Vlad Masters' Mansion, Wisconsin - October
The anomaly was no longer a curiosity; it was an obsession. In the soundproofed silence of his basement—a room hidden behind the oak-paneled study—Vlad Masters watched the data stream. Another spike was seen. The same clean, artificial signature from Amity Park. It was brief and precisely controlled. The matter was furiously elusive.
His initial intrigue had curdled into cold, sharp concern. This was not the Fentons' signature. Their work was a splash of garish color; this was a single, precise beam. Someone else had not only replicated ghost portal technology but had refined it. The implications were staggering, and each one threatened the empire he had built.
A rival with that kind of power was a variable he could not tolerate. A human would be a thief to be eliminated. If it was a ghost than he needed to be careful as only high tier ghost can have this kind of intelligence. If it's A tier than even he has to be careful. But if it's a half-ghost like him that would be fascinating, he dismissed the thought, as he did not see anyone of his kind in his life.
"Patience, Vladimir," he murmured, his voice the only sound in the room. "Strict surveillance is necessary, and time will tell whether it's a enemy or a friend."
His fingers danced across a holographic interface. He would not confront this mystery directly. It's not time yet. Instead, he initiated Project: Silent Watch. He installed several monitoring devices in Amity park. They would monitor energy fluctuations, track unusual electromagnetic pulses, and listen for the distinct harmonic resonance of a stable portal.
He was deploying a digital net. Eventually, his mysterious rival would make a mistake, a larger energy surge, or a longer activation. And when they did, Vlad's sensors would be there to pinpoint the source. He would study his prey from the shadows before ever revealing himself.
Elmerton - Kael's Basement Workshop
The memory of the fight with Skulker was deeply etched in Kael's memory. The victory was a benchmark, but the aftermath—the drained suit, the desperate
gamble—was the real lesson. He had reached the absolute limit of his prototype technology. Pushing further meant not just improvement, but evolution.
In this two months, he studied and experimented with the improvement of his technology. Another gratifying aspect was the information extracted from the ghosts. The five captured ghosts were not prisoners; they were his most valuable professors.
The Glow Wisp's pulsating light patterns taught him to read emotional spikes in ecto-signatures, allowing him to fine-tune his HUD's threat-assessment algorithms to predict aggression levels.
The Mistling's phase-shifting nature was a masterclass in intangibility. By observing its density fluctuations, he learned to phase specific body parts with pinpoint accuracy, no longer wasting energy turning his entire body intangible to dodge a single attack.
The Chain Wraith was the key to understanding ectoplasmic constructs. Studying how it willed its chains into existence allowed Kael to finally solidify his Ghost Shield from a flickering barrier into a stable, disc-shaped platform of swirling silver energy that could reliably deflect sustained fire.
The Frost Phantom and Sparkgeist were lessons in energy control. He learned to modulate his Inferno Strike, realizing a concentrated, ice-pick strike was more efficient than a wide-area blast. From the Sparkgeist's chaotic discharges, he learned to insulate his suit's circuitry against Electromagnetic Pulse effects.
This Two-month deep dive into applied ecto-biology transformed his gear. Project: Hunter II was born. The reactor was smaller, yet 40% more efficient, capable of a rapid emergency recharge by siphoning ambient ghost energy. The armor was lighter, woven with ecto-resistant fibers inspired by the Mistling's dispersion patterns. The suit was no longer a collection of gadgets; it was a synergistic extension of his own power.
But more pressingly, the fight had also exposed his greatest vulnerability: his home was a fixed address on both sides of the veil. Vlad masters can easily track him with sometime if he kept using the portal like this. He needed to hide the signature light when his portal was activated. He came up with a idea after thinking for weeks.
Project: Aegis was born—a multi-layered defense system to shroud and secure the portal.
He broke the problem into three layers developed over 6 months of grinding theoretical work:
The Cloak: A ring of emitters around the portal arch that functioned like active noise-cancelling headphones for reality. By studying the Mistling's dispersal patterns, he designed them to emit a counter-wave that negated the portal's unique energy signature, making it bleed into the background static of the Ghost Zone. It could be achieved functional in two months and it would serve his biggest purpose of secrecy maintain. The Lock:A biometric scanner that interfaced directly with his unique ecto-signature. Any attempt to bypass it would trigger a non-destructive but powerful ecto-electric surge (reverse-engineered from the Sparkgeist) designed to fry external hacking equipment. The Tripwire:A network of passive sensor nodes hidden around the portal's Ghost Zone exit. Inspired by the Chain Wraith's tethers, they would send a silent alert to his HUD if any powerful ghost approached without his specific IFF signal, allowing him to abort activation remotely.
By December, the Cloak was in its first operational phase. A single, clunky emitter could shave 40 % off the signature's intensity for a few minutes before overheating—a but critical proof of concept. The Lock's housing was built, its algorithms learning his ecto-signature. The next four months would be about scaling the Cloak to 100% and deploying the Tripwire network.
But the greatest evolution was happening within. For two months, he had lingered at the peak of C-Tier, sharpening his control over his powers. He trained his core daily in the Recovery Chamber, the raw energy of the Ghost Zone a constant pressure against his limits.
It happened on a quiet December night, the first anniversary of his arrival in this world. He was replaying the fight with Skulker in his mind for the hundredth time, a perfect, high visualization powered by his enhanced ghostly memory and analytical mind. He wasn't just remembering; he was stress-testing every decision, overlaying new data from his research to find better solutions. He pushed in his meditation, not for more raw power, but for deeper control. To compress the storm within him.
The air crackled. The silver ripples in his aura, usually like cracked glass, smoothed into the calm, concentric waves of a pond. The energy within him compressed, solidified, and then—
Click.
It was a fundamental, atomic realignment. The hum of his core deepened into a powerful, resonant frequency. Power, vast and placid, waited for his command. His HUD, sensing the shift, flickered to life.
<<< SCAN COMPLETE. USER BIO-SIGNATURE UPDATE. >>>
<<< ECTO-RANK: B-TIER. THREAT LEVEL: ELEVATED. >>>
<<< STATUS: EVOLUTION STABILIZED. >>>
Kael opened his eyes. The world was sharper, slower, utterly clear. He was B-Tier. An elite predator. A Domain Master in the making. He felt exhilarated. Now, he could be on even footing on the likes of Skulker, Walker, Technus at his full peak. From his information of the canon, only 10% are in this category. He can be now called a local boss. He wanted to see and feel the new changes in his body.
His moment of triumph was cut short by an alert from his external sensor network, the one he'd built to monitor Elmerton for exactly this reason.
<<< ALERT: ECTOPLASMIC SURGE DETECTED. LOCATION: ELMERTON WOOD. >>>
<<< SIGNATURE: UNSTABLE. ENERGY READINGS SPIKING. CLASSIFICATION: POTENTIAL NATURAL PORTAL FORMATION. >>>
A cold dread washed over him. He'd been so focused on the threats he knew—Vlad's hidden eyes, Skulker's vengeance—that he'd forgotten the world itself could break open.
He had secured his artificial gate , only for nature to threaten to open a new, wild one right on his doorstep. The game had just changed again.