CHAPTER 32: THE NATIVITY, PART 1
In the old city of Amity Park, there are many who have fallen into poverty and been forced to live in an environment of holy wars and terrorism on the streets, living among visions and dreams of heaven turning their world to hell. The city is just one of many of Earth that act as ghettos for the disenfranchised, each holding such unfortunate souls at the mercy of religious warlords.
Such is the case of Danielle Phantom, the clone of the half-ghost superhero known as Danny Phantom. Years ago, she was created by Vlad Plasmius in order to be a weapon against the original genetic source as part of his schemes against the teenage boy. Not long after, the true reason behind her life was soon discovered with help from both Danny and Valerie Gray, turning her against her own creator.
With Vlad no longer in her life to act as a parental guide or guardian, there was nowhere else for her to go and not much to do in her life, other than to survive.
Having no friends nor family to help her in her years of living in poverty and solitude, she has learned to live on her own as an independent woman, trying to find a meaning in her life where there was none. Many have tried to find meaning in their own lives, all eventually having to deal with the terrible, frightening question of who they really are as a human being...
...but, for Danielle Phantom, she is faced with an even harder version of that question to answer. As the saying goes, 'It is better to be a first-rate version of yourself rather than a second-rate version of someone else'. But, then, what if the only reason that you exist is because you are a second-rate version of someone else?
In an answer that seemed almost ironically poetic in its own way, Danny Fenton, her genetic source and namesake, had stumbled into her hands in search for help, having his soul and powers taken away by a long-forgotten nemesis now referring to itself as Demon Phantom.
A deeply-embedded sense of resentment towards him for her condition and disbelief towards his plight led her to refuse the cry for help, only to come into contact with the ghost of Jazz Fenton to try to sway her once again. After hearing Jazz retell the events of her own death and the deaths of their family, Danielle finally began taking pity on the Fentons' pleas, deciding to help them in the quest to give Danny his powers back.
Spending much of their journey sharing talks and debates with Jazz Fenton, the two have began to form a sisterly-like bond, learning from each other different thoughts and perspectives on the world. Jazz's worldview was one based in science, where Danielle's was based in philosophy.
Clashed together, the two began to see new their perspectives out from each other, each taking their own lessons and conclusions from what information they shared. Jazz had undergone the most change throughout the journey, getting a taste of life on the harder side of life and what the economic actions of the Fenton Family had done to the world as a whole...
...but Danielle also has had more than her fair share of change as well, receiving that which was missing from her life at long last. Through a mission undertaken merely as an act of charity, she has found the meaning she has been searching for in her life after so long, receiving what she now knew that she could not be without any longer:
A family.
However, a family does not exist in a painless state of existence; there is still much that families will disagree on, and never seem to find any reconciliation easily. Many differences have been resolved through open dialogue and communication so far between the two, and it is put to use for the final subject which they have some disagreement.
Taking a detour in their journey, they had encountered a pair of homeless children, siblings of a boy and a girl, living off the street as prostitutes and urchins. Recognizing their hardships as the same ones that she had dealt with at a younger age, Danielle took pity on them, offering to take them to a place where they could receive help.
Where they were taken was a Catholic church repurposed into a homeless shelter, while still acting as a place of worship for any wayward persons who still held onto their religion despite their faiths being disproved and acting out its good deeds in the name of Christianity.
Jazz cannot deny that they have given the children a chance at a decent life, but the way in which they gave it to them she still questioned, both to herself and Danielle.
"You sure that dropping them off at a Catholic church was the best of ideas? I mean, I know that your friend made the place his own thing, but you know those places were just part of one big pedophile ring. Not exactly a shining example of good places for kids to be." Jazz said.
"It's just a church; a building like any other. It doesn't matter what the place used to be, just what's in it now and what it's doing now." Danielle said.
"Yeah, and what was that guy doing with it? Helping the homeless, yeah, but, he's still doing it in a way that still keeps people on a religion that does more harm for them than good."
"There are some good things that you can pick out of any religion, don't forget. He pointed that out, and we've been going over that over the trip."
"But you were saying we should pick out the good ideas out of every ideology and try to form our own. He wasn't trying to make any new ideas or even a new religion. He was just cherry-picking out the good parts of one religion and preaching it when he didn't even believe it himself."
"He was trying to take what people already believed and try to lead them to do some good."
"So, then, what? The whole idea of making your own ideology just goes out the window?"
