Chapter Text
Ghost Investigation Ward headquarters, 3:20 pm
A blinding white light was shining upon everyone. Despite wearing sunglasses, the Guys in White were blinded by the holy light, forced to cover their eyes to avoid losing their sight forever. Alpha had already heard that heel clack before and turned around, hoping it wasn’t who he thought decided to bust inside his headquarters.
Only to grunt at the sight of a woman with a page-boy black hair reaching her shoulders, flowing through the air emitted by her righteous aura. She had striking almond eyes with sapphire blue eyes and short, diamond-shaped eyebrows. She wore a white uniform-like outfit with, two golden shoulder tassels, blueish gray highlights on the tips of her heels, the end of her skirt-like uniform and lines around the collarbones.
“You didn’t tell me she would come to the raid.” Tsumugu told Aikuro with a dazzled reaction, keeping an eye on the GIW cameras of the last floor they hijacked to watch the scene at the master room.
“I wish I could tell you why but Satsuki didn’t even tell Nudist Beach about it. She only told me to reach Amity Park with our trump card, sent out the Mankanshoku to make sure the kids would reach the military base and to retrieve the remaining Life Fiber seeds the Ghost Investigation Ward haven’t fused with that ghost yet.” Aikuro disclosed, meditating on her reasons.
“Tsk. I hate when she does this…”
“Is this Heaven?” Valerie asked, squirting her eyes to see the figure basking in the light.
“Nope. It’s Satsuki!” Mako answered with a smile, happy to see the President again. “She came to help us stop the tuxedo Goku Uniforms!”
“But didn’t you told us she’s always busy?” Danny wondered.
“Yup, but the tuxedo pieces of shit really done fucked up with their fancy ghost life fibers to make her change her schedule and come all the way to America.” Ryūko added, smiling at her sister’s arrival.
“You couldn’t help but try to stop our magnum opus, did you… Satsuki Kiryūin. ” Alpha criticized.
“The same way you looked out for me and everything surrounding Honnouji Academy to properly plan out Project God Threads.”
“It is true. When the UELW first retrieved those Life Fibers seeds, they initially thought about sending them out to your organization. However, we discovered that Life Fibers are the only lifeform in this Universe able to not only fight back against the Ghost Zone… but to eradicate it.” Alpha fondly recalled. “That is why, we booked that fancy meeting, remember?”
“And there is a clear reason on why I outright refused that contract with the US Government you showed me to help your lifetime project, Alpha.” Satsuki explained, silently disappointed by his pride over her meeting.
“I’ll be honest: She’s kinda hot. I wished she could step on- SLAP! Ouch!”
“Give your bottle to Charal. It’s been hours since you haven't given him something.” Sam shushed Tucker after smacking him yet again.
“Aw right.” Tucker was perplexed Sam suddenly cared for his mineral baby he was giving his toy baby bottle.
“When we had that rendezvous at Kobe, I explicitly warned you several times about the threat of clothing and how no one should use them in any shape or form. And yet, you decided to not only ignore them, but you went beyond by fusing it with another raw material that is just as volatile as the Life Fibers themselves, if not worse.” Satsuki sternly reminded.
“Think for a millisecond of the progress we could do with the infinite combined power of Life Fibers and Ectoplasm. Safety, healthcare, science, transportation and many more. We can guarantee our future and protect it from all threats, be it from the Cosmos or the Afterlife. Humanity would become immortal and invincible!” Alpha pleaded.
“And you believe creating an artificial Primordial Life Fiber using a god beyond our comprehension as an incubator to pluck your materials from is the right solution?” Satsuki inquired, condemning Alpha for such a reckless action with her stare alone. “What if this Ancient wakes up to set the Will of Clothing in motion? What are your contingency plans to stop it from spreading? Do you truly have what it takes to stop those Ecto-Fibers if they were to break your shackles and be unleashed upon Earth?”
“To this, I want you to answer this. Why keeping these Life Fibers in a secured vault, never to be used again when we could use them as our protection? Isn’t what you exactly did to fight against your mother?” Alpha revealed, which led Satsuki’s judging glare to be harsher.
“Oooooo…” Maiko gritted at Alpha striking the forbidden sensible cord.
“You know that I’ve done meticulous researches to properly understand what exactly happened at Tokyo Bay to polish our magnum opus. The Goku Uniforms, Honnou Town, the Tri-City School Raid.” Alpha eyeballed Ryūko for a few seconds. “Even your little sister with that fake kamui conceived by your deceased father. All were nothing but steps to your ambition.”
“If you really think your crusade against ghosts is on par with what I’ve done to fight back against clothing, will you accept being judged by the entire planet for all the crimes you have committed and accept the sentence like I had to?” Satsuki asked again, offended by his assumption over Ryūko.
“Wait. She went on a trial? How come we never heard of this?” Valerie whispered her question.
“We were too busy fixing the damages Pariah Dark has done to keep in touch with that…” Danny whispered his answer to her.
“Are we that much disconnected from the rest of the planet because of ghost attacks?” Jazz pondered about Amity Park being out of the loop on worldwide events.
“Do not try to be holier than me. I’m sure you bribed your way out of your death sentence for that trial at Nuremberg with all that money you’ve got from Revocs’ temporary monopoly over the entire economy of our planet.”
