Chapter LXXVIII
Jack and Maddie were surprised that Danny had been discharged from the hospital so soon. In their curiosity, they overlooked the smug grin Danny wore all the way home. It was quickly replaced by a grimace of sheer terror due to Jack's horrendous driving, and Danny thought he may need to revisit the medical facility for a second time.
"Son, I can't tell you enough how proud we are of you," Jack beamed as he narrowly made a yellow traffic light. "And to think you were only in there of four days after taking that ghost head on with nothing but a baseball bat!"
"It was the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, sweetie," Maddie corrected as Jack barely avoided slamming into a fire hydrant.
"It looked like a regular bat to me," Jack replied as the rocket propulsion system lifted the large and heavily armored RV over a little boy who had run into the street to retrieve his ball. The vehicle slammed into the road hard enough to dislodge several of the mounted rifles from the wall.
"Yes, but it's a bat with the word 'Fenton' on it."
Jack flashed his wife a toothy grin of admiration as Danny tried to collect all the scattered weaponry. His father's distraction almost caused the RV to collide with a school bus filled with junior high students. The heavyset man swerved at the last possible second and continued on his way.
"So what's for dinner tonight?" Danny asked, hoping to keep his father focused on the road with normal conversation.
"I thought we could go out to celebrate your homecoming!" Maddie offered cheekily.
"That sounds great," Danny sighed as the RV slowed to a regular speed; only twenty miles per hour over the speed limit. At least it was good driving for his father. "Anywhere in particular you were thinking of?"
"Ooh, Mexican!" Jack said as his stomach growled. "I can't remember the last time we had Mexican!"
"It was last Tuesday, Jack," Maddie said with a knowing smile.
"Really? Well gosh; I guess I just really love those chimichangas."
"Mexican sounds good," Danny agreed as he placed the last of the rifles on the weapon rack. "When are we going?"
"We can leave as soon as we pick up Jazz," Jack replied as he turned the RV into the driveway of Fenton Works. Danny's father pounded on the horn and waited for his daughter to acknowledge that he was home.
Jazz stuck her head out of her bedroom window. "What?!" she cried angrily.
"We're going out to eat!" Jack hollered back. "Hurry up!"
"Why?"
"Danny was released from the hospital!" Maddie jumped in.
"Mom!" Danny complained. "The whole neighborhood doesn't need to know I was hospitalized!"
"Danny was released from the hospital?" Jazz shouted back.
"Yeah!" Jack bellowed. "They released him this morning! He's going to be fine!"
"That's so good to hear that Danny was released from the hospital!" Jazz shouted down. "Give me a minute, I'll be right down!"
Danny hit his head against the wall.
Parents, he thought. Typical.
Typical for you, perhaps.
Yes, and be thankful you have parents at all. Some children do not have parents.
Really? That is truly astonishing news. Maybe you can take that information to the board of directors and then CUT YOURSELF after they LAUGH IN YOUR FACE!
Why would I go to a board of directors with that?
They would direct you in how WRONG YOU ARE in your PITIFUL ASSESSMENT!
Danny hit his head against the wall again.
STOP THAT!
You will damage all of us!
If I stop, will you be quiet?
If we stop, will you stop trying to murder us?
Yes.
I say you continue to try. At least the other one would be removed from your mind as well.
You fool! You would perish as well!
Danny picked out an ecto-grenade from a locker nearby and held it close to his nose. His finger was dangerously close to the pin.
We give up!
Yes! Yes! Do not harm us!
Keep your voices down and maybe I won't.
Danny tossed the weapon back into the locker and locked it shut just as Jazz hopped into the vehicle.
"So, where to?"
"Mexican," her family replied in unison, although Jack was slightly more enthusiastic.
Wulf dug around the Fenton's laboratory. He had disabled the alarms upon his arrival. It was odd that they did not go off when he actually arrived, though, but it had probably saved him from an unwanted confrontation.
The ghost heard the sounds of several humans communicating upstairs and became invisible. Once the human that was in the house left, the hulking specter continued his search. There was no designated target for his rummaging, he simply wished to bring something back to his master; a token of apology for having failed to bring the ghost child to the Ghost Zone after their first encounter.
Something sharp poked the ghost's paw and the beast swiped the box the object was in, knocking it to the floor. Among the cluttered assortment of useless gadgetry was a framed picture. Wulf picked it up and examined it closely. A small human child with black hair was waddling through a grassy park. In the background, a woman in a teal jumpsuit with auburn hair wore a winning smile as she sat on a checkered blanket watching the child.
