A.N. Unexpected crossover, huh?

"I didn't sign up for that."

The following statement was said by a man, who wore a metal suit of armor. There wasn't a single opened place, everything was covered by a strong alloy. He was wearing a black shirt above the metal, and his helmet looked like a skull, which was a source for his nickname, which later became a full name. Instead of his right arm there was a wide blaster, emitting a green smoke. The man narrowed his pupiless green eyes at the corpse lying in front of him.

The creature had hunchbacked, bipedal reptilian build with long humanoid arms. It was roughly nine to ten feet tall, with a thick and resilient brown hide, who knows how many shots were wasted to kill that nasty killing machine, powerful muscles and twelve-inch-long, razor-sharp claws which had previously left large dents on the man's armor and turned his clothes to shreds. The armored leader kneeled and tilted the creature's heas, wondering if his wife would allow to put its head at the wall.

"What in the blazes is this thing?!" One of the squad members asked.

He, along with three other comrades, was wearing a light, dark green combat armor, with one part covering the chest and shoulders entirely, another two plates were protecting the knees. There were also dark green helmets made from the same material. Beneath that were grayish woolen pants and sweater. There were also black gloves and boots. But their appearance was something unsettling. Three of them had green skin, while the one remaining had blue one. There was a reason for that, they weren't humans, they were ghosts.

The souls of the dead beings had a society of their own. And where was a society, there was the government. And the group's orders were simple - to scout ahead for any contacts with humankind. Because two hundred and twenty years ago the Ghost King commanded to cut off any connections to the opposite plane of existence. Now, for a reason known only to him, he decided to come back. So far the scouts were greeted only by the carnivorous beast. Not that they hadn't encountered the creatures like this in their own world, but the horned beast was unexpected.

"How should I know?" Their leader made a rhetoric question after cutting off a piece of hide and stuffing it in one of his small belt bags. He then got up. "Our mission still stands."

"No offense, Captain Skulker, but I don't recall these beasts walking around the Human World."

"Oh, I'm surely the one who would know. But who knows what changed in these two centuries?" Skulker pried sarcastically. "Move out."

The group followed their leader. The place the portal led them to what looked like an abandoned factory. There were multiple crippled and rusty machines, the dust was everywhere. It was extremely dark around there, but the clock showed it was only three p.m. They were like walking targets, with their bodies glowing with otherworldly aura like the bright lightbulbs. It was hard to be scouts with such a factor, that's why they weren't the most powerful ghosts. To compensate for the lack of power, they wielded silvery blasters, which fired with something in between the plasma and laser.

The scouts went into the office part of the former factory. They would have passed that, but Skulker suddenly noticed a blinking screen of the terminal. Just what he needed. The man approached it and tapped on the keys, while his subordinates shifted nearby impatiently. Skulker meanwhile accessed the terminal and read through the information. There was nothing interesting: the shipments dates, the news about RobCo and RepConn's cooperation, several documents. The latest message was dating to the twenty second of October, two thousand and seventy seventh year. The captain cursed under his nose, but still downloaded the information into the special device.

They continued going. There was no sign of life around. Finally they found something - a corpse. There was a skeleton lying on the floor in one of the corridors. Despite the absence of flesh, the suit was in an acceptable condition. So he didn't die from that thing. The factory couldn't just close with a corpse lying on the floor. Something happened. Something sudden and unexpected. Later they found even more of them.

Finally the scouts reached the main entrance and opened it. Immediately they froze.

"Uhm, sir, are you sure we are in the Human World?"

"I'm not so sure anymore."

They were greeted by black, lifeless landscape. The sky was hidden behind the dark clouds and the green thin fog was everywhere. Occasionally, green lightings sparked somewhere on a distance. Skulker suspected what it was, but better check. From within his armor came a small device - a Geiger counter. Unsurprisingly, it started croaking immediately and quite loudly. They were ghosts, so they could care less about radiation, but why was it there in the first place?

Then the captain took out a map of their location. Apparently, they were at the southern part of Boston.

"Sir, what are your further orders?"

Skulker hummed, putting a hand on his chin.

"We were told to contact humans, so we will not return until we find them. Or at least find out what happened."

"Understood."

And so they went further into the lifeless desert. The scouts occasionally saw the same predatory creatures on a distance. When they were going up the hill, from the ground jumped two another beings which looked like oversized scorpions. Skulker personally stomped with his iron boot on one of them, while the second was shot down. They weren't as dangerous as the previous animal, but if not for Skulker's armor, his leg would have been snapped in half by the scorpion's powerful pincers. The captain took its stinger as a trophy and they kept going.

The surroundings looked all the same, but from the point above the scouts could see better. And one of them spotted something.

"Sir, there is something glowing out there!"