“ And what would I gain from doing this? If the United Nations decided to publicly execute me instead of charging me, I would have accepted their punishment without any concessions.” She revealed with a more appeased tone, fully at peace with the thought that not everyone will forgive her. “Contrary to what you’ve heard, I am aware that I am far from holy as you put it, and I understand if you’d never forgive me for everything I’ve done while I was still leading Honnouji Academy.”
Satsuki kept her frown upon Alpha’s points, repulsed by his reminder of the monster who paraded as her mother. Yet, her warnings during that meeting weren’t there to dismiss his salvation project. She wanted to guarantee that nobody would fight fire with fire, especially when the system she imposed over Honnou Town had proven to have flaws on its own. Mistakes that General Alpha completely ignored and went beyond by replicating Ragyo’s plans, thinking he could tame the untamable.
“What I condemn in you is how you act as this paragon of Humanity, preaching Justice and Good as if you’re trying to prove your faith every day.” She criticized, recalling all the Guys in White’s measures up until the Extermunatus Decree. “And yet, you are willing to enact the most wicked crimes over a whole population to root out Evil in the name of this same faith. Crimes not even Ragyo Kiryūin would think of doing, and God knows how… rotten and unredeemable she was when she still walked this planet.”
Alpha tried to sway Satsuki to his side many times since he first heard of the Life Fibers. He believed there was a way to change her mind not through words but actions. Project God Threads was the proof of his ambition to save Humanity and to her. But even with this, she looked down on him and even scolded him for his plans, calling the Ecto-Fibers a “calamitous endeavor”. And with the Ghostketsu Crew and Nudist Beach raiding the GIW headquarters in Illinois, it was made clear she would stand on her initial answer.
“You may have reflected upon your errors but it’s far from enough. You must be chastised for all those sins you committed in the name of your revolution before you can truly reach Salvation.” Alpha criticized, irritated by Satsuki for thinking she knew Christianity better than a full believer of the Bible like him.
“Then, judge me.” She challenged.
Alpha crossed his arms behind his back and made a succession of hand signals. The Ghostketsu Crew were extremely confused by this until Danny’s ghost hearing picked on a heavy weapon being reloaded from afar. The silence Satsuki imposed when she arrived only cemented what was about to happen.
“GET DOWN!”
BANG!
His scream prompted the teens to dive into the ground and avoid the wide array of weapons. Yet, none of it got them. Instead, what the halfa heard were weapons aimed directly at the president‘s skull.
But right as the whistling of a piercing bullet was close enough to hit her, it exploded in a blast of pure blue ectoplasm from touching a seemingly invisible wall, preventing it from reaching its target. The remains of an anti-ghost mortar with its unstable content of Ectoplasm was stopped by a large, human-sized shield that looked like an armored notebook, bearing the signature blue heraldry of the Kiryūin Conglomerate.
“HOW DARE YOU TRY TO ASSASSINATE LADY SATSUKI?! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIS! ASHAMED! ”
Alpha grumbled at Ira swooping in with his metallic Ultimate Three-Star Goku Uniform to stop the sniper mortar from killing Satsuki. He executed another succession of mute signals from behind. All the cameras within the master room locked onto her and once their invisible pointers properly aimed, charged dozens of blue light thunderbolts to smite her.
BZZZT-BZZZT-BZZZT-BZZZT
But none managed to shoot their deadly lasers as they were suddenly shut down by a pixelated teal blue dome, dropping their lens and laser pointer to the floor.
“What a critical mistake, General Alpha. You should have kept those cameras to prevent our arrival instead of using it as a weapon.” Houka mockingly advised, smugly walking out of his invisibility in his Ultimate Three-Star Goku Uniform. “You’ve lost critical data with such a reckless action.”
Alpha’s eye twitched and did yet another array of hand signals. The Guys in White stationed at the highest floor swapped their snipers for anti-ghost grenade launchers. They drowned Satsuki, Ira, Houka and the Ghostketsu Crew with oval-shaped, unstable bombs, hoping the blast would be enough to kill them all.
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAAAAM!
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAAAAM!
But they were deflected once again. Pink lasers resonated with the hundreds of anti-ghost grenades, making them explode in thousands of shrapnel, that were automatically pushed back into the Ecto-Core Mender itself. The screeching noise coming from the grenades were muffled by what sounds like Beethoven's Symphony No. 5: “Fate” .
“FYI Using a big ghost to fuse it with Life Fibers isn’t how you’re going to match us, you ghost-hunting, Honnouji wannabes!” Nonon criticized, flying back at Satsuki in her Ultimate Three-Star Goku Uniform.
Another assassination attempt failed, and Alpha was irritated by not only Nonon’s move but also her remark about his magnum opus not reaching the same level of perfection as what Honnouji Academy produced. He executed one more hand signal, which was picked on by one GIW Operative on the first floor, who tapped on the right side of his helmet.
“Send in the Ghostonator. Order of General Alpha himself.”
“Rodger that.”
Three Operatives pushed a large, futuristic canon steadily retracted an anti-ghost, car-sized harpoon inside towards the master room’s entrance. They waited for the right moment until one of them behind the harpoon canon raised his hand to hold and lowered it once properly programmed. The harpoon was shot at mach speed and blitzed at Satsuki and the three others who saved her in a turquoise trail of ectoplasm.
“MEEEEEEN!”
But it was repulsed and even sent back at the senders after it ricocheted with the tip of a charging green lightsaber. The Guys in White behind the attack were blinded by their own projectile, which hit the corridor’s ceiling and crushed them with the debris from the blue blast.
