- Over. Over!

O yelled into his ear through the commlink while another officer tried to contact others on his phone to no avail. Some others tried to access the news on their phones, but without the internet it was impossible.

Tucker inched closer to the lab director until he was standing next to him.

- Hello. – He whispered. – I am…

- We know who you are, Mr. Foley. Although at this point, everyone knows who you are. – He answered in a whisper.

- Yeah… - He scratched the back of his head. – I wanted to talk to you about the offer…

- Now is not the place nor the appropriate time to discuss that. – He put his phone in his pants pocket and walked away from the dark-haired man.

- I guess not… - He whispered into the air.

K rubbed his head in frustration and put his phone in his pants.

- We'll split up again. You… - He pointed at the Fentons. – Go to the location of the sword. The rest, we go...

- And how do you think we communicate? With smoke signals? – Maddie replied.

- You will go there and then come back to report…

- Have you tried using a radio?

The glances fell on the brunette.

- Communications are down. –O explained condescendingly.

- Because the media you're using is digital. - Tucker crossed his arms. – The dome serves as a barrier that prevents the link of modern means of communication by satellite, that is why your earpieces are useless. But if you have short frequency radios, then you could broadcast locally without the need for signals to be bounced off a satellite.

Tucker smiled and observed that everyone was now looking at O. He, instead, looked at the director of Axion.

- Do you have radio frequency transmission equipment?

- Dusted in a closet, probably.

- That will be enough. - Tucker said. – If…

- What are you doing here?

He turned to see Valerie, who seemed as upset as the day before at Paulina's house.

- Helping?

- Is that why they sent you here? – She raised her eyebrow.

Now all eyes were on Tucker.

- I'm here as an emissary...

- And why are you helping? Are you spying or...?

- Hey, we're all in this together. – He said looking at everyone. - And yes, they asked me to come here, but to help improve the shield.

Hearing this, Maddie frowned as she remembered the events of that morning.

- Why does the shield need improvements? – Valerie's father asked.

- Because Dan could destroy it with one attack.

- How do you know that?

Tucker thought their question stemmed from a reasonable doubt of the shield's effectiveness, while K's question was about Dan's display of power.

- Well… he is not an ordinary ghost. And what did you mean about the sword?

- You don't know? - O asked.

- What?

- We really need to talk.

Dani reached the limit of the shield and transformed into a human to pass through it. Fortunately for her, that area of the city was not heavily trafficked and had no surveillance systems installed, so she had more range of action. Being outside the shield, she noticed that the green barrier was raised two meters away from the shield. She first attempted to break through the shield in her human form, to no avail. She transformed and tried again; subtlety at first, but she ended up shooting energy beams non-stop until she gave up.

She leaned back, resting her weight on the shield as she gazed up at the dome. She followed it, looking up until it overlapped the shield and was out of sight. She sighed and returned to her human form, falling into the shield onto the grass, where she stood up.

She bit the inside of her cheek and huffed in concern. Whatever Dan was planning, he had them cornered. She stood up and brushed her clothes off, she had to get back quickly and notify the others.

She scrambled down from her speeder to meet the two operatives who must have been guarding the sword. She ran until she was a few meters from them when she noticed that the sword was still buried in the ground.

- What happened?

- We do not know. – The man to her right answered. – The sword simply emitted energy and formed the dome.

- Was there no intervention?

- None. – The other operative answered. – We tried to communicate, but we lost contact with everyone.

- The whole city is like this.

- What do we do now?

- Return to Axion. – She said after thinking about it for a few seconds. – Let's regroup. Either way, there's no point in watching it anymore. – She pointed to the sword.

- Understood. – They answered in unison.

Valerie turned and jumped into the speeder. She did not like this situation. Now they were at the mercy of a psycho who wanted to have fun with them. She shook those thoughts out of her head as she headed back to the labs to report.

- And now what? – Paulina asked from her chair.

Dani had just told everything she had observed during her examination, leaving a feeling of uncertainty in everyone else. With the signals out, they couldn't communicate with Jazz or Tucker, plus they were no longer receiving any news.

Danny and Vlad were looking at the ground with a serious expression, while Sam moved her eyes between the two.

