Hey guys im back im on my meds again and rearing to go. Dont have much to say right now except for these 2 points. First and fore most thank all of you for your patience and well wishes on my health it means a lot. Secondly I realised that as far as back ground characters go Briar

wood does not have over much. We mostly got the spooky teers and the school staff and considering Erma is going to highschool here and not elementary like in the comics i will need to

get creative. That is unless the new ark that is about to start now the night parade ark has wrapped up introduces them. Even than I have to watch out as this will be new characters

added recently. Add to that that im a suporter and thus get the issues a bit earlier and dont want to spoiler you or steel Outcasts thunder. I may add some other webtoon characters as

cameo to fill up the roster a bit. Now enjoy the next part of the story

Dying Angers

Danny looked over at the Mayor's mansion, the towering construction casting its shadow down on the road winding up to the building. It had taken them a bit to find Polter Heights. The rich neighborhood itself had largely stayed the same, but the road towards it was another story. He made a mental note to take a midnight flight around town to get familiar with the new layout. Maybe Erma could show him around the places that had been in Briarwoods.

Maddie tried to open the door, finding it locked. "So what now?" the woman asked. Jazz and Danny shared a look before the older of the siblings positioned herself in a way that would shield her brother from anyone who would look at them from the sidewalk beyond the gate. Danny turned intangible and stepped through the door, unlocking it from the inside and letting his family in. "I will need to get used to that," Jack admitted.

The way to the lab was quiet. All of them had their own thoughts and feelings about the situation, but they could not find the words to speak about them. "Danny, look." Jazz pointed at the floor where a trail of red and green drops and smudges led down. "Is that blood?" Maddie asked. "Blood and ectoplasm. Which is a bad sign. We need to get a move on." The stairway opened into the laboratory, where a large armchair sat with what was left of Vlad Masters. His white hair was matted and clothed with blood. His frame was almost skeletal, and his face gaunt. Pale skin stretched over bone. His eyes flickered between blue and red, and there was little left of the man's once elegant suit that hung off his scarred body in bloody rags.

Danny swore as he saw his nemesis, hating the fact that the first feeling he had was pity. "Of all the people I could save, why does it have to be you?" Danny dug in his backpack and pulled out a container of green liquid.

"What is that stuff?" Maddie asked, looking at the man she had considered a friend for years in shock.

"Ecto-Caf. A friend of mine, Frostbite, came up with it. It's a bit like a meal shake for Halfas. Looks like Vlad has not been eating well in the Ghost Zone."

Jack frowned, looking Vlad over. Outside of his obvious starved look, he also had burns around his palms, his breathing was labored and shallow. The veins in his wrists glowed a barely noticeable green. "This looks like more than just malnutrition."

Danny nodded, shivering as he remembered the state he, Erma, and Sara had been in after an ambush had kept them from getting supplies. He had never before used that much power while hungry, sleep-deprived and dehydrated before the war had shown him things about his powers he had been ignorant of before. It felt like every use of his power ate away at his body. "Halfas have a unique metabolism. Using our powers burns calories just like physical activity does. Flying is just like walking; speed it up and it's like running. Now imagine having to use your body fat to power an energy beam powerful enough to level a skyscraper." Jack blinked. "That is not physically possible." Danny shrugged. "Yet we do it. I think it's something about the makeup of ectoplasm or something."

Danny walked up to Vlad, popped the cap off the bottle, and assisted the older Halfa in downing the green liquid. "Vlad, can you hear me?" Danny asked. The drink evidently worked fast as the villain's eyes cleared and looked up at Danny.

The Ghost nodded, his eyes going from the boy to the family. He closed them for a short moment before he stared back at the boy. There was an unspoken conversation between the two. Then Danny broke the silence with an icy, clear tone. "One month, Vlad."

Vlad grinned in a way Danny saw as cocky, yet to the others, it looked bloodthirsty, like a wolf ready to kill. "That is more than I need, Daniel. We both know that."

Danny sent the man a withering look. "Our secrets are out now. This game is over, Vlad."

"Close to." The man gasped. "But not just yet. There is a match point to be made."

"That's why I give you the month, Vlad." Danny placed his backpack filled with Ecto-Caf next to Vlad's chair. "One of these after we leave, then one at each pmeal. It will have you back on your feet in half a month. Use the extra time to think."

Vlad sat up, half-rising. "Think?" The older man spat, outraged, clamping the armrests of the chair so hard that the leather ripped and the wood underneath cracked audibly.

