Months later...

Amity Park, Illinois, America. 00:21 am

The night sky is always a good way to marvel at its wonder. That's something the hero of Amity Park has always cherished. After all, very few people knew he was also Danny Fenton, the shy space nerd who keeps being shoved into lockers two years later after the Accident who gave him his ghost powers. Inhabitants would tell you he likes to lie in the sky, counting the stars when he's done patrolling for ghost troublemakers. There are maybe like a dozens ghost hunters living here but ninty nine percent of the job is done by Danny Phantom. No wonder some citizen saw him sleep upside down aimlessly: He's the one doing the lifting!

That's when he counted the stars once more that his turquoise, subzero breath came out of his mouth.

"Can't you guys cut me some slack for once?", he sighed, holding his head with his left hand before standing in the sky as he stretched a bit. Whoever made him lost count of the stars will do his homework for tomorrow. He'll make sure of that.

Half-ghost hero of Amity Park

DANNY PHANTOM

From a flat's roof, a bulky robot with green flaming Mohawk and goatee, looked at him from his integrated spyglass, away from Phantom's sight.

"How can I get his attention, now?", the ghost robot whispered, his hand on his chin, thinking of a way to get the ghost boy for good.

Greatest Hunter of the Ghost Zone

SKULKER

Each time, Danny keeps passing through his traps and beats him like a champ. You could argue this robot does not update his tactics but no! Skulker, the Greatest hunter of the Ghost Zone always thinks about updating his equipment and strategy to better feel the thrill of the Hunt… and get Danny for once in his afterlife...

"I can try to send him a cat.",Skulker pondered. "No wait: I'm not good with animals. Oh wait! I've upgraded my net to get him on both forms so that he can't get away. Nevermind, he'll see me shoot it from a mile away. Maybe... use my soundboard with the voices of his friends...No-no: Last time I've tried, his tech sidekick shut it down…"

Because of Danny being a slimey game, he can't use the same tactic and has to think for a proper plan.

"I'll try the Ghost Sleep darts Plasmius gave me." He shrugged off.

He searched for a pocket on his left side and found four pink, candy-sized darts and deactivated the spyglasses. He boot up a long but small airgun from which, he inserted the ammunition. He aimed at the boy but...Danny was gone from where he last saw him.

"Darn it.", Skulker growled. He almost had him. "He was right there!"

"Cute stick you got there, Skulker", Phantom mocked him. The ghost robot removed the airgun and unsheathed his toxic green, ghost blade from his gauntlet before slashing his way behind. Danny almost got cut but he dodged it in time. "Are you having trouble finding a way to make me into your pelt?"

"That's none of your business, whelp!", the Ghost hunter shouted at him, irritated by Danny's remarks.

"I tell you what: You let me be for this night and tomorrow, you can retry with a better plan to get me." Phantom suggested with a smug smile on his face "You're okay with that?"

Skulker was having none of it: He came tonight to hunt the halfa so he will do it now. That's what would have happened if a missile strike wasn't going straight into both ghosts. The robot looked at the rocket's direction and his jet pack came out of his back without warning.

"Watch out!", Skulker yelled before he pushed Danny away from the impact.

The hero got shoved into a trashbin while Skulker ducked into a concrete cover. The rocket impacted on the roof, creating a green explosive dome and a car-sized crater. The ghosts leave their hiding spot and look at the damages. Of all the times he saw Skulker, that's the first time he saved him like that.

"You know, I owe you one", Danny admitted to one of his enemies. "Did you do it out of altruism?"

"Sorry but I want to make sure I'm the one skinning you and not anyone else", Skulker bluntly replied.

"Fair enough…", the ghost teen agreed.

From the sky, a rainbow-ish spark bolted towards them, ready to attack. The ghosts barely got time to dodge this attack. It was indeed fast. The good news is said attack wasn't as powerful as the rocket. The bad news is that the "star" was a GIW Agent.

