#spec phantom

Green, that was the first thing he noticed. There was a lot of green all around him.

The second thing he noticed was that it was cold. The kind of cold that should have been slightly uncomfortable, but he didn’t really seem to care that much.

The third thing was if he could see the green and feel the cold it meant he had a body, that he was solid again. He looked down and sure enough there he was, tiny, glowing, and green as always.

But how?

The last thing he remembered was… father.

Father had ordered him to overshadow prime Daniel and force him to transform.

It hurt.

There was so much electricity, and prime Daniel fighting back, and so, so much pain. He yelled with prime Daniel, wanting it to stop, but father… father didn't stop. He just made it hurt worse until everything failed catastrophically.

By then he was too weak to keep up the overshadowing and prime Daniel got away. He fell out of the pod, and something was wrong. His hands… his hands had melted. He looked to father for help, but he just looked disappointed. Then nothing.

Father didn't care. Father had hurt him. Watched him die and didn't care.

He curled in on himself, that realization hurt almost as much as the overshadowing. It didn't matter that he somehow came back. If father didn't care for him, he had nowhere to go.

He was then pulled out of his spiraling thoughts when he noticed something heading for him, and he swerved out of the way on instinct. When he turned to face what it was, he froze.

A flat, segmented, and armored body, with multiple legs and large pincers, turned its gaze on him. The ghostly sea scorpion darted forward, moving through the murky air of the Ghost Zone as easy as it might have once done in Earth’s oceans.

The tiny clone zipped out of reach just in time, thankfully faster than the pincers coming for him. Unfortunately, the scorpion wasn’t going to give up and lunged for him again, which the tiny clone ducked under just as the claws snapped down on where he’d been moments before.

This continued for a bit until the tiny clone managed to get behind the scorpion and flew off in a random direction before it could find him and give chase.

-

The tiny clone wasn’t sure how long he’d been flying before he finally stopped and looked around at his surroundings.

Or lack of surroundings.

There was nothing around him aside from an endless expanse of green in all directions. Which was odd, because he was sure he passed by doors and floating islands as he was escaping.

But there was nothing at all now. No landmarks, nothing to give him any idea of where he was or what direction he even came from.

He was the only thing in a vast expanse of swirling green that blended with his own body. Even if someone was around, they wouldn’t see him. He was too close to the color around him, and too small.

He was small and helpless and so utterly useless.

Slightly glowing tears filled his vision and he reflexively wiped them away, only to realize only one eye was crying. He reached up again and flinched at the realization. His right eye wasn’t there.

The eye he’d lost right before the overshadowing had not come back with the rest of him.

How had he not noticed?

A soft coo from behind him snapped him out of his panicked thoughts and he turned to see what had made it.

A small teardrop shaped ghost the same green as everything else stared at him with large eyes.

The tiny clone made a squeak of surprise and shot backwards away from the ghost.

However, the ghost didn’t seem to mind and just floated after him.

It was then joined by several more ghosts that looked exactly like it and they surrounded the clone on all sides.

He curled up in fear but there was no attack, just a soft nudge at his back.

He opened his eye and looked to see one of the ghosts nuzzling him as if trying to calm him.

Another one came closer, and soon he found himself snuggling two squishy green blobs.

Eventually, his fear subsided, and he relaxed. These little guys were just trying to help, and he wasn’t alone anymore.

A couple others attempted to cuddle too but, given he was the same size as they were, there wasn’t much room for them.

Wait there could be room. He could turn into his larger form, and he’d be able to hug all the little blob ghosts.

He let out a happy chirp and started to shift.

Something was wrong.

He felt something shift that he shouldn’t, and a shutter went through him.

No this was wrong. He couldn’t feel his hands. Why couldn’t he feel his hands? Was he melting again?

No! He couldn’t do that. Not again!

He snapped back into his small form again, small twitches being the only movement. If breathing was something he’d been able to do he would have been hyperventilating.

He felt something gently touch his back and he peered up at the blob ghosts still hovering around him.

He latched onto the nearest one and buried his face into its squishy body. He needed something to hold and comfort him. He wanted someone to hug him and tell him that things were ok that he wasn’t actually dying again. He wanted to go home.

Except he didn’t have a home.

Father… no Vlad didn’t want him, so he wasn’t his father.

Vlad had hurt him. It wasn’t safe at the mansion. He wasn’t sure where a safe place was.

A strange feeling then appeared in his core, and he placed his hand on it in curiosity. It was like a small tugging sensation that was barely there.

However, before he could put much thought into it the blobs started to nudge at him insistently.

He chirped in confusion, and they chirped back, clearly wanting him to follow them.

The tugging in his core seemed to be in a different direction, but he ultimately decided to follow the blobs and ignore the strange pull for now.

-

The blobs led him to the only thing that wasn’t just a mass of swirling green.

Well, there was still a lot of swirling green, but it was contained by a hexagonal metal doorway.

