First thing in the morning, Vlad was running. Running and never looking back… that was the plan.

The next morning, Phantom woke up with a yawn. It stretched its body out like a cat, digging its new claws into the concrete and pulling back. A tear in reality begun to form along the scratch lines, opening a rift to what looked like Paris. The boy jolted back in surprise. Did… did THEY do that!? They had to have. There was no other explanation. For a moment it just sat in complete awe of its newly discovered ability, pondering how it could be useful other than the obvious fast travel. Could it control where the rifts lead? And if so, how? What were the limitations?.... Were there any at all?! Well, in terms of getting answers to any of them- there was only one way to find out.

Elsewhere, the clone Danny woke up to the sound of arguing downstairs. It was between Valerie and Technus from the sound of things. Apparently, Phantom had discovered the gauntlets it absorbed had the ability to rip open portals to different places, and was now flying around to test out the limitations. “If that idiotic child continues opening rifts and not closing them, the dimensional fabric could become unstable! The whole city could implode! And no amount of ghost shield would protect us from that!” The scientist pulled out two device that resembled loaded caulk guns and held them out for Valerie to see. “I’ve been working on these all night since I anticipated him finding the ability sooner or later. All you need to do is squirt the substance around the rift and it’ll close it.”

Danny made his way down the stairs, curiously listening in. “Also don’t even bother asking me for anymore help taking care of you know who directly, because I guarantee he’s got that murder beam charged up, and I can’t afford to have my final death right now.” Technus continued. “Skulker only just woke up, so I need to be in the lab stabilizing him.”

Valerie opened her mouth to counter that, but got distracted by Danny’s presence. The boy looked a little more tired and sad then before, his eyes dulled and smile torn. “Phantom’s gonna collapse reality?”

Valerie folded her arms. “Supposedly. I’m gonna need to find some way to stop him, because SOMEBODY refuses to help!” Technus felt her burning glare. He didn’t have time to argue about this anymore, he'd done all he could and he was tired. Besides, he needed to go check on Skulker. Irritated, the scientist floated through the floor, ignoring her shouts to get his butt back up to the conversation.

Danny stood tall and firm. “I’ll go with you. If that murderous freak thinks he can erase Amity Park, then he’s got another thing coming.”

Valerie smiled at the boys’ determination, but it quickly faded to sadness. “Ya know if we run into Phantom, it’ll probably turn to a suicide mission, right?”

Danny took the second gun from Valerie and looked her in the eyes, some strange sense of grim responsibility and willingness engraved in them. “That’s why I refuse to let you go alone.”

Phantom was a blur over the buildings, flying and twirling around, like a kid let loose in an amusement park, it was having the time of its life. It chuckled as it tore open another rift and darted through it. The boy exited in the middle of a busy street. The hundreds of people who saw them panicked and scattered in fear. It was starting to love that sound… the screaming. But as much as it enjoyed this, it zipped back through the portal to Amity Park, cackling maniacally.

Vlad hid under the overhang of the movie theater, trying desperately not to be noticed by the spirit when it flew overhead. His breath was forced to a quiet, focused rhythm, and his senses were on high alert. Not good enough though, because out of nowhere, Box appeared next to him. Vlad startled backwards, holding in a yelp. “Are you TRYING to give me a heart attack!?” He whisper yelled.

The ghost shrugged. “No, but I guess that would be one way of getting your ghost powers back?”

“Oh, hardy har har.” Vlad mocked. “Now’s really not the time for comedy. I need to get out of here and back to my lab where I can hide out from the incoming apocalypse until my inevitable demise.”

Box floated upside down with a smile. “Sounds fun. Can I help?”

Vlad wanted to say no. He wanted to tell him to get lost SO bad… but deep down he knew the Box Ghost wasn’t going to take that as an answer. The spirit seemed unusually clingy as of late, but he assumed it was simply just latching onto the attention. Ghosts are… interesting creatures. Even once being half one, Vlad never fully understood how the full ghosts operated. They seemed to be both in control and not, driven by instinct yet refusing to fall to it. Their true nature was an enigma, so what Box was trying to accomplish by being clingy was beyond the man’s comprehension. Reluctantly, Vlad agreed. “Fine. If you must accompany me out, then so be it, but you need to be silent. Do you understand?”

