#liam phantom

“Connor? Jason? Samuel?”

The tiny clone shook his head as he rejected the suggested names Liam read out of the book they’d taken from the library below their hiding place.

Elle let out a sigh and snatched the book out of Liam’s hands.

“Hey.”

Elle tossed the book aside.

“This isn’t working. Is this really how Danny and Jazz helped you find your name?”

Liam gave a shrug.

“That’s what they started with, but I guess it really came from a news article.”

“News article?”

“Uh yeah it was mixed in with the name books Jazz brought and it had the name the town called Danny before he told them to call him Phantom. So, I may have used that as inspiration.”

Elle let out an exacerbated groan.

“So, the books weren’t even a part of it?”

Liam shrank back with a guilty look.

The tiny clone flew down and placed a hand on his cheek with a chirp to comfort him.

Liam relaxed a bit and leaned into the tiny caress.

“Yeah, we can take a break. It’s your name, you can take as much time as you want.”

Elle stood up from her position on the floor.

“Maybe getting out and taking a walk will help.”

Liam frowned in worry.

“But it’s the middle of the day. What if someone sees us?”

“So? We both look entirely human, and Tiny is small enough to go unnoticed. If you keep your hood up we’ll just look like two teenagers hanging out on the weekend.”

Tiny nodded in agreement.

Liam still didn’t seem convinced but after being outnumbered he agreed, and they headed out.

-

It had taken a while to get fully out of the GiW facility.

Thankfully humans, even humans who studied and hunted ghosts, often forgot that the same rules of the living world didn’t apply to ghosts.

It had just been a matter of hiding himself in the floor under the assistance scientist as they scanned her before using her body to get past the ghost shield and making a break for it. The spilled ecto dejecto on her clothes was able to hide his ecto signature long enough for him to escape.

After getting out he wasn’t really sure what to do.

Fa… Master. He wasn’t allowed to call him father unless the others were around. Master would not be happy with him if he returned to the mansion and the mission to capture Prime Daniel wasn’t completed.

The problem was he didn’t know how long he’d been in the GiW facility. He didn’t even remember being taken there. Just sensations.

The last clear memory he had was…

“We’ve been walking around for a half hour, maybe we should head back now?”

That was Prime Daniel’s voice.

“Ugh, come on nothing’s going to happen.”

That was Danielle.

This was the set up for him to attack.

Danielle would bring him outside and he would attack. Then they would…

It didn’t matter. He had to do this. Couldn’t fail. If he did then Master would stop using him and focus on the other clones.

Something panged harshly at the thought of Master harming the two clones made after him the way he had done to him. They still believed they were loved the same as Danielle and for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to shatter that illusion for them.

He was getting sidetracked. They were only a block away from turning a corner and him possibly losing sight of them.

He needed to attack now.

-

Liam was the first to sense the approaching ghost first, tensing and looking around just as Elle and Tiny registered their own ghost senses.

A loud roar came from above and all three clones scattered as their attacker landed where they had been only a few seconds before.

Elle recovered quickly, having more experience than her brothers. She got ready to transform and grab her brothers to get out of there, but stopped at seeing who was attacking.

A horrible pit of guilt plummeted in her gut as she stared at another brother she’d thought lost. A brother that she had overestimated and encouraged Danny to blast point blank.

The blasts that had…

Her mind recoiled at the memory on instinct just as it had for the near year since the incident.

Her attention was brought back to the situation when she saw the new clone turn and bring a fist up to strike Liam.

NO!

She flew faster than she thought possible and put up a shield before the fist came down.

“Stop!”

Unfortunately, the larger clone didn’t listen to her and continued to pound on the shield.

Thankfully, Liam had snapped out of his shock and had transformed to help Elle keep up the shield.

“That’s one of our brother’s. Why is he attacking us?”

“I don’t know.”

Another strike to the shield had them both stumbling back. When it came to raw strength this clone definitely had them outmatched.

Two on one would probably even the odds but neither were in the mood to actually fight him.

Wait two? Where was…

“STOP!”

Everyone froze and turned to the new voice.

It had been Tiny. However, he wasn’t very tiny at the moment, instead he was nearly to his full size and not looking very good.

Some of his features were wispy and see-through while others drooped and shifted like puddy.

“Tiny!”

Elle and Liam started for him but the larger clone was closer and got to him first.

Tiny shrank back down and curled up in the massive hands cradling him.

The large clone looked down at him worriedly.

“Tiny why would you do that? You know growing makes you less stable.”

Tiny let out a trill and the large clone’s eyes widened.

“Siblings?”

He looked over to Liam.

“You’re not Prime Daniel?”

Liam hunched his shoulders and pulled his hood down even more over his face, not sure how to react to another clone mistaking him for Danny.

Elle shook her head.

“No, this is Liam. He’s our brother. He was made after me.”

A look of horror and guilt crossed his face.

“Oh, Liam… I thought… I’m so sorry.”

Liam shrugged.

“It’s ok. Not the first time someone mistook me for Danny.”

The large clone shook his head.

“That still doesn’t make it ok. I’m still sorry.”

Liam gave a small smile and nodded showing he still forgave him.

The large clone nodded back, then looked thoughtful.

“If you were made after Danielle does that mean the mission to capture Prime Daniel was a success? Are we supposed to return to Father now?”

“NO!”

The large clone startled at the sudden shout from all three of his siblings.

