CHAPTER 15: THE WALKING DEAD, PART 3

Resting below the underbelly of Amity Park lies the once-great old city it used to be; a town of more concrete and brick rather and less metal and glass. The building blocks that this city once had was built with materials relying more on the Earth it existed on, allowing it a deeper connection with its home planet.

Though the rest of the world that has moved closer to the skies, the warmth that Old Amity Park feels with the sun beginning to rise for a new day is nowhere near like what the world above could hope to feel. Resting its golden beams of light on the third of its children, the mother gives its routine comfort to the most lively of its children, and itself a mother of many things living on its surface.

Many things fall from the heavens into this pit of Old Amity Park, whether they be cast out as garbage, lost or forgotten to neglect, or have simply fallen down to this strange world, but they are all still children of the mother Earth, and it is always there to welcome back its children with open arms.

One such example is Danny Fenton, cast out from his own home in the heavens and sent to the Earth below. Driven from his home by his evil alternate self and stripped of his soul, the Earth greets the return of its prodigal son by sparing his life from a fall that surely would have ended his life.

Laying among trash and far from his home, where his own family is long past dead, Danny himself might as well be dead with them. Deprived of his own ghost, there is no more drive in his body; no driver to the runaway train that has become derailed and collapsed into a mess. What lays among the garbage and the dead is not a true human being, but an empty shell of a man.

He is a man without a soul... and, therefore, he is a man without any life.

With no more dedication to go on, Danny continued to lay in its place, content on making it his final place of rest. Following a very good life of superherodom and teenage mischief, followed by years of adulthood filled with fame, fortune, and a happy marriage, perhaps it is not so bad in his mind that he find peace here.

"Danny." A voice said.

But although he is without his own ghost, there is one who will not let him rest yet.

Finally cracking the surface of answers to questions regarding the origin of ghosts, the afterlife of the human soul itself, Jazz Fenton has had her research come to a sudden and quick stop at the end of her own life. Split in half by the hands of the ghost calling itself Demon Phantom, her body has run through its course of life all too early...

...but her ghost is only just beginning. Stepping to the idle Danny Fenton, the ghost of Jazz laid a gentle hand on his head, urging him to continue on.

"Danny. You can't give up. You've got to keep going." Jazz said.

The familiar voice struck to a part of Danny's brain still containing vital information regarding its identity, driving him to hear its plea. Basic memories telling him that this ghost was the ghost of his sister still remained, but the emotional connection laying with these memories did not carry over to his mind. Nonetheless, he still paid heed to the ghost of Jazz, hearing out the reason for its visit.

"C'mon, Danny. Get up. I know you can get up." Jazz said.

"Don't want to go... Want to rest... Need my rest... Don't want to keep going... I'm finished..." Danny moaned.

"No, you're not. You've still got a ghost to beat. You never gave up on a fight before, and I'm not gonna let you do it here. Get up."

"Leave me alone... Let me rest... No more... Want peace..."

"He killed us and took your ghost half. You can't have peace with that business to finish."

Reminded once again of the evil that was inflicted on him and his family, memory returns once again, and, this time, so does emotion. Carrying with it feelings of anger and pain, the emotions that this memory carry are still fundamentally understood by the organic brain of a body, and Danny can feel all the pain associated with the devilish deed, inflicting him with pain once again.

Feeling pain once again, Danny no longer feels the need for rest, nor will he allow himself to until his own mission of revenge is fulfilled and peace is found again.

"Can't rest now... Need... Peace... Need... Revenge..." Danny groaned.

"Good. That's it, Danny. You can do it. You can fight." Jazz said.

Sharing a simple give of strength to her younger brother, Jazz watched as the almost-lifeless body of Danny Fenton began to defy its own instinct to wither and die, assuming control over itself once again. No longer resigning himself to a living corpse, he took grip over his own life once again, rising from the pit of garbage that he was thrown into.