- He's good. – Vlad commented with a slight ironic smile.

- What part of him is good? – Dani said irritated.

- I like the cut of his jib - He stood up. – He has us cornered and isolated. Any plan we come up with will inevitably fail.

- Then what? - Sam asked.

- Then…

- We just wait. – Danny concluded looking at Vlad.

The older man agreed with the blue-eyed man. Sam looked at him curiously and Danny sighed.

- This doesn't please me more than you, but there is really nothing to do. – He rubbed his face with both hands.

- So, we're just sitting here to wait? – The goth asked.

- We are. – He paused. – You can go home.

- What? - She said smiling, thinking that Danny was joking.

- You were worried about your parents. - He stood up. - Besides we don't have any information on Tuck or Jazz… it would be to our advantage if we have you out on the streets gathering information.

- Danny, if I put one foot in my house, I won't be able to leave for the next 50 years.

- Sam… do it. If not for your parents, do it for your grandmother.

Sam looked Danny straight in the eye, arms folded, face serious. Her boyfriend met her gaze with utter determination. She liked it when Danny did that, but not when he did it to convince her to do something she didn't want to do.

- Fine. - She said annoyed.

Without saying goodbye to those present, she stood up and walked towards the exit. She paused for a few seconds in front of the door before opening it and slamming it close as she stepped out.

- Hey! – Paulina yelled at her, angry.

Danny closed his eyes and sighed. He had made her angry, but at least he hoped it would keep her safe. Dani looked away from his cousin in the awkwardness of the moment. Vlad, who didn't care about all that, simply walked towards the living room and sat in the biggest couch, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a few seconds.

- So… now we wait. – Pauline said.

- Yeah. – Danny replied, following Vlad.

- In that case… - The girl stood up. - I'll be back later.

- Where are you going? - Danny asked.

- Without reception or internet, only personal interaction remains.

- And?

- And unless you want Star to come to my house, I have to go ahead and go to hers.

The Latina disappeared upstairs for a few minutes, before coming down with a backpack in hand. She went to the small table near the entrance to take the house keys and looked at them in silence for a few moments. When she looked up, all 3 of them looked at her curiously.

- I'll leave it locked. - She told them while she played with the key. – If you need to get out, just… well… go through it.

She kept silent, lowered her head, and left. Dani looked from the doorway to the two men in the room and snorted. It would be a boring day.

Sam looked at her house a street away and sighed. The street was lightly traveled and her home appeared to be empty. Her parents had probably made it out of town before all the chaos broke out the day before. That made sense since, after the argument with Danny, her house must have been flooded with Guys in White, just as Jazz had said her house was before they lost contact with her.

Looking both ways down the street, she crossed and walked until she reached the door. For a few seconds she wondered what to do next: should she knock on the door? Or should she just go in? She lived there after all. Determined, she reached for the doorknob and turned it. "Strange". She thought as she imagined that her parents weren't there. Had her grandmother stayed?

She sighed and pushed open the door, but what she saw left her frozen in the doorway. Her house was full, no… infested with people she didn't know. Men and women in suits and of various age groups had stopped their activities and were looking at her in surprise. She panicked when she saw others pointing guns at her. The moment only became more awkward when a high-pitched scream echoed throughout the residence, and her field of vision was invaded by a pastel pink that contrasted with the serious colors of everyone else.

- Sammykins!

Her mother's hug almost took the air out of her and it was certainly unexpected. Stranger were the kisses that her mother gave her on the crown of her head.

- Mother…

- Jeremy! Sammy's back!

- Mother…

- Samantha! - Sam growled more when she felt the strength of his father through the group hug. – Thank heavens you're fine!

To her good fortune, her parents released her and she was able to breathe normally. Her dad closed the door behind her and her mom smoothed her hair before cupping her face with both hands.

- What happened dear? And why do you smell like "fruit explosion"?

"So that's why I hate that scent." Paulina used the same shampoo as her mother. Before speaking, Sam looked at the people behind her mom's back and then back to her.

- Um… mom?

- Oh yeah! Jeremy?

Her dad brushed past them both and with a gesture, he sent the crowd up the stairs to give them more privacy. With one hand on his waist and the other rubbing his chin, Jeremy turned and walked back to his wife and daughter.