"No. Everybody should try to make one for themselves, but not everyone can make a moral structure that works for themselves. Some people have been brought up in one way of thinking for so long that to even entertain any other worldview other than their own is impossible. For those people, the best thing you can do is just give them what they need, but try to give it to them in a way that still works out for the greater good."
"If you know that what you're giving them isn't good for them, but they need it, then that's nothing more than addiction at its core."
"Or a need, just like love."
"Which can also be an addiction. Love is one of the greatest drugs there is, and getting somebody hooked on it is a sure-fire way to keep them loyal to you no matter what, just like a crack addict needing his next fix."
"So you don't think religious people are anything more than just crack addicts?"
"If that framing's supposed to assume I think they're less of people, no. My argument that religion's just a drug at its core. After all, it was Karl Marx who said that religion is an opiate for the masses."
"And he was right. But you know what? Opiates are a hell of a great painkiller, and you'd definitely start wanting one if you were in pain. The 'masses' refer to what? Society. Communities. Families. People. You've seen how hard the world's become. Wealth dries up, less economic opportunities, and people suffer as a result. A promise for a world better than the one you're living in an easy and effective way to deal with that."
"But it doesn't solve the problem that led to that vice in the first place, and leaving them in the same vicious cycle. So what good is it keeping them on the same drug if it isn't helping? Garth wasn't trying to introduce people to something better. At best, he was just tweaking the formula for the opiate to make it slightly less bad for people."
"Again, some people you can reach if you try to offer them something new, but not everyone will take it. They still need what they need. What do you do with them? You could leave them behind, but they'll just be stuck without any help and left to turn to more self-destructive habits to stay sane. Garth was trying to stop that by giving people a little sense of peace."
"That still doesn't eliminate the more harmful parts of the ideology. It's still there in the original book. You can pick all the nice parts out of it and play those up, but that doesn't address the bigger problems that could lead people to do harm to others."
"That's where the new ideas come in. You make sure people are raised up making their own ideas, and not teach them anything that's not objectively true, or show them your old ideas and present them like they're the one true reality."
"In other words, you don't save the people still stuck in their own ways, you just let them phase out with the next generation replacing them."
"An idea can only be replaced with another idea. By starting over and fresh. Make a new start."
"But how long in the future would something like that take to manifest? That might take years or decades to accomplish."
"The future is something we all should've started working on a long time ago. We all should do everything we can now, and let the new generation handle it themselves. We can't try to make the world work for them, because they won't know how to do it themselves, but the only real chance you have at changing the world is letting it change."
"And somehow it starts with the children we dropped in the church getting raised in the old ideology to make a new one? Didn't the kids run away from their home because they wanted to get away from people who wanted to force them into their worldview?"
"Garth never told them he wanted to force them into anything. He even told them upfront that he didn't believe a word of the bible, even when he read from it minutes before meeting us. He also never raised me or any of the other kids he took in into any particular religion; he wanted us to figure things out for ourselves."
"And so you figured your own view out at last?"
"I'd like to think so, but I never stay rigid and refuse to change. I always try to listen to everyone and hear them out to think through my beliefs and test how good they are. If I'm confident that I'm right, then I'm not afraid of having my mind changed. But sometimes my mind does get changed."
"Like when?"
"All the time. Like this little journey, for instance. I used to think that you were all heroes that turned into corrupt assholes, but now I can see that you aren't bad people. You just needed a little guidance to learn how to do the right thing again."
The sentiment made Jazz take a beat of silence from the conversation, taking a feeling of pride from her response.
"Well, I'm just glad I actually served some kind of purpose on this trip. All this time, I've just felt like a third wheel, or just been a punching bag for you to call me wrong." Jazz said.
"Not at all. You've been taking great care of Danny, that alone's been more than enough to be helpful. And you weren't wrong about a lot of stuff, you were asking me good questions to test my ideas. That's what I meant by having my views tested." Danielle said.
"Okay, then how about one more? You said that we don't have a way to get people off religions they've been brought up in, and we should try to think of new ways of thinking for people. How do you do that? I mean, you've been talking all about leading by example and creating something better, but how do you actually spread it out and make it work?"
"Simple. You know how you defeat a bad religion? You make a new one. If religion is fundamentally just a drug, you offer them a new drug. Instead of feeding people an opiate, you feed them a psychedelic. Instead of just taking the pain away, you give them something to make them think and really question their lives to do something better with them."
"A... 'psychedelic' religion? What is that, like, a hippy thing?"
