Chapter 4

After about 30 minutes, probably long enough for Phantom to fall back asleep, Maddie stood up. She peered through the crack in the bathroom door and found that Phantom was still laying down, facing away from her. Shoot! She could not see if he was asleep. Tired of hiding, Maddie decided to risk leaving. After opening the door, she walked towards and around the containment unit to find that the ghost was in fact sleeping. Breathing a sigh of relief, Maddie realized she had time to compile her thoughts and make more observations of Phantom. The scientist grabbed her notebook and clip board. Then after quietly placing a chair in front of the containment unit, Maddie sat down in front of the sleeping Phantom.

Maddie started by making a list of the things she had observed and learned about Phantom tonight. These included:

Very detailed, human-like appearance. Identical to Danny Fenton

Had been possessing Danny Fenton for an unknown amount of time and with unknown purpose

Appears to display a variety of emotions-panic, worry, jovialness, wistfulness, fear, embarrassment

Capable of making and understanding jokes and humor

Displays physical reaction to injury- suggesting pain sensation

Appears to sleep

Appears to breath during sleep, can cough

These observations, combined with what she already knew about Phantom, lead to a list of questions to pose to the ghost. Noticing the ghost was still asleep, Maddie decided to take some other readings. They already had a copy of the ghost's ectosignature on file but Maddie recorded it again. Curiously, his power reading was significantly lower than the last recording; the reading decreased from 7.4 to 6.5, almost an entire point. Did the ectogun really injure him that badly?

Frowning, Maddie looked at Phantom. There was not much else she could record without risking waking the ghost. Maddie picked up her pencil. She might as well draw a sketch of him. Ghosts were notoriously hard to photograph so the only sure way to record what they looked like was a drawing. After closely studying the ghost's face again, she sketched, recording the freckles across his cheeks and nose, the lines of his face, the messy hair. She became absorbed in the activity, frantically recording everything she could. After an unknown amount of time had passed, Maddie paused in her drawing. She wanted to cry; this drawing just emphasized the similarities between the ghost and her son. Not ready to wake the ghost yet, Maddie decided to attempt to photograph Phantom as well. After walking to a set of shelves above her work space, the scientist grabbed the camera she and Jack used to record experiments. Maddie then returned to her chair and pressed the button on the camera to capture the image with a bright flash. Maddie flinched. Hopefully the light would not wake the ghost. However luck was not on her side. Phantom scrunched his nose and farther nuzzled into the pillow.

"Uhhh Mom. Five more minutes." Phantom sleepily groaned.

Dumb founded with wide eyes, Maddie remained still at the familiar reaction but stared at the ghost. Opening his eyes, his bleary glaze meet hers and then fell on the portal behind her

Eyes widening, the ghost shot up on the cot, into a sitting position. "Uh… Hi."

The pair's eyes fixed on each other. She was not proud of how shaken she was by the interaction. Phantom had called her mom again. Granted, he was half asleep but Maddie could not fathom what that meant. Maddie took a calming breath. As difficult as the upcoming conversation would be, she needed to be calm and professional.

Suppressing her uncertainty, Maddie inquired. "Did you sleep well Phantom?"

Surprised at the question, Phantom's neon green eyes searched her face. He bit his lip and shrugged. "Okay. I guess."

Maddie shook her head in acknowledgement. "I see you have yet to try to escape." Maddie observed.

Trying to appear calm, the ghost replied. "Yeah. There's no point. I'm sure you built this sturdy enough to keep me in." Phantom continued with suprising sincerity. "Plus, you could get really hurt if I use one of my more destructive powers to get out."

Maddie looked at him questioningly. Of course if he wanted her trust, not injurying her would be beneficial. However, could he really be sincere? She decided to ask about what she was really wanted to know next.

Crossing her arms,she flatly asked. "How did you get my son to work with you?"

Phantom bit his lip. "Umm…. It's a long story."

With an eyebrow raised, Maddie motioned him to continue. "We've got time."