"Everything glows here," Skulker deadpanned, but decided to take a look. From his suit came a binocular and he looked in it. There was something akin to the settlement.

He decided to move there. After a few minutes the group was already examining the village. The houses were made of scrap metal, and looked less than presentable, even if each of them looked unique in its own way. The locals looked at the newcomers in fear. They were all dressed in dark rags, and mostly looked really ill, probably that's why they didn't care about the newcomers' unusual appearance. One of the people went forward, and looked very unsettling. It was like her skin had rotten away in some parts, showing off the muscles.

"Please, we don't have anything of value, just leave," she begged in a hoarse voice.

"Relax, woman, we were just passing," Skulker said.

"What brings you in the Glowing Sea, then?"

"We were sent on an expedition here. So far you are the only sentient beings around here."

"But if they live here it's rather questionable," one of the scouts commented, before being nudged by his comrade.

"Not many would prefer to stay from the usual lives and dedicate themselves to serving the Great Atom. We are His Children, so we chose to be closer to him."

"By being in a radioactive storm," Skulker finished. "Are there any...other settlements?"

"If you mean those who strained from the righteous path, it's right to the north. The Glowing Sea ends there, you'll find multiple settlements."

"Hm, thank you for your assistance. Also, mind telling what exactly created...this?"

The horrid woman smiled, showing her yellow teeth, "Follow me."

The scouts went after her, observing the village. There were barrels filled with radioactive liquids lying around. Those humans clearly didn't think straight. Soon they were let into the small cavern, and the woman lit up a torch, revealing multiple primitive drawings on the walls.

"The Great Atom was always with us," she started, showing a picture of people, who were working under the sun, which looked like an image of atom.

"But only three centuries ago we were able to learn his true power. He bestowed his gifts upon us, our cities lived because of him, our machinery worked because of his blessing..."

"Is she talking about atomic energy?" The scouts whispered, but the supposed priest continued.

"That wasn't enough, the Great Atom wanted all of us to receive his blessing, and two hundred and ten years ago he showed us his nature."

And at this she showed an image of nuclear explosion. The ghosts now realized what made everything around look so lifeless. It was probably the epicenter of the bombardment. Like that was supposed to calm them down. Skulker's lips thinned. The King had picked just the moment to shut the door. No ghost could get to the Zone, so it was no wonder why no one there knew about what happened. Some of those who died in a nuclear fire were probably still roaming the Human World.

After the excursion, the group was outside, while their captain started to think.

"Just bloody brilliant, now what are we supposed to do?" The scout asked.

"In any case, it's not for you to decide, Will," his comrade noted.

"The whelp is right," Skulker said after looking back at them. "This is a decision His Majesty must make. I'll leave to report to him, and you remain here. The humans seem harmless, and I doubt the radiation made them any stronger. Do not provoke them and just wait until I return."

"Yes, sir!" The scouts saluted him and stood straight.

With that a jetpack came out on the captain's back as he flew away, much to the locals' awe.

Skulker soon was near the portal. He stepped through and came out in the opposite plane of existence. Its appearance wasn't much different, black sky was swirling with green and dark purple. The ground presented a bunch of black islands floating in a middle of nowhere. But even in the world of the dead there was more life, there was grass, there were trees. Skulker suddenly found more appreciation for these small things after seeing the lifeless wasteland. The captain flew forward, precisely knowing where to go without any navigation. Soon a giant black keep came into view. Skulker landed near the front gates and the guards, dressed in the black armor, let him in.

The Captain walked through the corridors after being told where the King was. He was in his office. The current owner of the place was a man of culture, his keep surely looked better than during the previous occupant's ownership. Different pictures hung on the walls, suits of armor and sculptures stood on the ground. Beautiful carpets were lying on the path of an armored man. The ruler's home was always a sign of the country's wealth, and this was not an exception, even if there was nothing too fancy, like golden throne or something like that. Skulker knocked on one the doors.

"Come in," a youthful voice sounded from behind it.

The captain entered the room. It had white walls, with dark brown wooden lines going around them. There were several tall bookshelves at the opposite end. There was a window, which gave an outlook at the garden, and in the center was a table made of dark wood.

Behind it was sitting a man, who looked no older than eighteen. But the looks could be deceiving, even if they had some tips. His shockingly white and messy hair was an only indication of his true, three hundred years age. His eyes were of the brightest shade of green, which emitted a slight glow, his skin was fairly tanned. He was wearing simple clothes, black loose costume made of the light material, with white outlines and green buttons. There were also white boots and black pants. The man was sitting cross legged on his chair, looking at the list of paper in his hand, holding his chin with another. He looked up at the visitor.

"Back already, Skulker?" The King asked calmly, returning back to his reading.

The captain rolled his eyes and sat on a chair nearby. "Hello to you, too, Phantom. We met a few...unexpected things."