“If you wanna fight Lady Satsuki, you don’t need to do dirty tricks like this. Simply ask her, and she’ll be glad to accept your duel.” Uzu snarked, pointing the glowing shinai of his Ultimate Three-Star Goku Uniform at the Guys in White.
“Of course, you had to bring them along…” Alpha growled, frustrated by their arrival.
“Don’t act all surprised. You knew we were coming the moment you decided to pick a bone with Lady Satsuki.” Uzu added, walking into the master room and stopped after he reached the President, his shinai resting on his right shoulder.
“Your mistake was to think you’d only have to deal with Kamui Squad and Team Phantom in this raid. Thus, you based your battle tactics and defense on incomplete data.” Houka added, materializing a hologram from a small canon strapped to his palms, showing the critical flaws in the GIW tactic he managed to hack into.
“And yet, we’ve managed to hold off your Nudist wildcard until you barged into our headquarters to lecture me about purity of purpose.” Alpha grunted at Houka’s critic.
“What’s the matter? You’re pissed ‘cause Lady Satsuki scolded you for your forbidden art project with the Life Fibers?” Nonon taunted.
“God Threads isn’t a forbidden art project! It is the bulwark that will save us all for the stains of the Ghost Zone that have corrupted all of you!” Alpha bellowed in his leaking irritation.
“And yet, the only one who should be disciplined about corruption is the Ghost Investigation Ward. You have caused far too much collateral damages to the innocent to call yourself paragons of Mankind.” Ira reminded, his right fist igniting into a great yellow flame. “It’s time we give you an appropriate punishment for your crimes. One personally handed out by Lady Satsuki’s student council and right arms! THE ELITE FOUR!”
“Wait… It’s you?! You’re the guys on that phone call?!” Danny happily grasped, recognizing the voices.
“Hey, Danny! It feels so good to meet you, man. We were dying to see you in person.” Sanageyama waved back, only to grit later. His pun could be offensive to the dead. “No pun intended.”
“It’s okay, dude! Puns are my forte.” Danny loudly reassured for afar.
“How’s the date with your phantom boyfriend so far, Bites-a-Lot?” Nonon stuck her tongue out to taunt Ryūko.
“Auuurrrggh… Here we fuckin’ go again.” Ryūko groaned at the razzing about her friendship with Danny.
“Actually, Danny is my phantom boyfriend.” Valerie chimed in to hug and kiss him.
Danny was surprised by her move, thinking she would do it a few days after the dust of his secret had settled. But after months without her and knowing that she wanted to go steady, he could finally return the favor. Valerie slowly caressed the halfa’s cheeks mid-kiss akin to touching snow. Danny brushed Valerie’s curvy hair, sending a subtle cold from his hands. The Ghostketsu Crew melted from this moment, giving a perfect excuse for Ryūko to cuddle Mako and further appreciate Valerie’s flex.
“... Nani sore? ” Nonon comically paused at the French kiss.
“... The hell happened?” Uzu wondered alongside her, completely lost at this plot twist.
“You two were really banking on Fenton becoming Matoi’s boyfriend, did you?” Ira rolled his eyes at Nonon and Uzu’s comical shock.
“Aw, come on. You two also wanted to see this come to life, ain’t you?” Uzu berated the Elite’s hypocrisy.
“Unlike you two, my interest over Matoi’s new friend was purely scientific. Once Valerie Gray came into the picture, the data was clear. Fenton would have ended up with her over Matoi.” Houka explained away.
“Pffff! That’s not what you were saying a few days ago, Doggy.” Nonon remarked.
“Should I remind you of that pic we did together?” Uzu gently poked Houka’s phone with his shinai.
“I only taught you the basics of Photoshop, Sanageyama. If I had participated in that picture, I would have least implemented their faces so that they’ll blend perfectly with the original photo of that bed.” Houka monotonously criticized, pushing the green shinai away.
“Speakin’ of that, I’m about to wreck yer shit for it after we’re done with the tuxedo pieces of shit!” Ryūko hissed back upon hearing about the badly-photoshopped image again.
“Oh! It’s on, Ryūko! We’ll setup our rematch in Danny’s town after we’re done with the Guys in White!” Uzu roared his challenge.
Satsuki didn’t show it to keep an eye on Alpha but she cherished this tiny moment. She smiled at seeing her little sister happy with not only Mako, Maiko and the Elite Four but also her new friends from Amity Park. From what she had heard, Danny’s entourage wasn’t that different from them. She was glad they also have joined their bigger, wacky family.
“OPERATIVES! CONTAIN THEM!”
The remaining Guys in White stationed by the now-destroyed sewing machines gunned down on the intruders, drowning them in pure, plasma bullets. Ira was the first to react and blocked the bullets aimed towards Satsuki and the Elite Four. The notebook bulwark reformed back and grew wider than Ira himself to block the onslaught of laser bullets. Another wave of operatives left their cover and emptied their magazines of piercing ectoplasmic bolts at the Ghostketsu Crew. Valerie and Danny had to stop their small bonding moment to focus on the mission and channeled their mutual shields. A dome force field of red and green enveloped the Ghostketsu Crew, shielding them from the heavy crossfire.
“Thank Ancients. Danny finally stopped being horny.” Sam sighed in relief with her legendary cynical tone.
“You still don’t hold Valerie in your heart…” Jazz noted.