Tiny, now stabilized back in his small form floated up and explained in hums and trills the horrors they each experienced under Vlad, shattering any illusion of him being the loving father he had tricked them into believing he was.

Elle stepped forward.

“He hurt us.”

Her eyes lingered on the many stitches and scars lining the larger clones body.

“And he hurt you too, didn’t he?”

The large clone ran his fingers over one of the scars.

“Yeah, he did…”

Tears welled up in Elle’s eyes.

“I didn’t know. You were unstable and being hurt and I…”

She was cut off by another stream of mist coming from her mouth.

Everyone looked up to see a streak of blue being chased by a streak of black and white, identified as the Box Ghost being chased by Danny.

Danny sucked the Box Ghost into the thermos and looked down at them.

He flew down to great them but before anyone could exchange any words, Elle, Liam and Tiny found themselves being pulled behind the large clone.

A glare was directed at Danny with teeth bared and fingertips extending into claws.

“What?”

Kindred Spirits happens with Perfect Clone aware in his pod. x

GiW find and gather up the ectoplasm from the melted Franken Clone.

Vlad dumps the ectoplasm from melted Tiny Clone into the Ghost Zone. x

Destabilized happens

Vlad remakes Perfect Clone, now stable and unable to resist any order Vlad gives him. Vlad orders Perfect Clone to kill Dani, but Perfect Clone is able to break the control Vlad had over him before he can hurt her. This leads to Danny, Dani, and Perfect Clone fighting Vlad, but Perfect Clone is separated from Danny and Dani and is unable to be found. x

Perfect Clone is found by an adult, mistaken for Danny skipping school and taken to Casper. There he runs into Sam and Tucker while Danny is out fighting a ghost. They confront him and the truth comes out. They tell Danny and Perfect Clone is surprised at how happy Danny is to see him alive. x

Perfect Clone changes his name to Liam. x

Liam is reunited with Dani, now called Elle, and lives on the streets with her. x

Liam offers to cover for Danny at school while he’s ghost fighting and runs into Wes who gets suspicious. He also encounters Sidney Poindexter which leads to Danny’s first truce that allows a ghost free access to the living world. x

Tiny Clone eventually reforms in the Ghost Zone and finds his way to the Fenton portal. x

While avoiding Danny’s parents Tiny Clone hides in Jazz’s room and scares her, drawing Danny’s attention. He tries to run but is caught by Danny, who reassures him that he’s safe. x

Tiny is reunited with Elle and Liam. x

Tiny changes his name to Kenny.

During an experiment with a stolen ecto dejecto formula the melted ectoplasm from Franken Clone is covered, causing him to reform.

After escaping the GiW base, Franken Clone sees Elle and Liam together and mistakes it as the set up for Vlad’s plan for him to attack. He is stopped by Elle and Kenny and the situation is explained to him.

Franken Clone changes his name to David.

David finds a place for them to live in the Green Light/Neon district and the clones move in.

Danny asks Sam and Tucker to help him bring back Skeleton Clone, but they’re only able to retrieve a small amount of ectoplasm. It’s not enough to resurrect Skeleton Clone on its own, so they make a plan to steal a clone pod from Vlad.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker steal a clone pod from Vlad without Vlad, or the clones knowing and use it to bring Skeleton Clone back.

Danny surprises the other clones with Skeleton Clone, who changes his name to Jack (Jax to avoid confusion)

A video of someone finding Vlad’s Colorado lab and early cloning notes goes viral and people start to think it’s connected to Phantom.

Elle and Liam get seen in human form wandering around the back alleys of the city and have to use their ghost powers to escape the police and social workers looking for them, creating an urban legend.

Some people see Liam in ghost form and there are a few rumors but more just think he’s Danny with a hood.

Maddie notices Jazz taking the ecto contaminated food out of the fridge and driving off with it one night and follows her. She sees Jazz meeting with Liam and spies on them until Liam notices her and bolts. Maddie tries to chase him, but he disappears down a dead-end alley and she doesn’t know what happened.

Maddie tries to confront Jazz on what happened and asks about Liam but Jazz refuses to tell her anything.

Kenny is seen on camera saving a kid in a ghost fight and it makes the news, drawing Vlad’s attention to the clones.

Vlad’s first attempt at kidnapping one of the clones (probably Kenny) in order to make Danny/Elle/Liam cooperate with him fails, but does reveal the existence of the clones to the general public.

David discovers his Echo power while confronting Vlad.

While out ghost hunting Jack sees Elle and Liam running from Spectra. Vlad (as Plasmius) then shows up and reveals Spectra to be a ghost. After keeping the kids safe from Bertrand, Jack notices that Plasmius does the same replacing swears with desserts as Vlad does and combined with Spectra showing that ghosts can disguise themselves as humans makes him start to think.

Jack explains a few of his worries to Maddie which add to her own worries, and they decide to build a device that can detect ghosts pretending to be human.

At some point Danny finds Flynn in the Ghost Zone and tells him about his parents.

While out exploring, Elle falls through a portal and ends up in a dangerous swamp in the Ghost Zone. She is then saved by Sojourn. He offers to take her to the Center (place for orphaned child ghosts) but on the way he starts to get attached to her.

While at the Center Elle is given a Caretaker to look after her until she’s adopted, but a random portal opens, and the Caretaker is pulled through.

The portal brings the Caretaker to the material world, and due to its lack of knowledge, mistakes human kids as orphaned ghost children. So, they treat them as such, by trapping them all in the school and preventing any adults from getting in. This includes Danny, Sam, Tucker, and the clones except for Elle.

