And the story keeps moving ahead! Hope you enjoy this next chapter, though it isn't as action packed as the rest. Some decisions will be made, some that'll set things into motion for the story proper.

Also, if anyone reading this happens to make or wants to make fanart or fanfiction of this, feel free to while properly crediting me! It sounds egotistical when I put it that way, but I figure I should put the offer out there.

Either way, enjoy reading!

Everything ached, but that was the only pain he felt right now

It wasn't much of a good thing, but Karkat was taking any positive thing he could get out of this if he could. After the breakdown, he checked himself over thoroughly to make sure no more ectoplasm and blood leaked out of him. He was right in the fact he wasn't bleeding anymore, probably due to a freakish healing factor that was going to stay with him for the rest of his life.

He made a note to send some flowers or some candy Doris's way after this. He had a feeling ghosts wouldn't be the first thing on people's minds when it came to this, so she'd mostly likely get fired for this.

That reminded him that he had to change back to human.

He heard some shouting and footsteps behind him as pure white rings enveloped him, his heart beating again in his chest. The aches intensified, making him stumble forward as the exhaustion hit him all at once. Karkat probably would've landed face first on the ground if he didn't feel two pairs of hands grab him and hold him upright. He registered the fact that someone was talking to him, but it took him a few seconds to actually hear the words.

It was Sollux's voice that broke through. "KK, get up." He pulled his friend up desperately, looking around them like he was expecting something to pop up and attack them. "I don't know if anyone's coming around, but I sure as fuck don't want to explain this shit to police."

"Sollux, he's injured! You saw the fight, he's probably not even remotely fine." Aradia put one of Karkat's arms over his shoulder, trying to hold him up carefully. "We don't even know where the ghost is anymore."

"In the thermos." Karkat mumbled, feeling a little out of it. He fingered the device and dangled it in front of them, the metal shining in his hand. "Dad's out front. Took it from him."

"Seriously?" The incredulous tone from Captor was expected, but he really didn't want to hear it. "You know what, I'm not going to question it. Let's get you out of here, man. We didn't exactly do shit during the fight."

"Sorry about that." Aradia, along with Sollux, sounded guilty. They couldn't exactly do anything for obvious reasons, but that didn't exactly assuage them.

"S'fine." Karkat was trying his best to be supportive, giving a gentle pap to one of their faces- he was too tired to know who- but he knew it wasn't doing much. "Head out front. Hand the thermos to dad and tell him everything."

The two looked at each other briefly with pensive gazes, but they nodded along. Maybe it would be a better if they just got this over with.

"Yeah, I don't think we'll be able to do this all over again. Maybe we can even get some weapons off him if it does." Sollux said it conversationally, but he was actually starting to wonder. Aradia seemed to agree with him as she nodded discreetly, moving Karkat up higher.

"That'd be nice." Karkat just wanted to go home if he was honest with himself.

And god, he really hoped there wouldn't be a second time.

"You can't prove that had anything to do with ghosts."

"You fucking heard it! Don't even try to lie to me, for fucks- Heido, knock some sense into this man, please?!"

"I think we're focusing on the wrong thing here."

The three adults, if you could call them that, were still standing on the front lawn of the school. Arguing, if one couldn't tell. Xander was simply slowly rocking back and forth on the ground while Spades was trying to talk some sense into him. Heido simply wanted a goddam drink.

"I'm just saying," Xander said, still refusing to look anywhere but the ground. "We've all been very stressed today and I don't think we can attribute anything without having a proper source."

"You know ghosts exist because of the shit I have in my basement!" Spades was actively trying to check his violent impulse to kick Xander in the head, but his attempts were failing rapidly. "I don't get how someone with your brains can be this stupid."

" 性交のために*, you're both being stupid." She growled out, catching their attention. She pointed to her friend currently on the ground. "Xander, you've seen proof that Slick's research has gone from science fiction to science fact. Grow up and save the existential crisis for later." She turned to face the other man in the group. "Spades, we all know that your research is right. However, that shouldn't distract you over the fact that something is happening at your son's school right now. Grow up, both of you."

The two men shuddered at the icy glare she gave them from years of experience, shooting to their feet. "Yes ma'am!" They saluted oddly before shaking hands with large, fake smiles to placate her.

Heido didn't look impressed, but figured it was the best she could hope for. She was drinking whatever was in the fridge later with gusto no matter how things ended, but she might have to tear them a new one later if this starts up again.

Luckily for the two men, she would be distracted from them in the next few moments after Xander asked Spades something he probably shouldn't have.

"If it is a ghost or something, what are you going to do with it?"