Then common sense kicked in. The small human was his target, only younger in the picture, and the woman was his mother. The bottom portion of the frame bore a plaque that read "FIRST STEPS".
Wulf regarded the photograph carefully. How it wound up in a laboratory was beyond his understanding. It was obviously important, and was probably meant to sit out somewhere visible to everyone. The ghost turned and bounded up the staircase and into the kitchen. None of the surfaces looked suitable to place the keepsake, so Wulf moved on to the next room. On a sofa table next to a large L shaped couch were several other pictures. One of them showed his primary target at his more current age. On his left was a female of a slightly paler complexion and, in contrast to the girl, a dark-skinned boy stood to the right. All three of the children looked . . . happy.
The ghost exchanged the photo of Danny's baby steps for the one of him surrounded by his friends before taking a seat on the couch. Was his master wrong about the ghost child being savage and uncontrollably evil? The boy in this picture clearly wasn't the vengeful deity Walker had described to him. He looked like a normal adolescent human.
Wulf was confused. Why would his master lie to him about such a thing? It made no sense to depict Danny in a malevolent light. The boy showed no signs of hostility, as far as he could tell. Sure, there were the jabs during his first encounter, but those were different circumstances. Surely the boy didn't make absurd jokes and fire energy blasts from his hands when he wasn't fighting for his life.
So then what was it that kept Wulf rooted to his seat instead of staking out an ambush point in the laboratory? He had his orders, but something felt . . . wrong; out of place. Like there was a piece to the puzzle that Walker had left out. Or perhaps Walker had told him everything and the information had been misconstrued. It made sense, considering Walker's deeply seeded hatred for the ghost-boy. Or maybe there was something Walker himself didn't know. Unlikely, but possible . . .
Wulf arranged the photos so that the one he had brought up from the lab blended in. The ghost thought about rummaging through the rest of the house, but decided not to. His nose twitched as a strange scent filled his nostrils. A ghost was approaching, but it was not Danny Phantom. This one was more machine than ghost. Wulf sped to the lab, and found a hiding place just in time. His suspicions about the foreign ghost's intentions were made clear when it fazed through the ceiling.
Wulf had never seen Skulker before. After trying to visibly gauge the strength of the possible adversary, Wulf huddled further back into his hiding place. Whoever this ghost was, it looked like it could sure take a punch. Or a claw. Whatever the case, Wulf was not going to risk exposing himself. He silently watched as Skulker went about his business.
The first thing Skulker noticed as he entered the Fenton's laboratory was that the alarm systems were already disabled. The mechanical brow on his face rose in suspicion as his steel boots clanged to the floor. The Fenton Anti-Ghost System, or . . . well, the alarm system was notoriously incompetent. Still, any sensible ghost that had the foresight about such things would at least make an effort to avoid detection.
The mercenary almost grinned at the thought. Danny had adjusted the alarm system to recognize Skulker's unique ectoplasmic signature and ignore it so that, even if the system worked, it wouldn't bare its klaxon upon his arrival. But now he, or any other ghost for that matter, wouldn't have to worry about that for a long while. Whatever had disabled the alarm had done so quite efficiently. Five long, parallel gashes ran along the system's hard drive. It would take at least a month to rewire everything that the offending ghoul had destroyed.
Skulker knew the ghost was nearby. Perhaps even in the lab with him. The robotic head swiveled around a full three hundred and sixty degrees searching for a possible target, but the scan turned up nothing out of the ordinary.
Skulker raised his arm to his face and tapped a red button. "File under Unidentified Ghost Toxin: Day Six," Skulker waited until the whirring of his onboard computer systems had ceased and a green light winked on above the red button. "Daniel has been discharged from North Mercy Hospital in Amity Park. The injuries he sustained while fighting the Paper Shredder have healed at a superhuman rate, providing further proof to my theory that the ghost venom does not affect Daniel's human form," Skulker paused before adding, "so long as he does not use any of his ghost powers."
Keeping his forearm at mouth level, Skulker examined the lab in greater detail. "I arrived in the Fenton's laboratory to prepare for when Daniel returns home from dining with his family. We are going to perform several experiments to test the strength and nature of this unknown venom." Skulker stopped when he nearly stepped on something. It was one of several gadgets strewn carelessly on the floor next to an overturned box. "The alarm system has been disabled and the laboratory appears to have been searched. For what, I am uncertain."
