Meanwhile, Danny fidgeted with holstering his retractable staff on his back. He, along with everyone else involved with the mission, was equipped with an orange jumpsuit, black gloves and boots, and two straps in the shape of an X spread across their chest; holding the pack to their back. Vlad watched from not too far away, leaning against a wall. Danny looked so much like Jack with that on, he didn’t know whether to find it cute or be sickened by it. Valerie, in her modified hunter suit, now mostly black with red accents, walked up next to him. “Everyone’s in position. Just waiting on you command Fenton.”

The clone smirked, but it faded the longer he thought about being called that last name for real. Especially by one who knew his secret… He turned to Vlad, who seemed to spring up on noticing. “Are you ready dad?”

The former halfas heart swelled and sunk at the same time. “Ah… yes.” He cleared his throat and stood tall. “Of course. Just do me a favor young badger, don’t-.”

WHAM!!

An explosion shook the building; clearly an attack on the ghost shield. Danny and Valerie made eye contact and nodded before yelling something over a wrist communicator and rushing out the front door. Vlad tried flagging them down like he had an urgent message, but they were long gone. Phantom, the real Phantom, shot blast after blast at the shield, trying to break it. “I’M COMING TO GET YOU IDIOTS! YOU CAN’T HIDE FOREVER!!!” It roared in frustration.

Then, a blast knocked it back, causing it to get more upset. Valerie. She stood on her hover board, aiming a large blaster at the monster. “Stand down you brute!”

Its eye twitched. Oh, it was so over the constant fighting. BUT it was always happily willing to get in another kill. With a predatory glint in its eye, the boy charged, but Valerie dodged last second, making it almost ram into a building. It swooped back around, hissing, however what it saw brought it to an abrupt halt. The top of Fenton Works inflated with a blimp, the entire metal structure getting lifted into the air. “You activated the ops center! HOW!?”

An orange blur zoomed passed Phantom, sending it flying backwards with a blunt strike to the face. The clone Danny twirled his metal baton in his hands while trying to keep balance on a silver and green hover board. The craft looked like Valerie’s, but smaller and without a paint job. If anything, it looked like the prototype of hers. The sight of Danny in that jumpsuit made Phantom sick. This… this… THING Vlad grew in his lab was offensive just by existing. His shimmering blue eyes, the soft black hair, the way he stood… it wasn’t… but it was. It was HIM- and Phantom didn’t appreciate it. “Found you, faker.” Danny smirked.

Phantom snarled. “Was that supposed to be a Sonic joke?...”

The boy chuckled to himself slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ah… thought I’d lighten the mood I guess?”

“….” Phantom rolled its eyes and charged up an energy blast. “Was I seriously always THIS annoying?!” The ghost pulled back, then launched the attack straight at the clone. “More people REALLY need to tell you to shut up!”

Danny, barely managing to stay upright as it is, by some miracle swerved out of the way just in time for the spirit to miss and for Valerie to retaliate. Unfortunately, agility and aim meant nothing being up against this foe. It fired again, but the blast wasn’t a simple beam. It splintered, like shattered glass given life. Valerie let loose with a barrage from the modified Fenton blaster in her hand, the pulses of light meeting Phantom’s energy head-on. Most of it was absorbed, dissipated, without any visible effect, but a few flew off to cause a decent chunk of property damage. The three darted around, blurs of color all intertwining and firing projectiles. The surroundings lit up with every attack and counter, turning the streets into a sinister light show. The fight became almost routine by a few minutes in. Danny or Valerie would attack, Phantom would dodge then retaliate, and with the exception of a few hits that actually landed, rinse and repeat. None of them were getting anywhere! Phantom was untouchable, and based on the looks it gave, it had a vendetta against Valerie and Danny. It didn’t just want them dead to be out of the way, it wanted them dead because it wanted to rip them apart… and enjoy it. They seemed to relish in the thought of their demise if anything.

Meanwhile in the giant blimp that was the ops center, two figures looked in-between the controls and the Fenton’s old notebook. Paulina, obviously frustrated, let out an annoyed yell. “Ahg! This is stupidly complicated! Why are there so many buttons! What did Mr. Fenton mean by push the big red button?! There are TWO!!!”

Dash rolled his eyes and threw the book over his shoulder defiantly, walking closer to the control panel and punching a random red button. A massive cannon arm dropped down from the bottom of the craft, lightning up green and aiming towards the streets below. Jack’s voice greeted the pilots over a speaker as a holographic looking control board popped up. It was obviously used for controlling the cannon. Paulina gawked at the sudden progress. “How did you know which one to press?”

Dash, truth be told, just smacked the winner of his silent ennie-meenie-miney-moe. He stood confidently. “Ah, heh.. I guess I’m just a natural at this.” The smile he gave was cocky yet relieved that his plan actually worked. Oh, he was totally flirting with her. “Now then my lady, how’s about we kick some ghostly butt!” Dash’s hands gripped onto the controls and flung them forward.