"No, but they had it right in some areas. What you give them is something that makes them think, make them question themselves and the world around them, give them an interest in something, anything that they wouldn't have had before."
"And what is you give them?"
Danielle stopped their walk to the outside of a comic book shop, featuring several new issues sitting outside. Taking one off a rack, she presented it to complete her point.
"Fiction. Instead of giving them just one world to try to learn from, you give them several, and you construct your own world out of what you learn." Danielle said.
Jazz looked to the comic with uncertainty, unsure about Danielle's point made about its educational value.
"Uh... Comic books are the best replacement for religion?" Jazz asked.
"I said fiction. Comic books are just one form of fiction, although they just happen to be one of my favorites. I tried Nietzsche once or twice, he was interesting once and a while." Danielle said.
"But how does a book or any work of fiction change somebody? It's just a quick piece of entertainment that you watch or read when you're bored."
"It's more than just entertainment. It's a universe contained in the confines of our minds, ours to do with as we please. It lets us become gods for just one moment. As an observing god, anyway. Unless we decide to write some of those stories for ourselves."
"So, this is just a fancy way of saying you like to write?"
"That's not what I'm talking about. When you write anything, be it a book, movie, comic book, video game, or what have you, what are you doing? You're making a story based around one person's life, or several others, depending on what you want to make. Why are you doing it? To make it serve a purpose. Maybe you're making a quick two-fisted tale for cheap fun. Maybe you're making a philosophical work to make people think. Maybe you're making a horror story to give someone a quick jolt of excitement. We can get many of these experiences on our own throughout life, taking away a lesson from the experience itself, but simulating it through a work of fiction's the best and effective way to make the lesson quicker and easier to learn. But why stop at one experience when you can have as many as you want? Why not have as many as you can to improve yourself?"
"Like stepping in someone's shoes for a day, but confined to a few hours, and done on a massive scale."
"Basically. You learn what you can from wherever you can, you decide which parts you like and which ones you don't, and you work from there. Through experiences in life you grow, and being able to take in many different ones helps you grow into anyone you want to be. Fiction: The cheat code to the human soul."
"Heh. Given your track record, I'm surprised you didn't make another point that we could be an experience of someone else, like some higher being."
"Maybe. Just imagine if there was something out there watching us somehow, trying to learn from us. If anything, if someone is watching us, I just hope they something away from our experiences."
Placing the comic book back on the rack, Danielle led the group back on the trip without any further dialogue or distractions. Having made their fair share of ideas with each other, the time for talking came to an end, giving way to reflection on what concepts have now been propagated in their minds.
But in aversion to the intent of the conversation, the idea does not lead to any thought-provoking or intriguing concepts for the ghost of Jazz Fenton, but instead a sense of dread and uncertainty and doubt, all bringing a sour expression to her face and a silence far less comfortable than before.
The look of worry is not lost on Danielle, leading her to ask about what troubles now lay in her mind.
"Hey, what's wrong? I didn't get you down or something with all that, did I?" Danielle asked.
"I just had a bad thought. There was one ghost who met us before the fight, someone named Clockwork. Danny said he had helped him beat Demon Phantom before, that he could literally control the flow of time and observe it from all angles. He had come to meet us before the fight, saying that what we did was important for the whole world, and even the flow of time."
"Clockwork? I've never heard of him. What's he got to do with it?"
"What you were just saying about trying to create something for a certain outcome. If he can control time and create certain outcomes, then why did he let us all die and Danny get his soul destroyed? Was he trying to use us for some other purpose? Did he want Demon Phantom to win? If he's in control, and if he's still in control, then, what we're doing now, does it even matter?"
The difficult questions placed forward laid a heavy burden on Danielle, taking the inquiries in deep thought to find an answer. Finding the questions posed in this unique situation, she, for the first time during their journey, is unable to give a quick answer based in her own philosophical stance, making her stand in a state of dumbfounded stupor of thought.
Dedicating herself on the quest almost moreso than the others, Danielle had not contemplated the possibility of any other members of her party growing uncertain of their own possibility of success, nor had prepared herself to answer it with a means of motivation, especially not in the circumstances that brought it about.
"I don't know. I didn't even know that any ghosts out there had any control over time. And I don't know why he would visit you just before the fight without telling you how it would go, but just tell you that it was important. What would the world even look like to a ghost like that? Must be a big deal if he needs us to do the job." Danielle said.