They were almost to the entrance of the school and Karkat had regained enough sense to remember how to walk on his own two feet. Or his healing factor was helping battle the aches inside his body, but he wasn't necessarily going to question that anymore.

"This is the second worst day of my life." Karkat muttered, holding the thermos close to his chest. The cold metal seemed to bite him through his shirt and he involuntarily shivered, pulling it away to hold it at his side.

"I have a feeling we already know which ones the first one." Aradia said sarcastically. She had remained supportive as long as she could, but the day had been a rollercoaster of emotion so far. As far as anyone was concerned, she was emotionally dead to the world.

Pun completely intended, of course. Or not, since she wasn't really dead. You get the idea.

"So," Sollux started, drawing it out. "You think the school's gonna' force us to talk to the police about this? Hopefully our parents haven't said anything to them."

"My dad doesn't trust the cops after they confiscated his ecto-bazooka." Karkat paused before correcting himself. "Actually, he's never trusted cops at all. You guys think your parents will talk?"

"Nah, Heido's just as paranoid when the police come around." Aradia shuffled and leaned against a locker tiredly. They were near the entrance, keeping an eye out for anyone else.

She was joined by Sollux shortly. "Dad probably won't say anything if he thinks it'll get me in jail." He frowned for a second before looking at his friends with a wistful expression. "Nice to know where we learned it from, huh?"

"Yeah, real functional people raised us, didn't they?" Karkat rolled his eyes, feeling comfortable in the banter. If it wasn't for the feeling of the thermos in his hands, he would've assumed that none of the day's events happened.

However, he was done being in denial about it.

"Alright," The red eyed boy snapped up the thermos and held it in front of him. "Can't believe I'm saying this but looks like we're handing my dad a fucking captured ghost. Anyone want to do the honors and give it to him?"

"You caught her; you get the glory." Aradia laughed, rubbing at her eyes. "You want to tell him about the rest of what happened too?"

Karkat's frowned but nodded in affirmation. "I think we put it off long enough. The ectopus was one thing, but Mrs. Littlemeyer was something different. Maybe we can get him to shut down that portal too."

"That'll kill him, though." The two looked to Sollux in surprise, causing him to raise his hands in front of himself. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but I'm pretty sure knowing his portal caused everything might be a little devastating."

"My dad might be pissed for a while, but he's not that much of an idiot. Once we give him the ghost and explain shit, he'll turn it off before something else comes through." Karkat was hoping that would be the case, though he was willing to work around it by just having it closed as often as possible. He didn't want to kill his dad's dreams, but by god it would make things worse if it was open.

"That sucks." Aradia seemed to mourn the loss of the portal already, though her face was set into grim determination. "But that's probably the best idea so far. We have no idea where Mrs. Littlemeyer came from, so it can't be a coincidence that she appeared after the portal was opened."

Sollux nodded, his frown growing. "Which means closing that thing might be the best idea we have so far. We should probably do it before he presents it to the world or something. Got any ideas when he'll do that, KK?"

"I heard him talking about showing it off at his high school reunion. But if we do it now, we won't have to worry about it." Karkat was already thinking of how the conversation could go wrong, but he was uncharacteristically positive about it. "I just hope he doesn't hold it against the lunch lady for the shit she put us through today."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Aradia heard footsteps and voices in the distance, forcing herself to move away from the lockers. She manually adjusted her backpack, glad that they had remembered to grab them. "Let's get out of here. Our parents are probably outside."

"Good. Maybe we won't have school for a few days." He was looking forward to just sleeping out the rest of the week. "Mr. Lancer might try to cram the missing days into the next few lessons, but it'd be worth it."

"Hm." Sollux was at the back of the pack, making sure nobody was close to them. Deciding that it was safe, he whispered to Karkat. "Has your dad ever talked about what he'd actually do if he caught a ghost?"

Karkat shrugged at his friends' question, though a small part of him twisted at the thought of that. His dad never really mentioned ghosts in a positive sense, but he was a scientist, the validity of his credentials aside. Maybe he'd be okay with this and try to ask the lunch lady ghost questions in a civilized manner.

When he opened the door, that was dashed as his father was fucking ranting on the school's lawn.

"I swear, I'll catch that ghost and tear it apart molecule by molecule!" Spades was already on a tirade with a perturbed Mr. Captor and exasperated Mrs. Heido in front of him. Nobody else seemed to pay attention to him due to having gotten used to his rants long ago, though Karkat and his friends every word.

"Seriously, what kind of cowardly ghost just goes and attacks a high school? A cowardly one, that's what!" Spades was practically frothing at the mouth, hands raised into the air and moving wildly. "Might just put under the scalpel, that way it's useful for something."