Elle tells Sojourn about the Caretaker being pulled through the portal and when they find out what happened on Earth, they make a plan to rescue the kids. It works but it means the clones are registered as not belonging in the Center, so they are unable to go and be safe there.

Elle is adopted by Sojourn.

Kenny fines Undergrowth as a tiny weed in the woods trying to hide from some hungry deer. Spec scares off the deer, leading to them and Undergrowth getting close.

Eventually Undergrowth is able to grow large enough to gain his power back and offers to make Kenny’s larger form more stable, essentially adopting him. Kenny agrees and during the process, while they’re asleep, Undergrowth invades Amity again.

Kenny wakes up to his new leafy form and sees that Amity is covered in vines and appears to be abandoned. They eventually find Sam trapped in her greenhouse and helps free her as she explains what’s going on. Spec is furious to learn that the person they’ve been looking up to would do something like this and they both go to find Danny. They eventually find him trapped in a cage of power draining vines and start working on freeing him, only for Undergrowth to show up. Spec starts yelling at him and even goes as far as to try and rip out the plants holding his larger form together. This convinces Undergrowth to stop and let everyone go. There may also be some threatening of Vlad to turn the woods outside Amity into a nature preserve.

With Undergrowth just outside the city Vlad becomes more wary of directly attacking the clones. This leads the clones to feel safer being seen out in public.

Jax finds out he can create illusions and uses them to mess with people. His favorite is making himself look like a creepy version of Danny.

Ecton gets wrapped up in a ghost rebellion against Walker and manages to overthrow him. In the process it’s revealed that Walker was the founder of what eventually became the GiW and is Danny’s great-grandfather. This leads to a truce between Walker and Danny.

During Halloween Danny gives Jax a constructive outlet for his obsession by making a haunted house. Fright Knight is summoned to the house and witnesses Jax skill in scaring people, making Fright Knight want to adopt him. Jax is wary of the offer but is also too scared by Fright Knight to say no and Fright Knight starts training him. Eventually Jax starts having fun and forgets why he was worried in the first place, which allows things to go too far. Jax is having too much fun to notice until the other clones get hit by Fright Knight’s sword. He realizes that they need to stop but isn’t sure how to tell Fright Knight. Danny helps him and Fright Knight brings the clones back. After a conversation on appropriate levels of scaring, Fright Knight and Jax begin to bond again.

Pandora learns about Ecton’s rebellion against Walker and goes to investigate. After talking to Ecton and being impressed with all the good he’s done she decides to adopt him.

While watching a ghost fight Liam sees Danny just drop and quickly goes to rescue him. Only to find the person he was fighting was Nocturn and is instantly knocked unconscious as well.

After realizing the dream he’s trapped in isn’t real, Liam wakes up. He confronts Nocturn and notices some inconsistencies between what’s happening and Danny’s previous encounter and Nocturn offers to explain. With a need to know what’s going on he agrees and Danny wakes up to see Nocturn pulling Liam into himself.

Danny fight’s through Nocturn’s dream to rescue Liam only to find that he seems to be enjoying himself. However, before he can figure out what’s going on Nocturn shows up and Danny tries to fight him, but Liam jumps in to explain that Nocturn isn’t a bad guy. He was actually trying to take care of Danny’s health; he just had a hard time relaying that in a way Danny’s obsession would let him accept. Liam also tells Danny that Nocturn offered to adopt him, and Liam accepted.

It is discovered that Vlad has the Crown of Fire and Danny, Sam, and Tucker steal it from him. Danny then ends up with the crown stuck on top of his head in ghost form, marking him King of Ghosts.

It is discovered that the house with the lab from the video that went viral belongs to Vlad and after the authorities find the lab he is placed under investigation. Vlad tries to pay people off but with how public the case is it just makes him look more suspicious. So, he tries to turn to the Fentons for help.

Jack is still suspicious from that night in the alley, so he uses the device to detect ghosts disguised as humans on Vlad and reveals him as Plasmius. Vlad bolts before Jack and Maddie can figure out what to do.

Jack and Maddie take a trip into the Ghost Zone to take some observations but get knocked off course and land near Flynn’s campsite. When they wake up Flynn informs them of where they are and their circumstances, then introduces them to Misery Vex. Jack and Maddie are horrified but have no other choice but to trust ghosts to get them home, in the process many of their beliefs about ghosts are challenged.

Jack and Maddie study an artifact they found during their time trapped in the Ghost Zone and get so invested they don’t notice Jazz struggling from all the stress she’s putting on herself. Eventually Jazz has a meltdown which the artifact responds to and latches onto her, connecting her emotions to the weather.

Danny tries to tell his parents how to help Jazz but they ignore him and lock him in the lab to ‘keep him safe’. Danny uses his ghost powers to get out and goes to help Jazz. He manages to calm her down, but his parents still insist they know the best way to help her when they really don’t and Danny snaps. This results in him activating his power to create portals and he disappears with Jazz into the Ghost Zone.

With no idea where in the Ghost Zone their kids could have gone Jack and Maddie turn to the only person they can think of that could help them, and go searching for Vlad.

Danny takes Jazz to the Far Frozen and it’s revealed that they can’t just remove the artifact because its properties have fused with the nanobots that are still in her from when Vlad pit her and Danny against each other. The only thing they can do is reduce how much power she lets out, but they’ll never be able to get rid of it. The best option is for Jazz to learn to control the powers.

