Valerie zoomed out of the front door and into the street, letting her father down carefully as she called Vlad. To her surprise, he answered from a different location. The backdrop behind him wasn’t his lab, it was a cockpit of a small plane. No time for questions though. “Mr. Masters! We have a bit of a situation.”

Her father shook off the shock and demanded answers, but she shut him down as Vlad began to speak. “Government officials, I know. I’d completely forgotten that I had a meeting with them. It’s not your fault. Now, how’s Daniel?”

A loud crash erupted from the inside of Fenton Works, causing Valerie and her father to instinctively start moving away. “Ah… about that- Danny kinda, sorta broke out and is now fighting with said government officials in the lab.”

“He WHAT?!” Vlad boomed. This was bad. “Alright-” The man sighed. “I’m heading down there right now to help. Just- whatever you do, don’t let Daniel run off!” He ended the call swiftly and continued flying towards Amity Park. In the passenger’s seat, a smaller figure slumped. The clone Danny looked out to the windshield on his side, attempting to face away from Vlad. “You want me to fight him, don’t you? The original Danny?”

The disgraced halfas’ demeanor shifted instantly. “W- well, yes, that was the original plan. But you can’t go ghost, so we’re gonna need a plan B.”

Ugh. There he goes again making it sound like he was defective. He felt fine! Well, physically at least. Something inside him still felt wrong. But he swore it had nothing to do with his ability to transform! It was an empty feeling that not even leaning against Vlad was fully fixing. It scared him. Was he always going to feel this way? Because Danny sure as heck didn’t want to. It didn’t feel good. WHY did he feel like that?! He’d decided the best reason to believe was that he was a clone. His entire existence was practically a lie, so that must be subconsciously weighing on him. Yeah. That’s a decent reason. A depressing reason, but decent. Danny sighed as he watched the ground bellow fly by. It was mesmerizing to see the greens of the forests and grays of the mountains in such beautiful sunlight. He didn’t know about the original Danny, but he’d never seen anything like it. “So… what IS plan B?”

Vlad paused, clearly trying to find the right words. “I… I don’t entirely know as of this moment. But we’ll find something. Don’t you worry.” Truth be told, there in fact was a lot of worrying going on. Specifically inside Vlad’s head. After all, HE had done this. HE MADE Danny into this monster; intentional or not. The guilt hung over him like a perpetual storm cloud; ready to strike him down at any given moment. The man would never admit it, but the frankly immoral lab experiment sitting beside him was also a subject of some regret. This poor, innocent soul was brought into this world for the sole purpose of being a soldier. Possibly death fodder if Phantom really was as powerful as Valerie was making him seem. But he called him dad, and leaned against him for comfort when he hurt. Vlad’s heart broke thinking of anything horrible happening to the boy now. He’d gotten attached so to speak. Maybe it was more of a blessing than a curse; the fact that he couldn’t go ghost. Perhaps that way there was no obligation for him to get into danger.

The phantom on the other hand-
It stood in the lab, breathing heavily and staring down at what it had done. The two agents in white were dead; a bloody mess to add to the seemingly growing list of people the boy had killed. First Danny, and now these men. Yet taking them out was far more effortless. Maybe this is just one of those things that can only get easier. After all, the phantom couldn’t feel. Or at the very least, that’s what it kept telling itself. The spirit stood there in silence before slowly breaking; smile crawling up its face as it dropped to its knees. It let out a slight chuckle and hugged itself as its ruby red eyes peered into the reflection casted in the blood puddle. It still looked like HIM. Its face remained the same; granted covered in blood, but still the same. But it wasn’t HIM anymore. No, never again. They’d gone too far to turn back now… they felt too different… done too many horrible things. It wasn’t Danny. It KILLED Danny. Quietly, it went intangible and all the blood spilled off. Phantom stared intently at the reflection for another minute until its ghost sense went off. The boy whipped around to face the ghost portal. It was closed, but not turned off. Which was strange, considering Danny had definitely turned it off last time he was down there. Unless Valerie had turned it on, there was only one ghost that could be capable of pulling this off. The doors slid open and out of the swirling, emerald vortex, a figure rocketed through. Phantom got into a fighting position and growled as its hypothesis was proven right. The ghost smirked, but its attention almost immediately shifted to the two dead bodies. His gaze lingered on them for a moment before snapping back to the snarling phantom. “Ah, carnage AND increased aggression? The lunatic wasn’t exaggerating- you really have gone full Pariah.” Technus swooped down closer to Phantom. “Tell me child, how did you come into possession of such an abundance of power?! Is it hard to control? I ask this for purely scientific reasons. The others don’t even know I’m here.”

