Broken Phantom

-GIW Agent C-

Agent C tightened his grip on his rifle as the transport ship rumbled around him. He could hear the chatter of his squad through the comms, their voices tense but determined. Today was the day they would fulfill their glorious duty.

For years, the Ghost Investigation Ward had been fighting an uphill battle against the ectoplasmic plague that infested the world. They had lost good men—too many to count—to these abominations. But now? Now, they had the upper hand.

The Fenton home had been opened up and cleared to provide the space for their equipment.

Everything was now ready and they could now enter the Ghost Zone.

The rift split open before them, the eerie glow of the Ghost Zone casting unnatural shadows inside the ship. Alarms blared as containment units deployed, hovering tanks rolled out, and wave after wave of soldiers poured into enemy territory.

Agent C's heart pounded with fervor. They were the last line of defense for humanity. Their mission was sacred.

Capture as many ghosts as possible for painful experimentation. Eradicate everything else.

"This is not a retrieval mission," his commander barked through the intercom. "The Fenton Protocol is now in effect. If it moves, it dies."

They moved into the Ghost Zone, ready to fulfill the work that had been tasked to them.

The burden that they had taken upon themselves to shoulder for the good of humanity regardless of some of the sacrifices that had to be made along the way. They would all have been for the betterment of humanity.

The moment their boots hit the ground, they unleashed hell. The eerie silence of the Ghost Zone was shattered by the roar of weapons. Green energy blasts cut through the air, striking down specters with brutal efficiency. The ghosts screamed, twisted into formless ectoplasm, their essence vacuumed into containment units.

They pushed forward as they moved, they could see countless doors and islands that floated around and took no mercy as they moved.

Agent C sneered. This was justice. This was purification.

These unnatural things didn't belong in their world and they would make sure they don't.

But as they continued to move the ghost became less and less.

After about an hour in they hardly saw any of the ectoscums.

Something was wrong. He could feel it.

Things felt like they were going smooth but most of the ghosts they had captured and destroyed were all animal ghosts and nothing above a level 3.

The hairs on his hands suddenly stood on ends.

Then, the air grew heavy.

A deep, unnatural pulse radiated through the area. Power spiked, the scanners beeping, alarms ringing.

It was as if the ghost zone itself had suddenly decided to retaliate.

The sky cracked with unnatural energy, and suddenly, forces emerged from the abyss.

The war had truly begun.

-Vlad-

The cold grip of the Ghost Zone welcomed him once again.

Two years. He didn't ever think that he would be denied access to the Zone like that. Even now he didn't know how it happened only that it did.

But now for some unknown reason, he was once again able to pass the barriers between worlds, And yet, something gnawed at the back of his mind.

'Why' he thought 'Why now'. When he was here at the height of his power in the human world. Countless leaders are at his fingertips.

Daniel was dead. It was a shame. The boy had been stubborn and refused to submit, he had been the main reason Vlad had been struggling to kill Jack, to obtain Maddie.

But that was in the past, the boy had resisted and Vlad no longer had the patience to deal with him any longer. Sure also giving up his darling Maddie was a sacrifice but for what he was about to obtain it was worth it.

So why was he feeling strange?

These past two years, there had been nothing. Only silence.

And with Phantom gone, that meant the throne—the Infinite Realms itself—was ripe for the taking.

If only he had been able to enter the Ghost Zone these past years he would have already been ruling the universe.

Vlad Masters—Plasmius—hovered just beyond the flickering edge of a tear in reality, his crimson eyes narrowing as he took in the destruction below.

It had been two years since he had last set foot in this wretched realm. Two years of frustration, of being locked out by whatever had been done to sever his access.

But now… he was back.

A slow grin spread across his face as he took in the chaos. "Well, well… it seems I'm just in time."

He had spent too long in the shadows, regaining his influence, expanding his empire in the human world, and searching for a way back into the Ghost Zone. The GIW had unknowingly solved his problem. Their reckless assault had disturbed the delicate balance of ecto-energy, forcing open pathways that had once been sealed to him. or so he thought.

Vlad chuckled darkly. "I suppose it's time to reclaim what's mine."

The last time he had walked this realm, whispers had reached him—whispers of the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. The Artifacts of immense power, that had once led him to freeing the tyrant king were waiting for the right hands to claim them. They had resurfaced, ready to anoint a new King of the Infinite Realms.

He knew that Daniel was the one who battled the King but as the one who helped at the end, he could be considered the second in line. And with Phantom gone...

Vlad smirked. If Phantom had been here, perhaps he would have tried to rule if only to oppose his Right. Foolish child. He would have been crushed under the weight of his own inexperience. But if the throne stood empty, if no true king had yet risen... then there was no one to challenge Vlad's claim.

No, Vlad Masters would be the one to take the throne.

-Mike Jackson-

It started as a blip on a newsfeed.

A journalist in London refreshed his screen and frowned at the sudden flood of reports. 'Classified documents leaked online—Government Corruption? Secret Experiments?'

Thousands of pages of confidential files, videos, and testimonies were spreading like wildfire. 'The Ghost Investigation Ward was at the center of it all.'

The journalist clicked on a video. Grainy footage showed an underground facility, people strapped to operating tables, their screams muffled by restraints. Doctors in GIW uniforms injected glowing green liquid into their veins.

Another document listed names, dates, and locations. Not just scientists or field agents—senators, governors, high-ranking military officials. They had all been involved, all complicit in years of illegal experimentation and abuse.

There had been one particular video that got to him, of a little girl no more than 7, crying screaming, pleading as they cut her open and kept saying things like 'It's for the good of Humanity'.

It had not just him puking up his guts.

A breaking news alert flashed across his screen: "Government experimental files outed worldwide.'"

The journalist's blood ran cold.

This wasn't just a scandal.

This was a reckoning.

And somewhere, the person responsible for this exposure was watching it unfold.

A second wave of leaks hit the internet—videos of ghostly entities trapped in GIW test chambers, humans being subjected to dangerous ectoplasmic exposure, and secret meetings between high-ranking officials approving illegal funding.

Across the world, people were waking up to the truth.

Governments were scrambling to issue denials. Protests erupted outside government buildings. Military leaders distanced themselves from the GIW, throwing former allies under the bus. Social media exploded with outrage and speculation.

Missing people reports now making sense and family and friends rushing out in the open.

One phrase trended above all others: #ExposeTheGIW.

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone, Danny Phantom watched the chaos unfold from his throne, his lips curling into a smirk. He was going to make sure that after everything even if the smallest of ones slipped through the cracks they would have no way to go.

Phase one had begun.