"You are a lonely man, Vlad. Tell me, has it ever crossed your mind to make a friend? To do something good with that money of yours? How many women have you passed in your life hunting my mother? How many orphans have you seen misplaced as a businessman that could have called you dad?" Danny turned to the door. His voice shaking as he continued. "I don't know what's going to happen, Vlad. I am terrified. I killed a ghost, Vlad. I killed." The teenager gave him a glance, showing just that, a strong young man scared of what that strength would do to him.

"I don't want one of us killing the other, and if I'm right, neither do you. Please, Vlad, show me that there is still a man in there and not just a ghost."

Vlad's eyes fell shut, and he slunk down in the chair. When he looked up, the Fentons were gone. He was covered with a blanket. Reaching next to him, he looked in the bag Danny had left and pulled out a bottle of Ecto-Caf and a very familiar photo. There were just three words written on the list with a sharpie in the hand of someone he had once cared for deeply. "I am sorry."

Vlad let his head fall in his hands before looking in the mirror. His ghost half looked back at him as his ghost sense went off.

"Danielle?"

"Oh no, old man." The ghost in the mirror said. "You don't get to get away that easy."

"What trickery is this?!" Vlad said, getting to his feet. Something moved behind him. He raised his hand and let out a blast of red energy that shot right through the target, which let out a scream that chilled him to the bone.

"Maddie?!" The shock on the woman's face as she reached for him was evident. "When did we stop being friends?" she asked, gasping for air while she crumbled to the ground, a puddle of blood forming around her.

"Nononono, it was an accident. I never meant to," Vlad ran forward, holding the now unmoving woman.

A booming voice followed. "Neither did I mean to do this to you, Vlad, yet you try to kill me for it."

An enormous skeleton wearing the remains of an orange jumpsuit towered over him. Hollow eye sockets stared down at him, the permanent morbid grin of his skull gleamed in the light from the lab's equipment.

"Jack?... You took her away from me," Vlad defended himself, shaking as he felt Maddie's body twitch in his arms, her skin suddenly showing signs of decay. Her eyes a predatory yellow "And you are better? My son, Vlad, my daughter. When did the man die?" Maddie's voice, once full of warmth, was now a raspy whisper.

"He never..."

"Then why did you take your anger out on children?" Jack's voice boomed. "That is a ghost's work, not a man's."

A small figure walked up, recognizable parts of Vlads failed cloning attempts sown together like Frankenstein's monster, the stitches leaking green goo. As they spoke in Danielle's voice.

"Daddy, why did you make us just to suffer?"

Smog-like black mist flooded the ground as a large cloaked figure rose up, strings attached to his fingers going down to the figures like a puppeteer. The sound of chewing came from the chair behind Vlad. A blue-skinned woman that vaguely reminded Vlad of a Hindu goddess looked at them like a teenager invested in a particularly good show.

The cloaked figure sighed as he shrunk. "Really, old friend? Popcorn?"

The blue-skinned woman waved her hand and let out a joking whine, her smile never leaving her face. "Nooooo, Mr. Death, don't stop. You are doing great. Very spooky and intimidating."

The hooded form let out a chuckle, once more raising his hands, speaking with a melodious booming voice. "Memento mori, Vlad Plasmius Masters. You walk a path of blood and sorrow. Time is running out."

Vlad, swallowing a lump, stared down the spectral visitor. "You mean I'm going to die."

"Worse, Vlad, much, much worse," the blue-skinned woman said, part worry and part disgust.

"And who might you be?"

The woman was enveloped in a golden aura like a miniature sun. "I am the ever-generous and ever cruel. I am the keeper of all you know. I, Mr. Masters, am Life."

Somehow, Vlad felt his ghost side scream in fear of the being. While the now-man side, a skeleton that had to be Death itself, placed a hand on his shoulder, which burned his human flesh. Its calm, mediotic voice, little more than a whisper, sounded sympathetic. "We have much to speak about. Drink your medicine, Vlad. You need all the strength you can get for what is to come."

"What... what is coming?" Vlad said, feeling cold sweat running down his neck.

"Many beginnings," Life said.

"And many endings," Death finished.

"Memento mori," Vlad said softly as he raised his bottle of Ecto-Caf in a toast. His eyes tried desperately to seek something to look for, something that was not one of the entities. They landed on the smiling picture of a group of youngsters and the scribbled apology. Maybe there was still a way to make things right.

Erma looked at the Fentons walking back to the van. She and Sara had stayed behind in case things would take a turn for the worse. Sara, understandably, did not want to go inside. And right now, both she and Danny gasped as the telling whiff of smoke emerged from their mouths. Sara had come to know her ghost sense well during the war. The colder the rush of air from her lungs, the stronger the ghost, and this time it felt like her lungs were freezing. Erma, rather, felt a pressure radiating from the building as the presence of one of the entities emerged. One she knew very well. She took Sara in her arms and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head, both to keep the girl inside the vehicle and to calm her own nerves.

