Sorry for how late it is, but I hope you guys are looking forward to it. The plot will be moving forward shortly, so maybe that'll inspire me to write faster. Either way, I hope you enjoy!

Karkat held the accessories in his hand, giving them a small glare as he floated to the courthouse. He wasn't sure why he was even going along with this.

It wasn't like he didn't trust anyone else to protect Amity Park with him, but it was almost like he… didn't want to? That was a stupid thing to want if he was honest. Hell, he'd been vying for help since the accident, but now that he was getting it…

"If this is some weird way to woo me, maybe try to find a different method."

Karkat's head snapped up to Terezi, who was raising an eyebrow as she stood in the doorway to the courtroom. He glared, following her inside as she moved out of his way.

"For your information, I know a lot of better ways to woo people and standing at the door like a weirdo ain't it." Karkat put the accessories on the table, rolling his eyes. "And real rich to think you're the first person I'd try anything on."

"Yes, he's right. Very clearly, it was for me." Nepeta punched Karkat in the arm as she grabbed up one of the accessories. It was in the form of a bracelet with a Leo symbol printed on one side. "These don't look bad! Horuss makes some fine jewelry, I have to say."

"Just as long as he's got my eyepatch in there, fine." Vriska had shot forward at the mention of the accessories, looking over her original one. She picked up the eyepatch, looking over the new symbol on it. "Why'd you put Zodiac stuff on this? And how the hell did you know I was a Virgo?"

"I have your records, remember? Sollux was really thorough in researching you." Karkat ignored her scoff, motioning to his own Cancer sign necklace. "As for the theme, I figure it would be best to have at least a common identifier for our group. Plus, the symbols have tracking devices in them as a failsafe in case any of us are captured."

"Huh. I was about to say, I wouldn't want to have a tracking bracelet on me." Vriska looked at her eyepatch with suspicion before shrugging. It wasn't like she hadn't been on house arrest for a while. "Do I get a lot more freedom now?"

"Only if you remain good. We still expect you to help whenever you can." Karkat received a tongue stuck out at him for his troubles causing him to roll his eyes. "Get used to it. We're in this for the long haul and we can't afford to make any mistakes."

"Right, fighting against ghosts and the government. Really have to wonder how I got here." Terezi elbowed Nepeta. "I blame you. Well, I blame Skulker more, but I blame you first."

"Hey, this is fun, and you know it." Nepeta looked at her accessory before nervously putting it in her pocket. She gave a thin smile at the confused looks. "Not sure I'm ready to see what I'll look like. Never was human, remember?"

"Really? I would've pegged you as someone willing to make a human-sona, or whatever the internet would call it." Karkat had to dodge a book sent his way, turning towards the door. "Either way, we can test that out later. I'm heading back to… well, I'm going to do something. Not sure what yet."

"Still avoiding the human world right now?" Terezi could hear the hesitance, not needing to see how his hand froze on the doorknob. "You do realize you can't just stay in the Infinite Realms forever, right? You still got a life out there that you need to live."

"I also want to meet those two new humans you've talked about before. For scientific purposes." Nepeta shoved a notebook about humans back into her coat. Karkat pretended not to notice. "They sound like fun too. Maybe even trustworthy if you think about it."

Karkat sighed. Again, he hadn't told everyone what had happened yet, though at least these three would get an official report later. They didn't understand what was going on, and the halfa wondered if telling them anything would serve any real purpose.

There was also the matter of the whole spy business they seem to have going on. He was accepting a lot of different things happening right now and he wasn't sure where to begin on how crazy it was getting. And if it kept escalating from there-

"Hey," Vriska tapped him on the nose, knocking him out of his internal monologue. "Don't zone out on us. I'm not going to tell anyone I got beat by someone who regularly freezes at the first sign of trouble."

Karkat swatted her hand away before she could poke him again. "Geeze, first thing you think of when I might be in trouble and it's your reputation that comes first?"

"Always. I'm also going to start sparring with you every once in a while to make sure you don't get rusty." She poked a finger into his ribs, face twisting into a smirk. "If you die to a ghost that controls… I don't know, condiments or something, I'm not going to be considered lower than that guy."

"Real uplifting. I've never felt better after such a resounding pep talk." Karkat did laugh a little at that. It was a little hollow, face getting serious again as he looked at everyone. "You sure you're all ready for this? This isn't going to get any easier at any point unless the government axe's the GIW thing."

"Eh, can't be worse than the usual stuff. Besides, mom always said that the government didn't always work great for people sometimes." Terezi pulled out her sword, a feral smile climbing onto her face. "Plus, I want a reason to stab some people, so there's that."