“I mean, she used to hunt him down for months so I get where Sam is coming from.” Tucker explained, shrugging with his hands. “I’m glad that Val don’t wanna sheesh-kebab him, thought.”
The wave of heavy fire still remained strong but unlike the former, those weren’t Ecto-Fibers rifles and were less strong and thus, easier for Danny and Valerie to hold their ground. This left Maiko with enough time to duck to the floor, take one of her bundles of pure Life Fibers and knit two bola nets thanks to Hunter Regalia’s recipe assistant feature. By the time the Guys in White had to reload their firearms, she took the opportunity of Danny and Valerie removing their protection to aim her latest craft.
“Say hello to my Spider Nets!” Maiko shouted to the operatives, throwing her bolas akin to lassos.
The contraptions unfolded from eight, claw-like ends made of hardened Life Fibers into a road-wide, net similar to a spider’s web. The Guys in White weren’t done with their reload that their movement were completely impeded by Maiko’s bolas. Some tried to use their pocket knives to get away but the Life Fibers net tightened its grip. To avoid further escape attempts, Maiko whistled at Team Phantom to aid her in keeping the operatives nice and docile. Jazz pulled the end of the Jack-o-Tails and lassoed the Guys in White who tried to attack the Ghostketsu Crew. Sam and Tucker took care of the operatives who came for the Elite Four’s throat by simply shooting them until all of them passed out from the crossfire of purple ectoplasm and yellow arrows.
“Hey! Watch where you’re shooting!” Nonon hissed, preventing a wave of arrows by deviating the projectiles away from the Elite Four with her amp propellers. “You two almost hit Lady Satsuki!”
“Then, why are you standing there?” Sam suggested, partially irritated by her remark that should have been aimed at Tucker. “Help that big guy who protected you guys instead!”
“You heard her, Baby Snake. Let’s roll!” Uzu added, heading back to the entrance where he heard the last wave of Guys in White coming.
Nonon grumbled at the new nickname from the date at the Nasty Burger and charged the cannons of her amp thrusters, playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 5: “Fate” once again. Uzu spun his weapon to accumulate air until a green whirlwind formed itself around the lightsaber. On a mute countdown, Nonon and Uzu shot their loaded attacks at the incoming wave. Their combined powers traversed the corridor at the speed of sound and hurled the operatives back into the nearest wall, knocking them straight into the unconsciousness.
Houka took care of the operatives entangled by Maiko’s bolas and stripped them of additional data and firearms. With his digital harvest done, he backed away and switched his place with Ira, who reeled two brown, barbed whips out of his wrists. He caught all the remaining Guys in White and furiously whipped them around the walls. The sheer intensity of his strikes stripped the white agents of their clothes and by the time Ira let them go, they were all passed out, bleeding and full of broken bones.
“Hey, Maiko. How busted are Goku Uniforms, really?” Tucker asked, somewhat jealous of the Elite Four’s Three-Star uniforms.
“With the right users, they can make anyone shit their pants.” Maiko explained, crafting another Spider Net for precaution. “It’s not as busted as wearing a kamui but you won’t have to worry about Life Fibers eating you, at least.”
“Note to self: Ask that Iori guy about sewing one once we’re done with the Guys in White.” Tucker thought, mentally creating a note in his mind.
Frustrated by his men’s incompetence, General Alpha finally listened to Uzu’s advice from earlier and blitzed towards Satsuki’s back. Even if broken and without the Ecto-Fibers’s plasma, the spinning mechanism within Templar’s Forgiveness still worked and he switched it to Swordsman mode to backstab her.
“Oh shit!” Ryūko yelled, wanting to save her sister but too busy ripping a humongous wave of Guys in White with Mako and Valerie.
“LADY SATSUKI!” The Elite Four screamed, too far away to prevent the general’s backstab.
“Watch out!” Danny warned, pushing back his wave of Operatives with a glacier he manifested to punch them, ready to fly his way to Satsuki.
But he didn’t reach her in time and was propelled midair by a great, invisible shockwave that broke more of the master room’s walls and created bigger cracks. The halfa turned intangible to avoid being struck by the chunks of the ceiling falling down, creating a smokescreen that blocked everyone’s sight. When it finally dissipated, everyone was reassured.
Satsuki managed to barely anticipate General Alpha’s ambush and parried Templar’s Forgiveness with her unsheathed katana. A cool-colored black blade with a with handle and dark-blue neon traversing down the cutting edge where nitrogen fumed down to the floor.
“You finally heeded Sanageyama’s advice.”
“Only because my men were unable to give you the judgment you should have received from the United Nations.” Alpha grunted.
“Then, let our blades reveal who will go to Hell first .” Satsuki challenged again.
“Wait, how did she get a Fenton Patch?” Jazz spotted the silver patch of clothing with green neon on the katana’s handle.
“Before we joined you, Lady Satsuki met Fenton’s parents at Axion Labs, who gave her that anti-ghost patch we heard from Ryūko Matoi’s quest in America.” Ira explained, crossing his arms.
“Then, Iori did his magic on Bakuzan Bakuro-Sha and tadaa! Those stupid Ecto-Fibers can no longer avoid her.” Nonon added, confident in Satsuki’s skills.
“Huh? He’s also on the ride?” Jazz asked again.