Skulker mentally commanded the recording device to pause as he knelt down to clean up the small mess. Among the fallen gizmos was a seemingly new one. It had the sheen of recently polished metal and a brand new sticker on the front. Skulker put the rest of the equipment back in the box and returned it to the shelf it fell from. He then went back to examining the Ghost Getter, as it was labeled.
"Interesting," Skulker mumbled. The part of Skulker's index finger that would have been the nail retracted revealing a small headphone jack. The ghost extended the cord and plugged it into the device. As he suspected, one of the machine's functions was to play music. But it was the other, primary function that captured Skulker's attention.
The ghost grinned as he allowed his other forearm to slide open. The compartment inside was just large enough to house this new piece of equipment. Wires attached to every port and a magnetic seal held it in place. Skulker's tracking systems recalibrated to compensate for this addition. The mercenary performed another scan. This time, he was able to see Wulf crouched down in the corner of the room.
"You have no business here," Skulker growled as his weapons activated. "Leave here at once, or I shall make you leave."
Wulf stood to his full height and looked straight ahead into Walker's flaming green eyes.
"I'd like to see you try," Wulf growled back.
Skulker divided his consciousness to consult his language algorithms. The ghost was speaking in Esperanto. Thankfully his translation software was of a recent manufacture and was able to understand the ghost's speech.
Skulker fired a laser that hit the ghost square in the chest. It slammed into a desk, which sent a Fenton Thermos sailing through the air. Skulker caught it without even looking at it.
"You cannot stop me!" Wulf howled. "My master will slaughter you all!"
Skulker uncapped the thermos and aimed it at the lupine ghost. The silver beam of light smacked into the wound Skulker had made on Wulf's chest and began to break him down into his base molecular structure. The thermos vacuumed him inside and Skulker reattached the lid. Skulker regarded the thermos with as much concern as one would show an empty bottle of glue before setting it on top of a shelf.
"Bad dog."
Danny didn't arrive home for another hour. His night out had been eventful, to say the least. Some ghost animal nearly managed to make off with his father's leftovers, but Jack beat the animal to its second death with his bare hands. As distraught as everyone was over the ordeal, the restaurant gave his family a coupon for a free dinner the next time they visited. Danny knew the first place his parents would go after putting the food away was to the lab, and so he patiently waited. Until one thirty in the morning. After his parents had gone upstairs to bed, arguing about where the Ghost Getter could be, Danny snuck down into the lab. His ghost sense went off halfway down the stairs, but Danny fought the urge to clutch his stomach despite the considerable pain.
It's getting worse . . .
"Skulker?" Danny called out in the loudest hushed whisper he could manage. "You down here?"
"Yes," the mercenary replied as he stepped from the shadows. "I've been here since you left for dinner."
Danny thought for a moment. "That was a while ago," he remarked.
"I could bore with you the specifics, but we have more pressing matters to attend to." Skulker tossed Danny the thermos. "You had a visitor. Some kind of dog."
Danny's eyes widened as he caught it. "Did it have claws?"
"Were you even listening? It was a dog, of course it had claws."
"No, I mean, like, really big claws?"
Skulker recalled his "battle" with the ghost. "I couldn't see anything unusual for an animal of that size. It was wearing a green sweat suit, though."
"That's the one," Danny confirmed as he turned the cylindrical device over in his hands. The status monitor read OCCUPIED.
"The one that poisoned you?" Skulker mused. "Interesting. This may take less time than I thought. If we can extract a sample of the ghost's venom, maybe even just its blood, I think I may be able to make a suitable amount of anti-venom."
"Uh, ok," Danny looked at the thermos. "Care to explain how you're going to do that?"
Skulker was about to reply when the door at the bottom of the stairs opened up. A half-awake Jazz stumbled into the room. "Danny, mom and dad wanted me to make sure you weren't playing that stupid video game ag-" the girl finally saw the giant robot standing next to her brother.
"Jazz," Danny said slowly. "Don't freak out, ok? This is a good guy."
Jazz gaped at the giant form of Skulker. He stood perfectly still, not wanting to startle the girl.
"A ghost!" she whispered in awe. "A real live ghost!"