Phantom's hand went up to rub the back of his neck, a motion Maddie was very used to seeing in her son when he was nervous. "Well. It went like this. About like a month after your portal opened, this lunch lady ghost showed up at the high school, right. She was super mad that Sam, some random girl at the school that I totally don't know and definetly don't like, well she changed the lunch menu. Ummm….So this creepy ghost trashed the kitchen and kidnapped her. So I flew down to the basement and fought the lunch lady. Danny and his other friend managed to get Sam out. Umm….So the next day, the crazy lunch lady shows up again right. She has this giant meat puppet, not like a possessed person meat puppet. But uhhh…like hamberger. Not like a actually cow though. It was like raw hamberger meat. One of the grossest thing I've ever …. I flew around and punched the ghost a bunch of times. She almost knocked me out but I mananged to catch her in the thermos in the end." Phantom snapped his mouth.

Maddie stared at the ghost trying to process the painfully akward rambling. The entire explanation - the wording, the tone, the body language -was so like her son. Having no idea what to do this observation, Maddie latched onto the first question that poped into her mind.

"A thermos as in a Fenton thermos? Where did you even get a Fenton thermos?Did you steal it?" Maddie pointed at the ghost accusingingly.

Phantom put his hands up. "No! Mr. Fenton threw it at my face!"

Narrowing her eyes, Maddie asked."What?"

"I'm serious. He yelled something, threw it, and it hit me in face."

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. " That sounds like something Jack would do." Moving her hand from her nose and into a shrugging, Maddie sighed. "When that happened, the thermos was a nonfunctional did you even get it to work?"

"I charged it with my own ectoenergy."The ghost flatly replied.

Nodding in understanding, Maddie asked sternly. "You told me how you meet my son but how did you get him to start working with you?"

Phantom frowned and crossed his arms, tone annoyed. "I didn't get Danny to work with me. He wanted to help."

That matched what Danny said earlier. Not sure if she should believe him, Maddie continued. "That may be so but how did it start?"

"Ghost keep attacking the school and we both happened to be there. Danny wanted to help me. He's actually really good with an ectogun."

Maddie was skeptical."Really? Just like that?"

"Yeah. We both just want to protect Amity Park and can do that together."

Crossing her arms, Maddie replied. "I can understand Danny wanting to protect people. He's always wanted to help anyone he could. But what about you? What could you possible get from fighting other ghosts to protect this town?"

For some reason, Phantom looked hurt. "Is it so hard to believe that I don't have an ulterior motive? That I just want to help?"

Slightly exacerbated, Maddie narrowed her eyes. "Yes it is. You ghost never do anything because of altruism. There's always a motive, like protecting a lair or haunt. Is that what this? You're trying to control Amity Park, claim it as yours by keeping the other ghosts out?"

"I'm not trying to control anything! That doesn't even make sense!" Phantom responded, raising his voice. " If I was trying to keep other ghosts out, then why do I let the same ghost come back again and again?!"

Maddie wrinkled her nose. He did have a point. Phantom was powerful enough to destroy most of the ghost that commonly showed up around the town and so keep them from returning; but he did not stop them, instead he just captured them. "Okay then. It's your obsession. That would even match your image- a superhero with a symbol, jumpsuit, and clever quips. Your obsession compelles you to fight other ghost and 'protect' the town so you can be seen as a hero."

Phantom frowned in annoyance, floating a foot above the cot. "I don't have an obsession. That's not even how obessions work anyway. An obsession don't make you do anything. It's like a purpose. You're happier if you pursue it but you can ignore it and approach it a lot of different ways. But it does not force you to act a certain way."

Maddie's anger was starting to flare. "Phantom, I'm a scientist. I know how obessions work and know you have to have an obsession."

Crossing his arms, Phantom was the perfect image of a pouting teenager. "Well, I don't have an obsession and you don't know anything about this."

Maddie sighed. This could easily turn into an argument. She needed to get more information about his relationship with her son, not debate with him over the nature of ghostly obsessions. "Fine. Say you don't have an obsession and really just want to help people. Then why are you fighting ghost in Amity park? You could go anywhere else. Why stay here?"

Phatom uncrossed his arms and floated forward in the unit, closer to her. With suprising passion, he answered. "Mrs. Fenton, Amity Park is my home. I lived here. I chased my big sister around the yard with the water hose when I was little. I meet my best friends at the playground in the park when I was four. I went to school here. Ate at the Nasty burger, went to the movies and the pier with your friends. I went to the planetarium with my parents." The ghost looked nostalgic, like he was savoring old memories. His voice then lowered into a whisper, tone sorrowful. "I died here but got to come back. Of course, I wanted to protect my home when other ghost started threatening it."