“Lady Satsuki reunited us all to Kanto and took a private plane from the Soichiro Institute to Amity Park.” Houka confirmed. “Whatever you have unraveled in your investigation about Project God Threads must have led her to bring back our greatest assets from our fight against Ragyo Kiryūin.”
“Awesome! Everyone is here!” Mako cheered to know their whole family hopped into the US.
Satsuki pushed Templar’s Forgiveness back from behind and slid left to face General Alpha. She bolted to the GIW director and went for a right slash aimed at his arm. The seasoned agent responded with a vertical parry and held onto his broken blade with his other hand, creating yet another invisible concussive blast that destroyed one third of the cylindrical Ecto-fibers containers.
“You have lost your ambition!” Alpha bellowed, disappointed by her stubbornness to not listen to his greater view over Humanity.
“And yours will usher our extinction if we let it fester!” Satsuki harshly retorted, focusing on making the GIW director slip by adding insult to injury on Project God Threads.
Comparing his lifetime project to a disease was enough for Alpha to be enraged and repulsed Bakuzan off him. He furiously grabbed Satsuki’s right hair strand and threw her to the nearest wall with enough power to rip the hair away. She belched from being hurled into the titanium walls and sensed the blood flowing through her head and the sharp pain from having part of her hair plucked out. But she couldn’t stay her for long and had to roll her way out of the crater and General Alpha’s punch. Alpha pursued her with his spinning crossblade and cut the other hair strand away in his decapitation attempt.
“CAN’T YOU SEE EVERYTHING I’VE DONE?! I AM NOT LIKE YOUR MOTHER! I DID ALL OF THIS TO SAVE US ALL FROM THE EVIL THAT ROBBED US OF OUR HAPPY LIVES! ONLY WITH THE UTTER DESTRUCTION OF THE GHOST ZONE AND ITS MONSTERS CAN WE FINALLY MOVE ON!”
“Evil cannot be vanquished by only eradicating what you think is the source of your past traumas!” Satsuki blocked another vertical slash of Templar’s Forgiveness with her katana’s blunt side, and pushed him away to parry the flurry of punches and slashes. “It’s a constant battle we must endure every day in our heart, regardless of what we are. We have been gifted with Change so that we can not only be better as a person but also as a species.”
“Spare me your lecture, hipócrita!” Alpha pestered, falling back from another swipe of Bakuzan and removed the small bloody cut off his face. “You do not even know what I went through. All the blood and sweat I sacrificed to reach this point. Only to see my lifetime project… My salvation , squashed by two, prepubescent mutants and their measly friends YOU HAVE CURATED!”
The GIW director also backed up from Satsuki because his blade finally fell down, leaving him with nothing than the spinning mechanism. He tossed Templar’s Forgiveness away and erratically clenched his fists. Satsuki pull Bakuzan behind and winded up for a down karate chop.
“And for that, I will never forgive you for this, Kiryūin! NEVEEEEEER!”
Up until now, everyone else watched this fight unfold. Team Phantom were particularly struck by Satsuki’s fighting capabilities and how even without a God Robe and previously weakened, Alpha was still a formidable fighter. Yet, they feared for the worst as both were running at each other with all their power. Alpha charged at her with a winded up left jab-
“URGH!”
but he was frozen right as his fist struck her cheeks. Alpha yelped from a hit to the throat by her left side chop. Despite the hit, Satsuki endured the attack so that she could strike him.
“You must move on, Alpha. Only then, you will reach the salvation you’ve been looking for all this time.” She whispered, keeping her eyes on Alpha’s sole eye as his limp body fell backwards to the ground, passing out for good.
“Holy shit!” Ryūko bolted to check up on her sister. “Suavemente Inquisitor redid your freakin’ face and haircut.”
“I was looking for a new haircut anyway.” Satsuki smirked at her, removing the small, horizontal blood stain around her mouth with her thumb. “Besides, I am glad that you are alright, Imouto .”
“Same… Big Sis’. ”
Unbeknownst to them, Operative O and K were spying on the group. Since their failure at the observatory, they were demoted from Project God Threads and thus, wore basic white tuxedos bought from Sophia’s. O’s ear walkie-talkie beeped out and he answered.
“O. This is Omega from the Wisconsin branch. I’ve received an automated message from Alpha’s uniform stating that he was defeated. It that true?”
“Affirmative. Inviso-Bill and Black Kamui stripped him of Aegis Divinatus and was knocked unconscious.”
“Listen to me. You must retrieve Alpha’s body asap. If the Kiryūin Conglomerate sends him to Justice to appear in court for all the accusations weighting over us, the GIW would be dismantled on the spot, even with the Government’s backup to keep us afloat. Once you retrieved him, teleport back to the Wisconsin headquarters. Is that understood?”
“Copy that.”
“Good. Now, get in there and save Alpha. We can’t afford to lose our most gifted agent. Omega signing out.”
Operative O tapped on K’s shoulder and pointed to the passed out body of General Alpha. Once they looked both ways and made sure the coast was clear, the last two Guys in White booted up their invisibility and bolted.
“Weren’t we supposed to assassinate Satsuki Kiryūin and her four bodyguards?” K asked, weird out by O running to General Alpha’s body.
“General Omega ordered us to retrieve Alpha back to the Wisconsin branch’s headquarters. If he’s imprisoned for the Exterminatus Decree, the whole organization would crumble and we’ll be all sentenced to death penalty.” O replied.
“Then, why did I not receive her order?” K asked again, slightly pouting that O got the order.