- It's the legal machinery and the security team… - He explained.

- Legal machinery… for what? - Sam asked nervously.

- For your protection, of course. - Her mother said cupping her face. - But we'll talk about that later. – She smiled at her.

- Tell us everything that happened. Yesterday we saw the news and…- Her father suddenly fell silent and his face took on a dark expression. - Who did that to you?

The tone of voice her dad used scared her more than she could admit. There was no anger in his voice, just a feigned calm and curiosity. The gasp of her mom in front of her brought her back to reality. Her mom seemed to be shaking and looking at her in surprise. Sam began to inspect herself with the belief that she had some injury that she didn't know about. She stopped groping her body when her hand reached her neck.

- It was that monster, right? – Her father asked.

- Well, yes.

Her mother let out a sob that managed to disconcert her for a few moments.

- I told you, Pamela! That boy is nothing but trouble!

"Boy?" What the hell did a boy have to do with Dan? Unless…

- Danny didn't do this to me.

- Why are you defending him?! - Pamela yelled at him.

- Because he didn't do this to me! He saved me from…!

- Saved you? He dragged you into this! – Her father shouted. - He probably brainwashed you with his…his powers.

- We should've done something earlier, Jeremy. I always knew that Daniel was not a good influence on Samantha. – Her mother lamented.

- Danny is a hero!

- He's a freak! – Her father replied. – Though with those parents, it really doesn't surprise me.

- Danny didn't do this to me! – She said angrily. – The monster that almost killed him is the one who did it to me!

- A friend of his, I suppose. – Her mother said.

- What's the matter with you? – She asked incredulously. Until something clicked in her head. - What are they here for? – She pointed up with her finger.

- They're here to make sure he stops dragging your name across the floor. – Her mother said.

- What?!

- Being linked to that boy has only created you a troubled reputation. – Her mother told her. - Just yesterday you were considered a domestic terrorist and an accessory to murder!

- Is that what matters to you? – She said losing her calm. – There is something terrible happening out there and you only care about that?! Our reputation? The family name?

- We care about you, Samantha! That boy has always brought you trouble. – Her father explained. - The concert of the crazy woman with blue hair, the circus with the pale bald man... and now this. It can't go on like this anymore!

Sam was silent when she heard her dad explode.

- At first your mother and I let it go because we thought they were just coincidences. Just two people in the wrong place at the wrong time in a city full of ghosts. But now that we know that you were voluntarily risking your life…- Her dad just shook his head. - Your infatuation for that boy has reached unacceptable levels. Unacceptable!

- It's not…

- What? – He asked amused. - Are you going to deny it?

- I know the way you look at him, Sammy. – Her mother added.

- And that ends today. - Her father sentenced. - Or so he hoped. Until that green thing covered the whole city.

- What are you taking about? – Her eyes widened when she understood why there was a legal team in hey house. - You wouldn't dare...

- Since you wouldn't do it, we'll have to do it for you. – Her mother replied. – So be it legally.

- You won't do any of that! – She said walking up the stairs towards her room.

- And why not?

- Because... - She turned around to look them in the eye. – Everything you said is my fault.

- You see? – Jeremy told his wife. – He brainwashed her with his powers.

- The accident that gave Danny powers? My fault. Danny using his powers to help people? My fault.

- Sam…

- Ember's concert? My fault. Danny in the gothic circus? My fault.

- Sam…

- That's why trying to throw Danny under the bus just to "save" me would be useless. Because I… -"I'm the one who ruined his life." She added mentally.

Sam turned around and ended up running to her room. On the way, she bumped into the group of lawyers who were looking at her curiously. They had clearly heard the entire conversation, but no one dared to speak. Much less to move. She ignored them and resumed her walk towards her room. Once locked up, she started looking around her room for some old weapon that she could use to escape from her house by force.

The last rays of sun filtered through the clouds, dyeing the sky an intense orange color that contrasted with the darkness of the previous day. It was a beautiful postcard, for those outside the dome who could see it. Inside the dome, one could only observe how the sun gradually disappeared to give way to darkness.