Phantom had enough of this guy already. It lunged forward, plasma blasts at the ready. Technus dodged, studying its every move as it rebounded off the wall and shot at him while swooping down like a hawk. Technus tilted his head. “What? No insults or jokes? You’re getting kinda boring ya know that?”

Phantom roared like an angry velociraptor.

“See? How exactly am I supposed to respond to that?”
The boy snarled as it blasted at Technus relentlessly, but the scientist dodged most of them, using summoned scraps of metal as a shield. “Fascinating,” Technus murmured, eyeing Phantom as if it were a new experiment. “Your emotional state is incredibly chaotic. Anger amplified by your ghostly powers creates an interesting synergy. I wonder if it has anything to do with you losing your family.”

Phantom shot a bolt of ectoplasmic energy toward him, a jolt of blinding light piercing the air. “SHUT UP!” It roared. Technus barely managed to phase through the energy blast by going intangible. Alright- enough of this. The ghost glanced around the room, remembering where he was. Duh, he was right where he wanted to be! Using his powers, he summoned a plethora of devices to his side. They swirled around him like a tornado, deconstructing and reassembling into a mechanical battle suit. Its components and screens flickered to life as he aimed his arm, which was now a large cannon, at the boy. Phantom let out a low growl, standing its ground with rage in its eyes. Not a word was said by Phantom as Technus blasted them into the wall above the ghost portal. The kid immediately shook it off and sneered, its voice layered with a chilling echo that reverberated through the lab. “I’ll rip you in half!” The words dripped with venom.

Technus folded his digital arms, intrigued. “That determination- how invigorating! But perhaps we could explore the depths of your fury first, hm? After all, your wrath seems to drive this new form you’ve created for yourself!”

Phantom snarled, launching itself straight at Technus, slicing through the air with raw intensity. “I won’t be your experiment! You think you understand what I am, but you’ve only scratched the surface!” A dark energy swirled around Phantom. “I’m not what I was before. I’ve changed in more ways than you can possibly fathom!”

The specter launched forward, a streak of green dissolving into wisps of smoke. Technus barely had time to react, raising his cannon arm just as Phantom re-emerged, slashing the back of his suit with a sharp, ectoplasmic blade. The scientist fired a barrage of energy blasts; each shot missing. But even if they DID vaguely connect, the projectiles all burst the moment they made contact with the swirling vortex of Phantom’s energy. The ghost boy twisted effortlessly, dodging the continuous destructive blasts and retaliating with hits that were far more powerful than Technus ever intended. The tech ghost struggled to regain his footing, feeling the weight of his suit betray him as he attempted to readjust himself. The battle suit sparked and cracked, unable to withstand any more damage. Technus ejected, leaving the mech to crumble. Looking into Phantom’s eyes, he felt a cold chill run down his spine. Technus narrowed his eyes, studying the boy. “Danny-” he faltered, the name tasting bitter on his tongue. Something about that name felt wrong to put to this entity- it was almost like- “You’re not Danny.”

Phantom just laughed in response; a sound that echoed against the lab’s sterile walls, chilling Technus to his nonexistent bones. It was almost psychotic. The laughter of someone who was falling apart at the seams. Someone who’d just snapped. “Took you long enough.” It smirked. “You’re right…. I’m not Danny. And I’ll never be him again. So out of respect for our past, I should probably just let you run off back into the Ghost Zone. But you know what? Maybe it’ll be a little fun for me to switch up how I work.”