The tiny clone instantly recognized it as the entrance to a ghost portal, much like the one Vlad had in his lab.

The blobs swarmed around it and started pushing him through.

He looked to them unsure but after a bit more encouragement they got him to fly forward. He passed through the portal and the tugging in his core disappeared.

On the other side of the portal was a lab, much like the one Vlad had his portal in. Although this was far messier and disorganized. Ectoplasm caked test tubes and beakers were strewn over the tables along with machine parts and crumpled up papers.

The tiny clone watched as the blobs curiously investigated the lab, sending out little chirps and coos to each other when they found something they deemed interesting. He wasn’t sure playing around a lab like this was a good idea. Many angry shouts from Vlad whenever he or his siblings got to close to anything came to mind.

Speaking of angry shouts, he could hear some coming from the top of the stairs.

“Ghosts!”

All the ghosts in the room froze.

“I know you putrid ectoplasmic scum are down there!”

Loud stomping could be heard from the stairs, followed by the sight of a huge, towering man holding what looked like a cross between a vacuum, lawn mower, and bazooka over his shoulder.

As the man ran down the stairs all the blob ghosts phased through the walls in a mad dash to get away. However, the tiny clone was too petrified with fear to move.

“When I get my hands on you, you’ll be nothing more than a screaming pile of goo on the floor!”

The man made it to the bottom of the stairs and looked around the lab. His eyes landed on the tiny clone as a wide grin spread on his face.

“I knew it! Eat ghost mower!”

The man aimed the large device at the tiny clone, showing multiple glowing blades inside.

This got the clone to snap into action and he dove through the floor before the horrible weapon could be activated.

Unfortunately, that appeared to be the wrong move as there was another level to the basement under the lab. This one looking to be that of a dungeon.

Locked metal boxes with occult runes etched into them were stacked against the back wall and a pile of tools that looked unnecessarily sharp lay in the corner.

The sound of a metal door sliding open we then heard above him followed by the large man’s voice.

“Wrong move ghost! Every item in the Fenton Stockades was made by my ancestors to trap and destroy ectoplasmic scum just like you.”

With nowhere else to go the clone darted back through the ceiling away from the dungeon, but he didn’t stop there. He did not want to be in the lab any more than the room below it and continued to fly through to the next story of the building.

This time he found himself in what appeared to be a rather normal kitchen, aside from a weird growling sound coming from the fridge.

However, it was clear that he wasn’t safe there either as a woman, dressed in a similar jumpsuit as the man who’d been after him, came running in with a gun of the same build as the ghost mower.

“Not so fast you monstrous manifestation!”

The tiny clone managed to just dodge the blast sent his way and continued flying up to the next floor in an attempt to get to safety.

This time he ended up in what looked like a bedroom. A bed with a teal comforter and pillows sat against the wall with a dresser next to it and across from a large bookshelf filled with several very thick books. A desk was against the remaining wall under the window, which was where the tiny clone landed and didn’t get back up.

After escaping the ghost sea scorpion, his emotional breakdown, then running from the crazy couple in jumpsuits he was exhausted. He wouldn’t have been able to get himself to move even if Vlad walked through the door right now.

When Jazz heard her mom shouting and an ecto gun going off she knew her limited alone time was over. She’d been trying to find a way to process everything she’d learned the other day and possibly find something to help Danny cope as well, since it was clear he wasn’t handling what had been done to him well at all.

Unfortunately, there weren’t that many credible resources on how to handle your parents’ creepy friend cloning you.

There was another shout from downstairs and she got up to put her book away before she went down to see if the commotion was really about a ghost or if a moth got into the house again.

However, before she could fully turn to her door, something small and green phasing through her floor and landing on her desk caught her eye. She turned back to her room and looked at what was on her desk.

It was green and glowing, indicating it was most likely a ghost

She got closer and was able to see it was in the shape of a person, which was not common for ghosts this small. She reached her desk and was able to make out the details of the ghost and she gasped in surprise.

“Danny?!”

The door opened behind her to reveal a scared full-sized Danny entering her room in a rush.

“What is it, Jazz?”

Jazz looked from Danny to the ghost on her desk and back to Danny.

“Please tell me you have an explanation for this?”

She pointed to the tiny ghost on her desk and Danny stepped forward to get a better look.

The little ghost moved just enough to look up at Danny and his single eye went wide in terror. He appeared to give a feeble attempt at getting up but was clearly too exhausted to do so.

Danny was just about to say something, when he heard his parents running up the stairs, and he had just enough time to scoop the little guy up and hide him behind his back before Jack and Maddie burst through the door.

“Kids, there’s a ghost in the house!”

“And it came up this way, did you see anything?”

Danny could feel the ghost in his hand go stiff at his parents’ question. He could probably guess that this happened to be the ghost they’d been chasing.

He needed to get his parents out before they realized what he was hiding.