"Oh great...", Danny groaned at the sight of white tuxedo.

Danny could definitely tell it was them because they're all stainless white with they fancy sunglasses, being all polite but total psychopaths hellbent on killing ghosts to the point of setting up a black hole-like bomb to destroy the Ghost Zone. The suit is totally new thought. Think it like a hazmat suit armored by pure white metal plates and the black parts such as hands and feet ready to charge up some ectoplasmic shockwaves. The major difference comes from the black parts: They now have red outlines and these straight scarlet lines moving in all places. The armor had like two black four-branched stars with the same red outline.

"Ghost scums…" said the agent, glaring with murderous intent on both ghosts.

Ghost Hunters of the US Government

GUYS IN WHITE

"First of all, say hi when you meet people.", Danny remarked to the GIW hunter. "And two, I was having a nice conversation with Skulker about tactics when you tried to kill us."

"Are you the one who shot that rocket, white hunter?", Skulker asked the hazmat aggressor.

"Yes…", He spoke down on Skulker with that condescending tone of his. "Are you going to beg?"

Danny noticed this guy is very confident to spit at Skulker's face like that. It's best to win a few fights against the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter before you can even land your first pun strike, at least that's his opinion on the matter...

"Me? No…", reassured Skulker

The ghost robot unsheathes his ghost blade once more, glowing with more intensity. The ghost boy may play with the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter but when Skulker seriously fights, be ready because he won't pull his punches.

"However, I don't like scavengers like you..."

Skulker pounced straight into the intruder, ghost blade aimed at the chest. While this human hunter's speed was nothing to be ashamed of, his reflexes aren't fully honed yet and the Ghost hunter managed to cause a great cut in the tuxedo despite the dodge. And then, the hazmat suit began healing on its own in seconds, removing that pesky cut. And this happened while the GIW hunter began channeling an energy from its right gauntlet before aiming for a punch similar to when he landed. When ready, he pulled the punch with the strength of a tornado towards the ghost hunter. Skulker responded by becoming invisible and fly his way out asap, dodging the ghost pulse.

"That GIW dude definitely hit his obsession…", Danny muttered with wide open eyes.

From there, the GIW executive turns around the ghost hero before blitzing his way to him. Danny, on the other hand, did not expect the guy to go this fast, only noticing at the last second when a great, green-stripped, black fist decorated in blue ectoplasm hit him like a truck. Danny Phantom hasn't felt a punch that strong since he fought his future self merged with the Ancient of Time, sending the boy down the road like a meteorite and into a poor citizen's electrical car. The impact made another crater half the size of a road:

"Urgh..." Phantom coughed, his ghost blood staining the car he was pummeled into. He could feel his skull was fractured from the punch. Just because ghosts have enhanced, superhuman healing doesn't mean the pain went away that fast. "That...stings real hard, man…"

The GIW dives straight for a second punch, not letting the boy rest for a mere second and hellbent on pummeling his pretty, teenager face.

"Timeout! TIMEOUT!"

Phantom becomes intangible and phases down the street, avoiding the attack...and widening the crater. The ghost superhero phases back meters away, keeping an eye on the agent.

"Hey! Do you know what a timeout is?", he asked while putting his lower jaw back in shape. His core pulses faster as he spins his left hand to create disks of ectoplasm similar to how a pizza chef sculpt the dough on a pizza. "It means it's time to stop!"

With a swift throw, the homing ecto-disk went to the hunter's right gauntlet. His opponent braces for the impact but the disk is hot enough to cut through it, the upper part falling to the crater. The gauntlet has been cut and it should remain as such.

"See? Throwing hands like this gets you so far."

Then, something really odd in an ominous way happened: The GIW pointed his broken fist towards the fallen bit. That fist went from toxic green to a vibrant scarlet red with the same moving straight lines pattern. Dozens of scarlet tentacles sprouted from the gauntlet and snatched onto it before stitching back the fist altogether. It's as if the ecto-disk never cut it off in the first place. Danny frowned his eyebrows at the sight of whatever happened and grinded his teeth not because of the superhealing but because those thick tentacles are becoming green and that means it's ready to attack.