While hiding from the Observants Vortex runs into Jazz training and he agrees to help her in exchange for a safe place to hide. Eventually these training sessions turn into emotional venting sessions and both Jazz and Vortex learn to process their emotions in a healthy way.

Danny shifted in his seat constantly looking at the clock. The school had been taken out of lockdown a few minutes ago and now he was waiting for class to be let out so he could go to see his clone on the roof.

Danny usually tried to pay attention in class when he was actually present, but at the moment he couldn’t focus on Mr. Lancer’s lecture. Every second that ticked by was a second his clone could decide to run away again. Far away from where Danny could know he was safe or protect him.

The fear he felt when he couldn’t find the clone after the fight with Vlad had been overwhelming and had nearly caused him to forbid Elle from going off on her own again before realizing it would harm her far more.  

He may not have known the clone for more than a few minutes, but he still helped fight against Vlad. That added with his obvious care for Elle had caused Danny’s instincts, both human and ghostly, to latch onto him immediately. The thought that he might disappear again tugged painfully at Danny’s core.

The bell signaling the end of class caught Danny off guard as he’d focused too much on his worry.

He jumped out of his seat and ran out of the room.

Once he was out of sight of any staff or students he quickly transformed and phased up to the roof.

-

Danny scanned the roof, but didn’t see anyone, and his core pulsed fearfully.

Had the clone run off again? Of course he had, leaving him alone like that was stupid. Danny needed to go find him.

The clone then flickered into visibility and Danny’s racing thoughts calmed.

He took in his clone’s appearance and pointed to his head.

“I like the hood.”

“Oh.”

The clone reached up to pull the hood he’d added to his jumpsuit farther over his face. However, Danny could still see the small smile he gave.

“Thanks. It helps to avoid the ghosts mistaking me for you.”

Danny frowned in worry.

“Does that happen a lot?”

The clone shrugged.

“Not as much anymore. I tend to stay out of sight and the hood helps. It’s more of the humans I need to worry about when I have to transform back into human myself. I have to make sure no one mistakes me for you and tries to call your parents.”

“Yeah, that would make things complicated. Is that how you ended up at the school? Someone thought you were me?”

The clone nodded.

“Yeah, the options were either come here or have your parents called. This seemed like the option with the least possible problems.”

Danny nodded.

“So, what have you been doing since you disappeared? Do you have a safe place you’re staying?”

The clone shrugged.

“I’ve been sleeping in the attic of the town library. It’s pretty safe. No one goes up there that often and it’s pretty easy to hide if anyone does.”

Danny nodded.

“I guess that works for now. I’d offer but it’s dangerous enough at my house as it is with my own secret.”

The clone shot Danny a sad look and he looked away. The clone seemed to get the hint and changed the subject.

“How’s Dani doing? Did she recover after what Vlad did?”

Danny brightened.

“Oh yeah, she’s doing much better. The cut healed in less than an hour. Also, she’s going by Elle now. She said it gave her more of her own identity. She went off to continue her exploring, but she’ll probably want to come back immediately after I tell her about you.”

The clone smiled at hearing his sister was doing well.

“Really? She’d want to see me?”

“Of course, she would. She was just as upset about you disappearing after the fight.”

The clone hunched his shoulders and looked away guilty.

“But I attacked her. I brought her to Vlad.”

Danny shook his head.

“You saved her from Vlad.”

The clone still didn’t look convinced, so Danny floated over to him and placed his hands on his shoulders.

“You’re a good person, you broke free of Vlad and the first thing you did was free Elle. What Vlad made you do, has nothing to do with who you are.”

The clone looked at Danny wide eyed.

“You mean that?”

“Of course, I do.”

Danny then glanced down at the students who were coming out of the school and heading to busses or their parents’ cars. It was clearly time to go home but he also clearly didn’t want to let the clone out of his sight at the moment.

“Hey, how about we swing by my place so I can give you a pair of Fenton Phones to keep in contact?” We can even call Elle together.”

“Uh… yeah sure. If you think it’ll be ok.”

“Of course, it will. Just stay out of sight of my parents.”

The clone nodded seriously and the two flew off towards Fentonworks.

-

About a block away the two landed in an alley and transformed back into their human forms.

“Just stay invisible until we get to my room.”

The clone nodded and turned himself invisible.

“Good now follow me.”

The clone almost nodded before realizing it would be useless to do so while invisible.

“Got it.”

The two walked up to the steps of Fentonworks.

Danny opened the door, and they were met with the sounds of electronics sparking and metal hitting metal.

The clone flinched, but of course Danny couldn’t see it so made no move to comfort him. Instead, he just shouted over the racket like it was normal.

“Mom! Dad! I’m home from school.”

The horrible sounds stopped, and a cheerful woman’s voice came from the direction of the kitchen.

“Welcome home, Sweety. There are snacks in the fridge next to the chilled ectoplasmic botany samples.”

A booming man’s voice came right after.

“Remember not to eat anything that glows.”

Danny shook his head and headed for the stairs.

“Thanks, I’ll remember that.”

The clone followed and turned visible once they were in Danny’s room.

“Is it always like that here?”

Danny shrugged.

“Yeah, pretty much. It sounds like they’re pretty distracted so grabbing some Fenton phones for you won’t be too hard. Just stay here until I get back.”

The clone nodded, this time able to be seen and Danny headed back downstairs.

Left alone the clone looked around Danny’s room.