"You're not getting rid of us strays at any point." Nepeta turned to head into the library, waving him off. "Go talk to the others! I plan to make a debut soon enough!"

Karkat sighed. As he slipped out of the courthouse, he had to admit to himself that they were at least honest.

Feferi's head was on the table and Aradia couldn't really blame her. Kanaya looked ready to have her own mental breakdown too, which prompted her to wonder if she, Sollux, and Karkat were the worst things to ever happen to them. Probably not, but since she keeps on revealing weird shit, it might be close.

"Let me get this straight." Feferi shot up, putting her hands up as she waved them in the air. It looked like she was trying to sort things out physically as well as mentally. "Oberon- a man I've known a good portion of my life- is a supervillain."

Aradia shrugged. "Pretty much."

"He's had superpowers for a variety of years now due to the accident in high school and he's been using it to gather power all across an alternate dimension."

"The Ghost Zone, but still true."

"He specifically wants to kill Spades, and Karkat if he gets in his way, because that accident ruined his marriage."

"He ruined it himself. At least in my opinion."

"And now he's causing chaos in town because he can't do it directly anymore due to… a demon deal?"

"Blood pact, but pretty similar thing." Aradia wondered briefly what Aspects they'd have. She had a feeling it wasn't Light because they were not lucky in the slightest. "Welcome to the club. You are now caught up on the gist of what feels like a novel's worth of insanity."

"There are possibly hundreds of different forms of psychological trauma happening right now, and I wouldn't have time to diagnose them all." It was the first time Kanaya spoke in several minutes. Aradia gave her points for keeping her cool so far. "I'm not even sure where to begin on trauma from Karkat's own death, much less that."

"Now, are you talking my trauma, Sollux's, or Karkat's? Actually, all of those are applicable." Aradia figured that if they found a real ghost therapist (someone that wasn't Aranea at least), they might give therapy a shot. Then again, Sollux wouldn't want to. "Honestly not sure where to begin when it comes to all of us."

"This is just… normal for you. That doesn't bode well at all." Kanaya was starting to understand why Sollux wanted a return to normalcy. This was a lot. "I-I can't tell any of this to my mother at all like I planned. She'd find this so much worse."

"My mom might believe me about this. She's always thought Oberon was creepy for years, but I thought she meant it differently." Feferi took a deep breath, centering her thoughts. A glaring issue came to the forefront of her mind. "What about Eridan? Does he know anything about his dad?"

"The general consensus is that he's clueless. Karkat made sure that Dual- Oberon wouldn't tell anyone about the halfa thing by using his secret from his son as an equalizer." Aradia wondered if it was worth breaking it just for that. "So far, he hasn't been weaponized against us. We're not holding out hope that it'll stay that way, though."

"Great! That's even worse news. God, Eridan is starting to actually seem nice considering who's raising him." Feferi wasn't thrilled. But hey, at least her oldest friend wasn't a supervillain's sidekick. "Is-Is there any plan to tell him? I'm guessing not since-"

"Since the blood pact. Need to find a way around that eventually. Eridan can find it out on his own eventually, correct?" Kanaya wasn't a lawyer, though Porrim did rant about business law a lot. It wasn't too different of an idea, at least. "He wouldn't believe anyone outside of Karkat outright, but-"

"Okay, I know you're both reacting to this, but slow down. Great ideas can wait until you get sleep on it." Aradia waved her arms in the air, a sarcastic, yet meaningful motion. Her face was somber as she continued to talk. "You're part of a bigger universe now. It's not going to be easy, but welcome aboard."

This did bring silence to the table as everyone thought it over. Sure, the fights they had to go through were terrifying, and they even knew some of this in advance… Yeah, this was a lot to think about.

"…I really hope I survive long enough to get into college." Feferi rubbed at her eyes, forcing an overwhelming amount of feeling down. She had a few plans of her own to ask about too. "Eridan does have an older brother. Would it be okay if I called him over at some point too? My sister has his number."

"Is he not in league with your dad?" Aradia got a nod, forcing a sigh out of her mouth. That was also a start, she supposed. "Okay, fine. Any idea how we can get him in town without Dualscar noticing?"

"I don't know, really, but it's not like I'll tell Eridan he's coming. Cronus is a bit of an idiot, but he probably knows something." Feferi was probably using the word idiot loosely. On the other hand, Aradia didn't actually know Cronus. "I honestly don't know what'll happen when I do, though. I haven't talked to him myself in years."