"Er, technically I'm not alive," Skulker corrected, making air quotes to accent the word alive. Danny elbowed him in the side. "But if that will prevent you from alerting the entire household to my presence, then you can call me whatever you wish."
"Wow!" Jazz took an uneasy step forward. "You're really real!"
Skulker rubbed his forehead. "Yes, I believe we have already established that. My name is Skulker and I am the Ghost Zone's greatest mercenary. You are Jasmine Fenton, daughter of Jack and Madeline Fenton and elder sister to Daniel Fenton."
Jazz, no longer stupefied, turned her gaze to Danny. "How do you know him?"
"Uh, long story," Danny thought back to when he first met Skulker. "Very long story. No time to explain, now if you'll excuse us, me and Skulker have work to do."
"Skulker and I," Jazz and the aforementioned ghost corrected simultaneously. The two looked at each other curiously for a moment before focusing back on Danny.
"Jazz, this is serious," Danny continued, ignoring the grammatical rebuke. "You really can't be down here right now!"
"Why not?"
"There is a lot going on that you simply wouldn't understand," Skulker spoke up. "And neither of us has the time nor the patience to explain every infinitesimal detail to you." The mechanoid looked at Danny. "At least not right now."
"Well can you at least tell me why you're down here?" Jazz asked hopefully.
"Very well; we are trying to concoct anti-venom using the ghost in this thermos," Skulker held the object in one hand and pointed to it with the other. "I believe that is all the information you need to know."
"What are you making it for?"
Before Skulker could try to usher Jazz off to bed, the thermos started to shake. It fell from Skulker's hand and rattled on the floor. Danny watched in horror as five razor sharp claws tore through the side of the thermos and ripped the device in half. A green mist escaped the destroyed Fenton Thermos and reassembled into the massive, furry, black specter. Wulf looked from Skulker to Jazz and then to Danny.
"See Jazz," Danny muttered as Wulf sized up its opponents, "this is why you shouldn't be down here!"
"Why?"
Wulf's massive claws slid down from his paws again and he leapt through the air at Danny's sister.
"NO!" Danny leapt into the air and willed his transformation to begin.
The familiar tingly feeling began at the top of his head. Electrified ectoplasm washed over his body in a nanosecond. Phantom slammed into Wulf and knocked the ghost right into Skulker's punch. Phantom slid to the floor in unbearable pain as Wulf hit the Ghost Portal activation button.
Phantom looked down at his body and the pain grew even worse. His torso had decayed well beyond the point of functionality. The flesh was a sickly grey color, and the organs inside were an even sicklier dull green. Ectoplasm of the same color oozed from the gaping hole in his stomach. Phantom could tell from the searing pain in the rest of his body that the parts of him that were still under the jumpsuit were no better off.
Skulker had thrown himself at Wulf and managed to pin the ghost down underneath his bulk. He tried to twist Wulf's neck past the breaking point, but the canine ghost was very resilient.
"Tell me how to cure the ghost child!" Skulker demanded as Wulf's neck twisted further.
"Never! I would rather die by your hand than betray my master!"
Skulker roared and slammed Wulf's head down on the floor. "Look at him! Is this what your master wants?"
Wulf saw why Skulker was so upset. Phantom looked like a corpse reanimated long after decomposition had set in. His face was discolored and bulging black veins were becoming visible. The vibrant green eyes were almost blank and lifeless. A puddle of deathly green ectoplasm was forming on the floor. The girl that he had tried to attack was kneeling down next to the ghost boy. Her shock and uncertainty were overridden by fear for her brother's life.
Wulf thought about Skulker's words. "Yes," he grunted, managing to shake Skulker off him. "But it is not what I want!" Wulf slashed the robot across the back, disabling the suit. Skulker cried out as he collapsed to the floor.
Wulf bounded over to the ghost boy, who raised an arm and began to feed ectoplasm into it.
"Krom via forteco, fantomo-infano, mi scii kiel al kuraci vi."
The girl placed a hand on Phantom's outstretched arm and the ghost lowered it. She appeared to understand him. Wulf didn't bother to find out if that was the case. He picked up Danny Phantom and leapt into the Ghost Zone.
Jazz sat on the floor in shock. Her brother had saved her! He had become a ghost to save her! No, it wasn't that simple, there was something more to it than just that. The girl looked over at Skulker's damaged body and crawled over to it.
"Skulker?" She asked. "Are you ok?"
