Mutated Ectoplasm

21. Thirteen

Hey everyone! Sorry if this chapter came out a little later than usual. I know it's not that late, but still. I've just had a lot of little things going on this week that required my attention, a lot of them still up in the air right now. Just stuff related to jobs, writing my second book, and just generally finishing up a class. Plus, this chapter was a little harder to write.

I don't really know why it was so hard to write, but I think I'm facing a block right now. Hopefully forcing myself to write more will stop it, but I think it's okay.

I do have something to announce at the end notes, though, so feel free to read until the end there.

I'll see you all the end of the chapter!

"Please tell me you aren't serious." Sollux looked over the sound files Karkat had collected off of Skulker's arm. He sighed loudly, handing his friends phone back to him. "For fucks sake, you're serious. I can't believe this shit."

"A one in a million chance to meet someone else with ghost powers, and he may have staged an attack on our school." Aradia's thousand-yard stare into the distance was one for the history books, especially since it crossed into becoming a death glare. "I'm starting to truly think you're cursed, Karkat. I really am."

"Join the fucking club. I still can't believe this either, and I practically stayed up all night listening to those." Karkat had done that after taking the arm and hiding it somewhere from his dad. He'd made sure to go over most of them to double check if it was some kind of misunderstanding. "And I'm pretty sure he's expecting me to call him up soon. Which would be fine if he wasn't a goddamn supervillain."

"Look, maybe this isn't that bad." Sollux received some weird looks for that, which he waved off. "Shut up, I can try and be positive too. Maybe he didn't mean for Skulker to nearly burn down the school. Maybe he just wanted him to back off and test your skills?"

"That doesn't negate the fact he started a forest fire, Captor." Karkat huffed. He almost wanted a ghost to show up just to let off some steam, which probably wasn't a healthy thought to have. "Which reminds me, make sure to look up anything involved with the name Ampora. If he's willing to commit arson, then he's probably doing some shady shit financial wise."

"Any idea what you're going to do then? About the training, I mean." Aradia fumbled with the straps of her backpack, a worried look crossing her face. "As much as I don't like that you'd be alone with him, it'd be suspicious if you didn't do anything about it. Especially after last night."

"I'm think I'll just have to play along for now. I guess as long as he actually teaches me some shit, I should take what I can get." It didn't sit well with him either, but the halfa figured as long as he didn't make him do anything shady, he'd be fine. "Maybe I can make sure Oberon isn't doing anything worse. Not to mention keep an eye on Eridan, see if he's shady too."

"Maybe you should call up Terezi and Nepeta too, while you're at it. If he does have contacts in the Ghost Zone, that means he's probably known there too." Aradia figured the logic was pretty much sound. Karkat couldn't really argue with it. "Give them some warning, though. Just in case."

"TZ's right, we really do need to stop calling her when a crisis is going on." Sollux pulled out his phone, already beginning his research. "Aradia, you mind looking up some stuff on Peixes? I'll do the heavy stuff for them later."

Aradia grunted in the affirmative while Karkat brought up Ghostian on his phone. He sent out a probing message, which got a quick response.

CG: RISE AND SHINE! THIS AIN'T A SOCIAL CALL EITHER.