Downstairs, the air In Fenton Works was thick with a strange mix of soup and stale coffee. And yes, it smelled exactly as bad as you’d think. The once vibrant living room, now crowded with huddled figures, felt claustrophobic. Dim sunlight struggled to penetrate the boarded-up windows, casting long, distorted shadows across faces etched with anxiety. The people talked in murmurs as two figures watched on. Danny stood on the landing of the stairs, his posture rigid. He knew he never actually lived there in Amity Park, but he still carried a strange sense of grim responsibility for the people that did. Real Danny or not- ghost or not- he still felt the same way about being a hero. Beside him stood Valerie in her modified hunter suit, looking equally tense. Below them, the citizens chatted uneasily. Some were tearful, others stared vacantly ahead, most were hungry, thirsty and tired, but they were all united by the same chilling fear: Phantom. The city’s protector, the hero they had either disgraced or cheered on not so long ago, was now its destroyer. The sky outside glowed with unnatural greenish, dark clouds. There were buildings crumbled, roads cracked, and the once clean streets were now littered in the blood and remains of several government officials; an absolutely chaotic mess. The clone cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the tense silence. “Alright, everyone,” he began, his voice firm despite the knot of growing fear in his stomach. “We all know why we’re here. That monster is coming back. He’s going to tear Amity Park apart, and the ghost shield won’t hold forever.”

A woman with tear-streaked cheeks whimpered, clutching a small child to her chest. “What can we do? He’s… he’s a ghost. We’re just… people.”

Valerie shifted her stance, her teal eyes scanning the crowd. “We might not be ghosts,” she said, her voice sharp. She gave a quick glance at the boy next to her before looking back to continue. “But we’re not helpless either. We’re not going to cower here and wait for him to breach the shield. We are going to fight back.”

A murmur of skepticism rippled through the group. A burly man in a construction uniform shook his head. “Fight back? That thing can walk through walls, he can shoot those ghost ray thingies- we don’t even have a chance.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Danny interjected, his voice gaining strength. “I know a way to strengthen our chances. I’m Daniel Fenton, son of Jack Fenton, and I’m a ghost hunter.” Truth be told, he was lying through his teeth for the sake of keeping up the impression he wasn’t a clone, but it felt kinda right in spite of the fact. From the next level, Vlad watched on, now looking rather emotionally damaged. He knew Danny was technically lying, but it kinda hurt in some bizarre way. The clone continued. “I know how to activate the emergency ops center, and I’ve got access to an entire arsenal of ghost fighting weapons! The Fenton’s may be gone, but I’m still here! That monster is powerful, yes, but he’s not invincible. And he’s not thinking clearly. He’s in pain, and he’s lashing out. We can use that.” He stepped down one of the stairs, his gaze sweeping over the faces, searching for a spark, any tiny glimmer of hope. “I don’t expect you all to be heroes. I just need people who can follow orders, people who can help me draw his attention, people who aren’t willing to watch our home get destroyed. We have weapons, both ghost and conventional. We need to get organized, we need an army.”

A moment of silence washed over the crowd, staved for a few whispers, and Valerie looked as though she was about to try backing the clone up, but then a voice spoke up.

“An army?” A voice sneered from the front of the room. It was Dash, his usual swagger replaced by a nervous edge. “Fenton, I knew you were stupid, but this is borderline insane. You think you can pull a bunch of civilians together and go toe-to-toe with Phantom?”

“We’re going against him anyways,” Valerie said defiantly, crossing her arms. “Do you really just want to be hiding in this house when we could be doing something?”

Star, usually bubbly and bright, looked uncharacteristically somber. She sat hunched over, tracing patterns on the floor with her finger. “She’s right. We’re not just going to sit here and wait to die, right?” She looked up at Danny, a spark of her usual energy returning, and the sorrow replaced with something more serious. “Count me in.”

Kwan, ever loyal, nodded firmly, standing up. “If Star is in, I’m in.”

Dash scoffed, but then his gaze shifted between the determined looks on Star and Kwan’s faces. A stubborn glint entered his eyes. “Alright. Fine. I’m not going to be the only one that’s hiding in the house. I’m not a coward. Just… don’t get me killed.”

Paulina, surprisingly, rose to her feet next to Dash. Her normally pristine makeup was smudged, and her perfect hair was a mess, but her eyes held a fierceness that Danny hadn’t seen before. “I might not be able to fight like you or Valerie,” she admitted, “But I’m not going to let Mr. Muscles here have all the fun.”