"Why not just try to talk to it first? Maybe it's just confused or something." They could all hear Mr. Captors voice from where they were standing, as shaky as it was.

"They still attacked a school!" Slick pointed out, pointing a finger right in the man's face. "Besides, you should always question the word of a dead person. Trust me, I learned that fact a long time ago."

Distantly, Karkat knew that his dad was still ranting, but he was blanking it out already. He faintly realized his grip on the thermos was tight, denting the metal in several places. He looked down at it with a fearful gaze, remembering the contents of it.

Scared, confused, dead Mrs. Littlemeyer was inside this thermos. She hadn't done anything wrong. Not on purpose. She just had a bad shock and her emotions went a little wild. He understood that, his friends understood that. Wouldn't his dad?

She didn't deserve to be torn apart for this, even if he got hurt trying to stop her.

The plan was already going to shit and Karkat hadn't even started it yet. He was internally debating the thought when he noticed Heido's gaze move over to them, stopping as soon as she did.

As soon as she looked away, Karkat felt his hand go intangible and go through Sollux's backpack. He saw his friends turn to him, but he ignored it as he moved forward suddenly to the adults in front of them.

"Dad, stop screaming for fuck's sake!" He could feel himself speak it already before he could stop himself. "You're going to get arrested or some shit. Jesus Christ…"

Spades turned around rapidly, seeing his son and his friends were fine. "Kid!" He moved himself to grab his son into a tough hug. "Jesus, what the fuck happened in there? Everything just went dark all of a sudden."

"We're fine, keep your pants on." Karkat patted his back awkwardly, looking around them. Nobody was looking at them, especially the cops directing the students to the parents that had already arrived. "Can we just get out of here? It looks like the schools letting us out early."

"Uh, but didn't you say you saw something in the-" Xander had already started before Heido lightly punched him the shoulder. She was looking at the cops as well, shifting from one foot to another.

"He's right, better get out of here." She said choppily, gesturing Aradia to come to her. She sent quick look to Spades. "We'll meet at your house. It'll be safer there."

Slick could tell it was a command than a question, gulping and nodding softly. He sent a quick look to his kid's eyes. Karkat attempted to hide any emotion other than irritation, which worked when he nodded again. "Let's get home, kid. You can explain everything there."

The red eyed teen felt himself relax at that and walked away from the school with his dad. Taking a look behind himself, he saw the rest of the students standing outside, parents filtering in while cops attempted to take control of the situation.

A small part of him felt guilty since he couldn't stop her, but a deeper part of him felt satisfied that they were safe.

The next few hours weren't stated to be an interrogation, but it felt like one. While none of the kids were in trouble, they were grilled about why they were in the school's kitchen and just what they were doing in there.

It was easy to edit their stories down to only what was necessary. They stated they saw lunch lady Doris step out of the cafeteria looking sick, questioned her, and said that checked inside to make sure it wasn't anything dangerous. They found a ghost inside messing around with the food and moving things about.

Karkat made sure the rest was edited heavily by saying that they saw her manipulate some stuff and left. No talks, no fights, or anything else that happened the next few minutes.

He judiciously decided not to mention the portal accident either. Neither did his friends.

When it was all said and done, the adults had pretty much believed them. Heido and Xander left Sollux and Aradia at his house since they wanted to hang out with him some more. Spades was staying in the house and watching the news, though it was probably to make sure that someone was around to keep an eye on them in case they weren't okay. He already talked to them about what he heard at the scene and how he'd volunteer to help clean the scene later to get some "samples."

They figured they might as well hang out in the lab until they decided to head home. Unfortunately, hanging out was consisting of looking at the thermos sitting on the table between all of them.

"I don't get it," Sollux was pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers, glasses propped up above his eyes. "He was right there. We had the thermos with the ghost in it. They asked us plenty of questions about what the hell we saw, and you still didn't give it to them?"

"It's complicated." Karkat knew that he kind of fucked up, but he felt he was right. "I made the decision and that's final."

"As much as I want to agree with you Karkat," Aradia started diplomatically, making sure this didn't escalate into another fight. "We just want to understand why. It seemed like you were ready to tell him everything before we got out there."

"Then you wussed out." Sollux scoffed, ignoring the glare he got from Megido. "I don't get what your problem is, but I thought we were going to stick to the plan."

"You heard what he was saying about what he'd do if he found her, right?" Karkat stood up from the table suddenly, hands on it and pushing his chair back with a sudden bang. "He gets his hands on her, we probably won't see her again. She doesn't deserve to be taken apart molecule by fucking molecule."

