Ember recalls the times when she was alive, along with her biggest interest in life, her dreams, her untimely death.
"Shout it! Shout it! SHOUT IT OUT LOUD!" Ember sang along with the music she was listening to. She rocked out on her guitar as the music played.
Suddenly a knock came on the door.
She paused the music on her boom box and said "come in."
Her husband of only six months, Danny Phantom, came in.
"You rocking out again, Amy?" he asked.
She smiled giddily, and nodded. Danny laughed.
"Ever since I took you tot hat KISS concert in Hawaii you've gone NUTS with them!" he said.
Ember crossed her arms.
"Baby-pop, I've been interested in KISS since they first premiered" she said.
Danny gave her a quizzical look.
"So that would be…" he said, but couldn't remember the exact year.
"February 18, 1974" she said.
Danny looked surprised.
"When their first album, only called 'KISS' came out" she said, falling back into a chair.
She reached down and then retrieved an old record. The faces of the band were on there, along with the band title written in red.
Ember sighed as she looked at it.
"Just looking at this thing still makes me think about…" she said, but didn't finish.
"About what?" Danny said, beginning to rub her shoulders.
She sighed again, this time out of happiness.
"About when I was alive" she answered.
"Tell me about it" Danny said soothingly.
She smiled and began to tell him.
"I was about six years old…" she said.
*flashback*
A young Amber McLain was walking through a record store, browsing the kid section. She heard her dad call her from the oldies section.
She began to run towards him, when something caught her eye.
It was on the 'new releases' shelf.
She looked up and starred in wonder.
"KISS?" she said.
She tried to reach for it, but it was up to high. Suddenly a pair of bigger hands grabbed it, and brought them down to her. She looked up to who the hands belonged to.
It was a worker from the store.
"Did you wanna see this, sweetie?" the teenage woman asked kindly.
Amber nodded.
The older girl smiled and showed it to her.
"These guys are a new band," she told her "and they are a bit different from others."
"I'll say!" Amber said, nodding.
The teenager smiled.
"But I've heard they're really great" she told Amber.
"Would you like to hear them?" she asked.
Amber nodded eagerly.
The girl stood and walked into the back. She came back with a record in her hands and put it into a record behind the counter.
It began to play.
"I know a thing or two about her, I know she'll only make you cry!She'll let you walk the street beside her!But when she wants she'll pass you by, Everybody says she's lookin' good!And the lady knows it's understood!STRUTTER!"
Amber smiled in pure delight.
"Wow!" she said, mesmerized by the music.
"Amber, where are you?" her dad called.
"Over here, daddy!" she said.
Her father came up to the counter, a country record in his hand. He heard the music she was listening to. He instantly scowled.
"Turn off that disgusting music!" he said to the worker.
The young woman frowned at him, but did as he said.
Her father looked at the album.
"New band 'KISS' huh?" he said.
He picked it up and showed it to his daughter.
"You know what the name stands for, sweetie?" he said.
She shook her head.
He dropped the album on the counter.
"Knights In Satan's Service!" he said angrily.
"Filthy demons…" he grumbled, and handed his record to the worker so he could pay for it.
As they walked out, Amber looked back.
"You're wrong!" she said, thinking of what her dad said.
*end flashback*
"Wow," Danny said "so that's how you got hooked on them?"
Ember shook her head.
"Not exactly…" she said.
She leaned back.
"I broke open my piggy bank a week later, took all the money, rode my bike down to the store and bought the album" she said.
"My parent's weren't home, so I listened to it, and then I was hooked!" she said "Every time I saw something with the name 'KISS' on it, I would save up my allowance and then buy it without my parent's knowing."
"But how did they react when they knew?" Danny asked.
Ember shuddered.
"Not to well…" she said.
*flashback*
Amber, now 8, was marveling in awe at the cover of 'Dressed to Kill', which had the members of KISS in tuxedoes.
She looked at the back and a song title caught her eye.
"Rock And Roll All Nite?" she said.
She put that song on, and she smiled in delight.
Unfortunately, in her giddiness, she didn't know her parents had come home.
Her door slammed open.
"Is that what I think it is?!" her father said angrily.
Amber had turned off the record player, and hid the album behind her the second she heard the knob turn. But he lifted her up by her arm, and the album dropped out of her hands onto her bed.
"KISS?!?!" he roared in anger.
He dropped her onto her bed.
"You have been listening to that filthy, evil, disgusting band for who knows how long without me knowing?!" he shouted.
She nodded, cowering in fear.
He took the album out of the sleeve, and then snapped it in half. She gasped in surprise.