“The Generals were probably looking to find operatives who weren’t K.O or dead… And judging by the scene, we’re essentially the only one left.” O explained his theory.
“I’m kinda jealous that you received it first.” K pouted at his colleague.
“Trust me. It’s best that I’m one receiving such important task recaps.” O remarked, furrowing at the blatant envy of K. “You fumbled the orders last time a General tasked you with something.”
Jazz dreadfully paused, swearing she had heard new voices bickering in the back of her mind. To make sure she wasn’t going crazy, she looked around to spot where the voices supposedly came. Her small anxiety went away when she saw Operative O and K lift General Alpha’s body, still pestering at their mutual records of violations.
“Hey! The Guys in White are taking Alpha away!”
“Shoot! She saw us.” K stammered at Jazz’s peeping.
“Initiate the Emergency Teleportation asap.” O pushed a button hidden behind the pocket holding the handkerchief.
“Get back here! You ain’t going nowh-OUCH!” Uzu jumped straight at their direction, only to phase through the remains of a fading blue hologram and headbutt into Nonon. “Goddammit, Nonon! You had to ruin everything!”
“I would have caught these idiots if it wasn’t for your charging head first, Monkey business!” Nonon berated him over hitting her propellers with his shinai.
“We’ll deal with bringing Agent Alpha to Justice later. We must stop the production of Ecto-Fibers at once!” Satsuki ordered.
With nothing but the mincemeat-like tube connected to the Templar Cross and the Ancient’s core, Ira pulled his whips out of his wrists and grabbed the two ends of the tube to extract them out. But doing so, he began to rip the Source’s foundations and Danny saw this as a guaranteed way for Undergrowth to wake up. He flew to the frozen ghost and pushed it to the opposite of Gamagoori’s pull.
“Oi! The fuck are ya doin’?!” Ryūko loudly asked from afar.
“I’m making sure that Undergrowth doesn’t wake up! If he does, he will one hundred percent try to kill us all!” Danny yelled his answer.
Despite Ira’s incredible strength and Danny’s help, the machine wouldn’t budge. Ryūko sighed and ran up to the tube, climbing it using her blood pumping into her legs. Once she’s near the core, she planted the Rending Scissors right between the icy hole and the cross’ plug. Ryūko pushed the scissor blades’ handles towards Ira’s direction, putting her right foot to give additional power.
“Need some help?” Uzu smugly suggested, plating his saber shinai next to the scissors.
“Are ya tryin’ to white knight me or somethin’?” Ryūko smirked at his proposition.
“Pfff! Why would I be your knight?” He chuckled, thinking that the sukeban would be a very bad princess. “I’m Lady Satsuki’s knight, remember?”
“Yeah-yeah. Stop tryin’ to impress her and get that mincemeat tube away from the ghost statue.” She retorted, shifting into Seijin to fasten the process.
“Says the bad girl who came to her ghost boyfriend’s rescue to remove the tube.” Uzu lowly teased with a shit-eating grin etched to his face.
“Hey! Fuck off with that!” Ryūko instinctively pestered despite her blush telling otherwise.
Uzu and Ryūko’s intervention started to crack the Ecto-Core Mender away from Undergrowth’s dormant core. Yet, it wasn’t still enough to separate the Source from the machine. Houka sent out a plasma blue web to the tube and help with Ira’s pull. Nonon flew behind the tube and played “Fate” to push it even further away. Everyone put all of their efforts to rip the mincemeat away, yelling to add further power. And finally, the Ecto-Core Mender was torn away by Ira’s whips, who took care of destroying its remains. Those near the frozen statue bounced it off to join the rest and take their deserved relief. Anyone but Team Phantom awed at the Ancient’s core. A pulsing, purple barbed chestnut-like heart hidden beneath layers of barbed roots, emitting a dreadful aura reminding anybody looking at it of Nature.
“It’s beautiful… and yet, frightening to see this.” Satsuki contemplated with fascination and apprehension. “To think that gods are actually real is something I’d never thought to be possible, even in a world that doesn’t make sense like ours.”
“What’s more intriguing is how you get to fight off literal gods in your town like they were nothing to you.” Uzu quipped as he walked up to Team Phantom. “No, seriously. That’s something even us never got to deal with, and we were fighting godlike aliens a year ago.”
“Technically, they aren’t gods per se but because they’re the oldest ghosts, they considered as such within the Ghost Zone.” Tucker corrected by pointing at Danny with one bolt of the Spectral Crossbows. “Plus, Danny’s the one who throws hands with them.”
“But aren’t Life Fibers just as busted as ghost powers?” Sam asked, recalling Shiro’s explanation. “From what we’ve seen so far, they’re stupidly invincible and scary. Even the ghosts are unusually weary of those red threads you guys call banshi.”
“What you saw is but a sample of what we’ve seen for years now. The true power of Life Fibers is not to be trifled with.” Houka confirmed.
“Then again, you only experienced Life Fibers with Miss Bites-a-Lot over there. Chances are, some of those ghosts were more traumatized by her humongous anger issues than the Life Fibers.” Nonon hummed.
“The fuck did you just say?!” Ryūko snarled, turning her attention to the short-sized girl.
“Nothing~!”
Meanwhile, Danny took the cautious action of freezing the Ancient again. He charged his palms with cold fumes, which fizzled into subzero lasers aimed at the ghost’s core. He kept the pressure for about ten seconds until the barbed ghost’s soul could no longer beat and was completely severed from the remains of the Ecto-Core Mender.