His eyes scanned the band posters and model rockets on the walls. The exact same posters and models that had been in his designated room in Vlad’s mansion. Had Vlad been spying on Danny that intensely to know the exact layout of his room? Wait did that mean he could be spying on Danny right now and know that he was there?

The thought sent a jolt of panic through the clone, and he quickly started scanning the corners and shadows to see if he could spot the familiar bug drones.

That was when Danny returned, and he gave the clone a confused look.

“What are you doing?”

The clone spun around as if he was afraid of getting caught before relaxing at realizing it was unnecessary to react that way.

“Vlad knows what your room looks like. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t still spying on you.”

Danny smiled softly.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Once I found out that Vlad had been spying on me, Tucker’s been doing routine sweeps to make sure there aren’t any of his spy bots around.”

“Oh.”

The clone looked away awkwardly, before Danny placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye.

“I promise Vlad will not get to you as long as I can help it.”

The clone opened his mouth to respond only for the door to open and Jazz to walk in.

“Danny I…”

She stopped just inside the doorway as her eyes landed on two versions of her little brother.

A plain ride and assigning a research project at the

The next day, Danny tried to focus on his geometry work, but his mind kept wandering back to Elle and Liam, and the weird guilt that had been hovering over him. He needed a distraction and finding the area of a triangle was not sufficient.

Thankfully, a better distraction arrived when he felt the familiar cold mist escape his mouth. Even better, was that Mr. Falluca was one of the teachers who'd stopped caring long ago and just let him go when he raised his hand. If he managed to get through the fight before the bell rang, he'd be able to get out his emotions and not get detention from missing English again. 

He transformed inside a stall and phased through the roof to see what unlucky ghost had decided to show up when he was in a bad mood. He heard a scream and turned to see a woman running from a giant green wasp flying after her. 

Danny shot down and slammed into the wasp just as it was about to catch the woman. The woman screamed again and ran off down the street, out of reach of the ghostly insect. 

With the civilian out of harm's way Danny let the wasp have it. He shot an ectoblast point blank into its thorax and sent it flying back into the nearest building with a loud splat. It buzzed weakly but seemed to be trapped by its own ectoplasm.

"Huh, that was easy."

"Danny?"

Danny looked to see Elle and Liam phasing out of the wall next to him. It appeared the fight had ended up next to the library and had gotten his clones’ attention.

"Oh hey, don't mind me. Just cleaning up a mess before English starts."

He turned to suck the splattered wasp into the Fenton Thermos but before he could it began to morph and change shape, becoming a completely different animal entirely. Danny had to drop the thermos in order to get a shield up in time to avoid the now massive ghost bear from taking a bite out of his leg.

Elle quickly jumped in to help him, but Liam just stood there not sure what to do.

Both Elle and Danny fought off the bear, but it was constantly changing targets and being difficult to predict and guard against. Then a horrible, pained scream came from Danny as he was unable to avoid the bear's claws and Liam jolted in panic.

His eyes landed on the thermos nearby and he grabbed it. Unfortunately, having never seen the Fenton Thermos used before he had no idea how to use it himself.

Danny was then flung to the ground in front of him, ectoplasm coating his left thigh.

He looked up at Liam with the thermos in his hands and quickly grabbed it.

"Elle get down!"

A beam of blueish light came from the thermos's opening and Elle jumped out of the way just in time to avoid it. The bear on the other hand was not so lucky and it was instantly pulled into the device. Once the hostel ghost was trapped Danny lay back down on the pavement with a groan.

"Ugh, not the distraction from geometry I was hoping for, but at least I can still get to English before Lancer gives me another detention."

He attempted to stand back up and gave out a hiss of pain as it stretched the cut on his side.

Elle landed next to him with a frown.

"You're hurt."

"Nothing I haven't dealt with before. It'll close up in a few minutes and heal by the end of the day."

Elle didn't look convinced.

"You still shouldn't be walking on it. Come on, you can rest in the library attic with us."

Danny shook his head.

"No, I have to get to class, or Lancer will hold me after school again. I can't afford another detention with him. He's getting really insistent on trying to figure out what's going on."

"Then I'll go."

Both Danny and Elle looked at Liam.

"What?"

Liam looked to the side as he explained. 

"Elle's right, you can't go walking around the school with a cut like that. Even if it will heal in a few hours, it'll be hard to hide, and you could end up making it worse. You should rest in the library and let it heal. I'll cover for you in class."

Danny frowned.

"Are you sure?"

Liam nodded.

"Yeah, I did it before and no one noticed, so I can do it again. It's kind of my fault you got hurt anyway. I should have helped you in the fight, but I didn't."

"Liam..."

"And I also kind of liked Lancer's class."

That seemed to be the right thing to say as Danny dropped his shoulders and let out a sigh."

Fine, but be careful, don't talk to anyone other than Sam and Tucker or the teachers if they ask you a question, and leave right after the last bell. Sam and Tucker will tell you where all my classes are."

Liam nodded and took off.

Danny slumped against the wall and looked down at his leg. Ok yeah, now that he wasn't panicked over missing class, he could admit that walking on that would have probably not gone well. Elle looked down at him."

Come on, your leg's stopped bleeding so you can come up to the library attic now."

Danny nodded and floated up to avoid putting pressure on his leg as he phased through the wall of the library.

-

Covering for Danny wasn't all that hard for Liam. He knew where Lancer's English classroom was thanks to the events of the previous day and was able to get there in plenty of time before the bell rang.