Phantom's attention was now fully on him. "Care to elaborate?"

Instead of answering, Skulker put a stinger on the table. "Try to guess why scorpions became this big."

"They drank milk?" The King offered jokingly.

"Try radioactive milk," The captain retorted. "There sure is plenty."

"What. Happened."

"Apparently, while we were sitting on our butts here, humans finally decided to destroy each other."

And in short, without spiritualistic additions, Skulker told what he learned. Phantom's expression became grim as he stood up.

"So my fears were correct," he muttered.

"Wait, you knew it would happen?" Skulker asked.

Phantom shrugged. "I suspected this. Unlike you, I spent a lot of time among humans. And I saw what was going on. The lack of resources, the technological progress, which ran ahead of morals. Too many people, too little space. The war was bound to happen. I just didn't want to leave my only remaining friend. Sam was eighty six at the moment she died, surrounded by her family. I was glad she moved on peacefully. There was nothing holding me back anymore."

"It comes with being even half ghost. I can feel you, whelp...what are you going to do now?"

The stark haired man put a hand on his chin, looking out of the window. "You said that Boston was not like what you saw there?"

"So that psychos said."

"We better check that place. Who knows, maybe we will be able to help them."

"In other words, you want to expand there."

"You have a harsh way of calling things. Yes, we may find ghosts there, and we could always use the new working hands."

"And humans?"

"You are asking too many questions, captain," the King said in a singsong voice. "The question of going there is a matter of the Council, not mine. Besides, with what army? All our soldiers are scattered across this entire dimension. I need some time to think about this, if there is nothing else you need, I'd like you to give Frostbite what you have in your second pocket from the left on your belt."

"Damn it, whelp, when have you become so observant?"

"I had a lot of time, besides, the hide sticks from there."

Skulker looked down and saw that the piece of the giant creature's hide was indeed there. The King was smirking smugly at his surprised expression. Skulker understood that Phantom wanted to learn what exactly that being was. Nodding, the captain went out of the room, but was stopped at hearing the King again.

"One more thing, tinny, not a word to anyone about this," Phantom said.

As the door closed behind the visitor, Danny sighed and leaned back in his soft chair. The war certainly ruined all his plans. He went against the very nature of things when he closed the portals between two worlds. They were connected, and without the connection, some anomalies happened there and there. That's why he reopened the portals, to stop the accidents from occurring. Humans never liked the ghosts, so Phantom decided to give the mortals some time alone, so when the ghosts came, they wouldn't be so aggressive. And two civilizations could cooperate. Now, however, one of the civilizations was gone.

But it also opened another door. Ghosts had inherited not only some of the techs from the Old World, but something more important - memory. It could lead to the cultural rebirth, and the undead would be the ones to give a second chance to humanity, improving the image in the process. Yes, that sounded good in a generally optimistic mind of the Ghost King. Maybe too good. There should have been some opposing organizations, who pretended to be the cultural center. But they knew nothing of the prewar world, probably only what they had found in the books.

Phantom was not the same wide eyed teen who stepped on the throne because he had to. He could look eighteen, but there were centuries of hardships, which forged his character. And all of this completely alone. Danny at first had his friends who helped him through, but they all aged, got their families, having less and less time for him, and died. It was a painful experience to bury them one by one. Many wouldn't have been able to bear with such depression, but here he was, a ruler with unlimited amount of sarcasm for everything. Some disliked this trait, but he was still a well loved and just ruler. And Phantom cared for his subjects, because he felt the need to.

After finishing his work, Danny went off to the garden. It was a peaceful place, where he could think without anything bothering him. As he sat on a bench in contemplating of the recently discovered information, Phantom looked at the crystal clean water of the fountain.

Danny leaned back and stared at swirling sky. The same sky he had seen for hundreds of years. Phantom could barely recall how the starry black dome of the Human World looked. Of course, he still remembered the constellations' names, but it was hardly the same. Maybe it was finally his chance. But how could he explain to everyone why he was gone?

Suddenly Danny felt something nuzzling against his hand. He looked down and smiled. There was a small green puppy with red eyes, with black spiky collar. It was sticking the tongue out and wriggling its tail.

"Hey, Cujo," Danny stroked his pet's head. "How is it going, buddy?"

The puppy only barked and lied near his master. Phantom chuckled, still stroking the small green creature. "All you need for happiness is food. If only I had your problems."

He only received another bark. Recalling the day of their meeting, Danny suddenly got an idea.

Yes, he needed the humans to follow him. He could do so by helping them, and not a single soldier would be required. That was a good reasoning. Phantom suddenly got up, picking up his small friend.

"Alright, Cujo, we are going to the journey," he said with a grin.

He received a bark of agreement.