"Whether or not I am ok is immaterial," the mercenary replied in a surprisingly calm voice. "That ghost took Daniel."
"I thought it wanted to save him!" Jazz exclaimed.
"I am uncertain as to the specifics of its intentions. It has a master. And any ghost powerful enough to control a beast like that is bound to be formidable."
"Is Danny going to be alright?"
"You saw him change?" Skulker changed the subject.
Jazz nodded.
Skulker sighed. "Then I suppose there is no point in keeping you in the dark any longer."
"I thought Danny said this was a very long story," Jazz stated.
"Well in case the obvious has escaped you in all the hubbub of the last few minutes, I am presently paralyzed from the neck down. It will take a while for my internal systems to effect repairs. Until then, I would be just oh-so delighted to tell you everything I know from the beginning."
Jazz leaned closer and listened to the large robotic ghost as he began.
Young Danny Fenton; he was just fourteen when his parents built a very strange machine . . .
As soon as Phantom entered the Ghost Zone he noticed two things. First was that the pain in his body had stopped getting steadily worse. Second was that the pain began to diminish. He looked down and saw, with an indescribable amount of happiness that the wound in his stomach was rapidly sealing. It was momentarily eclipsed by the curiosity that began to fester in his mind.
"How did that happen?"
Wulf only growled in response, still carrying Phantom in his arms. He knew that trying to communicate was pointless. The ghost-child didn't understand his language.
"Well thanks, I guess. You can let me go now; I need to get back to-"
Phantom felt the ghost wrap a large furry hand around the back of his neck before he was thrown into a wall.
"Alright, you're about as confusing as a Rubik's Cube," Phantom rubbed his forehead.
He prepared to attack, but was stopped when an actual Rubik's Cube appeared before him. The colors were scrambled, but soon they began to spin on their own accord. Within ten seconds, all the colors were perfectly aligned. And then the ghost holding the cube appeared.
The ghost was only about a foot shorter than Wulf, but that still made him almost two feet taller than Danny. The first thing Danny noticed was the ghost's face. It was pale, bone white. Hollow black eyes stared back at him. The rest of the ghost's attire did little to deviate from the trend. A white spandex shirt covered the impossibly muscular torso. Black gloves covered the ghost's hands. The pants of the ghost were black and white boots covered the ghost's feet and lower legs. There was an odd emblem on the ghost's black collar, but Danny wasn't close enough to see it.
"Perhaps you are just too stupid to comprehend Wulf's actions. He is not confusing at all." The ghost crushed the Rubik's cube in his fist and let the remains float away.
"Who are you?" Danny asked, getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of his freshly healed stomach.
"I am Walker," the ghost said, placing a hand on his chest. "You've already met my companion," Walker gestured to Wulf, who was sitting on a rock floating nearby.
"Yeah, I have." Danny glared at the canine.
"You obviously do not speak Esperanto," Walker said with a hint of disappointment. "That's too bad. We could have skipped this senseless talking and gotten straight to the point."
"Which is?"
Phantom saw Walker's punch to his jaw for only a second before his head snapped back and his momentum carried him above the roof of the building they were near. Walker teleported above him and kicked the ghost boy in the stomach, sending him crashing into the top of the structure.
"Alright, that's it! I've had it with you ghosts! I didn't do anything to you, and I-"
Walker didn't give time for Phantom to finish. A beam of red energy ripped through Phantom's chest, knocking him down again. Walker flew in, grabbed him by the wrist and swung him into a passing boulder, shattering it.
Phantom recovered from the attack and dodged some of the smaller rocks that had broken off from the large boulder. "That the best you can do?"
Walker growled and summoned ectoplasm to his hands. The energy exploded from his fists and Phantom barely dodged the twin blasts. He fired several of his own, but the few that hit Walker did nothing.
"You cannot run from what you have done, Danny Phantom!" Walker roared as he continued to fire at Phantom. "You will pay for your transgressions!"
"I haven't done anything!" Phantom shouted back as he began to fire more powerful blasts. These ones actually made Walker flinch on impact. "But maybe I'll have to pay after what I do to you!"
Walker screamed in rage and flew in close. Phantom fired a fully charged blast into Walker's chest just before the ghost could land a punch. The hole in his chest was rather large, and Phantom grinned in satisfaction. That was until the wound sealed over itself. Even the fabric of Walker's spandex was mended.