The specter nodded in reply, doing a little salute. As quickly and quietly as possible, the two began making their way downtown, mostly staying in the shadows. After a few minutes of being in the clear, Phantom rocketed down the same street and perched on a building nearby. They were almost spotted, but Vlad, reflexes having a mind of their own, dodged into a nearby store and hid behind a shelf. There was no way of knowing how long the ghost boy would be stalking the area, so he opted to stay there for as long as he needed to. The building stood in was dark and eerie. The heat was either turned very low or nonexistent, because it was rather cold; the December weather was definitely making itself known. The store seemed to be a mixture of several this, from snacks, drinks, and microwavable meals to cheap toys, blankets and an ATM machine. It gave him the impression that a gas station and a dollar store had combined and then blossomed into something else entirely. Vlad took a step, but immediately regretted it and pulled back when his shoe crunched something on impact. It was an empty, plastic snack container. “Peculiar…” He pondered. Just then, an item knocked off a shelf in the back of the shop. Vlad was two seconds away from scolding his reluctantly agreed upon partner when he noticed Box still near his side, looking through the chip options. There was someone back there. Hesitantly, the disgraced halfa made his way to the location of the noise. When he finally rounded the corner, the man was met by a group of six people, two of which were fairly young children. They all looked horrified by the intruders, which would honestly be a lot more understandable if the two newcomers appeared threatening in any way. From Vlad’s perspective, a discombobulated business man and a ghost happily eating Doritos in the background wasn’t exactly scary, but he supposed when the apocalypse was starting everything was just that much more untrustworthy. Regardless of the original plan, and admittedly how selfish it was, those people needed help. So, with a rather frustrated and tired sigh, the man met their cowering gaze. “How about we get us out of here?”

Not too far away, Valerie and Danny had already successfully sealed and dissolved over twenty rifts. The one they were closing up now would make the official number twenty-seven. The teens stood on their hovercrafts, watching the rip stitch itself closed and vanish. For a rush job, they were pretty proud of themselves. At least, Valerie was. Danny seemed slightly out of it, looking almost tired. He’d insisted that he was fine, but something told the girl he wasn’t being completely truthful. The phantom flew by and slammed on the breaks once it caught a glimpse of the two teenagers, readying to sneak up and finish them off, but then, something more interesting caught its attention. A group of people running away not far away… and with them was Vlad. Oh great- Now it was stuck in the middle of two choices. It could either kill the clone and Valerie to get them out of the way, OR it could finish off Vlad. Well, the second option involved scaring the hell out of about six other civilians along with revenge, so murder Vlad it was. While starting to head out, Danny suddenly felt a cold chill run down his spine and an icy burn swirl in his chest. Instinctively, he turned around like there was a secret sixth sense warning him of danger; and that’s when they heard it. Screaming. The clone drove his hover board higher up and scanned the streets until he spotted Phantom chasing after a group of people. It seemed to be having fun if anything else, but it was definitely after something specific. Once he spotted what that was, his heart dropped. “Vlad.” Without even a moment of reflection, the boy darted down to give chase.

“What!? Danny, come back! Seriously dude, let the traitor act as a distraction! We can use that to…” Valerie’s shouts were futile. She just couldn’t understand it- why after everything Vlad had done did the clone still want to save him? Just then, Technus darted over with a large device floating behind him. Before Valerie could even question it, she noticed the distant glow of the ghost shield was gone and this device had the word ‘Fenton’ on it. “YOU STOLE THE GHOST SHIELD!?”

Technus rolled his eyes, then glanced to the direction of the phantom. “No need to worry for now, the lunatic is distracted. Besides, I have a plan.” The science spirit glanced around. “Hey- where’s the immorally crafted doppelganger?”

Valerie huffed. “He went after Phantom to try to save Mr. Masters. I don’t know why though.”

Technus folded his digital arms. “It’s a clone, my dear. Loyalty is most likely programmed into him. Now, we have to act fast.” He tossed the young woman a bag of what looked like cybernetic baseballs. “YOU need to place these around the borders of Amity Park, and I, need directions. No time for questions- Where’s the Power Plant?”