"Ok… This is getting into out of hand…", Danny warned him while he winds up for a ghost shield by spreading his arms as far as he can in a cross-like movement, channeling his ghost core to brace the attack. "Quick warning: I do not consent with you catching me with these whatsoever and if you still do, I'm calling Walker for-."

The GIW pounced towards him with his fist clenched in a fury of ghost whips, ready to punish him real good. Danny really thought he was going to be hit by ghost tentacles three mouths after his sixteenth birthday. He closed his eyes and the ghost shield covers him like a dome over his entire body, hoping this will be enough but...he heard nothing. When he opened his eyes, the GIW was not in front of him but rather, pinned to a wall by a blue net on his left. Danny removed his shield and looked to his left, somewhat relieved he was spared from this. He looked to his right and saw Skulker once again: The ghost hunter used his trusty ghost net to keep the naughty human in captivity.

"No one takes my game. You hear me, white hunter.", Skulker threatened the "scavenger" as he called him, ghost rockets ready to strike at him the moment the GIW dares to move in his net. "...Especially him."

"Heh...This is but the beginning, spectral spawns" the GIW spoke calmly.

"What did you just say?", The robot interrogated the agent.

The GIW began to slowly glow like a rainbow, taking the shape of the four branched star from the start of the fight. The aura is spreading its pressure. It's like the manifestation of a god's booming domination was putting more gravity onto anyone, including ghosts which are supposed to be immune to gravity. Then, the aura exploded, pushing both ghosts back as the star flung to the night sky, shinning bright. Both recomposed themselves from the impact and looked at the star

GOD ROBE: Justice from Above!

Hundreds of rockets spiral out of the star before reaching Danny and Skulker with the intent of reducing them to ghastly ashes. Danny braced his core and soul once more to create a larger shield dome that covers both him and Skulker. When the rockets hit, their consecutive strikes makes fracture in the ghost shield but the boy must keep the shield. He must protect Skulker like he always protected this city. That is his emotional drive and despite the growing fractures of his shield and the sheer pressure of the GIW agent's enhanced rockets, he must keep that shield up.

When the barrage finally stops for good, Phantom removes the shield but he solicited his core too much from keeping that shield up. Of all the times he used it, that's the first time it began to crack like that.

"The GIW really stepped up on ghost hunting.", He whispered, exhausted from such action he began to shake from it but still stood up because the fight was far from over.

Skulker hunted him down for almost two years by now but he grew fond of the boy not just because it's his most prized game. He managed to gain his respect as a ghost: Sure, he kicks their butt whether they try to sustain their obsession but he's not a monster like the others ghost hunters in Amity Park, going as far as understanding them and even going to the moon for their sake.

So when the greatest hunter of the ghost zone noticed the "star" u-turned towards Danny to kill him from the back, he did the best thing he thought: Booting his self-destruct protocol and launched his robotic body towards the GIW agent. When the clash boomed, the ghost boy looked behind him and noticed a pile of metallic rubble. Did Skulker sacrificed himself to save him? That's what he wished but the GIW agent came out of the smoke, clearly not impressed:

"Nice try but my armor is unstoppable.", said the human hunter before looking at his next target. "You can't escape the God Robes, Invisobill"

"God-what?", Phantom asked. He was clearly puzzled by what he said. Who even calls their equipment like that? Do they have God complex now?

GOD ROBES

As the GIW agent was about to squash him with his green black gauntlet, Danny noticed a minuscule detail around the armored human hunter's back: A red seam dangling from the jet pack. It faintly glowed throughout the entire armor, even the metal plates. It looked small but it acted like the foundation pillar, able to hold this altogether. As much as he wished he could observe that thing longer, Danny has to do something instead of standing there and taking another punch.