For a while, things were fine, but then Liam paused in his work as he felt something off.

He looked around and he saw two green eyes staring at him.

Liam looked over the boy turned towards him and giving him a stare that was far more suspicious than he believed he deserved. Even as a clone pretending to be his original in English class.

The boy had short red hair that flopped over his face in a similar way his and Danny’s did and wore a jacket over a basketball jersey. His eyes kept moving from Liam’s form to his eyes with a clear question in them.

Liam squirmed, uncomfortable under the gaze, and tried to think of how Danny might react to this boy.

However, it turned out he didn’t need to as Mr. Lancer spoke up.

“Mr. Fenton, Mr. Weston. Eyes on your own papers please.”

Both Liam and the Weston boy turned back to face forward in their seats, but Liam could still feel the gaze on him occasionally throughout the period.

-

The bell eventually rang, and Liam quickly ran over to Sam and Tucker to explain what was going on and ask about the weird red-haired boy.

To their credit it seemed they already figured out that Liam and Danny had switched places for the day while Danny recovered, so the conversation switched to Weston quite quickly.

“Oh yeah that’s just Wes.”

Tucker waved his hand dismissively.

“He’s a total conspiracy nerd. He figured out Danny’s secret a while back, but no one believes him, so you don’t have to worry. He was probably trying to see if he could catch evidence that the rest of the class wouldn’t just brush off or laugh at him for again.”

Liam gave a nod but still looked uncertainly back when he felt Wes staring at him in the hallway.

“So, what am I supposed to do about him staring at me? It’s kind of freaking me out.”

Sam shrugged.

“Just ignore him. He’s harmless. Now come on we have history to get to.”

-

The rest of school passed not too eventfully, Liam making sure to take notes so he could give them to Danny later. Thankfully it was just the beginning of the year, so he was able to follow along pretty well.

Unfortunately, Danny’s last class was not one he shared with Sam and Tucker so that left Liam alone to navigate towards the exit.

That wouldn’t have been a problem if someone wasn’t waiting for this exact situation.

Liam felt someone grab his arm and yank him into a side hallway free of other students. He instantly broke free of the person holding him and spun to face them. If nothing else Vlad at least taught him how to defend himself.

However, he’d also taught him by using his ghost powers so before he could stop himself Liam turned on the student with glowing eyes and hand up as if it held an ectoblast.

“HA! I knew you weren’t Fenton! No way would he let himself look this ghostly around someone before knowing who it was.”

Liam blinked letting the green fade from his eyes as he took in the form of Wes Weston in front of him.

“What?”

Wes pulled away from Liam’s laxed pin and crossed his arms.

“So, what are you? A duplicate? Shapeshifter? Clone?”

Liam winced at how Wes had said clone, which Wes instantly locked onto.

“No way, you are a clone.”

Liam tried to turn to bolt but Wes was fast and pushed him back against the lockers.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not leaving until I get some answers.”

Liam’s thought’s raced, confrontation that didn’t involve ghost fighting was never something he’d been prepared for. Vlad had wanted an obedient, docile child that he could control, and while he ultimately failed, it did mean Liam had never been given the skills meant for a situation like this.

However, one thing he did have was ghost powers and what he didn’t have was years of training himself to hide them from people.

Liam went intangible and let himself pass through Wes’s arm and the lockers behind him to freedom.

He instantly became solid again, not being able to remain intangible for long in human form. Unfortunately, that allowed Wes to get in front of him again and stop his escape.

“Don’t think it’ll be that easy.”

Liam took a step back, but aside from using more ghost powers there wasn’t much of a way to get around the other boy.

Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully depending on how you saw it, something else started happening behind them.

A locker that appeared a bit more worn and dented than the others started to glow an unnatural, sickly green associated with ghosts. A gray, translucent hand then phased through the door followed by another and then a head and body, until a full ghost was floating in the hallway with them.

The ghost looked to be that of a teenage boy, possibly around 14-15. He was in complete monochrome gray colors, and wore a plaid collared shirt, suspenders, bowtie, and thick circular glasses that seemed to take up half his face.

His eyes looked over the scene in front of Wes blocking the hallway as Liam was unable to get through.

The ghost’s eyes narrowed at Wes and the temperature of the hallway dropped suddenly. The lockers started to shake, and the lights flickered.

“Bully.”

The ghost hissed and Wes seemed to understand what the smart thing to do was, and ran, just managing to avoid a locker door swinging out right where his head would have been.

Once Wes was out of sight the ghost seemed to calm and turned to Liam, who was still too overwhelmed by everything to have run like Wes had done.

“You.”

-

Danny was getting worried. The school day had ended over 30 minutes ago, but Liam still wasn’t back. Sure, he hadn’t told him to come right back to the library when it was over but there wasn’t really anywhere else for him to go.

At least he was right about his leg healing in only a few hours. It was now no more than a slight red line that only hurt when pressed on.

However, now that it was healed, he didn’t have anything to distract him from his worry, and Elle was not helping.

She floated back and forth in the ghost version of pacing, making it clear that she was worried too. This experience was far too familiar for both of them, and neither were coping well.

Thankfully, Danny’s lack of injury also meant there was nothing stopping him from running out to search.

Elle appeared to have a similar thought, because as soon as Danny said he was going to go find Liam, Elle shot over to him, insisting on helping.

The first place to look was, of course, the school. They phased through the wall and started scanning for any sign of where Liam might have gone.