While Maddie was sure the passioniate explanation was meant to passify her, it instead made anger boil in her. This ghost had been putting her son at risk and had been contradicting her at every turn. Then, he gave this little speech. His eyes blazed with passion, exactly like Danny's did when he talked about space. It made her so angry, this ghosts wearing her son's face like that and pretending to actually care about Amity Park. Why did he have to be so difficult and not just confess that he had an agenda?!

Maddie crossed her arms, voice flat and cold. "Bullshit. I don't buy it. Maybe I'm wrong about how obessions work. Maybe you actually don't have an obsession. But you don't have memories of growing up in Amity Park."

At this the ghost frowned and shook his head. Phantom yelled. "But I remember it! I remember living here!"

Maddie's voice remained cold. "But you didn't live here. Do you know what ghost's are, what you are? A ghost is just the imprint of a human's last moments of life. You were never alive."

Phantom froze, eyes glistening. "But.. But.. that's not true! You don't know what you're talking about!"

At this Maddie's anger flared. "No you don't know what you are talking about! I have studied ghost for twenty years! I am one of leading paranormal researchers in the world. How dare you suggest you know better than me?"

Phantom argued, voice ringing with indignation. "Oh, So you've actually talked to ghosts, right? You know what's it's like to be like this! All you have are assumptions. You've studied a few ghost, all that have happened to be violent, and think you know everything. You know nothing! There is so much more going on here than you know and when you figure it out, you are going to regret everything you've said and done here!"

"Quite trying to act human so I feel sorry for you! Everything about you is fake. You are a mimicry, an echo of someone's last moments. You do not have your own memories or emotions! You are a copy at best, and an incomplete one at that! You disgust me!"

"I did not ask for this! I did not ask to die. And I have been through so much shit since this started. I've been hunted, shot at, tortued. I've been captured and experimented on by a mad man multiple times. I've been mind control, put in prison and framed. I've watched my friends and family almost die multiple times because of me. I even saw them actually killed and the world destroyed because I made a simple mistake! I got lucky and stopped that but it still happened! I still have nightmares about it! And All I've wanted to do this whole time is help people but they scream and run away when they see me! Half of the town hates me and my own mother doesn't even recognize me! Do not tell me that what I feel is not real!" At this point, Phantom's rant was chocked out by a sob.

Maddie stared at the ghost in shock with wide eyes. Neon green tears were streaming down his face, and his nose appeared to be running. The ghost floated back over to the cot and layed down.

Trying to salvage the conversation, Maddie called softly. "Phantom."

Tears continued to stream down the ghost's face. "I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone."

"I'm sorry…"

"No! You are not sorry! I'm not even real to you. You won't even listen to me. Leave me alone!" As Phantom's voice quivered with emotion, his words increased in volume until the last word vibrated like one of his sonic attacks. The unit shook faintly with the sound and Maddie tensed, but it was clear the sound was from the ghost's emotions, not an attack. Phantom then turned over to face away from her.

Maddie's stomach notted as she watched the ghost bury his head in the pillow and weep. She had a flashback to a few months ago. She and Danny had a fight about his falling grades and missing curfew earlier that day. He came home trying to hide injuries. Later, long after he should have been asleep, she heard him crying in his room.

She sat at the foot of his bed. "Danny, sweetie. Tell me what's wrong."

He was laying down on the bed, tears streaming down his face. "I don't want to talk about it."

"What ever it is, I promise I'll understand. Baby, please talk to me."

"No. You won't understand. You'll hate me."

"Danny,I could never hate you. I just want to tell me!"

"No, I'm already a disappointment. You'd hate me if you knew."

"Danny. That's not true. I will always love you. Just talk to me."

"I don't want talk to you. Leave me alone." Tears still falling, he turned his back to her and refused to respond after that.

While the tone was different, Phantom's words, facial expression, and body language were the same- a perfect reproduction of that moment. Not for the first time in the last two days, he perfectly reflected a hurt child, her hurt child.

This time, instead of making her angry, the resemblance caused her heart to clinch with a storm of guilt and sadness. Her mind argued that this must be false, an imitation meant to make her fall for his the display was so real, too real to be an illusion. What if she was wrong? Wrong about Phantom's motivation, his emotions, his memories. What if he was really different, and more human than she even thought possible?

Maddie shook her head. She thought. 'What are you Phantom? What am I going to do with you?'