Phantom roared as it blasted both Danny and Valerie off with their hovercrafts, sending them flying a several feet away. But right as it was about to fire again, a large boom erupted from the sky followed by a massive energy ball hurling towards it. There was no time to reasonably react to this, so Phantom desperately went intangible. The blast collided with the ground in a fiery explosion, leaving a deep, smoking crater in the street. Dash pulled back in what could only be described as guilty horror. Paulina shoved him. “Alright, that was WAY too hard! You gotta be more gentle and precise. Do I have to remind you that we’re trying to defend Amity Park, not destroy it!?... Here. Let me try.”

Phantom slowly turned tangible again and glanced around at the damage. Wow. An entire city block leveled and it wasn’t even its fault necessarily. Impressive…. But highly annoying. Glancing up, its vision zoomed and locked in to the person behind the wheel. Paulina…

Elsewhere, Technus and Skulker were surrounded by a bunch of resistance members in the same orange jumpsuit Danny was wearing. They were all armed with Fenton Works branded weaponry, and they did NOT look happy. One shouted something asking who they were working for or something, but in truth, the two ghosts had been surrounded for five minutes already and were so over it.  “Listen here you pathetic humans, if I’m not mistaken, we’re both after the same phantom. So, if you let us go, we’ll gladly help eliminate the problem.” Technus held up his gauntlets to prove his point. The people seemed reluctant, still standing their ground.

Skulker rolled his eyes and growled. “Oh, for the love of-.” He activated his jetpack, and the sudden pop out startled the 20 or so people back enough for the cyborg to grab Technus and rocket away. Less than two minutes later, they spotted Valerie and Danny trying to readjust their hover boards. Now to just convince two dedicated ghost fighters that they were on their side.

Further away, Phantom darted up towards the blimp like a high-speed rocket, the blimp firing again and it dodging as it went. By the time it was hovering outside the windshield, the two teenagers inside were panicked and fighting over the controls. The ghost watched them scramble around for a moment before rolling its eyes and fazing through the glass. Paulina forced a smile in her terror. “H- hey ghost boy! How’s it g- going? I meant it about l- liking your new look! I still think you’re c- cute.”

Phantom seemed completely indifferent about the attempt to derail the conflict and instead growled. “In order to completely erase my humanity, I must destroy all ties I have to this pathetic world! I figured I’d start with my home, but I suppose you could work just fine. Consider this our break up, pretty.”
Totally not reading the room, her eyes sparkled. “You think I’m pretty!?”

With that, its eyes burned bright red and it tackled the girl to the cold, metal floor of the ship. Dash, in a mortified disbelief ran to the back of the ops center and grabbed a ray gun, trying desperately to stay focused over the screaming. The jock fiddled with the weapon, fumbling it with shaking hands, attempting to turn it on. Dash finally got it, but when he turned around there was nothing left to save. The ghost floated above a bloody corpse and eyed the bully mercilessly. Instinctively, Dash fired, and surprisingly it connected, sending Phantom crashing through the windshield. Getting cocky, he fired again, but this time missed completely and accidentally put a hole in the main control panel. The spirit cackled. “Well, a good captain goes down with his ship!” It released a massive beam that tore through the blimps balloon and caused it to explode. The blimp tilted as it fell, a giant fireball Dash tumbled out of as they both descended. Phantom snickered as it zipped away, only being stopped by Valerie, Skulker, and Technus few blocks down. Dash hurdled towards the ground like a discarded rag doll. He closed his eyes and accepted the concrete below would be his coffin, but right before he was about to splat, a smaller figure grabbed him and they went tumbling to the dock not far away. The teen almost refused to open his eyes. It hurt and he was convinced he’d be a ghost looking over his corpse if he did. However, one thing snapped him back and made him wake up- a voice. “Dash! Dude, are you alright?!”

The boy sat up in a sudden adrenaline rush. “Fenton!? You- You just… I… you saved my life.”

“Of course I did, but....” Danny’s eyes drifted to the flaming blimp crashing into the ocean behind them.

A moment of silence hung in the air before it was broken by Dash kicking the clone back to the ground. “I knew I never should’ve trusted you!” He boomed; Unusually emotional for his typical cool guy demeanor. “Thanks to you, freak show, that thing killed Paulina! You’re nothing but a walking disaster! First you get your family blown up, and now you’ve put half the city into the same death trap! I can’t believe I fell for your trick. Now if you need me, I’ll be safely inside that force field where I should’ve stayed!” The boy ran off with a frustrated shout, disappearing around a building. Danny just sat there and watched. He… he got someone killed. Maybe Dash was right? Maybe he was a freak. But that wasn’t the worst part- that part about his family… it hurt worse than any nickname. But it made no sense. That wasn’t HIS family, so why did it hurt so bad to be reminded of their demise? Well, regardless, it felt unnatural and horrible and he wanted it to stop. He needed to get to the others before anyone else got hurt… or worse.