Technus’ eyes snapped to the dead agents then to Phantom. Oh God. There’s no way they meant…? Launching towards the scientist again, the boy was intent on landing a finishing blow. This time, Technus folded. He zoomed back through the portal and used his powers to close it behind him. The phantom charged into the gigantic metal doors with a clang. It was sealed. No use. Phantom huffed. “Fine. Run away like a coward. Look who’s no fun now.” With that, they flew out through the ceiling and perched on the roof. The air was cold and dank, with the sky clearly beginning to threaten rain. It glared into the sky as if mad at something up there, but truthfully, even it didn’t know what it was angry at. HIS family? HIS friends? Well IT wasn’t HIM. So why should it care?! Why should it mourn for people whose death gave them power?! There was no reason to, yet… AAAH! CONFLICTION! That’s all their stupid head ever felt! The spirit roared and rocketed off across the city. Valerie watched from the street, quickly remembering Vlad told her not to lose him. She apologized to her father as she hopped on her hover board and blasted off after her old friend. Quickly though, it became increasingly apparent that she had in fact lost the phantom. It just flew away too quickly. Not to mention the fact that it’s a ghost and could literally go invisible and walk through walls. Valerie groaned. The cry Phantom let out before zooming off sounded heartbroken and angry- possibly even confused. It was hurting… and that tore at the girl’s heart. Poor Danny… he didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t his fault that-… and then it clicked. Valerie knew where Phantom was. “Oh Danny…”

The rain began to fall over the next few minutes, starting as a drizzle, then picking up into a hard rainfall. Valerie landed as quietly as she could several feet away from the target destination. But through the downpour, she could already see her assumption was correct. The glow from the phantom’s flaming hair illuminated the area around where it appeared to be laying down. The ghost hunter somberly looked down at the mangled sign. ‘The N—st- -urg-r’ It read.
Practically nothing remained of the establishment. It was just charred ruins scattered about from the explosion. And the ghost boy was curled up right in the middle of what used to be the kitchen. The room everyone Danny ever loved was taken away from him in an instant. It happened so quickly that they felt no pain, but Danny… he was still recovering when he’d turned into this… still healing when that monster killed him. It was a horrific tragedy- yet life went on. Phantom on the other hand, seemed to be stuck in that moment of cataclysm. She really couldn’t blame him though. It was undoubtedly traumatizing. Valerie cautiously walked along the destruction, getting far closer to the boy then she’d anticipated. After all, she was never told she had to make contact with the phantom, only keep an eye on it till Vlad arrived. Which should be any time now. But something was drawing her toward it. The urge to get closer and comfort it. I mean, the boy was out in the rain- cold and alone… rampaging form or not, that was Danny- right? It was her friend sleeping over there; drenched and in pain. She tried urging herself to take another step, but… no. She couldn’t. Instead, she took a few steps back, careful not to wake the sleeping ghost. It was too risky. Like it or not, it was best to just leave it alone for now.

Elsewhere, Vlad landed the private jet and unbuckled himself. “Daniel, stay in the plane. Hopefully I won’t be long.”

“But I wanna come help! Isn’t that what you made me for?” The clone protested.

Vlad was beginning to walk away when he stopped in his tracks and turned to Danny. “You can’t.” He sighed.

“Why not?!” The boy pushed; getting out of his seat. “I’m not defenseless!”

The man’s mouth curled in a small snarl. “Daniel, I don’t have time for-.”

The clone grabbed a ghost fighting ray and began trying to push past Vlad through the door, but the disgraced halfa blocked him; giving a stern look. “I said no. You’re not ready.” His voice was cold and flat.

The clone growled as he attempted to knock the man out of the way. “Am too!”

“Then go ghost!” Vlad snapped. “Go on! Show me RIGHT NOW you can transform! Turn and ecto blast me RIGHT NOW if you’re so capable of taking on a monster!”

The clone paused, closing his eyes and trying desperately to change, but not a flicker of ethereal light sparked around them. The boy sighed in defeat, allowing Vlad to sit him back down in the passenger’s seat. He looked like his victory was hollow, like he didn’t want to prove himself right- that some part of him wanted to be surprised by a new ability shining through in that moment. Vlad sighed and placed his hand on Danny’s cheek. “I just don’t want you getting hurt. That’s all. Now, I promise I’ll be back.” With that, the man ran off out of the jet and into the rain; still slightly limping. But he didn't care if he was injured-

He had a mission to take care of.