Raising his hand out of the refuse, he gripped at the ground to pull his body up from the depths. He reached for air and the freedom to breathe it in, digging out from the muck that sought to drag him down and remain with it in hopes that he would wither away with it.

Coming out of the ocean of trash a shape begins to take place, showing that what comes out from the garbage now is indeed still alive, indeed still human, and indeed still willing to continue. His body slowly comes out from the grave it sought to remain in, moving to the surface to rise above it all.

And, at last, he is risen.

Tilting his body upright, his head leaned back and looked to the stars, as if a newborn in search for the first form of life in sight to imprint itself upon. All that comes first is the mildly illuminating but calming sight of the moon, its light beaming out of his deadened eyes. Moving his head forward, he still does not find another form of life, but instead what comes after.

Looking at the shape before him, he can identify the image as Jazz, his sister, but there is no intrinsic feeling why he should feel something towards her. Though this approach shows a lack of emotion, it is far from a state of apathy. He cannot feel anything towards the ghost, but he knows that he must follow it.

And follow it he does, beginning to step forward towards the image of Jazz. The ghost began to move back in response, guiding its sole audience along.

"Yes, Danny. Come to me. Follow me. You can do it." Jazz said.

Still does the body of Danny Fenton follow the ghost that leads him on, instilling in him a mission of revenge and placing him on the path to see that goal accomplished. The ghost of Jazz and her compassionate approach to her brother are not unlike a mother and her coaxing her child to walk, congruent with the role she has played in taking care of him since he were a boy.

But Danny Fenton is unable to understand this connection or how it remains significant, for he is not truly Danny Fenton at all.

Without his soul, he is but an empty shell.

A man without a soul.

Less than a beast and lesser than a machine, reserved for no place in the world but the grave.

But the ghost of Jazz will not allow Danny to go to the grave yet. Her presence, her commands instill in his shell a purpose and a goal, giving him a use and what passes as a will to live. Placed in himself a goal to accomplish, his body cannot lay itself to rest yet, for it no longer has a choice to do so.

It now must go on.

It must live.

It must win.

"That's it, Danny. Just keep on walking like that, and you'll find the way to win. You can win. You have to win. Now go." Jazz said.

Giving out her last message to her brother, the ghost of Jazz began to disappear, leaving Danny alone to continue his mission alone. Still without any feeling or thought in his mind, the purpose for moving on is lost on Danny, gone with the one who had given his mission meaning.

"Jazz..." Danny groaned.

Reaching out for where he last saw the undead form of his sister, Danny reached out for the spectral image, only to grab at nothing but the air. Barely able to comprehend his place and time, the only thing that Danny can do it keep searching for his sister, hoping that finding her again will give him further reason to continue on.

Stumbling like a newborn baby taking its first steps, Danny Fenton soon made his way out from the alleyway of trash, and took his first steps towards a place he has been gone from for a long time, and to a place where, even if he still had his own thoughts and memories, would not recognize any longer:

Old Amity Park.

[Soundtrack Cue: KMFDM - Help Us/Save Us/Take Us Away]

Once a lively city with a lively population, the Amity Park that once was is no longer the same after the days of knowledge of the afterlife had come to bring it into the future. Resources of the world began to channel towards the research and development of new fronts of invention around the world of the undead, taking it away from the populated areas that need it.

Unable to support itself with lack of government funds, Old Amity Park is left to wither like a gangrenous wound; the neglect that the city has suffered throughout the years has left it to go derelict with decay. But the deterioration of the city is not the worst rot that Old Amity Park has seen, for a city is nothing without what gives it its life:

Its people, and their souls.

The times before the world knew the threats of the afterlife were perhaps much better times in the world, allowing a blissful ignorance of those concepts and wolds that humanity had not yet breached into, let alone grasp any understanding of. Many had come to follow the rest of the world into the future upon its discovery, but there were many who could still not grasp the new reality for themselves.

Despite all the best attempts of the best minds in the world to rationalize what was once thought to be irrational, not everyone could keep up with the ways of tomorrow and its path forward. As the old ways of life advanced towards the new ways of life and old natures advanced towards new natures, the old and disenfranchised were left behind into the worlds that were too archaic and incompatible with the new reality.