"I thought was all talk about this stuff." Aradia piped up, still trying to diffuse the situation. "I mean, he's probably ready to throw down with anyone that looks at him wrong, but it isn't like he'd actually hurt an innocent ghost."

"You don't know that." The ghostly teen plopped back down in his chair with a huff. "You haven't had to go through years of 'ghost drills' and extensive training with ecto-guns. Plus, he's always talked about how he that scar on his eye from a ghost before. And," He gestured at the thermos sarcastically. "We know that isn't bullshit anymore."

The two did get quiet at that, looking at the thermos on the table. Sollux didn't look happy still while Aradia was just conflicted, though neither of them argued with him. If Spades was the slightest bit serious about his threats…

Karkat felt his own thoughts grow darker. "He's been looking for ghosts all of his life. He isn't a psychopath or anything, but god knows what kind of trauma he's gone through thanks to ghosts. Would he even care if he knew I was still half human if I told him about…?"

He trailed off, noticing the worried they were sending his way. He swallowed down the rest of it, straightening up. "Look, let's just put her back into the Ghost Zone. She won't be able to hurt anyone in there."

"You think she'll be okay in there? We kind of fucked her up." Sollux had lost the fight in him and figured it was best to go along.

"She'll be fine. If she kicks as much ass out here, she'll kick just as much in ghost one." Aradia slapped her friends back, shrugging.

Karkat took that as a yes and grabbed the thermos, making his way to the portal. He put it in a slot in the wall specifically prepared for by his father, remembering the process of pushing buttons and opening up the portal to allow full transfer.

As the portal emptied its contents, he made sure not to look at the confused and sorrowful figure of Mrs. Lisa Littlemeyer and closed the portal.

He didn't hear any comments from his friends as he glumly moved back to the table with the empty thermos.

"Look," Sollux started out of the blue, he looked like he was carefully considering his words. "I get it, alright? But none of this changes the fact that not only the portal open, but it's also pretty dangerous to anyone that opens it up. Your dad's going to keep running tests with it, meaning more ghosts might slip though."

"Which means they might cause damage on their own." Aradia agreed with him, jumping onto his train of thought. "The lunch lady was simply scared and out of her mind. Imagine if something actually malevolent pops out? No one's prepared for an actual poltergeist."

Karkat first thought was sabotage, but he quashed it immediately. They had some knowledge on ghost hunting tech, but it wasn't enough to actually do something in that capacity. They'd blow themselves up if they tried to do too much damage or would cause very little in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention how much trouble they'd be in if they got caught.

But they couldn't just do nothing about it. They couldn't warn anyone because either his dad would possibly try to dissect a ghost if he caught one or the people outside of this'll assume they're insane. He could let his dad show the world and maybe see if people would get prepared for, but that wasn't taking into the fact the government or god knows who else would try to get in on it.

Karkat solemnly realized there was a third option to this.

"I could keep them in line." He slipped it out fast before they could think too much on it. When he saw their faces start change, he quickly started adding to it. "It won't be forever. I'm just saying, until we can convince my dad to eventually turn the portal off, it'd be best to keep it to ourselves. I have ghost powers, so why not use them?"

"Because we're seventeen?!" Sollux stood up from the table, looking at his friend like he claimed he went insane in five seconds. "Are you- of course you're serious about this. Think that since you got some new ghost powers or something that you're able to take on everything or something."

"Hey, hey," Aradia's voice was firm, though she looked unsure. "It's not like it's a bad idea- I mean, it kinda' is- but he's got a point. We can't really do anything about turning the portal off ourselves."

"See, Aradia's got it!" Karkat could feel his blood boil, but he kept it under control. He needed to get them all on board for this to work. "We fuck around with that thing and we'll all be dead. And I highly doubt we'll all come back either if we do."

"Yeah, maybe not you!" Sollux didn't like this in the slightest, looking between the two of them. "You really think we can take anything on beyond Mrs. Littlemeyer?! What the hell do you plan on doing if something worse comes out of that thing?"

"We'll figure that out." The red eyed teen felt it was weird that he was being the voice of reason here, but he knew this was the right course of action. "Maybe there's a reason I got these powers. I can't say that being a superhero was on the top my list of things to do, but if that's what it takes."

It was a desperate gamble and Karkat knew it was a bad idea on principle, but it was the best one they had right now. It was either let his dad experiment on a possibly innocent ghost, have a ghost cause casualties during an attack, or cause an even bigger disaster. At the very least, this one was the most active.

Sollux was working through this thought himself, gaping like a fish as he processed all of this. He eventually let out a groan and plopped back into his chair with a dramatic flourish. "Fine. Let's do this shit. I'm not being held responsible for property damage, though."