"I guess so. Perhaps it's easier to reason your place on one planet than it is in the entire universe. But it just raises another question: How would what we do matter for the whole universe and timeline? Is Demon Phantom really that big of a threat? If he is, are we even able to stop him? Danny wasn't able to stop him on his own. So what chances do we have?" Jazz asked.
The group had stopped at the lead of Danielle once again, but not done so due to any questions asked. Instead, their stop is answered by what lies in front of them now; what they stand before is both the answer to the Jazz's question, and also the last stop they will make during their trip.
For they have arrived.
"You get the most anyone can ask in impossible odds. One chance. We're here." Danielle said.
Out of contact or knowing the whereabouts of the ghost named Desiree, Jazz Fenton has had little in the way of expectations on where to find her, believing her to merely reside in some small apartment or other humble part of the inner city, or perhaps tried to make a name for herself somewhere with her ability to grant wishes by making a temple dedicated to herself.
She did not know what to truly expect, but what she had seen was nowhere near anything that she could have expected.
[Soundtrack Cue: KMFDM - Ooh La La]
In keeping track with their journeys throughout various districts of Old Amity Park that carried their own official religion which their populace followed, they had come across yet another portion of the city that made itself a place of worship. Unlike others that based their faiths into religions, both well-known and obscure, this place seemed to pride itself in worshiping something far more real than any religion:
Sex.
All across the district, this portion of the city was filled up and down with brothels, strip clubs, bathhouses, and other places to indulge on human lust. Decorated all about were posters, statues, artwork, and graffiti of nude human bodies and genitals, male, female, and intersex alike.
Unlike the other districts of Old Amity Park which were mainly dark and dreary urban areas, this place was painted in bright, vibrant colors of red, pink, and green, to darker, intimate colors of brown, purple, and black. The imagery combined with the color scheme meant to give off a passionate, arousing feel from its design, awakening any and all sense of lust and desire from those who enter.
It does its job on Danielle and even the ghost of Jazz; the visuals of the district feeding directly into their subconscious and activating latent feelings and emotions connected with physical pleasures. For Jazz, lacking in a physical body to feel these emotions, experienced them on a more intense level, making her etherial form start to glow a brighter color in response.
Danny, lacking in his soul and merely a neanderthal-like being, also felt an unusual boost of the intended emotions this place meant to share, but in a way adverse to his sister's reaction. Lacking in any esoteric means of experiencing the feelings. his reaction is purely physical, leading his heart rate to increase and his mouth to eyes to widen, making what passed as his mind lose its focus.
Overcoming the emotions by means of will, Jazz shook her head and placed herself on the task of retrieving Danny's soul once again.
"What is this place?" Jazz asked.
"This is Eros. This is where Desiree is. I'll show you." Danielle said.
Leading the group through the city once again, Danielle led them past many of the sites of debauchery in the district of Eros, keeping herself focused on the mission at hand. Likewise, Jazz kept her head forward on Danielle, trying not to observe the risque imagery all around her, actively trying to ignore the bombastic displays of lust.
That said, she cannot fully disregard what is going on around her, for it is not just the sights of sexual intimacy that are present here, but also the sounds and smells that accompany it, along with a faint taste of it in the air. Being with her siblings among such intimate pleasures, the walk now became deeply embarrassing for her, beginning to blush at the sensory input she received.
All around her are the moans, noises, and scents that come off from the act of carnal knowledge, making the goal of keeping thoughts of sex from stirring in her mind nearly impossible to accomplish, now beginning to make her sick to her stomach, regardless of the fact she had a stomach no more.
Danielle was not blind to her offense to the place, taking notice of her facial expression of deep discomfort.
"Yeah, it's never that easy on the first time. You get used to it after a few times." Danielle said.
"Danielle, what even is this place? Why would Desiree be here?" Jazz asked.
"She's a ghost that wanted to fulfill the desires of others. No matter the person, there's only one desire that lays at their heart; one of the many things that still make us animals. A place like this is exactly where you can find someone like her. Also, having a big rack helps get you business here, and she is pretty well-endowed."
"But it's a red light district! There's nothing here but whorehouses and brothels!"
"No. These are places of worship, just like every other we've been in so far."
"What's there to worship? This place is entirely focused on sex."
"Sex is one of the easiest things to worship. That's why this place exists down here."
"How's that?"