"That's still an excellent start. I don't know much about contract law, but I can look into it, and maybe help with these instances of obsession." Find a niche and fill it, Kanaya figured. A dangerous idea, but maybe she can get pointers from that one ghost they mentioned being a therapist before her death. "How is that for a finding a part in this?"

"Not a bad start," Aradia eyed her phone, wondering if she was going to get a text from her future self saying this was a bad idea or not. She didn't hear any beeps, so most likely it was cool. "But let's workshop a bit more."

Looks like their group just got larger.

Karkat wasn't looking forward to the next thing on his list, metaphorical as it was, but it had to be done for the sake of Amity Park. And even if that wasn't in the equation, for his own sanity.

Well, technically Sollux's. But then again, he wouldn't pulling this if that were the case, would he?

Getting into Sollux's room had been easy, especially with the use of ghost powers. He would've gone in the normal way, but he didn't really want to face either of the Captor's before he was able to talk with Sollux. Too many questions would come up and he didn't want to be involved with any of that right now. He could actually hear all three of them downstairs, meaning Karkat would only have to wait for his friend to come upstairs.

It gave him time to look over the state of Sollux's room. He couldn't help but realize how long it'd been since he actually stepped foot in it. Had it been since the accident that he'd last stopped over? Or was it longer? He remembered having sleepovers at this place with Aradia joining in when they were as old eight or playing videogames for hours when they were eleven. Maybe it was around thirteen when they stopped, with Aradia's mom dying. It was just always death with them, wasn't it?

Whenever he'd been here last, it wasn't too different to what he remembered. Sure, some of the Pokémon posters were switched out with posters of RPG's and the like, but it was a similar layout. He still had plenty of game systems, most of them made from scratch or from random parts of broken ones his dad's tried to fix. He could see the alarm clock that had been painted with the colors of a bee on his nightstand. It was beat up, but obviously still working

Very different, but also very much the same. Same old, same old.

"I'm pretty sure I recognize some of these action figures." Karkat tapped on one of them, noting the dust that was on it. Hadn't been played with in years. "I wonder if I could get an action figure deal. Or would that be considered selling out?"

He hummed, taking his hand away from it. Like that was an option for him right now.

The halfa heard the footsteps, slow and steady as the moved up the stairs and closer to the room. Turning invisible, the door opened as Sollux tiredly moved inside, throwing a backpack onto the bed with practiced ease. He followed with it, laying on his back and closing his eyes, a sigh coming out through grit teeth.

"Hard day?"

Sollux swung up, ecto-gun pulled out in an instant as Karkat allowed his invisibility to drop. It was almost impressive. Though, the fact he groaned and instantly flopped back down onto the bed turned the moment into the teenage angst he was familiar with.

"What the hell do you want, KK?" Sollux spat out, as if the nickname was poison. The halfa figured that was fair. He deserved it. "Thought you were going to spend more time in the Ghost Zone today."

"I cut it short. Horuss was able to get the accessories for the others ready and we'll be able to roll them out soon." Karkat still felt something twinge in him at the statement, but the thought was becoming easier now. "Considering you're a part of this, I figured you deserved to know it as soon as possible. Especially since you blocked me somehow on Ghostian."

"Figured you would be calling the shots unanimously from now on. Seems like you're getting used to that." The teen fiddled with the ecto-gun, messing with some of the dials before setting it back into his jacket pocket. "You were pretty happy to make the decision to up and die again, so why not just take everything over now?"

Karkat sucked in a breath, feeling his anger rise from that barb. Sollux was good at nursing grudges, he had known that before coming here. Still, it was surprising for him to just jump into the heart of the matter like that.

"You and I both know that if I hadn't… well, done that with the portal, Muse would've made the world in her image if I didn't." The halfa knew he saw the logic in it, but it wasn't fully registering. He needed to see that. "I didn't want to do it either, but I had to. We didn't have much of a choice, especially with a literal reality warper."

"I know how bad a reality warper can get, KK. I've read SCP article, remember?" Sollux scoffed. Talking like he didn't understand the danger. Of course he knew it! "But we could've found another solution. We were starting to tire her out, I'm sure of it."

"How? How were we tiring her out? We were in a literal time loop. I did what I had to do to break it." Karkat moved in for the first time since the talk started, glaring into Sollux's eyes with intensity. "How come you don't see that? If anything, repeating the time loop more would've made her more powerful."

"Well at least it was normal for a few fucking minutes!"

Karkat darted forward, putting a hand on his friend's mouth to cut off anymore shouts. Sollux tensed too, both listening for the sound of Sollux's parents either coming upstairs or asking for him. The tension died as nothing was heard, forcing the two to relax.