Here, where Amity Park's old ways lie and wait to die, there is little hope to be found with its residents. With the olds ways of life obsolete, food is hard to come by, buildings begin to deteriorate, and the people live sad, unhappy lives, with the only promise they have is that they may return to this world without any of the Earthly vices that make living in it painful.

Wishing they could rise above it all for a better life, the people look to the heavens for salvation, even when they have already seen for the heavens they hope for do not exist. In spite of this answer, they instead decide that they will place their beliefs in such worlds anyways, for nothing more than the comfort the self-lie gives them.

The citizens of Old Amity Park organize themselves in cliques of many degrees, and all around Danny are examples of these factions of faith and self-delusion that people put themselves in. Some were not so outright with their displays of faith, wearing only symbols of religious faith around their necks in the form of a necklace or on their skin in the form of a tattoo...

...but others take more to full traditional garbs, and full uniforms to signify their respective faiths. Appearing more as groups of heavily-armed gangs or paramilitary groups, many of these religious groups kept to themselves and tried to tread carefully down the streets, as if carefully watching for any potential attack.

Despite the many and diverse religions that the groups appeared to follow, none had made any attempt to attack one another, only continuing to watch the other with caution. The tension between any bystander would seem almost like that of an old west gunfight about to break out, but not a single sign of such a breakout of violence seemed to come even close to happening.

For all the holy wars that have brewed over the years, it has at last seemed to grow to a cold war, leaving all enemies cornered in on themselves together. Coexistence between all religions seems to have been achieved at last, but only because they now have a common enemy to look towards now:

Science, which has all but made them irrelevant.

But all of these problems with religion and the people who follow them are of no interest to Danny Fenton at this moment. Alive he may be now, in however he may qualify, he has sustained many injuries following his fall, making the already-difficult task of walking unable to be accomplished.

Losing all his energy at last, Danny fell to the ground.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

The sight of a human being collapsing would register as an obvious sign that anyone in the vicinity should stop and provide that person with help, but that concept is no longer so obvious to the occupants of Old Amity Park. Already knowing that there is a life beyond death, the idea of trying to prevent it no longer seems worth the effort.

After all, if you knew you were going to come back after you die, does losing your life in the first place seem all that bad?

It does not seem to be so for the occupants of Old Amity Park, and it does not even seem that way for Danny himself. Losing his purpose once again, Danny closed his eyes and made no more attempts to move, succumbing to his wounds at the ignorance of all those around him to leave him for dead.

But even in a world where knowledge of the afterlife has made others apathetic to the idea of dying, there are still more benevolent forces that cherish the value of life as it is. A collection of hands making their way to Danny carry that value, and carry him on to see him brought back to health and fulfill that value.

Had he still his soul, Danny might have had some mind to give the strangers thanks, but he can do nothing more now than lay idle and silent.

"Jazz..." Danny moaned.

The city of Hong Kong, resting on the Kowloon Peninsula and its eponymous island, has had a long history of being subject to oppressive nations. Once under the rule of the British Empire following the two Opium Wars, it was handed off to communist China after over 150 years of British rule, where it was traded off from a conquering empire to a police state.

It is a city more than familiar with regimes that treat human beings without dignity or compassion, but its populace was still able to handle the fact that their oppressors were still human beings just as they were, flawed or not. On this day, however, they no longer have to worry themselves about any other human being posing a threat to them ever again...

...for the one who has his eye on the city now is the ghost named Dark Danny, continuing his rampage on the world to let out the anger in his heart. Having already put an end to the lives of his tormentors in high school, he has now chosen this city to be his next target for his vengeance.

Starting from an aerial position directly above the island city, he shot himself directly down at the ground below.

[Soundtrack Cue: Fear Factory - 540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit]

Impacting with the ground at a velocity unachievable by modern man-made technology, Dark Danny's collision with the island had caused a massive shockwave to ripple throughout the island, resulting in an earthquake beyond any measurement of the Richter scale, just as the attack is beyond any human comprehension.