In Axion Labs, they were about to finish the improvements to give more power to the anti-ghost shield. Tucker had been a wise addition to their team, allowing them to work faster. They had managed to establish a secure radio frequency for their communications and had already established liaisons with the groups at the Fenton house and the city's emergency government board, which had been formed to deal with the dome problem from a legal perspective.

Both Tucker and Jazz had refused to reveal the location of Danny and the others, but were still under intense pressure to reveal the location. Given Dan's nonactivity for the rest of the day, Valerie hadn't seen the need to reveal the location either.

The halfas had had a much more boring and monotonous day than the rest of their friends. Locked up in Paulina's house, they had had to resort to things like playing chess. Several games later, Vlad had grown tired of beating the blue-eyed tandem and decided to help them play against him, but he kept winning. Hours later, Dani had been sent abroad to get food for the three of them, since she was the only one whose secret identity had not been revealed. Sometime later, Paulina had returned to them.

Sam had waited for all the lawyers to leave her house so she could make her escape from her house. After all, it would be easier to lose 2 people than a dozen. What she hadn't counted on was being followed beyond a block, so she was now taking alternate routes to avoid leading them to Danny. With that in mind, she had decided to go to Tucker's house to hide for a few moments while she lost track of her parents. Maurice and Angela had been surprised that the girl knocked on their door, but they welcomed her with the hope of finding out what was really going on and where their son was.

Quickly and without going into much detail, she had explained to them what was happening. Knowing that their son was okay had eased some of their anxiety, but it caused them more concern since Tucker was now in the first line of defense against that monster. She went up to Tucker's room and noticed that hers and Danny's phones were still resting on the bed. She took both and after a while, she proceeded to say goodbye to them.

She went outside wearing Tucker's MiT sweater to cover her clothing and with a cap on to hide her face. However, something strange happened at that moment: the green glow of the sky disappeared. She stopped her pacing to look up, looking at the now dark sky instead of the dome. At that moment, the phones that she now carried in her pocket began to ring and vibrate non-stop. She took both out and activated the screen of both to see how multitudes of messages came in.

On Danny's phone, messages from his parents dated the day before as well as threatening messages courtesy of the government and names she didn't recognize. In hers, her parents and her friends from her career. She put Danny's phone away and quickly unlocked hers, to try and get through to Tucker and/or Jazz.

Both times she got the "line is busy" message and growled in frustration. She put the phone in her pocket and kept walking towards Paulina's house. Along the way, she noticed that the vehicular traffic on the streets began to increase compared to the day before. In a matter of minutes, the streets and avenues were congested with vehicles trying to get out of the city… or at least to a point. She didn't understand why, but there came a time when people were getting out of their vehicles with their eyes fixed on their phones. And it was not only that, people ran through the streets with panic on their faces and others packed the malls and stores.

It seemed like the beginning of a post-apocalyptic nightmare and she still didn't understand what they were seeing on their phones. Until a phone call made her react. On the second ring, she answered quickly without looking at who was calling her.

- Sa...!

- Tucker?

- What? No. – A male voice said on the other end of the line with a strong English accent.

- Stephen? – She asked puzzled.

- Sam! Thank heaven you're fine! We've been trying to contact you since yesterday, but it's all chaos!

- What? How did you find out about…?

- You're on international news! You and your friends have been in the news for the last few days… When you didn't answer our calls, we thought it was because you were hiding, but after today… We thought you were dead!

- Dead? Don't you think that's a bit extreme?

- Look, I know you don't live in Madison... or Wisconsin for that matter, and that you're at a relatively safe distance, but...

- Wisconsin? Stephen… what does Madison have to do with…?

- What? – He interrupted her with bewilderment. - You don't know?

- Know what?

- Sam... there was an attack... They say it was a ghost... Madison is gone.

- What? - She said thinking it was a joke.

- It's all over the news... We still don't know what or how it happened... well...

Sam stopped listening and walked across the street. Seconds later, she started running in the same direction that many pedestrians were following. She stopped when she came to an appliance store across the street. There was a small cluster of people around the display glass and she slowly made her way between them. On the phone, Stephen was still trying to talk to her, but she was still not paying attention to what he was saying. When she reached the front of the crowd, her face fell.