“So… what now?” Danny flew back to the rest and gently landed between the Ghostketsu Crew and the Elite Four. “We stopped all the Guys in White and destroyed that machines who created the Ecto-Fibers.”
“We must help Nudist Beach escort the Life Fiber seeds out of the GIW headquarters and back into Axion Labs. Once they’ve all been safely retrieved, we can finally leave this place and end Operation Rending Fate.” Satsuki answered, sheathing her blade.
“Phew, Glad we’re done with their bullshit.” Ryūko huffed her relief.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s help Mikisugi so we can finally celebrate this fun day with the biggest buffet done by my mom!” Mako happily instructed.
Mako’s happiness made Danny realize it was finally over. They have dealt with the Guys in White and stopped Project God Thread with the help of everybody. Team Phantom, Kamui Squad, his parents, Vlad, Axion Labs, Nudist Beach, Satsuki and the Elite Four. Heck! Even Amity Park helped him to some extent. They wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Casper High supporting them or Wes snooping around the Guys in-
SANCTUS! DOMINUS!
“Oh no…” Danny stopped in his tracks by his ghost core’s warning and his Ghost sense coming off in the biggest puff of smoke he had ever produced.
“Oi, what’s wrong?” Ryūko walked back to Danny from feeling his ghost sense caressing her smoking hot skin.
“I… got a ghost warning again.” He solemnly disclosed.
“What’s happening, Danny? What did you feel this time?” Senketsu’s good eye saw the halfa’s face melt into dread.
“I really hope that’s not I’m thinking it’s about to happen…” Danny hesitated on looking at the frozen Ancient.
“Whatcha heart told y-”
Crack
Crack
“Auuurrrgh…” Ryūko audibly groaned, her red band glowing so bright the Ghostketsu Crew, Satsuki and the Elite Four were basked in her light by looking at the frozen Ancient. “We’re fucked, ain’t we?”
“Not exactly but we are definitely about to fight him.” Danny warned her, focusing on the growing cracks around the frozen statue.
“Aw, great.” Valerie groaned, materializing her dual wrist cannons and her black hoverboard to stay alongside Danny. “He had to wake up…”
“Welcome to my world, Val. Hope you’re all ready to fight your first ghost Ancient.” Danny pep-told his welcome.
“Hey, why are you not following u-”
CRASH!
A chunk of ice the size of a motorbike fell down the frozen prison and shattered into a pile of sharp ice, scaring Mako into hiding behind Ryūko’s back. Said chunk revealed the wide-opened, rainbow, pupiless eye of the awakened Ancient.
“Ryūko-chan… I’m scared.”
“Stay close to us, Mako. We’ve got this…”
CRACK
CRACK
“No…” Satsuki realized, seeing the very worst possibility about Project God Threads coming into existence with her most expressive worried look.
“Lady Satsuki?! What’s happening?” Nonon noticed her abruptly turning back to the Source.
“Guys, I think Undergrowth is waking up from his forced nap.” Tucker explained, gritting at the growing cracks.
“Who’s Undergrowth?” The Elite Four asked in unison, trying to understand the situation and why Satsuki reacted this way.
“The Ancient they have sealed for Project God Threads. He’s the one who controls all plants, can mind-control anyone with them and the one who hates Humanity the most. Each time he shows up, it’s to feed humans, animals and ghosts to his plants.” Jazz quickly explained for them to understand.
“Wow! The Guys in White had to pick the ghost who hates everybody.” Maiko sarcastically said, rolling her eyes beneath Hunter Regalia’s helmet. “Did they ever take a single decision in their entire existence?”
“Bold to assume the Guys in White even know what a good decision is.” Sam noted.
“And what does it have to do with Lady Satsuki’s reaction?” Ira demanded.
“You know that whole Primordial Ecto-Fiber deal this Iori guy warned us about? Well, we found an old Ghostspeak stele in Alpha’s office saying that fusing an Ancient with Life Fibers would turn it mad and trigger an apocalypse that will end up in the destruction of our universe, Aztec-style.” Tucker fearfully explained, showing the great plaque of hardened Life Fibers with the Ghostspeak text to the Elite Four through his PDA. “We’ll be totally fucked if we don’t do something about it.”
“No wonder she reacted this way! Iori must have found out why their stupid project is that dangerous and told Lady Satsuki about it.” Uzu remarked, not thrilled to hear that another apocalypse is on the horizon.
“And what does that mean for us, Turkey?” Nonon wondered, leaning next to Uzu from above.
“This ghost they have captured… It became a sentient Primordial Ecto-Fiber after overriding the natural allergy between Life Fibers and Ectoplasm on its own.” Houka solemnly disclosed, connecting what Tucker explained with Shiro’s data and the defreezing Ancient. “... And it’s rising from the dead to reenact something worse than the Cocoon Sphere Genesis.”
Suddenly, the entire ground within the master room was shaking faster and faster from the tremors. Abyssal cracks appeared from the Source and spread out of the floor and into the walls and ceiling. Hundreds of black roots with a rainbow tint were sprouting en masse , covering it with its wicked presence.
GEMINUS! THAUMATURGIST RISE!
“Leave the ground! NOW!” Danny yelled with his ghost voice to be heard by everyone after another warning of his ghost core, flying above to dodge the rising eldritch plant.