"How did you-"
"You think you're the only ghost who can regenerate?" Walker spat. "You are full of self confidence and pompousness even at this age!"
Phantom dodged a bone-breaking punch aimed at his head and grabbed Walker's arm, flipping the ghost over him. The ghost boy flowed through with several blasts containing as much energy as he could put into them. Walker spun around and absorbed the blasts into his open palms. Phantom grimaced and began charging an electric attack, only to be hit by one fired by Walker. Red electricity surged through his body and Phantom cried out in pain.
"You call on powers you don't even understand to save you from the inevitable," Walker grinned as he cut the attack off. "Don't expect to be able to do that for a while. My electroplasm is of the exact opposite polarity of yours. Of course, you won't have to worry about that much longer."
Walker split in two and each copy fired two beams of red energy at Phantom. The ghost boy didn't even have time to react as all four beams tore through his body. He cried out, but it was stifled as a third Walker slammed a fist into his face. A fourth one caught him by the leg and slammed him back down onto the roof of the prison.
Phantom struggled to rise, but the Walkers were on him. One fired red ectoplasmic blades into his still-healing chest. Another flew up high and charged a massive attack in his hands. The orb of red energy was easily larger than the Fenton household. Phantom was unable to see the impending attack as the remaining two Walkers lassoed his neck, feeding electroplasm into it.
The Walker floating above the prison loosed the massive attack down on the ghost boy. The three copies continued the attack until the orb hit, taking out all three of them. When the dust from the destroyed prison cleared, Phantom lay motionless on the floor. Most of his upper body was vaporized, leaving only bone and tendon behind.
"How ironic," Walker said casually as he floated down into the building. The large expenditure of energy didn't seem to faze him at all. "Lord Phantom, self-proclaimed God of all that is, dies in a prison." Walker spat on Phantom's face, which had reformed along with the rest of his body. "How fitting for the end of a tyrant."
"I-I don't," Phantom coughed, "I don't understand! I'm not a tyrant! I-I never d-did anything!"
"It's not what you've done; it's what you're going to do!" Walker landed on the floor next to Phantom and knelt next to his head. "And as long as I have the power to stop it, I won't let you hurt any of them!"
"Hurt who?! I haven't hurt anyone!"
"Oh stop with this foolishness!" Walker stomped Phantom into the ground as he tried to stand. "You made life hell for me from the moment of my conception! Once I was old enough to understand what you did, I knew there was only one way to stop you. You had to be killed before you came to power!"
"Before I what?! Why are you doing this?!"
"Because I AM YOUR SON!" Walker bellowed. Phantom gawked at the massive pale ghost as it built up another attack. The red ectoplasm was dripping from his hands. "Yours and Paulina Fenton's!"
At that, Phantom nearly fainted. It was good that he did not, because he would not have seen the pink lance of ectoplasm that ripped through Walker's skull, burrowing through one ear and bursting out the other. Walker's red energy attack discharged into floor, propelling the temporarily incapacitated ghost into the void of the Ghost Zone.
"Daniel!" Plasmius exclaimed upon seeing Phantom's battered body. "Are you alright?"
"Well," he commented, wiping Walker's glowing saliva off his face. "I've been worse. Can you do me a solid and get me out of here? I promise to give you a free shot when we meet again."
Plasmius grinned and helped Phantom up into the air. He floated up through the ruined prison and looked for Walker – his son – and sighed with relief when the ghost was nowhere to be seen.
"Come, this way," Plasmius beckoned. Phantom followed and soon, they were hovering outside the Ghost Portal. "That was quite an adventure," the older hybrid remarked, eyeing Phantom suspiciously. "What was that about you and Paulina Fenton?"
The ghost boy shook his head. "I have no idea."
"You would do well to avoid her from now on," Plasmius continued. "If you two spawn that . . . abomination, well, I don't think it bodes well for any living thing."
Phantom scowled at the woman before making his way to the portal.
"And remember!" she called after him. "Free shot!"
Phantom extended his middle finger and vanished through the portal.
To Be Continued
A/N: Told you he wasn't Clockwork's son, sillies. Hope that this extra-long chapter amazed you. I'll wrap things up in the next (and last) chapter of this segment. Thanks for reading!
Thanks to all my reviewers, especially darkbunny92, slyfoxx, The Golden Hat, Musicallity, Bloxham, Writin' Dude, Fulcon, Adran06, MissMeliss4251, and dpphan333.
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