owes you. Since they can't, and most likely wouldn't, repay you I stepped up to bat."

"And I am eternally grateful."

"As you should be. Hopefully this will get you back in good standings with the city."

"Yeah, me too. I did some bad things, didn't I?"

"You can't remember?"

"No, all I can remember is my first fight with Plasmius outside Dash Baxter's house. I guess the shadow ghost took over after that. Everything's a blur."

"To answer your question, yes, you did do some pretty bad things. You leveled a construction zone which you claim to have thought was an abandoned and run-down part of town. Eight people were wounded and hospitalized and my office is destroyed."

Phantom remained silent.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. You weren't in control. Doing things like that would've never even crossed your mind if you were in control."

"I should've been in control."

"But you weren't. Stuff like this happens all the time. Maybe not on such a grand scale, nevertheless, it does happen."

I am in control of my power whereas your power has taken control of you. Phantom shook the officer's head, trying to dispel those haunting words.

"From now on, if you find something in that Ghost Zone of yours, bring it to me before it turns you into a monster, alright?"

"Will do."

Phantom manipulated the officer's body to stop the car outside Axion Labs main gate. Mr. Faluca exited the back seat and waved at the boy who he had come to learn so much about. With so much stress in his life, it was a miracle he was able to continue with his self-destructive lifestyle at all.

Phantom removed himself from the police officer's body and flew off toward his home, distracted by his busy and, once again, central consciousness. So many people had told him to just live and learn. Why was it such a difficult concept for him to grasp? He had been so down on life in the past few weeks, reflecting on everything he had deemed as villainous, but now his pessimism was starting to wear on him. For the most part, he was beginning to accept the truth; that heroics don't always leave the hero unscathed.

One thing he was unable to shake, however, lingered in the back of his mind. It felt like a fly bumping into the back of his skull. The issue itself was not a problem, but the fact that it refused to stay down irritated him. When he focused on it, he realized, with some degree of disgust, that the irksome feeling centered on a certain Penelope Spectra . . . and a certain Danny Fenton's lingering feelings for her.

To Be Continued

A/N

What a trip THIS was! Took over a month just to do this segment! I promise that production will increase, possibly exponentially. I'm taking a college psychology class (I'm only a senior in High School) and that kinda eats into my writing time, but there are only four classes left, so . . . you know, I'll get done faster and stuff. BEAR WITH ME, PEOPLE, I'M JUST A MAN!

Getting closer to the 700th review . . . just thought I'd remind everyone. Speaking of which, thanks to everyone who reviewed. Especially Musicallity, TDG3RD, Celestial Maiden Sukira, Skye-chan, MissMeliss4251, Bloxham, Anna Lee Gray, Warrior of winds, Belthasar, Fulcon and Twilight-Phantom66.

Oh, and I've got the crossover down and how it will tie into everything. It's coming along nicely and I think you'll all be pleasantly surprised. Also, as a pre-emptive statement, I will not comment on this development for the FFNNewspaper. Its one of the few secrets that I intend to keep out of the spotlight.

Next up, the couple with fidelity issues! At least on one end . . .