The very impact of his metaphysical body into the ground resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, nearly reaching a million with just the first strike. Thousands of souls perish by the second in the initial blast, killed by all manners that come with a natural disaster.

But what is coming to the island is nothing that can be called natural. It is a complete perversion of nature in and of itself...

...and, very unlike a natural disaster, it shows no sign of stopping its destruction.

Not content with the initial wave of destruction first wrought upon the island, Dark Danny began flying across it at speeds outmatching any naturally-occurring winds on the Earth, strafing across the ground like a crop duster. Much like a crop duster, his flightpath disperses a specific target from the ground, but it is more than mere dust that his speed sends flying through the air.

Rushing past whatever civilians were still alive following the initial earth-quake inducing strike, the speed at which he flies is far too great for the human body to withstand and survive against, leading to the deaths of whoever was left in a manner swift as well as brutal.

Moving past crowds of human beings, his flight whisked away all skin from their bodies, like shucking the husk off corn, soon followed with all their internal organs following along. The process of complete flaying and organ displacement leads them to a death too fast for their nervous systems to process, but it is debatable whether or not that they would already be dead with his speed breaking every bone in their bodies.

Long gone are any semblance of population in the island of Hong Kong, but the defense of China's People's Liberation Army comes anyway in response to the threat in waves of fighter jets and battleships. Each pilot and sailor has witnessed the destruction of their famed city, and they strongly vow to avenge their land and dead countrymen.

Locking onto the sole target of Dark Danny, each fighter and ship fired their full payloads of ammunition on the apparation, hoping that the threat would be destroyed with the use of superior military might. Bullets, missiles, and artillery all alike fly straight towards Dark Danny...

...and they pass through him just as harmlessly, hitting nothing but whatever may lay behind him. Unconcerned with where the ammunition flew now, all he cares for is what lies ahead of him, putting his focus on the military force being sent on a mission to destroy him.

The very idea that they could harm him is laughable, to a point where it brings him offense to see them try. Flying towards the fighters, he raised his fists towards the man-made flying machines to remove them from his sight, finding himself laughing off the idea of a human being needing a complicated machine merely to pantomime his own abilities.

Bursting through the body of one jet fighter, Dark Danny caused it to explode instantly, condemning its pilot to a firey death quicker than their mind could process. Rushing to the next fighter in sight, he repeated the attack, downing yet another enemy plane by bursting straight through it.

Not content with one repetitive method of attack, Dark Danny sought to try for another one, this time grabbing hold of the next jet rather than destroy it instantly. Holding down on the jet, he began to spin in the air, building momentum behind his object before releasing it, sending colliding into another jet, destroying them both in a large explosion.

Realizing that they were unprepared and not in any way capable of taking on their target, the remaining jets began to retreat from the battleground, flying back to their base to safety. Their retreat does not give them any refuge from the attacking ghost, however; their flight is cut short by beams of ectoplasmic energy firing from the hands of Dark Danny, blasting the jets into scrap metal with a wave of his hand.

Finishing off the aerial fighters, he then turned his attention onto the nautical attackers, preparing to finish off the battleships below him. Much like he had done with the fighter jets before, Dark Danny flew straight through the battleships themselves, launching through them like a living (or, shall we say, unliving) bullet.

Unlike the jets which perished instantly in a blast of fire, the penetration of his body resulted in the ships beginning to sink into the ocean, dragging down several hundreds of tons of metal and human lives into the dark depths of water below, confined to a liquid grave of purgatory.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

Within mere seconds is the fleet destroyed, sending the last of the military might sent towards Dark Danny to the afterlife which he had come from, leaving nothing standing between him and his own desires for destruction. Turning back to the island city, he gazed upon the apocalyptic state of once-great and massively populated city, taking note of the handiwork of his destruction on it.

But what he sees is not of content to him.