"That power. It's strange. Do you know it, Mom?"

Erma nodded, recognizing the specter of Death's power signature. She saw Danny cast her a look, almost turning around. She shook her head, mouthing, "Don't go." As powerful as Erma knew Danny was, entities of Death were in another ballpark. She was not about to be a single mom after a day because Danny had to try and stop an aspect of nature. Not that she expected Death to take Vlad today, it had a different feel to it when the Reaper came to call. Death would come with a certain melancholy as it made its way to the soul it came to collect. Now the energy was spiking, feeling almost giddy. She shivered, wondering what hat the Reaper existed.

The sheer amount of fear behind Erma's eyes was enough for Danny to freeze mid-step. Danny motioned for his parents to hurry. Feeling the power coming from the building grow denser, it was like something pulling at his ghost side. Never before had a back seat in a car felt so comfortable, nor had the sound of its shutting door ever made him feel so safe.

The mood was dreary as they drove of Jack trying to get his own head out of the dark as well as trying to get used to suddenly being a grandpa spoke up. Bravely trying to put a smile on his own face. "So Sara how about you stay with us for the first week of being a fanton?"

The man was interrupted by a stern "no" from both of his children, which took him by surprise. He and Maddie looked hurt until Jazz rolled her eyes and reached into her bag. She handed her mother a small ring map. Maddie scanned through it, finding a color-coded list of their inventions, gulping as she saw a lot of red and yellow.

"This is a list of all the inventions that are harmful to Danny and, by extension, to Erma and Sara," Jazz said. "Also, the Fenton Xtractor, because ouch, I can still feel the skin on my head ache when I think of that fiasco. Seriously, you thought one of your own children was a ghost and picked the wrong kid!" Sara snickered. "Okay, Aunty Jazz, you need to tell me that story one day." Jazz looked annoyed. "I'd rather forget it, if I'm honest." Then she got hit by Sara's puppy eyes. "Pleeeeaaaassse?" Jazz looked at her niece with wide eyes. "Okay, I'll tell you, but not today, okay."

Sara smiled brightly, and Jazz knew she was in trouble. She had both the dreaded Fenton Puppy dog eyes as well as some serious dose of Kawaii from Erma's genes. Telling this girl no would be a pain.

Maddie focused on the ring map in an attempt not to squeal at her granddaughter. She flinched as she saw some of the effects of what she and Jack had made over the years. "Okay, so the Boooomerang hitting you all the time makes sense now. Luckily, it was not that damaging. Still, don't want to hit my son and granddaughter with a solid metal boomerang. Wait, the Ghost Catcher split your what from your what? Oh, the Specter Deflector. Oh boy, you must have been sweating bullets when we got stuck in Vlad's cabin that one time. Okay, point taken, making the house ghost-friendly before the two of you stay the night." This made Maddie look at Erma inquisitively, the obvious question only now popping up in her mind. "Soooooo, Erma, can I expect to have you come over often?"

The ghost girl nodded excitedly, drawing a smirk from the three eldest Fentons. the three sitting in the backseat was something that gave them a warm feeling. It would be interesting to see how this would go forward.

Valerie Gray looked at the grave of her best friend, tears stinging her eyes as the wind played with her raven locks. It had been Valerie who found Star's body that night,stars body was already cold by that point her eyes looking up unseeing. She placed a bouquet of roses in front of the headstone that simply read "Our Shining Star." She was surprised to find a pile of books placed by the grave. Vallery jumped back as a spectral hand reached out and pulled down one of the books. On instinct, Valerie grabbed the Ecto-gun that hung at her side, only to regret it a moment later as the sky turned stormy. Spectral and rotting hands started emerging from the graves, mausoleums creaked open, and glowing angry eyes peered from the darkness. A chill wind blew across the cemetery, carrying angry moans to her ears. Valerie felt the warmth get sucked from her body; it was like ice water ran through her veins. It became almost painful to breathe in the suddenly cold air.

"Who dares disturb the peace of my grave?" A familiar voice spoke from the ether, carried on the wind as an angry whisper.

Valerie dropped her weapon as a specter emerged from Star's grave. A petite young woman dressed in a bloodstained Casper High cheerleader's uniform, pale blonde hair and greenish-white skin, a horrible stab wound spanning the length of her abdomen. The glowing turquoise eyes of the spirit looked out at the world in feral anger until, with a spark of recognition, they flashed as they rested on Valerie.