A few more murmurs began to ripple through the crowd. Hesitantly, a few other people started to raise their hands, their fear slowly being replaced by a flicker of determination. The clone’s chest swelled with a hope he’d never experienced. Him and Valerie exchanged glances, both filling with pride. The fact that even Dash was in on this spoke volumes. “Okay,” Valerie said, her voice regaining its confident edge. “We’re going to break you into groups-.” Her voice faded in Vlad’s ears as he made his way up to the roof to get to the ops center control room. As he climbed the stairs, he couldn’t help but think about Danny; not the clone, but the original. Before he broke- before he became Phantom- both before and after the accident first happened. He used to be so nieve and innocent. Yes, becoming a halfa took its toll on him mentally; I mean, suddenly carrying the weight of lives on your shoulders isn’t easy- but he never let it destroy him. He kept his childlike humor and spunk. Danny took what Vlad had seen as a curse and turned it into a heroes calling. Instead of locking himself away, the kid ran off with his friends and played superman. That mentality really irritated Vlad back then, not gonna lie, but now, if anything, he realized he was just jealous that such a mindset completely eluded him. However, there was nothing left to admire about him anymore. Danny was dead and Phantom was a monster. As he reached the roof, and opened the door, a figure smacked into him. The only reason he didn’t fall backwards and tumble down the stairs, was because he scrambled and grabbed the railing last second. It was all a blur, but before he knew it, Vlad regained his footing and was face to face with The Box Ghost. The spirit frantically spat out a series of words that were honestly impossible to comprehend while flailing his arms in a blur. But Box was not Vlad’s main attention priority at the moment- it was the large, buff, mechanical skeleton standing by the entrance of the ops center. Skulker had his arms crossed with a scowl, green, flaming mohawk blowing in the cold wind. Hunter rolled his eyes in strict irritation. “Box, shut your yap or it goes on my wall.” He snapped. The Box Ghost yelped a closed himself back into his emergency cardboard box. Vlad questioned Skulker how he got there, but the hunter cut him off midway. “I snuck through the portal downstairs. I asked Box to open it for me. But that’s not important… Plasmius, the ghost child killed Desiree. The plan has been compromised, so we must form a new one.” A visible explosion erupted from the other side of the city. “Also he’s already here.”

Vlad’s heart stopped. “Oh no, no, no- not yet!”

After a few minutes, the crowd seemed to glow with a renewed sense of purpose. A young mother, who had been sobbing only minutes earlier, stood, adjusting her child on her hip, a new determination in her eyes. A teenage boy, face pale with terror, straightened his spine, taking a step towards the front of the group. Valerie recognized the boy as a classmate who she never really got to know. He was tall with green eyes, freckles, and red hair. If she was thinking of the right person, he was on the basketball team, and assuming that his number 2 jersey was any indication, she was right. The crowd had taken such a turn, but the shift wasn’t unanimous, some still hesitated, clinging to the safety of the shield. Of course, there was no obligation to place their lives on the line, it was simply a voluntary process. It was understandable that some people didn’t want to be put in danger, especially those who were or had younger children. Danny watched them, his chest tight with a mixture of hope and dread. He knew this was a gamble, that they were facing something they might not be able to overcome. But he also knew they couldn’t just wait for Phantom to consume them. They had to fight back. As the sun struggled to pierce through the growing green fog outside, Danny looked at Valerie. They exchanged a look that spoke volumes- a shared understanding that they were heading into the unknown, and they would do it together. He turned back to the group, his voice ringing with renewed conviction. “Let’s get to work.”

Vlad ran down the stairs, coming to a halt the moment he was close enough to the teens but far enough away so that the crowd didn’t see him. “He’s here.”

Valerie felt a sudden surge of fear rush through her. “What!? NOW!? B- but we haven’t trained the troops at all! There’s no way everyone’s ready yet.”

A large explosion followed by the echoes of a collapsing building rung out in the distance. Vlad sighed, looking rather defeated yet desperate. “My dear, we’ve run out of time. If you want to carry on with your idea, it’ll have to start now. I’m running up to reactivate the ghost shield. Afterwards, you let me know the plan of attack.” The three nodded, then Vlad ran off. This was it. Now or never.