It must be totally cleansed of all signs of life.

It must be completely gone.

Raising his hand to the city, he fired a final blast of ectoplasm towards it, aiming his blast for the center of the city. Firing only a small sphere of energy into the middlemost point of Hong Kong island, the small and seemingly insignificant ball of hellfire soon proved it was far more than its puny and minuscule appearance had signified it to be.

Reaching its target, the small collection of ectoplasm soon expanded, doing so at a rate so rapid that even a nuclear bomb itself would not compare to the force of power the blast shot out. In its wake of expansion, entire buildings and blocks of the city were swept away within it, reducing the constructed area into dust.

Its expansion of energy soon led to a complete engulfing of the island, beginning to bleed into the surrounding waters. The blast made the seas begin to boil under its touch, but also propelled it forth in a tidal wave, sending the force of raging water straight for the surrounding area of the Kowloon Peninsula.

Those fortunate enough not to reside on the island were spared from the initial attack by Dark Danny, but their luck did not extend to the incoming wave heading for their land. The tidal wave had washed over their home, completely covering it in a level of seawater that sunk the entire peninsula.

Damned to a fate of drowning in seawater, those living on the Kowloon Peninsula were washed away in a single swoop of the tidal wave; their presence cleansed from the Earth in an unholy baptism of death and terror brought about by a single ghost gone mad.

The ghost does not stop to watch the individual deaths that he brings about from his actions, but instead he looks to the blast of energy still expanding from the island of Hong Kong. Taking in the sight as if it were one of pure beauty to him, Dark Danny opened his arms to the blast, allowing himself to feel the blast push against him, like standing in the wake of an oncoming wave.

Feeling his own energy start to push back against him, Dark Danny closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the blast wash over him. The feeling that the blast gives him registers as something between a hug and a bath, indulging him in a feeling of ultimate peace that cannot be matched by anything of the physical realm.

As the blast came over him, Dark Danny let out a sigh, alongside a smile.

When the explosion had come to an end, all signs of energy from the blast dissipated, giving way to what was the final result of the destruction left by Dark Danny.

Once on this speck of the Earth stood a city named Hong Kong, spanning both an island and a peninsula, but there laid no more trace of the city from the Earth any longer. Left behind from the destruction of Dark Danny was a massive crater, occupying the space where the island once stood.

The peninsula was submersed under several feet of water, sinking it into the rest of the ocean and taking with it all life that once occupied it. Much of this water, alongside the rest of the water in the ocean, began to retreat back to the crater, beginning to fill it in and erase its presence as well.

The city of Hong Kong is forever gone from the face of the Earth.

When all movements of fluid had settled down, all that remained after all was demolished was a cool, serene bay, carrying nothing but a calm sea that churned and coursed slowly and soothingly on it. Without any signs of life to disturb it, matter is free to move in motion without interruption, carrying on naturally as if nothing had obstructed it in the first place.

And, for one brief moment, Dark Danny finds peace.

Memories of the destruction of an entire city and government are ones that bring peace to the mind of Demon Phantom, and the irony of their occurrence brings him humor out of their ironic emergence in his mind. For the time and place he occupies now is not too dissimilar, but far from so in intent.

For he now stands in the White House, home of the most powerful man on the planet, standing in conversation with said man over business and politics, taking the form of his alternate self to deceive him into believing he is the true Danny Phantom. It is a trick he has tried once before, and it proves itself to be working once again.

The man he speaks to was once known by the simpler name of Tucker Foley, and the two, once upon a time, were called the best of friends. There is nothing that would make Demon Phantom willingly call him a friend; all pretenses of allegiance and favoritism are long gone from him. President Foley, conversely, has every reason to consider Danny Phantom his friend...

...even though he still remains unawares of his (apparent) demise and replacement, setting him up as victim to the trick.

Each are well aware of the shaky grounds of the friendship they once shared. Only one wishes to genuinely repair it, but the other has only plans to exploit it.