"It's one of the most pleasurable acts you can partake in, it involves doing something for the pleasure for another person, or taking in a sensory experience that brings your mind pleasure, and, if you've got harder tastes, you're at the mercy of another person who gives you pain or pleasure depending on if you obey them or not. Why do you think it tries to bring in mythological figures like Santa Claus or power dynamics like mommy/daddy roleplays into the mix? To get that extra sense of ascension out from the act by pleasing another, more powerful being."
"Uh, nobody worships Santa Claus."
"In practice, worshiping anything's like the idea of Santa Claus. But I've seen a few groups that literally worship him. They're weird, but nice people, and they make great bakery treats."
The conversation between Danielle and Jazz is mostly lost on Danny, for he is left to stay focused on following his sisters to regain his soul once again. Unable to have a fully-functioning mind to keep him focused on the task, remaining mostly with a reptilian brain, the temptation of the flesh all around him makes the goal all that harder to achieve.
All around him are offerings and advertisements of different pleasures, each having their own promises of different sensations.
One in his immediate sight is a woman dressed as a warrior-goddess, dressed in a faux set of armor that covered all but her extremities, as if to accentuate her female figure. Below her were many men grovelling at her feet, kept on golden leashes held by her iron fist, subduing them as her personal servants.
"Kneel, pathetic boys! You are not men! You are aimless and stupid! You are merely toys for my pleasure, and mine alone! You will know your place beneath my feet, and, if you are lucky, I will have you between my legs! I am your warrior! I am your princess! Eat my pussy, for it is my flesh! Drink my breastmilk, for it is my blood!" The warrior-goddess woman shouted.
Past her was a place called 'The Leviathan'; its building structure set like a gothic maze, as if an ordered, perfect interpretation of Hell. Its occupants were pale figures dressed in tight leather outfits, with piercings and bodily modifications across every exposure of skin. The head of the group stepped forward with a box in his hands, presenting offers of ultimate pleasure in his place of worship.
"Come to us, and know pleasure beyond the flesh. Death is only the beginning of the joys and suffering we have to offer. Your suffering will be legendary even in Hell. We have such sights to show you. We'll tear your soul apart." The pale man said.
As if presenting itself as the more appealing option after the promises of extremity put forth by the last two places of worship, the next was a place seeming to resemble a baby's bedroom, filled with bright, innocent colors and toys. The one who offered the pleasures of this house presented herself as a warm, caring figure, like a compassionate mother to all living creatures.
"Come, child, you must have had a rough day. Come and tell mommy all about it. I'll make you fresh-baked cookies with a glass of milk, and mommy'll put you to bed, where you'll be nice and comfy and free from anything scary in the world. Mommy'll tuck you in and make you feel good again, just like I do for all my babies. Wouldn't you like mommy to take care of you?" The mother-like figure asked.
More and more did these temptations come, clouding Danny's judgment and self-control. Surrounded by different offers of arousing sights and spectacles, his body began to take almost full control of his own actions, making him lose what little sense of self he had left in his brain.
He began to step forwards towards the many temptations, giving into his bodily desires, but was quickly held back by Jazz and Danielle, dragging him along with them.
"Oh, no, you don't. I am not gonna watch my soulless brother get himself caught up in some weird, freaky fetishes. I've seen more than I needed to see after walking in on mom and dad by accident." Jazz said.
After a long walk overwhelming on the senses, the group made their way to their destination at last, standing outside a building named 'The Whorehouse on Haunted Hill'. Unlike the many temples of worship to human sexuality and all its variations, this place appeared to be a simple strip club; a simplicity that seemed to make it stick out like a sore thumb among such extremity all around them.
The group took a collective relief out of the arrival, but that relief of success was only replaced by another uncertainty over their next success. Jazz was the one who voiced her concern out loud, reluctant to follow through just yet and instead deciding to question the specifics of the plan.
"So, how exactly do you plan to get one of our oldest enemies to suddenly help us? Are we gonna have to take her on like the old days, or just rely on her good faith that she'll help us?" Jazz asked.
"Ghosts are a lot of things, and they can hold some damn good grudges, but eventually people forget about grudges if their life changes enough. Besides, she's still obliged to fulfill any wish that a person has, so it's not like she'll have all too much choice, or reason to turn it down. Besides, Demon Phantom wants to basically kill everyone on Earth, and take it over for himself. I don't think Desiree exactly looks forward the idea of being ruled over, much less by an evil version of Danny." Danielle said.
"You sound like you know her pretty well. Did you guys... Well... Uh... You know?"
"What?"
"I mean, this is a place where you get work through sex, and you knew she was here, and... uh... Eh?"