Thankfully Jazz was quick to answer their parents.

“I saw something green fly out of my window, but it was pretty small.”

“That’s the one!”

Both Jack and Maddie turned without any further explanation, and they bolted down the stair and out of the house.

Both Jazz and Danny relaxed when they heard the front door slam, and Danny pulled his hand out from behind his back.

He uncurled his fist and revealed the small ghost, curled up and trembling in fear.

“Hey, it’s ok, they’re gone now.”

-

The tiny clone had been petrified when prime Daniel had grabbed him. He knew prime Daniel had to remember what happened in the pod and there was no way he wasn’t mad at him for it. The clone hadn’t wanted to do it, but he knew that didn’t matter. It never mattered before.

He attempted to get away but between his own exhaustion and in ability to be bigger than a hand there wasn’t much he could do. He was so scared he didn’t even pay attention to what was said after the ghost hunters burst into the room. He was just relieved he was kept hidden and they eventually left.

However, that relief was short lived as he was suddenly back to being the center of attention of two people who were both much bigger than him and as mentioned before still probably mad at him.

“Hey, it’s ok, they’re gone now.”

The tiny clone peaked out from behind his curled-up arms just enough to reveal his one frightened eye.

Was Prime Daniel talking to him?

He let out a warbling trill in question of what he was going to do to him, and Prime Daniel drew his eyebrows down. Although, it appeared to be more in confusion and concern than anger.

“I’m not going to do anything to you. I just want to make sure you’re ok. Our parents didn’t hurt you, did they?”

The tiny clone slowly shook his head and Prime Daniel relaxed. Did he actually not want him to be hurt?

“That’s good.”

Prime Daniel then looked very tired and sad.

“I didn’t see what happened… after the pod blew up. But I’m glad to see you’re alright.”

The tiny clone uncurled a little more and gave a questioning hum. It didn’t sound like Prime Daniel was mad at him, even though he just confirmed he remembered what happened.

“Of course, I’m not mad. That wasn’t your fault and you got hurt too.”

Not his fault? Prime Daniel wasn’t mad? If that was true, then maybe he was actually safe here.

The tiny ghost uncurled fully and looked up at Danny, tentative hope in his single eye.

He then jumped when Prime Daniel’s sister, he remembered Vlad had said her name was Jazmin, cleared her throat to get their attention.

“Sorry, it sounded like you were talking about something important, but I can only understand half of this conversation and think I’m missing some context.”

Prime Daniel looked up before hunching down in embarrassment.

“Oh, sorry I need to stop forgetting humans can’t understand ghost speak.”

The tiny clone frowned. He’d been speaking in ghost speak? That was a thing? But no one had ever had trouble understanding him before.

Wait of course, everyone he’d ever talked to before now had either been a ghost or half ghost. Should he try to speak in a language Jazmin could understand? Could he even talk in a language she could understand?

He turned to Prime Daniel and made a sad chirp hoping he’d have an answer to what he should do.

Thankfully he did.

“It’s ok if you can’t speak in English, I can translate for Jazz.”

He then turned back to his sister.

“I guess I should probably introduce you.”

He looked to the clone and pointed to Jazmin.

“This is my sister, Jazz.”

The tiny clone looked over to her and waved.

Should he refer to her as Jazz now that she was introduced that way? Should he be calling Prime Daniel Danny since he seemed to like that better?

Vlad never liked using nick names an almost always called people by their full names. The only exception being Maddie.

The tiny clone didn’t want to be like Vlad.

His attention was pulled back to the conversation when Danny pointed to him.

“Jazz, this is… actually, do you have a name you want me to call you?”

A name?

The tiny clone had never had a name before. The only one with that privilege had been Danielle.

He’d never thought of having a name. Did Danny want him to pick a name right now?

He made a small noise of distress. He didn’t know what to answer.

“Hey hey, it’s ok. You don’t have to pick a name now, just tell us when you find something you want us to call you. You can take as much time as you need.”

The tiny clone relaxed. Danny was definitely a lot nicer than Vlad.

Danny then turned to Jazz and started to explain who the tiny clone was.

“So, you know how I said I only had two clones? Turns out I actually have three.”

Three? Two of his siblings survived?

He chirped up at Danny and he looked down with a smile.

“Yes, Elle and Liam or I guess you would know them as Danielle and Perfect clone. They’re safe and free from Vlad. I promise he won’t hurt any of you again.”

His little brother and sister were alive.

He needed to see them!

He shot up from Danny’s hand and started chattering frantically, demanding to know where his siblings were.

Danny startled back before smiling.

“Ok, ok. I’ll take you to them, calm down.”

He then looked to Jazz.

“You can come too, so you can meet Elle too.”

Jazz smiled.

“Aw that’s sweet of you to think of that Danny.”

“Also, you have a car and can get us there faster since flying would be a bad idea with Mom and Dad on the hunt.”

Jazz rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Of course.”