"Wait, Val? Is that you?" Star asked as the shadow over her face faded away and the winds died down. A ray of sunshine peeked through the clouds and created a ring of light around the spectral teenager, whose face split into a smile.

"This flesh bag disturbing you, hon?" A deep voice coming from a neighboring grave asked.

"Nha, Mr. Steel," Star waved the offer away. "It's a friend paying her respect."

A raspy voice then came from a row or two further down. "In my day, we did not bring weapons to the cemetery to pay respect."

"Miss Information is a pain in every generation, Mrs. Page," Star said, sounding exhausted.

"Amen, young lady!" a female voice came from the northern side, followed by a reaction from the west. "Oh, this again. Look, I told you I was sorry for the witch hunt, Lizzy!"

"We were engaged, David!" Lizzy fired back.

"Guys, can I talk with my friend in peace, please?" Star asked in the most polite way Valerie had ever heard Star talk.

A symphony of apologies and a few cries of "Brains!" rang from the graveyard as peace returned. Star wiped her forehead. "Argument averted. As well as a small zombie outbreak." Star placed the book on the ground and went to pull her friend into a hug. Star was cold to the touch, and she smelled like a strange mix of earth, wood, incense, and citrus.

"I'm so glad to see you again," Valerie stuttered, not knowing if she was more shocked by the fact that her friend was a ghost or surprised that Star hadn't attacked her.

"Well, duh, who else would pull your pretty ass out of the fire after you broke rule numero uno in the ghost world?" Star said, smirking.

Valerie looked at her friend, confused. "Wait, ghosts have rules?"

Star nodded. "Rule number one: you do not dishonor grave sites, like, ever. And before we go further with this conversation, rule number two: you do not ask a ghost how they died. It's basically asking an amputee how they lost their limbs; it's a very touchy subject for a lot of us."

"How come?"

Star's eyes went to the floor, and her voice became fragile. "Most ghosts didn't die in their sleep, Valerie. We are the restless dead, lingering echoes of who we used to be. The sick, the casualties, the murdered—that is who we are. Our final moments were pain at best and rage at worst; that is what you would be asking for."

"Then Phantom is..." Valerie felt a hand of guilt clench around her heart. For the first time, the face of the ghost kid was clear in her mind, and he was just that—a kid. "What has the town done to him that he causes all this chaos?" she asked as she fell to her knees, her fingers

digging into the dirt. As shock crept into her voice, "Holy shit, he couldn't have been much older than us when he... oh shit."

"Uhm," Star said hesitantly knowing that Danny was not actually dead, nor wanting to spill the beans on his secret to the girl that had shot at him at multiple ocations. Star moved closer and helped Vallery up, "Phantom is a little different. But he is not important right now. What is important is you." She patted the ghost hunter on her back.

"Me?"

"You. I regret so much, Valerie. Both things I have done and never had the chance to do, like reading these because they would make me look like a nerd." She tapped the books. "I don't want you to suffer like I am suffering, Valerie, because this town just became even more paranormal than it was already." As if on cue, a raven cawed from a nearby tree. "If you are going to fight every ghost you find, well..." Star looked at an empty spot in the row of graves, causing Valerie to gulp as she realized the rules of the game she had been playing had changed.

"Okay, so not all ghosts are evil. I mean, I met a ghost kid a while back who was okay. Wonder how she is. But I am not going to be trusting all ghosts right now. I'm only ready to trust you and that girl. Phantom has a big maybe right now, especially after how totaled my old suit. That could have been me, for God's sake."

"Can't blame you there," Star said, nodding. "I've seen some bad ghosts the past couple of months, and some of those are true horrors." She shivered; some places in the Ghost Zone were nightmare fuel.

Valerie nodded and grabbed the gun off the ground, putting it back in her belt. "Where to?"

"Let's start at the start—your dad's old job, Axion Labs," Star said.

"The place where it all went wrong, huh?" Valerie said with a sigh. "Alright, let's go." The two friends made their way down the coffin path, and Valerie gave her friend a sideways glance as she dared a smile.

"So, how is the dating scene among ghosts?" Valerie said, half-joking, half-serious, hoping that her friend did not have to spend her afterlife alone. To her surprise, Star's cheeks turned a deeper shade of green.

"The guy haunting the library in one of the abandoned buildings is charming."

"Charming? That's where you're going with, not hot or anything like that?"