"My daughter will NOT listen to such filthy music!" he said "And I will make sure of it!"
*end flashback*
"So he shipped me off to a private catholic school" Ember said.
"But you weren't there for long, huh?" Danny asked, thinking he already knew the answer.
Ember shook her head.
"Actually, I was" she said.
Danny's eyes widened in surprise.
"But I wasn't a great student to begin with!" she said with a smirk.
"Around when I was 10 I started being REALLY unruly." she said.
"Around when I was 11, I dyed my hair this beautiful shade of blue-" she indicated her flaming locks.
"I skipped classes, I decorated my whole bed and part of my room with KISS stuff, and I even got an acoustic guitar and began to learn how to play it" she said.
"Even though I got a LOT of paddling's from the nuns, and a lot of threats from the deans, I didn't listen to them" she said.
"So when I was 13, I was kicked out." she said.
"Of course my parents were FURIOUS, but I didn't get a punishment." she said.
"They figured I'd get over KISS, that it would probably be a phase" she said with a shrug.
Danny smirked.
"But you didn't, huh?" he asked,
She smirked back.
"As IF baby-pop!" she said.
"When I returned my parents actually bought me a TV, with a beta-max" she continued.
"A what?" Danny asked.
Ember rolled her eyes.
"it's an 80's version of a DVR, but you record things on blank tapes" she said.
"They tuned the TV to a religious station, but I retuned it to VH1 and MTV" she said.
"But my parents still left me alone because something came up that made me lose my KISS craze for a while" Ember said sadly.
"And that would be?" Danny asked.
*flashback*
After Amber had returned home, she EMIDIATLY got caught up with her KISS craze by buying all the albums she had missed. She bought every old magazine that had them. She bought their action figures, their gumball cards, a lunchbox, stickers, EVERYTHING!
Then something that shocked her beyond belief came; Peter Criss had quit the band! It was after they had released their solo albums (which she bought!)
But the new guy Eric Carr was FANTASTIC!
She loved how he brought more of a metal approach to the band.
Then another shock came to her; in 1983 Ace quit! She was stricken with grief, and the new guy Vinnie Vincent wasn't even that good. But she still continued to listen to listen to them.
But then the biggest shock came to her.
"KISS unmasked?!" she was saying onto the phone to her friend.
"It's true Amber, it was on MTV yesterday!" her friend said.
Amber fell back on her bed.
"This can't be happening!" she said miserably.
"But their new video is coming out later today, maybe you should check it out" her friend said.
She sighed.
"Okay" she said, and hung up.
Later that day she had tuned her television to MTV and watched the new history making video: 'Lick it up' no make-up.
She cried though out the whole thing; they had lost their superhuman appearance, they were just like normal rock stars.
"No more blood spitting!" Amber cried out as the rocked out on the TV "no more smoking guitars, no more fire!"
She turned the TV off.
"No more KISS…" she said, and bowed her head.
She turned her back on her life.
*end flashback*
"So you gave up on KISS?" Danny asked.
Ember nodded.
"I didn't really give up COMPLETELY" she said "I kept all the old stuff from when they were in their make-up, but I didn't get any of the new stuff."
"Afterwards I got into a new craze" she said with a smile.
Danny cocked his eyebrow.
"And that would be?" Danny asked.
Ember stood, then put her hand in the air, her other hand on her waist.
"Michael Jackson!" she said happily.
"HEE-HEE!" she stood on her tiptoes.
Danny laughed.
"I bought the official sparkled glove, moonwalker shoes, 'Beat it' jacket, and sunglasses" she said.
"My parents and I started to get along, and we even listened to the music together" she said.
"But then I saw the video to 'Beat it'…" she saw.
"What happened in it?" Danny asked.
"A certain rock star happened…" Ember said.
*flashback*
"Eddie Van Halen?" Amber said, as she watched the video.
She realized she had a tape in her beta-max, and then rewound and paused it.
"It's him!" she said, seeing the guitarist on the scissor lift.
"Cool!" she said, then resumed playing it.
It was a few months later she heard that Eddie Van Halen had revealed in interest in joining KISS, who was still going strong.
Amber went to the newspaper stand on the street corner and bought a magazine that caught her eye.
"Vinnie Vincent; fired" she read aloud.
She read that Vinnie had been challenging Gene and Paul's position as head of the band.
"So did Eddie join?" she asked no one, as she continued to read.
She read that Eddie in fact had NOT, but a new guy named Mark St. John joined.
She then caught up with what she had missed on KIS, still sticking a bit to Michael Jackson, hiding her KISS craze from her parents (again.)