In the distance, a ball of purple energy collided with a bright green comet over the city. The two energies zoomed around the buildings almost erratically, looking as if they were locked in a game of tag. They dodged, weaved, deflected, and attacked each other; neither ever really seeming to get the advantage. This relative match in power pissed the phantom off. It needed to change tactics- with the level it was at now, raw power wasn’t going to be enough. Meanwhile, Technus was having the same thoughts. The two went quiet for a moment before the boy noticed the mall in the background of the battlefield. Perfect… Phantom darted down towards it, Technus following closely behind as he fired several shots that were all avoided. Once the tech ghost landed in the center of the mall through a window, he groaned. The boy was gone again. “Well now, someone’s upgrade instilled a love for hide and seek.” He taunted. The mall was dark and eerie with a faint green tint to the atmosphere due to the energy storm outside. The skylight ceiling barley did anything for the situation, if anything, it made it worse. Seeing the swirling clouds grow lager,  like a doomsday clock  ticking down, signaled time was running out. The spirit spun around slowly, trying to locate the boy. Then suddenly, a small wet floor sign knocked over several feet behind him, next to the escalator. The air hung still while Technus paused, waiting and listening for his foe to reappear. Last time this was the situation, Phantom got in a sneak attack from below, so assuming it thought Technus was smart enough to remember that, it wasn’t going to pull the same move again. BUT- there was a chance it was expecting him to think that, so it WOULD do it again to catch him by surprise. UNLESS, the overthinking was actually its real plan so if they expected him to expect that it would do the opposite of what he expected then… oh. Good lord, his head hurt. Suddenly, like a rocket, Phantom zipped past, a blur leaving behind a massive scratch across the scientist’s back and upper arm. He cried out, clenching it. The teen burst out laughing, floating upside down over by the second story railing. “HA HA HA! CARMA BABY!”

Technus growled. “Why you little-… were you always this annoying?”

The phantom stretched and rolled around in the air like a cat trying to get comfortable on a sunny window sill. Its expression was oddly relaxed, almost cocky; a far cry from the feral rage it had exhibited not long ago. Something was off… no... wrong. Very wrong. The boy smiled, tilting its head. “Ha! No. I got worse. Much worse… But let it be known I’ve always wanted to do this, Danny was just too weak to actually go through with it.” It flipped back around and darted through the mall. “But if you don’t like it, come and get me!” Its voice echoed menacingly within the building, even when it had already disappeared around the corner. Technus rolled his eyes. This was DEFINITELY a trap of some kind, but he didn’t even care at this point. That thing needed to be destroyed. Without giving it a second thought, he followed after the sinister laughter, gauntlets blazing. The scientist swooped around benches, trashcans, and kept an eye on every window or display he passed. Nothing too out of the ordinary in the department store as he wound through the first floor, but the second one made him freeze. The moment Technus turned the corner of the escalator, he was met with a wild case of possession. Almost every item of clothing had found a match- shirts with pants and so fourth- and had either turned the store into a ballroom or a battleground. Dresses paired with high heels and tuxedos with dress shoes did the waltz by the perfume section- and casual wear seemed to have a vendetta against the manikins. A model head meant for displaying hats clattered to the ground and rolled into Technus’ foot. The ghost let out a yelp as jumped back from the dismembered cranium; arguably a little freaked out. “Ew…” This place was getting trashed! But back when it was Danny, it never showed signs of this type of power. At least not on this large of a scale. A blur of green energy darted out the door with a chilling chuckle, then all the commotion halted; the possession ended. Technus floated up as to not step on any of the previously alive clothes and quickly got out of there. Then, like a child playing a mixture of tag and hide and seek, Phantom made itself known with a taunt. The tech ghost growled, chasing after it furiously while shooting. Minutes later, the two wound up in an outdoor activities/ sports store. Phantom perched itself on the floor 2 balcony, overlooking the escalators, lower story foyer, and across to the opposite side where Technus was entering. The scientist glared at the teen. “I don’t understand- are you going to fight me or are you playing tag?”

The boy snickered, free floating again. “Why not both?...”

Just then, Skulker came crashing in through a window while shooting and chasing after… Phantom?! Skulker came to a screeching halt the moment he realized the two identical targets sinisterly giggling beside each other. The hunter and Technus shared a horrified glance. “Clones!” He roared; his mechanical voice echoing throughout the massive store.

“Where’s the real ghost child!?”