At first, they didn’t find anything. That was until they came to a hallway with the lights off. However, they could still see the state of the hallway clear enough and it did not paint a good picture. Papers and bags lay strewn over the floor and all the lockers were left wide open. That is except for one. Locker 724 remained firmly closed.

“Oh no.”

Elle looked up from where she was searching through a pile of upside down bookbags and frowned in worry.

“What?”

As soon as the word left her lips a wisp of cold mist came from her mouth.

“Oh.”

It took no more than a frightened locking of the eyes for them to communicate what the next course of action was, and they bolted in the direction they could sense the ghost.

-

It didn’t take long for them to find Liam and the other ghost in the basement of the school, and they hurriedly jumped in to defend him.

“STOP!”

To Danny’s credit he did actually stop.

Elle, on the other hand, was still in ‘the need to protect her brother’ mindset and slammed into the ghost next to him.

The two of them tumbled for a bit until Elle had the ghost pinned under her.

“Elle stop, it’s ok.”

Liam grabbed Elle’s shoulder and she looked up at him.

Liam looked fine. He wasn’t scuffed up or bruised like he’d been in a fight and was even still in human form. The only difference from his appearance before the ghost appeared was that he’d pulled his hood up. Overall, there was nothing to indicate that he’d been in any trouble.

“Hey, kitten, you think you could get your earth pads off my face?”

Elle looked down at the ghost she had pinned.

“What?”

Liam gently pulled Elle away from the ghost.

“It’s ok, Sidney’s cool.”

Danny looked over the ghost that was very much the picture of a stereotypical nerd.

“Cool?”

Liam rubbed the back of his neck.

“I mean he’s not going to hurt me. He actually saved me from Wes when he figured out I wasn’t you.”

Danny winced.

“Yeah, I probably should have warned you about Wes. Didn’t think he’d catch on that quickly though.”

Liam shrugged.

“Yeah, but it worked out. Sidney appeared and scared him off and after he realized I wasn't you we ended up talking. Actually, he said he wanted to say something to you.

Danny turned back to Sidney who shrank back guilty under his gaze.

“You do?”

Sidney pulled the neck of his collar.

“Yes well… I may have flipped my lid a bit too soon and been a real royal shaft to you when I first met ya.”

“Uh, yeah, kind of… I think, but I still needed to learn my lesson. I shouldn’t have used my powers to get back at Dash.”

Sidney quickly shook his head.

“No, you had every right to give that vacant a right shiner. I learned he wasn’t as much of a cool cat as he made himself look after watching a bit closer and that you were really just doing the same thing I was.”

He looked down ashamed.

“I’m sorry for accusing you and sending you to my layer. I realize that made me the… bully.”

Sidney’s glow seemed to shutter, and he looked pained at the admission

Danny quickly floated closer in worry.

“Sidney?”

Sidney held his hands up.

“Nah all’s swell, just a little bit of the zorros. My core just giving a flicker since my actions didn’t align with me.”

Danny frowned as he tried to parse out the meaning between the 50s slang and ghost terminology.

“Well, I hope accepting your apology make’s you feel better at least.

Sidney smiled and nodded.

“Yes, it does.”

He then looked away uncomfortably.

“Guess I should be heading back to my layer now.”

He gave a weak laugh and Danny’s worried frown increased. The memory of the washed-out gray school full of hostel students doing nothing but tormenting him for hours. Thinking of Sidney going back to that made his core ache.

“No!”

Both Sidney and Liam flinched at the shout and Elle looked at him confused.

“I mean. You don’t have to go back to that. No one deserves to be attacked all the time like that.”

Sidney’s eyes widened.

“Oh. No no, it’s no sweat. I’ll be fine there, it’s much better now that I got control of my drones.”

“Drones?”

Sidney looked to Elle, apparently forgetting she was there.

“How warm are ya? Drones are external constructs a ghost can project into the area around us. Problem for me was, mine looked like my old classmates so I expected them to act like the originals, and so they did. Breaking free of the cycle for a bit allowed me to reestablish control.”

He turned his attention back to Danny.

“So, you can cut the gringles, I’ll be fine.”

He attempted a smile, but he still didn’t look comfortable with the idea of going back.

“Still if you don’t want to go back you don’t have to. You can stay in the school, as long as you only use your powers to keep people safe from actual bullies and don’t hurt anyone.”

Sidney looked shocked.

“Ok I know you're lighting up the tilt sign. Every ghost you find material side you pound and send em packing.”

“Yeah, because most ghosts who come here want to hurt people or cause damage. You just want to keep people safe from bullies. That’s not a bad thing. You even saved Liam from a bad situation; I’m not going to punish you for that. You just need to make sure that the people you’re saving people from are actual bullies and do it in ways that don’t cause injury. The bullies are still human and a metal door to the face can do a lot more damage to them then it can to you.”

Sidney looked sheepish and nodded.

“Right. It can be easy to forget fleshies are more fragile.”

He stood, or hovered, up straight and looked Danny in the eye.

“I promise as long as you let me stay in the material plane that I will work to only protect victims and in ways that will not cause permanent harm to their attackers.”

Danny nodded back.

“Good. Now I gotta get home before my parents realize I never showed up.

He looked at Liam.

“You can stay here if you want, Elle and I were just worried when we didn’t know where you were after school ended.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I should have called to tell you what was going on. Not used to people worrying about me.”

He glanced at Sidney.

“Mind if I stay a bit longer?”