The halfa looked at the other teen and sighed. He didn't transform into his human self, though he let gravity take control as his feet touched the ground once more. He grabbed Sollux's shoulders and shook him, forcing him out of his brooding.

"Look at me, Captor. Look me right in the eyes when I'm talking to you." Karkat got a glare for that, but he got Sollux to cooperate. That was honestly all he could ask for. "I know you don't like how things have changed, but we don't have any choice anymore. Remember when Mituna finally moved out of the house and went to college?"

"What does that have to do wit anything?" Sollux's irritation gave way to confusion, leaning back a little. Karkat's grip tightened at the action. "He left a couple of years ago. That's a lot different to what's going on now."

"Is it really? You hated it when he left. Sure, the house got quieter since he wasn't blasting music at three o'clock in the morning, but you actually acted like he up and died." Karkat noted the wince. A poor choice of words, he supposed, but an apt description, nonetheless. "But there was nothing you could do to stop him from leaving. He wanted to move forward with his life, and that meant changing a lot of different things."

Mituna had a lot of problems growing up. While Sollux's epilepsy was manageable at times, Mituna had it in a much higher capacity and was triggered more often due to possible brain damage. That, mixed with a hard to control case of Tourette Syndrome, made it hard for Mituna to have a social and academic life. Sollux had hated it when people looked at his older brother with pity, though, especially if they raised concerns about his future. Hell, he hated it when his dad's babied his older brother, at least to a certain extent. He figured that Mituna was awesome, and he'd be able to make it through life well enough, even if other people thought he wouldn't move out of his own parents' house.

That didn't make him moving out and going to college any easier, though. Sollux had believed his brother could get into a college of his choice. When it did work, everyone had been happy, including him, at least until the reality settled in.

Sollux hadn't stopped him. But he also stopped talking with everyone else for a long while afterward, going inward and becoming a real asshole.

Kinda how he was acting now. Except this time, he had a point.

"I'm sorry about turning back your wish. I still think what I did was right, but I get it. Life really does suck right now." Karkat lifted his arms, palms facing forward. He floated to make his point clearer. "But I'm like this now. And this is the life we got into. No changing that now."

Sollux frowned, though he didn't say anything for a long while. He turned around, laying onto his bed, and curling up into himself.

"I'll head into future meetings. I'm still pissed at you and need time to think it over." Sollux muttered it. It sounded hoarse, but it was confirmation in some form that he got the message. "I don't know what I want to do right now, but I'll figure it out."

That was fine by him. The halfa started flying higher, turning invisible as he said a goodbye.

"See you later, Sollux."

And with that, the room was empty and Sollux would fail to sleep that night.

The blips on the screen blinked every so often, a spattering of colors in a myriad of patterns. The map wasn't too advanced, but it would have to do until more funding came in. Or if certain plans advance faster than anticipated. Whatever came first.

People of note were being considered for recruitment or for possible acquisition. Possible enemies were being written down for defamation plans and even eventual elimination. Access points, media outlets, whatever building or place of note were arranged by matter of importance, difficulty to acquire or destroy, and general location.

Dr. Scratch reviewed them three times over before putting them back onto the table. "Is this everything?"

"It's all we could find on the place. Amity Park isn't that big, but it's certainly got a history to it." Scratch's assistant droned. He looked tired, which was understandable. Scratch had forced him to keep researching into the town until it was late into the night. "I'm not a superstitious person, but this place had a lot of red flags to it. No wonder this place is haunted."

"I'd be more superstitious in the future. You never know if it might save your life." Scratch didn't really much care. If any of his workers became ghosts, it gave them all the more test subjects. "Any idea if we'll be able to get Spades cooperation?"

"Judging from recent interviews, no. The man doesn't seem to like you and he doesn't agree with militarizing against ghosts just yet." The assistant scoffed. He got up, stopping before he was fully up. "Is that all, sir?"

"Yes, we're through. Take the rest of today and tomorrow off. You'll need the rest."

Scratch didn't watch the man go, keeping his eye on the screen. Plans were forming slowly in his head, though this was only half the data he needed. There were ways for him to gather information on the Infinite Realms, whether Spades played ball or not, though it would be difficult.

As he changed the device over to his more secure channel, transferring files over to the notes he made himself. To the untrained eye, it was pure nonsense. To his own, they were the blueprints to his victory. As he constructed battle plan after battle plan, Scratch knew this; he would wage any war so he could see his king in the flesh.

And neither human, ghost nor Phantom would stand in the way of his glory.

Welp, either way, this story is going forward. I've set up some good things for myself, so I hope you enjoy those future chapters to.

Till we see each other again!