"Danny, first and foremost, I wanna say how sorry I am for how I've been acting recently. I realize I've not been taking things so seriously, and, for what it's worth, I'm sorry that it took me messing up again to get us to a point we should've been at a long time ago." President Foley said.

"Think nothing of it, Tucker. We live and learn." Demon Phantom said.

"So how'd the fight with your super-powered evil twin from the future go?"

Not expecting the question that had come up, Demon Phantom looked to President Foley in disbelief; his concern raised over his cover and disguise as Danny Phantom. Asking for the question once more to ensure it was heard correctly, he asked for it to be repeated.

"I beg your pardon?" Demon Phantom asked.

"Y'know, that whole evil threat from the future that's also you that you were telling me about. During the last conversation when I was... being a dick." President Foley said.

Following through with the question to ensure it would remain covered, Demon Phantom thought up a story to answer it with.

"Oh, yes. Wasn't really even as big a threat as I thought he'd be, really. I must've overestimated it by a lot." Demon Phantom said.

"Really? Because you having the whole family help you with dealing with probabilities about this usually aren't wrong." President Foley said.

"I hadn't gotten them in on the problem yet, I came straight to you first. Of course, that was before I remembered all the new weapons and gear we've developed since I fought him last, as well as the fact my family was still hunting me down as well."

"Oh, right, right. Well, for what it's worth, I am sorry for not being there for you when you needed me."

"It's no problem, really. Now, I could stand here and go over every ghost I've fought in the past week, but that's ultimately not why we're here. We're here to make sure you stay in this office for another 4 years."

"Fair enough. So, you saw how bad I got wiped out up there. You know that Ellis Robertson's probably gonna beat me at the ballot. I need help."

"Yes, yes. You know, I have to admit, he was actually making some very interesting points, if I don't say so myself. If I hadn't been fighting those ghosts all my life, I'd almost think I'd wanna cast my vote to him instead."

"C'mon, Danny. I thought we said that we were trying to make sure that I stay in office here."

"I'm aware of that, Tucker. That's the point I'm making. He's got positions that people like. He knows how to market himself. I.E., he's a threat to you. It'll take a little more effort if we're supposed to get you over the finish line."

Understanding the point being made, President Foley nodded along with Demon Phantom, listening for further explanation.

"Right, right. We know that already. I don't see what we're supposed to do in response. I mean, I like to think I've got a good policy, right? Go after the bad guys. That's what we've been doing as long as we have." President Foley said.

"Yes, but, as I recall, you wanted to try to allow the Ecto Corps to take care of things on their own, so you can claim it was you who led to these victories, and keep as much credit as you can." Demon Phantom said.

"Right. I've been having Valerie lead out some domestic work a lot, and a new budget's just hit the senate floor, with something like 80 billion your way. Looks like it may pass soon enough."

"Meaning Fenton Works gets more funding. It's a nice start to make up for you stealing the credit over our work in Saudi Arabia."

"Danny, cut me some slack here, okay? I said I was trying to make up for things, and I'm trying, right? After all, the way the country relies on you as it is, I'd be crazy not to give you more funding, anyway. Fenton Works is practically the 4th branch of government at this point. Look, I really don't like the way our friendship's been going as of recently. We've been letting personal business get in the way of what we had for far too long. We used to be a team that got stuff done together, and we saved the world. I just wanna do it again."

Backing off from his aggressive stance against President Foley, Demon Phantom shifted his facade to a friendlier one, appealing to his current emotional state.

"I'm of the exact same mind, Tucker. That's why I came here when I did. Not only because I think the other guy'll just get in the way of our mission to save the world, but I miss those times just as much as you do. A lot of mistakes were made along the way on both sides, but I'm willing to try to make things work again. That's why I want to make a promise now. We both work together, for each other, for the future. You said that we used to work together to save the world, so, I'm calling for a recommitment to do that once more. We don't work separate from each other anymore. What we do, we do as a team again." Demon Phantom said.

Demon Phantom reached out his hand towards President Foley, offering a handshake to the commander-in-chief.