“Not at all, slodge, with your keeper being supermurgitroid it’d be rockin’ if ya didn’t split just yet.”

Liam looked at Sidney with a blank look.

“I’m going to be honest. I have no idea what you just said.”

Sidney started laughing.  

“Yes, you can stay. We’re friends.”

“Oh.”

Elle crossed her arms.

“Well, I’m staying too.”

She turned her gaze on Liam.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight until I can trust you to stop disappearing on me.”

Liam shrank back with a guilty smile.

“Heh, right.”

With that Danny said his goodbye’s and phased back out of the building not noticing a pair of eyes watching from the shadows.

For a moment Jazz and Danny just starred at the clone who smiled at them innocently.

Danny groaned.

“You cannot be serious.”

“Why? What’s wrong with it?”

The clone made a confused frown, but it was clear he was attempting to hide a smile.

Danny was not amused.

“You know exactly what’s wrong.”

Eventually Jazz broke into laughter and the clone wasn’t able to hold back the smile anymore. Although he did look apologetic about it.

Danny rolled his eyes.

“Yeah ok, guess it was a pretty obvious joke to make, but let’s be serious about getting you a name. Jazz was right about calling you just the clone being awkward.”

The clone bit his lip and looked away.

“Actually, I was being serious. I actually do like the name Liam. It’s different and a name separated from Daniel, but it still comes from you. It… feels like me.”

The clone blushed and fidgeted in his seat.

Danny sighed.

“Ugh, how am I supposed to say no to that? Fine.”

The clone perked up.

“Does that mean...?”

“Yes, if you’re really serious about liking it and this isn’t a joke then yes you can go by Liam.”

The clone smiled genuinely.

“Yes, I want my name to be Liam.”

Jazz clapped her hands together.

“Liam it is then.”

She then picked up her laptop and turned to the pile of books on the bed.

“Now that that's settled, I'll let you guys get back to what you were doing. I need to bring all this back to my room anyway.”

She started picking up the books from Danny's bed and Liam helped her put them in a stack. Once she had them all she thanked Liam and exited the room.

Liam then turned to Danny.

“So, are we going to call Elle now?”

“Oh right, we were going to do that.”

Danny pulled out two silver and green earpieces and handed one to Liam.

“Since we have the same voice, it'll be hard to tell us apart, so you don't have to talk to her this time. Actually, it might be best to tell her in person, so I'll just invite her here. You can still listen though.”

“Uh, ok.”

Liam put the earpiece on and waited for Danny to make the call. A bit of static came from the speaker then Elle's voice could be heard.

“Hello?”

Danny gave Liam a thumbs up.

“Hey Elle, it's Danny.”

“Danny, hey what's up. It's not our normal call time.”

“Yeah, I know, I just wanted to call you about something. How far are you from amity?”

“About 30 minutes, why?”

“Could you come over? I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise? Awesome! I'll be over as soon as I can.”

“Great, meet you outside the Nasty Burger.”

“On it, see you soon.”

“See you.”

Danny hung up the call and looked over to Liam to see his reaction. Only to be shocked when he saw him crying.

“Liam, what's wrong?”

Liam looked up to show he was smiling as he wiped away the tears.

“It's actually happening. I'm going to see Elle and Vlad's not going to ruin it.”

Danny smiled as well.

“Yeah, that fruit loop isn't coming anywhere near you.”

-

Once again, Liam followed Danny down the stairs invisible as they made their way out. Which was again unneeded as the horrible sounds from the kitchen persisted.

“Mom, Dad, I’m going to the Nasty Burger!”

His parents shouldn’t have been able to hear him over the cacophony they were making, but somehow, Maddie understood what he said perfectly.

“Ok, just don’t spoil your dinner!”

“Don’t worry I won’t.”

A loud explosion rocked the walls of the house.

“Mads get the fire extinguisher!”

“On it! Be back by 6 sweety.”

“Will do.”

Danny then exited the door like nothing happened and a stunned Liam followed out after him.

-

25 minutes later Danny stood in the Nasty Burger parking lot, while Liam hid a few feet away behind the building.

A few minutes passed and El finally landed in the parking lot. She spotted Danny and ran over to him, launching herself into a hug as she transformed back to human.

Danny laughed as he stumbled back from the impact.

“I'm happy to see you too.”

Elle then let go and looked around.

“So where is this surprise you were telling me about?”

Danny chuckled.

“Calm down he's just behind the restaurant.”

Elle blinked in confusion.

“He?”

Her question was answered as Liam stepped out into view.

“Hi.”

Elle's eyes widened.

Liam pulled on his hood awkwardly as Elle just stared.

“Uh, I'm sorry for running away after the fight, and all the other stuff Vlad made me… oof.”

Unlike Danny, Liam was not expecting the hug and was almost knocked over from the force.

Al clung to him as she buried her face into his shoulder.

“You're ok! I was so scared Vlad did something to you after you were left alone with him.”

She released him from her grip and took a step back before punching him in the arm.

“Don't ever scare me like that again!”

Liam winced and rubbed his shoulder.

“Don't worry Danny already made me promise not to.”

Elle hugged him around the waist.

“Good because I already lost enough brothers, I don't want to lose anymore.”

Liam frowned sadly and hugged her back.

“I promise neither of us will lose anymore siblings.”

Danny watched as Elle and Liam talked. He felt warm and happy at seeing his clones reunite safely away from Vlad’s influence. However, he couldn't quite ignore the strange guilty twinge in his core that he couldn't place the origin of.