"Nobody's asking you to." Aradia chuckled, though her foot was still tapping anxiously. She took a look towards Karkat with a critical eye. "Hey, you wouldn't mind turning into your other form for a minute, right?"

Karkat raised an eyebrow but got up. "Okay? Sollux, can you turn off the ecto-detector for a second?" After his friend switched the damn thing off, he concentrated and let the rings of light go over his entire body. His body felt cold again, but he was getting disturbingly used to that.

"Okay, we need to find a way to dull those down." Megido rubbed at her eyes and shook her head. Giving him a good once over, she frowned. "I think all the glowing and ghost stuff is a good start, but you're face will still catch attention."

"You sure?" The echo in his voice didn't cause anyone in the room to flinch, which Vantas considered to be a win. "I mean, we aren't exactly aiming to be public about this, so shouldn't it be fine."

"People are going to know about ghosts eventually, KK, especially when your dad shows off the portal. They might not assume you're the one keeping them in line at first, but it's better we cover our tracks." Sollux raised a good point, though Karkat was still reluctant. Captor looked over at Aradia with a questioning look. "Got any ideas, AA?"

Karkat frowned but pulled up the hood to the hazmat suit, thinking he should have some control over his new look. It was similar to his real one in that it was loose due to how much he pulled on it over the years. It covered up the top of his head and the sides of it, but his face was still in full view. "This a good start?"

"Yeah!" Aradia was actually getting into the idea now. "Though we should still do something about your face." She hummed, walking around him for a few seconds before snapping her fingers. "Your dad has those gas masks in here, right?"

"Several. Never had to use them, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't know they're here anymore." He gestured to their location, which Sollux jumped on and filtered through a box. After the heterochromatic teen found a black one, he tossed it over to Karkat and urged him to put it on.

Floating to a mirror, he started to adjust the mask over his face, thanking the fact that Sollux picked one that only covered the lower half of his face. It fit perfectly, most likely because his dad found one in his size. Making some tiny adjustments and heading to the mirror, he looked at himself with hesitant eyes.

While most of it hadn't changed, Karkat couldn't hep but agree that covering his face was the right way to go. The hood made sure to shadow the top half of his face to give his pure red eyes an extra glow. The gas mask fit him perfectly, covering his mouth and chin. The combination of his naturally ghostly appearance and the added decoration made him unrecognizable. Maybe he could add some more color to the suit later, but honestly, it looked pretty good.

"I like it." Karkat's voice was slightly muffled by the mask, making it harder to compare to his original one. "I look like from a horror movie, but not even dad would recognize me if he bothered to look too much into it."

They two nodded along, moving to check him out a little bit more. "Maybe we can make some more adjustments in the future, but I think we can make this work." Sollux was still hesitant to go in on this plan, but he figured that this would be a good start. "We could take some weapons or other stuff from your dads weapon stash too, but we'll figure that out later."

"Oh, we should come up with a name for you!" Aradia's excitement was through the roof. Here she was, in the middle of a superhero origin story! "Maybe something ghostly, like specter or something."

Karkat shrank away from that, deciding to shift into his human form again. "I'll come up with something later." He said quickly, shaking his head. He started to head towards the stairs leading to the living room. "Let's have some fun or something. It's been a hard day and I'd rather not spend the rest of it in the lab."

"Good thinking." Aradia grabbed her bag and followed him up, Sollux close behind. "I've been waiting to beat your asses on Doomed all day."

"We'll see about that, Megido." Sollux challenged, laughing along with the other two as they moved upstairs.

They didn't look back at the portal this time.

It was late into the night when Karkat went to bed. He and his friends spent hours playing Doomed and did their best to forget the stressful day before they all went their separate ways, hoping that things would be better in the long run.

He was shifting into his sheets, thinking things over. He didn't exactly know if what they did was the best idea, but it'd work out eventually. Maybe they'll come up with something better, but superhero shit was the best thing he could come up with.

Though Aradia was right, he should come up with a name. Might as well keep the two sides separate as much as possible. If he was seen fighting ghosts, then it would probably be a good idea to separate himself from the ghost side as much as possible.

Because he wasn't a ghost. He wasn't.

But that's what people were going to think.

Staring up at the ceiling, he felt his mind shut down as the day set down on him all at once. He was already dreaming of the ocean, calm and serene and always changing.

Phantom. It was the final waking thought he had before he drifted off to the hum of the portal downstairs.

So, Karkat's finally put himself into the position of a lifetime by making himself a superhero! Reluctantly, but he's still doing it. Hopefully, he knows what he's doing (he doesn't).

I'll see you all next chapter and that you have a nice day!