"Well, he is cute for sure," Star said, getting a dreamy look in her eyes. "But he has some really old-fashioned manners, you know? Called me 'miss,' helped me find my grave, asked me out to haunt the theater and have a moonlith flight after."

"Ohhh! Classy," Valerie said, nodding approvingly. "What's better, moonlight walks or flights?"

Star smiled fondly. "Flights, no contest. Let me tell you, seeing the full moon from up there above the clouds, it makes you look at things with different eyes."

"I can see why you call him charming, but I know you. You want action, sooooooo..."

"I may or may not have asked him to a midnight jamboree Erma told me about."

"A what? And who is Erma?"

"Only the best type of party this side of paradise, or at least thats what they tell me. As for Erma you meet her soon enough." Star's smile turned mischievous. "Tell you what, lose your itchy trigger finger among spirits, and I'll take you as a plus one. Deal?"

"Deal? You and an old-time gentleman? I must see it. Who knows, I might hook up with a vampire."

Star laughed. "Dream on, Valerie."

Valerie frowned. "What, you think I can't land a vampire?"

"No, just that you can't live without garlic bread."

As evening fell, the two friends walked the street. They passed a coffee shop where two men in white suits sat down in a booth. Luckily for everyone, they missed the apparition passing by the window, focusing on the older man sipping his coffee across from them.

"You had information for us?" one of the agents asked. The Guys in white had taken a hard hit in the past six months. Not only had the local branch been cut off from its commanders, but appearances of supposedly benevolent ghosts and other creatures that had come to the town's defense had swayed the people's goodwill away from the government's ghost hunters. And Briarwoods was worse; apparently, the supernatural presence there had grown so common over the years that the entities had become part of the comunetie.

The man shook his head, his eyes hardened by years of fighting his shadow war. "I'm here to give you a warning," he said in a low, strong voice. "I hear you're trying to eliminate all paranormal entities. Is this true?"

"Correct," the agents told him, not hiding the mission they were trying to complete. Their faces hardened when the man spoke again.

"Well, give up, kids. Before you destroy us all in your so-called mission."

The operatives looked at each other before Agent K pulled out a recorder and motioned for the man to continue.

"Some entities are worth destroying. I have banished plenty of demons and other such monsters to the void. But others are needed."

"Ridiculous," Agent O said, earning a raised brow from the bearded man.

"Is it now? Tell me, if the Grim Reaper walked in here, would you destroy it? Would you destroy the spirit of life? Would you kill Pan or Thor?"

Agent O lost the cool in his voice as he said "Have you seen the collateral damage these monsters cause?"

The old man let out a humorless laugh. "Collateral? Typical of you government flunkies to think of money. Sure, having your home blown up is a pain, but it gets so much worse." He took a swig of his coffee. "That ghost kid, he could have destroyed the town ten times over by now, yet he doesn't. Ever wondered why? Something in this little town is precious to him. The ghosts he fights are strong, sure, compared to us. We humans are so used to being at the top of the food chain among animals that we panic when we feel challenged." The man looked outside. "In the spiritual food chain, we are in the middle ground. This town has gained the interest of some very ancient spirits."

Agent K smirked and pulled out his ecto gun. "Let them come," he said confidently, but his smirk faded as the man shook his head. "The masters of this game don't enter the playing field themselves, and even if they did, no weapon you wield would hurt them."

The operatives shared a look as the man got up and threw a picture of a ghost girl on the table. "I knew I would not be successful in convincing you to stop, but I had to try. I just need you to know this. If you invoke the anger of this ghost, all of us will be in great danger."

The old man stood up, nodding his head as he left money on the table to pay for his coffee before stepping out into the night. Just before the agents wanted to get up, a feminine voice spoke up.

"He is right, you know. That girl will break your mind, never mind what she would do to your body." A woman in her mid-twenties walked over to the table and sat down.

The agents looked at her, furrowing their brows. She gave them a ragged grin. Indeed, ragged was a good way to describe her. Her strawberry blond hair was matted and scruffy, her frame was near anorexic, and her eyes were hollowed as she tapped the picture. "Say, if I can tell you about all the spooky things in this town, including this creep, what would you be willing to give me?"

The agents frowned. "What would you like?"

The twisted grin was almost ghoulish as the woman ran a thumb over the man's suit. "Well, I happen to look pretty in white, if you catch my drift."

"I take it this is personal for you?" O asked pulling his arm away from the woman.

"Outside of her turning me into the husk you see before you, I need to save my twerp of a brother from her spell. If I need to get a couple of ghosts to go fromrest in peace, to being in pieces, then so be it."

The agents smiled as one of them took out their phone. "Alpha, I have a new recruit ready for training."