She then learned that Mark St. John had been struck with a condition that caused his hands and arms to swell up, making him unable to play.
Then a new guy name Bruce Kulick joined for the 'Animalize' tour.
"Kulick?" Amber said, then picked up Paul Stanley's solo album.
"He must be Bob Kulick's brother" she said, remembering the lead guitarist that had helped Paul on his solo album.
She then heard the greatest news…
*end flashback*
"The Animalize tour was coming to my town!" she said excitedly.
"So you went to the concert?" Danny asked.
She nodded.
"I bought a ticket, put on KISS face paint, but in my own style…" she said, indicating her make-up.
Danny nodded, indicating for her to go on.
"Then I got my acoustic guitar, I didn't have enough money for an electric" she said "then I left for the concert."
"You parents didn't know, huh?" Danny asked.
She nodded.
"I left after they fell asleep, ran the whole way to the arena, and had the GREATEST TIME OF MY LIFE!" she said crazily.
"But what happened after the concert?" Danny asked.
Ember's face fell.
"Remember how I told you how I died, after I saved you?" she asked, her voice quavering.
Danny nodded.
"Well, I softened it up that day" she said "it was much worse."
Danny put a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to tell me" he said comfortingly.
She shook her head.
"I need to, baby-pop" she said "if I don't say everything in chronological order, it just won't be right."
Tears streamed from her eyes as she continued…
*flashback*
(A/N: for those that are squeamish, do not read ahead.)
Amber skipped down the streets happily after seeing the concert. Though they weren't wearing make-up, they still put on a great show!
She climbed up the fire escape of her family's apartment. She opened her window and snuck through quietly.
"Best night of my life" she whispered to herself.
Then her lights turned on, but not by her accord…
"Then I guess you won't mind if we ended it!" said her father's voice.
She looked over at her doorway, and saw her parent's standing there.
Her father had a rifle in his hands, and her mother had a sharp butcher knife in her hand.
"Wh-what are you g-guys d-doing in here?" she asked.
"We know where you've been Amy…" her mother said.
"And we don't like it" her father said.
"I didn't go to the KISS concert!" she exclaimed.
Her father's lips curled into an evil smile.
"We did not say anything about a concert" he said "but we knew!"
Amber's face ran pale. Her eyes looked down at the gun.
"You aren't gonna-" she started.
Her father cocked the gun.
"Yes, I am" he said.
He aimed it at her.
"I will NOT have an unholy demon-spawn for a daughter!" he yelled.
"I'm not-" Amber started.
A shot was fired.
"AHH!" Amber exclaimed, pain shooting through her chest.
She put her hand down to her chest and looked at it.
"I'm b-bleeding…" she said, seeing the red liquid that coated her hand.
"Yes, you are" her father said, and fired another shot.
"AH!" Amber exclaimed, feeling the pain again, this time in her leg.
Her father continued firing shots, ignoring her cries of pain.
She was now on the floor, curled up, blood leaking from everywhere.
"One last bullet" her father said.
He aimed the gun at her forehead.
"Say good-bye as you fall into the deepest realms of hell, you unholy she-devil" her father said.
He fired once more…
*end flashback*
Tears steamed down Ember's face. She broke out in hysterical crying. Danny was crying as well, and pulled her towards him.
"Pease stop Amy, its getting to painful" he said through his tears.
"No" Ember choked out "I HAVE to finish!"
She recomposed her self and dried her tears.
"My parents left me in my room as I died" she said "and so many thoughts went through my head."
"That I would never become a rock star, never meet any member of KISS," she said.
Then she looked lovingly at Danny.
"And that I may never get married" she said.
Danny smiled back, brushing a tear from her cheek.
"But then something odd happened…" she said.
*flashback*
As Amber lay there gasping and bleeding, her eyes began to become heavy.
'I'm dying' she thought 'my death has come…'
She closed her eyes.
But then she soon opened them.
"What the…" she said, sitting up.
She was in a dark blank area.
She looked herself over and saw that her gunshot wounds were gone.
She looked around.
"Am I in hell?" she said aloud.
"No my child" said a voice.
She looked up, and two beings stepped out of the shadows.
They looked like they were floating, and she couldn't see their legs. They wore robes with big collars, and had green hands. But the most obvious feature was that they had no faces; just one giant eye in side a dome on their heads.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"We are the Observants" they said simultaneously.
Amber stood.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You are in the entering realms of the ghost zone" one said, the other silent.
She looked around, confused.
"Ghost zone?" she said "ghost don't exist!"
The other observant spoke.
"Yes, they do" it said.
He floated a bit more forward.