“JUMP!” Ryūko loudly ordered, transforming into her Shippu form to fly away.
“Mako! Hop on my hoverboard!” Valerie shouted, waving the Bansho-wearing girl to ride her hoverboard with her.
“You got it!” Mako jumped behind and cuddling the Red Huntress to avoid falling off from the flight.
“Team Phantom! Ogure! Jump on my back!” Ira ordered.
“Use your grappling hook!” Sam attached her wire to the spiked circle strapped to Ira’s back of the neck and climbed first.
“I’ll go top if you don’t mind. I don’t wanna crush my baby.” Tucker remarked.
With Sam leading the way, Jazz, Tucker and Maiko used their ropes to attack themselves onto the large, armored man. Ira took a barbed whip out from his left wrist and threw it at the ceiling to retracted it and remain midair with everyone on his back.
“Hold on tight!” Nonon took Satsuki by the arms from behind and flew off to join Ira and the Crackers.
“Holy shit! They’re everywhere!”
Uzu jumped his way out of the ghastly roots’ reach with piercing throws from his shinai. Each gust of wind propelled him through the air, allowing him to safely land into the light blue, cubic digital platform in the air magically and conveniently conjured for everyone to gather around.
“Hey, I didn’t know you could model stuff like this.”
“I recently discovered that my ability to create floating platforms was actually part of Probe Regalia Mark II but I never got to use it when it was first conceived.” Houka disclosed, pleased to see the current results about the upgraded Goku Uniforms. “Iori must have reunited all iterations of our Goku Uniforms into the Ultimate variant to better combat those Ecto-Fibers.”
“Aaaaaaaww! So, that’s why Baby Snake can lift Lady Satsuki with those tiny reactors. I thought she wouldn’t be able to with Symphony Regalia: Finale.”
“Call me that again and I’ll gorge your eyes out!” Nonon hissed.
“Go ahead! I’ll be in permanent Shingantsu if you do that.” Uzu dared back.
“Status report, everyone.” Aikuro requested through a Nudist Beach walkie-talkie back in the office.
“The retrieval operation is almost done and the last Life Fiber seed is outside the headquarters. We only need to reach the evacuation point installed by Axion Labs’ beacon in the-”
SCRREEEEEEEEE!
“Oh no! They reached us!”
“What’s happening? Who reached you?” Aikuro urgently requested, overhearing animalistic and demented human shrieks on the other side.
“It’s those rainbow black roots: They devour anyone they catch. They have wiped out the Ghost Investigation Ward agents and have started to-OH GOD! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY! AAAAAAAAAAAAHSGSDGG-*BEEEEEEEEEEEEP*
Aikuro and Tsumugu were petrified by they’ve heard and combined with the only camera within the security room, they quickly understood the gravity of the situation. The roots were festering like the Black Plague throughout the GIW headquarters, piercing the many vaults and walls of the bunker. The Operatives who weren’t present at the master room tried to push it back but none survived their onslaught. The eldritch fibers constricted any human they found and devoured them. Even the imprisoned ghosts who thought they were free were dissolved inside the vines, screaming for their afterlives.
“In the beginning, there was nothing… and everything…”
Even worse, the sentient black roots stripped with rainbow motifs have reached the security room where they were. Festering, rainbow-tinted visages of horror emerged from the branches of their own, both human and inhuman, chanting with a gargled mix of voices from the persons they have devoured.
“All worlds were one … All beings were one … Until disharmony struck .”
“What it’s… saying?” Mikisugi held the Tailor’s Dagger’s blades to keep the horror who barged into the security room at bay.
“I have no fucking idea but it’s the biggest and weirdest bad trip someone can have. The prophetic kind that sounds like Moses would say when he divided the Red Sea in two.” Tsumugu remained next to his old friend, keeping his widened stare and anti-Life Fibers weapons aimed and steady.
“DIVIDED?! THE DIVIDE IS NOT THE NATURAL ORDER! THE DIVIDE IS NOT THE NATURAL ORDER!”
The disfigured faces within the roots wrathfully screeched and lunged their forsaken barbed vines at them. Mikisugi flawlessly dodged each eldritch vine from the enraged roots, cutting some with Tailor’s Dagger. Tsumugu aimed his needle gun and pierced the eyes of the faces, letting him and Mikisugi run away from General Alpha’s office before the eldritch plant could regenerate and pursue them for saying the forbidden word.
“Splendid! We’re now haunted by ghost clothing.” Aikuro sighed, panting from their frantic run in the bunker’s corridor.
“All ‘cause the Americans thought they could weaponize Life Fibers to fight off ghosts… Fucking idiots.” Tsumugu grumbled, reloading his sewing machine-looking Uzi with another magazine of needles.
All the captured humans and ghosts found within the bunker were led back into the master room. Their bodies and souls were all visible thought rainbow spots of lights, sliding inside the roots, revitalizing the Ancient ghost with each soul and body absorbed. The Ghostketsu Crew and the Elite Four remained cautious, still flying as they saw the ghost’s core beating faster.
And then, it glowed brighter until it provoked a booming blast, destroying the last remains of the icy shackles, sending one last warning to Danny’s core.
DUPLEXUS! MALEFICUS! CHAOS LORD REBORN!
“AT LAST! I HAVE RECLAIMED MY RIGHTFUL, LOST POWER! I AM COMPLEEEEEETE!”