The images that were displayed on her screen left her frozen. Fire, ash, rubble and smoke was all that was left. With the shots from the live broadcast, it was possible to see the crater left in the center of the city. The words "National Emergency" and "Disaster Zone" kept flashing across the screen.

- ... The army and all the emergency services from the surrounding towns are rapidly mobilizing to the disaster zone, where a containment fence has already been formed to prevent the unauthorized entry of personnel to this area. Dozens of volunteers and relatives of residents have begun to stop traffic and demand access to help search and rescue people... however, an internal source seems to indicate that no survivors have been detected in the hours after the attack...

Sam covered his mouth with her free hand and Stephen's words finally made sense.

- … This video was recovered from the social network of a local resident minutes before everything happened. Warning: This material contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing, harmful or traumatizing, so it is recommended that you do not let minors watch it. Viewer discretion is adviced.

The transmission stopped and an amateur video recorded from a building began. The person who recorded it, a teenager (judging by the language), was on the roof of his house and pointing to a point in the sky. The young man joked that that dark spot was a UFO sighting and that he would try to make contact. However, the point began to glow and a green aura accumulated around it. Suddenly, the point rushed to the ground and caused an explosion in the distance that was captured by his phone. The young man started screaming when he saw smoke and stopped recording just as a large fireball impacted the building in front of him and a paranormal scream echoed in the background audio of the video.

- Sam?! – The boy's scream made her return to the phone call. - You still there?

- Yeah… I…

A sound caught the attention of everyone on the streets, who looked at each other with curiosity and some fear, until a green halo of light rose from the outskirts of the city. However, this time it only limited itself to forming a visible face on top of the ghost shield instead of another dome.

- I will call you later. – She hung up on the boy.

- HUMANS OF AMITY PARK! – The monster yelled with a smile.

Danny was still processing what he had just seen on the video. He was the only one who had refused to take a seat and was carefully watching the screen until he heard that voice coming from outside. Dani and Vlad turned to look at the window, but only he walked up to it to pull the curtain and peek out.

He hardened his features as he saw Dan's smiling face in the sky.

- IN AN ACT OF DEFIANCE, YOUR "PROTECTORS" ACTIVATED A FORCE FIELD AROUND THE CITY. – Parts of the ghost shield were activated at that time. – NOW, THIS WAS NOT IN AN ACT OF GOOD FAITH ON THEIR PART, NO… IT WAS TO AVOID COMPLYING WITH MY SIMPLE DEMAND.

Everyone in Axion Labs began monitoring the energy levels in all parts of the shield. O had communicated quickly to send men to the sword's location and get visual confirmation that this was the source of the transmission. Tucker took advantage of everyone's distraction to slowly back up and get out of there looking for Danny.

- I ONLY ASKED FOR THE 3 MOST FAMOUS GHOSTS OF THE MOMENT... A SIMPLE AND REASONABLE DEMAND. BUT THEY REUSED. – He widened his smile. – NOW YOU ALL KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF DISOBEDIENCE.

Jazz and the rest of the Guys in White left the house to see what was happening outside. Hastily, some re-entered to communicate with the group in the laboratories and ask for instructions; others went to check the power levels on the shields and a few went to see if the news was showing that.

- I WARNED THEM THAT MANY PEOPLE WOULD DIE IF THEY DID NOT DO WHAT I WANTED, BUT THEY CHOSE TO IGNORE ME. SO I'LL TELL YOU FOR THE LAST TIME: FOR EVERY DAY THAT SHIELD IS ACTIVATED... A CITY WILL DISAPPEAR. – He made a brief pause. – AND YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT I'M A MAN OF MY WORD.

Dan's face disappeared from the sky amid laughter, and the green glow of the sky disappeared. Seconds later, the city erupted into chaos. Screams resounded throughout the city. Sam ran towards Paulina's house even faster, avoiding all the people she was running into.

Tucker, on the other side of town, was also running in the direction of Paulina's house. Unlike Sam, he had to be much more careful as they could be following him. Or worse, Valerie could be on her way to the same place. On the way, he could hear some detonations followed by a great yellow glow on the outskirts of the city. He stopped for a few seconds along with other people who were on the street to observe the smoke clouds that were still visible at that time of day before continuing to run. More explosions and columns of smoke continued to rise in the outskirts of the city, and it didn't take long for him to figure out why.