"So... what do you say, old friend? Willing to bury the hatchet and start fresh?" Demon Phantom asked.

Eager to see their friendship rekindled as quickly as possible, President Foley gripped the hand and gave it a shake, accepting the offer given to him.

"I couldn't have put it better myself, Danny. I'm glad we can start fresh." President Foley said.

While holding Demon Phantom's hand, still in the guise as Danny Phantom, President Foley began to notice an unusually low temperature coming from the hand he was holding. Rather than feel warm like any other normal limb, the hand felt cold as ice to the touch, leading him to retract his hand away.

"Ooh, man, you been losing control of your ice powers again?" President Foley asked.

"Hmm?" Demon Phantom asked.

"Your hand's cold as hell. Nearly gave me frostbite just from the handshake."

Instantly realizing the mistake made, Demon Phantom pulled his hand back, attempting to explain away the flaw in his disguise.

"Oh... Yes, the, uh... ice powers acting up, that's all. I'll be alright. Nothing I can't handle." Demon Phantom said.

"If you say so. So, any bright ideas on how to make me not suck anymore?" President Foley asked.

"Simple. We know that among our little problems in foreign affairs, there's also the issue of other countries attempting to make their own versions of me."

"And?"

"And you and I made all of our fame and fortune on fighting ghosts and other threats to the free world."

"And?"

"And all I'm saying is that we just need to move in and personally put a stop to this. You can go out and be the president who ended the illegal human experimentations that tried to create the next weapon of mass destruction. Bush did the same thing with Iraq and Afghanistan, and it got him back in, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but those were undeveloped countries that no one gave a shit about. Saudi Arabia was close to that margin, but developed enough to be a decent superpower if they wanted to be. The only reason we went in there is because we know that country's got no allies. Most of the countries that are developing these do have allies, we're on a list of those allies, and most of them also have nuclear arsenals. Attacking a foreign country armed with nukes? That's just asking for World War 3, and nobody wants that."

"Hence why we go after country that doesn't have that advantage, like Iraq and Afghanistan does, and we hit them much harder than we did Saudi Arabia. I go in with my family, we take the Ecto Corps, and we crush the problem before it becomes one. You said that it was only 'most' countries with these advantages, who doesn't?"

"Haiti was pretty much the only one that looked feasible, but who's gonna care if we decide to strike Haiti? They're insignificant enough as it is."

"But it would also be a good staging ground for showing just how much military might we carry. It would be a way to flex on the world and show them just what we could do if we wanted. 'You know what we have, so don't mess with us or you'll get it, too'."

President Foley began to scratch his chin at the idea, keeping it heavily in contemplation in his mind. Reasons to be against the proposal began to disappear and fall apart after scrutiny, making the answer all but obvious to take the course of action set by Demon Phantom.

However, contemplating the action itself was one matter, but contemplating its effects were another matter altogether.

"Let's say we went with that and made a show for the rest of the world. What exactly would we accomplish by that? Riling up a bunch of other countries and making them feel threatened? Making them more likely to increase their efforts?" President Foley asked.

"There's one more little trick we haven't explored yet. All of Fenton Works' technology is patented and copyrighted. That means it belongs to us. What happens when someone else tries to copy an invention that someone else has patented?" Demon Phantom asked.

Hearing the question put forth by Demon Phantom, President Foley's eyes lit up in realization.

"They get sued and get rewarded all creations resulting from it." President Foley.

"In other words, we put a stop to the threat by taking all the technology needed to produce it back. A show of military power would make them feel threatened, but a simple off-ramp of relinquishing their weapons programs to us would be their means of getting out of that bad situation. We win. You win." Demon Phantom said.

Gaining an easy way to obtain his presidency once more, President Foley looked to Demon Phantom with a smile, visibly accepting the proposal with merely his reaction.

"Danny... this could be the start of a brand-new friendship." President Foley said.