Understanding Jazz's question after a brief moment of confusion, Danielle took a slight offense to her statement, responding with an annoyed scowl.
"What? No! It wasn't anything like that. I came to her because..." Danielle began to say.
Danielle did not finish her sentence, instead trailing off before giving a reply.
"Because...?" Jazz asked.
"Never mind, forget it. Let's just go in. We probably don't have much time left before Demon Phantom does whatever it is he's gonna do." Danielle said.
Despite taking a dislike to her question being brushed aside, Jazz nonetheless followed Danielle into the strip club, carrying Danny along by the hand. The hesitation given by Danielle in response to the question further added fuel to the fire of her uncertainty, beginning to doubt whether this trip was worth the time and energy put into accomplishing.
But her argument of time not being on their side is a point she could not argue against, making her push forward once again to see the job through.
[Soundtrack Cue End]
In the undead realm known as the Ghost Zone, the endless underverse of thoughts and posthuman consciousness continued to move and span its eternal expansion, catching up with the many new thoughts being born throughout the universe and its own expansion, like a younger sibling aspiring to an older, more successful sibling.
Through the massless void soared a lone Vlad Plasmius, oblivious to the metaphysics in play at the dimension he traversed in, caught up instead solely in his own personal world, based on his limited understanding of the world as a whole. The selfish action is not a new one for Vlad, for he was well-versed within the habit of self-absorption long before his departure from Earth.
After returning to Earth again, however, his narcissism had began to turn to introspection; his focus on his self finally giving way to personal growth.
In search of the vengeance against Danny Phantom and the Fentons for his banishment and status of persona non grata to his home planet, his desires were given far more than what he had intended for. Wanting merely to act out his anger against the Fentons, his enemies were laid to waste by the being who he had allied himself with at a promise for power and revenge, a being calling itself Demon Phantom.
The simple act of killing those who had given him the isolation and pain he had suffered alone in the universe would seem like the most desired outcome for Vlad, but this is not the case. From spending decades of pining and wanting over Maddie Fenton, or the years of rivalry that he had spent with Jack Fenton in the field of ghost hunting, there is a deeper past that he cannot seem to ignore or forget.
Even though his long-sought goal of revenge was finally met, it no longer seemed worth the effort. Worse yet, the one who he had allied himself with had shared his origins with Vlad, telling awful tales of genocide and destruction of the entire planet Earth, returning to the present time to bring it about once again.
Initially agreeing to aide the ghost in accomplishing the destruction once again, to hear of his joy and delight over the destruction told to him is a knowledge too damning for even a man as Machiavellian as him to overcome, but this is not the fact that brings him the most amount of distress.
What makes him fret over his actions now is that he was the one who had brought it about, and done in attempt to help the orphaned Danny Fenton.
The realization of this fact left a heavy weight on his mind to evaluate the meaning and lesson to be learned from the information, necessitating a period of time to stop and think over the matter more deeply. Vlad flew down to a small asteroid floating in the 'Zone, housing nothing on it but a large tree and small patch of grass.
Perhaps it is the contact with something that feels like Earth that gives him a place of gravity to weigh himself down and think, but the place is as good as any to run through the thoughts in his mind. Sitting on the ground, he laid his back against the tree, staring blankly at the ground in contemplation, hoping that the experience will give him the sense of mind that he needed.
However, the moment of self-reflection he sought was interrupted by the presence of another, making itself known by speaking aloud.
"This would not be the first time in which a soul has had to work out a complex issue on their own." The voice said.
Standing up in surprise from the tree, Vlad stood to see another ghost greeting him, this one wearing a purple cloak and a chest and stomach comprised of a grandfather clock, phasing between different periods of aging. The ghost is one immediately recognizable as Clockwork, but Vlad, never meeting him before now, does not recognize him.
"It was Isaac Newton who had first realized his gravitational theory when he watched an apple fall from a tree, which has given humans a better understanding of their universe. Likewise, you must realize your place in the universe, so you may better your understanding of it, Vlad Masters." Clockwork said.
Feeling threatened by the spectral being, Vlad charged green ectoplasmic energy in his clenched fists, preparing himself for a fight.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be and how do you know my name?" Vlad threatened.
Clockwork took no reaction to the threat, instead continuing to watch Vlad with a passive sense of interest, as if he were watching for the next scene in a movie.
"I am Clockwork. I am the past, present, and future; the master of all time. Your past and your present are over. Now, it is time for your future." Clockwork said.