The three of them had spent several minutes discussing what they should do while the television continued to show the crater that had been left where there used to be a city of 240,000 inhabitants. Vlad was in the position to hunker down inside the shield until Dan charged them, using what they had on hand to plan a counterattack rather than go after him on a suicide mission that would end up killing any hope of defeating him.

Dani was more idealistic and advocated going off the shield and hunting down Dan. After all, he was their responsibility and it wasn't fair that the world was destroyed just for the self-preservation instinct of a few.

Danny was somewhere in between. He agreed with the girl that Dan was his responsibility, but he agreed with Vlad when he said that going after him now was suicide. In the middle of their discussion, Danny shifted his gaze to the Latina girl, who was still watching the images on television and hadn't said a single word. He turned away from the window and cautiously walked towards her, drawing the attention of the other two in the process.

When he was behind her, he placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her toward him. It took her a few seconds to tear her eyes from the screen before meeting the boy's eyes with hers. Although she didn't make a sound, her eyes were teary and somewhat red. Danny watched her for a few seconds with some concern. Yes, what had happened was horrible, but not even Vlad, who used to live in the city, was as affected as she was. True, Vlad was a jerk and she was very emotional, but still…

- Are you ok?

More tears spilled from her eyes and she flung herself at Danny. The boy was surprised and paralyzed for a few seconds while he processed that Paulina was crying on his chest. Uncomfortably, he patted the girl's back and pulled her away from her chest slightly to look into her eyes. It was there that he noticed how bad she was.

- M-my parents...

That was all she could say before burying her face again in the chest of her blue-eyed boy, who did nothing to get her off of him. He hugged her back and looked away to Dani, who was looking at him with more conviction now. Danny opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Sam opened the door to the house.

- Silence, damn it!

Everyone present at the emergency government meeting fell silent at the man's scream.

- I know we are in an emergency, but we have to make a decision and make it now!

- The shield stays! – A woman yelled in the background.

Many voices echoed and seconded the motion, while from the other side of the room another voice rose to counter it.

- We cannot ignore the pain of our compatriots!

- Would you rather die?!

- Do you want more innocent people to die?!

Again, he lost control of the room and everyone erupted in a combat of morality. Still in the pulpit, he hid his face with both hands as he rubbed his temples. The announcement had taken them by surprise and they had to act quickly to prevent the chaos from moving from that room to the streets. They had to project a strong and convincing image, but they had no idea how to proceed now. Personally, he didn't want to remove the one thing that kept him and his family safe… In fact, no one in the room did. They just wanted to establish that they were better, from a moral perspective, than the rest of those present.

- The shield stays! – He yelled making the room silent again. – That was never in doubt. We are here to justify why that shield will not open.

- How dare you?! – A woman Shouted. – Don't you…?

- We've had enough with your false morality!

- False morality?!

- Of course! – Someone else yelled. - The shield only keeps ghosts out, not people in. If you really want to help people, go! Take your moral compass, load it in your truck and get the hell out of here. But guess what? You will not do it!

The room was silent for a few seconds as everyone who was protesting swallowed their pride to accept something they secretly agreed with.

- I got it! – A man shouted and everyone paid attention to him. – We must appeal to the nationalism of the masses… And not give in to the demands of a terrorist!

- Terrorist? A ghost?

- By definition, anyone who wants to exercise power through fear is a terrorist.

- But no one will take it seriously...

- What about…? – Someone else interrupted. – What if we tell the truth?

Laughter and whistles erupted from the man who spoke. Even he himself smiled at the way his words had been misunderstood.

- I'm not talking about the truth that we know… - He said, looking at everyone in the room. – I meant the one everyone knows about. We didn't put up the shield... we don't know how the shield works... the shield is not in our power...

- It's not up to us. – Someone said smiling. - I like that.

- And it's nothing but the truth. – He concluded smiling.

- Not only that: the Guys in White are federal agents… - A woman added. – This is beyond our jurisdiction.

- Yes, yes damn it, yes! – The man in the pulpit shouted. - Now we're talking!