Elsewhere in the White House, the remaining ghosts under the command of Demon Phantom, still occupied in the bodies of the deceased Fentons, sought to occupy their time by exploring other areas of the building. Assuming the identities of the richest human beings on Earth, no Secret Servicemen are too wise to approach them, allowing them to do as they please.

Most of their antics around the White House are mere childish antics more than anything else, fueled mainly by the very thrill of being alive again, and visiting the most important building of government in the country. Of course, anyone could be excused for this level of eagerness, for such a privilege is reserved for a very select few among a very select few.

The most of the antics come from the disguised Skulker and Amber, occupying the bodies of Jack and Jazz Fenton. Rekindling their relationship as a couple, the two spent a good amount of their time running and frolicking down the halls of the White House, like hyperactive children at a museum field trip.

"Ooh, let's see if we can find the room where JFK and Marilyn Monroe did it! I wanna see if this bitch's pussy still works!" Ember said.

"No arguments there. This body's dick's been hard since it died, I need something to put it in!" Skulker said.

As the two wandered off for a private room to experience mortal urges once again, the Fright Knight, occupying the body of Sam, took to exploring the exhibits around the White House more carefully. Carrying a taste for fine art from his period in time, he takes his time to look on portraits of various presidents, contemplating over the power each had.

"I've always found it interesting to see one's ruler immortalized further in a portrait of paint. It is not always certain that one may live on even in the Ghost Zone, but, with a painting, you know that leader still exists and is still alive, so long as people will continue to see his face. Don't you agree, Vlad?" Fright Knight asked.

Not interested in any part of the White House nor anything involving the ghosts' mission save for his sole goal of reuniting with Maddie Fenton once again, Vlad, occupying her dead body, took to looking on her face in a nearby mirror, gazing on the face of the woman he loved as he made it his own.

A light hand of his own laid across the cheek, trying to feel the skin and form some manner of intimate connection with the touch. Long past dead and losing all connection to its nerves, the body cannot register the touch, making Vlad's touch little more than mental masturbation without any payoff.

Trying to imagine what the touch would feel like, however, is what begins to gain results. His mind began to pull back to another time in his life, and another place, and in the form of another Fenton. What comes to his sight is a dream he saw many times during his time on Carcerem, playing out for him once again.

Leaning into give Maddie a kiss, Jack began removing his own clothing, removing all obstacles from bringing their act to its full consummation. Laying his hands on her, he invoked pleasured and joyful moans from her lips, feeling her body in all its soft and wet offerings.

So it would seem that Maddie had began engaging in intimate acts with her husband, having finally swayed him to come to bed with her and be as one...

"Yes, Jack... Yes..." Maddie moaned.

"Yes, Maddie, yes..." Jack said.

...but things are not what they seem. As Maddie closed her eyes, feeling them roll back in her head in pleasure, the form of Jack changed into someone far different from the joyful, portly man that she had married. In his place stood a specter swearing himself as his sworn enemy; his coveted prize of Maddie stolen from him forever following an incident involving a prototype Ghost Portal.

But through that same incident, he has found a way to take her back, even if the event was just for this one night for the man named Vlad Plasmius.

"...yes." Vlad said.

Once before, the dream would be little more than a pleasant erotica playing for him during nights of solitary confinement, with no significant connection to the face he saw. Now, having regained his memories, and full understanding of the face and the name behind it, it carries stranger meanings to him.

Were such thoughts mere dreams?

Were such thoughts real?

If it were the latter, what meaning does it have, and why does it come to him now?

Unaware of the current debate inside Vlad's mind, the Fright Knight paused from his art perusing, moving to Vlad and putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. The touch made him jump from his standstill position, snapping his attention to the Fright Knight, but ulimately finding little relief from his issues even with all signs of a threat gone.

"Plasmius. Is something wrong?" Fright Knight asked.

Taking one last look at the mirror, Vlad turned away from it, stepping further away to remove the image from his head in attempt to remove the thoughts.

"No. Nothing's wrong. Just leave me alone." Vlad said.

But the thoughts will not go from him yet, and neither will the dream.