Phantom’s laughter echoed off the buildings as it purposefully scared the citizens and Box Ghost down a different path from Vlad. It was like the boy was herding them. And the moment Vlad was finally alone and separated from the rest of the group, they pounced, tackling him into the asphalt. It held him down, claws digging into his flesh as it restrained his arms behind his back. It practically stood on the man, keeping him face down while it chuckled. “You know, for an old man, you’ve got guts trying to escape. Too bad those guts won’t be in you for much longer though.”

Vlad desperately tried to wiggle free, but it was useless. “And what exactly would you get out of killing me? Satisfaction? Is that it? Revenge? This isn’t what your family would’ve wanted. If they saw what you’d become, Jack and Maddie would-.”

“Would what? Cry?” It mocked. “Yeah right, whatever. I don’t really care what they’d think. Besides, you’ve no right to talk about them or shame.” Phantom leaned closer to the man’s face and shoved a claw against his jugular. “In fact, I think I’ll revoke your talking privileges and general. It’ll make killing you a lot less fun though, with all that blood muffling your screams and all. But oh well, such is the price to pay for victory…”

WHAM!

Phantom got smacked off of its victim and was sent flying. The clone Danny stood tall in front of Vlad, jumping off his hover board and pulling out his staff. “Get away from my father.”

Phantom blinked. “Wow. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.”

Vlad scrambled to sit up and gawked at the clone. “Daniel… you came back for me? I thought you’d never want to see me again.”

The boy let out a sigh. “I am upset you lied, but someone once told me that no matter where I came from, I was still their family. And I don’t know why, but I refuse to let anyone take mine away…”

Vlad understood. He knew exactly what he felt. The deeply ingrained desire to protect. After all, that was what the original Danny’s ghost half was essentially made out of; so no wonder he still felt that, clone or not. Phantom on the other hand desired the complete opposite. Its eyes burned with rage as it lunged towards the boy, claws reaching to tear him open. Jumping on his hovercraft to avoid the attack, Danny darted up and the two became locked in a midair battle. The disgraced halfa watched from the ground as the clone easily became overwhelmed and knocked out of the sky. The Box Ghost flew out of nowhere, catching the teen and lowering him down to Vlad. Phantom snarled. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this nonsense. I was looking forward to having fun, but since you insist on ruining it-.” The spirit duplicated itself until there were five copies floating around the group. “I’ll just do this the easy way.” The copies launched down, restraining Box and Danny while the real one tore open a rift and held Vlad over it by the shirt collar. But this gateway didn’t lead out to the streets of New York or the Eiffel Tower, no, it was positioned atmosphere level over a green blur that he assumed was America. Vlad felt his heart rate skyrocket, and his breathing catch. “What’s the matter ‘uncle’? I’m only trying to drop you off back home. Isn’t that where you were trying to run off to? Back to Wisconsin?” The man was too petrified to speak, so Phantom simply smirked mischievously in the science. “Oh well, looks like you have a flight to catch. Consider this my parting gift.” The spirit blasted Vlad out of its grip, letting him plummet to his death. The clone cried out, trying desperately to wiggle out of the doppelganger Phantom’s grasp. Box took notice and quickly began shifting to a demeanor rarely ever shown. His eyes burned red and his body followed suit, until finally the built-up energy exploded out in a shockwave. The phantom duplicates exploded away, leaving the real one distracted and giving Danny a free opening to run towards the portal. The ghost boy tackled Box down and held up its hand, charging with red power, but suddenly, its attention was redirected to the boy running past. Danny darted up to the rift and launched through it. Phantom hissed, glaring daggers down at Box. “You little- I was going to have fun with that one! Why must you always ruin everything!? You do understand I can vaporize you right now?” Slowly, its gaze drifted off once more, but this time, to a far more threatening sight. Technus… with the ghost shield!? Knowing him, he was planning something. “But I’ve got bigger threats to deal with. I’m not wasting my power on a lowlife like you.” Phantom’s energy subsided for a moment before he blasted The Box Ghost in the eye with a tiny form of the death beam. While the spirit writhed in pain, the boy watched Technus fly farther away. “Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work. I’ll make sure of that…” It snarled as it gave chase.