"Humans who have not completely lived their lives to their own standard and our standard, of full term" he said "become ghosts."
"But it is not always just that reason" the other said "If they are to bad to enter heaven and to good to enter hell, they must go through tasks so they can go to either place."
"While this is the most evident reason that ghosts come to exist, there is two other ways" the first one said, holding up tow hands.
"They are either born from two ghosts as regular human infants are born" he said "or come to existence without having a previous life, unknown of how they came to be."
They both floated forward.
"Now it is time for you to choose your ghostly identity." they said.
They all then appeared within another area.
"In your life you were a fan of the genre 'rock n roll', is that right?" one asked.
Amber nodded.
"The rock band 'KISS' in particular?" the other asked.
She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"Did you not SEE how I died?" she asked.
They said nothing.
Suddenly her skin turned from her toneful peach/tan to a glowing whitish-gray.
"Holy…" she said, as a mirror appeared in front of her.
"Within their concerts, KISS used pyrotechnics, is this true?" one observant asked.
"Yes" Amber said.
Suddenly her hair went from her regular flowing blue locks, to blue flames!
"OH NO!" she said, reaching her hands up.
"Calm yourself" one Observant said "this is just your selected ghost power."
"It's not flammable, is it?" she asked.
The being shook its… eye.
"No, it is not" it said simply.
"You see; when you draw power, your hair shall become larger, and you more powerful" it explained.
"But as your power decreases, it shall become smaller, and you weaker" the other said.
"And how do I draw power?" she asked.
"We shall let you decide that" one of them said.
Then they appeared within one other room.
"While most ghosts have specific, unique powers, some have unique weapons" they both said.
"What shall yours be?" one asked.
"I can choose on this part?" she asked.
They both nodded.
She thought deeply.
Then one thing came to her mind.
"An electric guitar!" she said.
Then something faded into her hands.
It was a purple Gibson EB-3 with blue flames painted on. It also had a flame-shaped head. She looked at the dial and saw symbols around it.
A music note, a heart symbol, a skull, a fist, a spiral, and a wave.
Then her clothing changed from her KISS apparel to a black choker around her neck, a black, one shoulder, tank top exposing her midriff, one long glove that covered most of her right arm, one black bracelet on the left arm, also a pair of leather pants with a silver belt, and skull shaped boots.
"Rockin!" she said!
"And now it is time for you to pick your realm" they both said.
She was then thrust into a gigantic, spacious area.
"This is the ghost zone" said an observant voice in her head "We cannot come with you on your journey, it is up to you to pick your home."
She nodded, hoping she could see, and then set off.
*end flashback*
"And thus, my afterlife began" she finished.
Danny got confused.
"But if you died in the 1980's, how are you still 17?" he asked.
She took a deep breath.
"Ghost have the ability to control their aging" she said.
"We can stay one age forever, accelerate our age, or age normally" she said "but we are unable to revert our aging, unless it is our main power, which no ghost has shown yet."
"Clockwork can" Danny said.
"That, he cannot control, it is just a showcase" she said "he is a ghost who just came to exist."
Danny took this in.
"So, did you figure everything out when you first started?" he asked.
She nodded.
"I found this house after a few weeks of traveling, and it suddenly filled with everything rocker like I needed" she said.
"The TV in the living room was programmed to tune into the human world, and I was able to see everything that happened to KISS as I stayed in here." she said.
"I was delighted to see them in make-up again, reform the old line-up, I was sad when Eric Carr died, and then OK with the current line-up forming" she said.
"And the rest is history" she said, waving her hand "I changed my name, left to the human world to start my career, learned of my power, you threw me back in, I came back out with Youngblood, you threw me back in AGAIN!" she said, eyeing him.
He smiled shyly and shrugged. She rolled her eyes and continued.
"And then everything that has happened to us has happened." she said, sliding into his lap.
They both smiled lovingly at each other. She put her arms behind his head, and her held her. They both began to make-out. During this Ember noticed the clock on the wall.
"Oh crud; its already ten PM!" she said "I can't cook anything adequate NOW!"
Both of their stomachs growled.
"Lets just go get some fast food to eat" Danny said, pointing behind them.
They stood.
"You better take me some place with a healthy-choice menu; a rocker needs to keep her figure, honey!" she said, as they walked out.
Danny laughed.
"Amy, you're always gonna be the beautiful rocker queen I married" he said as they hopped on his motorcycle.
"And don't you forget it baby-pop!" she said, as he revved it up.
They motored off at top speed.
"ROCK N ROLL ALL NITE AND PARTY EVERY DAY!" Ember shouted as they zoomed off.