He flew sideways of the agent, dodged the punch and pulled the red seam away in one flick from the armor. The armor exploded into shreds of ragged, white clothing found in the streets and the black gauntlets fell into bits of metallic red. In fact, the GIW was totally naked aside from his underwear and defenseless.

"Impossible?!" The GIW agent screamed out of shock. "My Two-star God Robe!"

"Next time you go to the couturier, ask him to properly sew your costume." Danny noted as he spins the long, red wire in front of his defeated foe.

"How did you remove the Nexus Thread?", he asked

"Wait: That's what it's called?" Danny realized with genuine surprise.

NEXUS THREADS

He may be lacking in English but he will end his patrol learning new things about the GIW tonight. "I'll keep that in mind next time I fight you guys."

"I won't forget this, you ectoplasmic menace!" the aggressor shouted before running away from Danny.

After he longer heard the agent's menace, Danny stopped spinning the seam and carefully looked at it. It was slightly longer than his arm, glowed bright red and felt hot to the touch. He blew over the strand to lower its temperature but it's no use. Its as warm as freshly baked bread coming out of an oven but Danny is an ice-cored ghost and he doesn't bode with heat well…

"You're done playing with that?", a squeaky voice asked.

This startled Danny for a second, only to find out it's Skulker but in his true self: A hamster-sized, ghost blob with spots on his skin and red eyes. This self-destruct protocol should have been lethal but Skulker is not a ghost robot: He's the pilot. The ghost hero awkwardly smiled at him, reassured that he was still okay.

"Hey...you're okay?", Danny reluctantly asked, worried he'd strike a sensible cord.

"My mech has been reduced to bolts and plates but I set up that self-destruct protocol so I'm okay.", Skulker kindly replied despite his irritation of losing his mechanical body (again).

The little blob flew to Danny's right shoulder and sat on it. He too, was curious of the curious red seam the ghost hero of Amity Park pulled from the GIW hunter. Such a great armor defeated by one, simple, glowing seam…

"So, this is the white hunters' new weakness?", The froggy-looking ghost inquired.

"Yup." said Danny, still unsure of the nature of the searing hot strand's nature. "He called it Nexus Thread"

Of all the things Danny Phantom would be intrigued by, a red strand that emits heat is the last thing he'd expected. Even Skulker is curious on it. This feels like two persons watching a documentary in real-time:

"Something tells me this thingy is not made of ectoplasm", The small ghost hunter noted.

"How do you know that?", the ghost boy asked. Two years isn't enough to learn about the Ghost Zone and he's still learning to this day.

"I can't really put words into it.", Skulker replied with a puzzled tone. "It's pulsing with… Life."

Both silently stayed there, feeling the heat and pulse of the Nexus Thread. Skulker may be right, thought Danny: Ectoplasm gets its power from Emotions but it's from those of ghosts. Yet, this strand seems to pull its energy from the same source but does not come from the Ghost Zone. It comes from the Real world…Whatever this is, the GIW probably found it and will use it against them. It's a good thing they fought this GIW agent: He can now anticipate on what's to come. Danny will make sure to keep this fancy Nexus Thread

The two were mesmerized by the Thread's power until Danny broke the minute of silence:

"Hey, Skulker…", He spoke with a bit of shame as scratched himself on the head with his left hand. "Thanks for what you did."

"Like I said earlier: If someone is going to skin you, It's going to be me and no one else.", The blob bluntly replied.

That's a way to put it, the boy shrugged but he accepted it. After all, his patrols made him realize Ghosts aren't those evil, odd manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness like his parents declare on a daily basis. They are people for the most part.

"Say… Do you want me to escort you back to the Ghost Zone?", He asked with a smile.

"As long as you don't shove me in that thermos.", the ghost blob with limbs noded.

Skulker hid in Danny's head, grabbing his snow-white strands like a plane's wheel. They flew off from the local park and back into Fenton's Works where the Ghost Portal lies.