It really was great to see Sam and Tucker, Phantom thought later, as he was waiting for the night to pass. Again, he was on the roof. He was taking a break from the book he was reading to watch the sky. Lazily, his gaze trailed across the expanse. His eyes widened slightly, excited. There! There was Mars; he could see the rusty red of the tiny circle, in sharp contrast to the black-blue-purple sky. Maybe he could spot some of the other planets too. Saturn should be...

His thoughts trailed off as something streaked across the sky high above him. Was that a meteor? Wait. No. The angle and trail of that was wrong. And… was it green? Phantom's brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Then the object disappeared from view.

Not a minute later, a breath of cold air billowed out of his lungs. The ghost crossed his eyes to look at the mist. What was- He blinked. His ghost sense. Right. Frowning, he floated off the roof. He turned his head side to side, searching. If that was his ghost sense… Where was the other ghost?

Nervousness swirled through his core. Had a ghost come through the portal? And why? What or who was it? What were they doing? The ghost boy bit his lip. Should he… go look for it? He glanced down at the house. He really shouldn't leave. He wasn't supposed to. Mom and Dad would be worried if they found out he'd run off. But… he wouldn't be running off, not really. What...what if he didn't go that far? He drifted a little higher, trying to spot a hint of ectoplasmic green, some evidence of the ghost he'd sensed. But...nothing.

Phantom made his mind up. He'd check around the house, in the backyard at least. Ghost Danny did so, checking the shed in the back, the flower beds, peering into the neighbors yards. But there was no trace. He floated over the front yard, considering. He'd… just go a few houses down, to the end of the street. During the day, Mom and Dad would have been fine with that, with him going that far without telling them first (if he wasn't currently a ghost, that was). So he'd go that far and come back.

Less than ten minutes later, he was back in front of the house. He hadn't seen the other ghost. And his ghost sense hadn't gone off again. Phantom frowned, considering. Maybe...that had been a fluke. Maybe the ghost just popped out of the portal and went right back. Maybe it was just passing by. He looked around. Everything was still, peaceful and quiet. As far as he could tell, the ghost wasn't causing trouble. Phantom floated back up to the roof. Well, if he didn't hear or see anything suspicious, maybe it was best to leave it be. He wouldn't want to be messed with if he was just taking a quiet flight around town. And if it was a blob or something that just wandered through the portal, it was almost the witching hour. The portal's song should be loud enough to draw whatever it is back soon enough.

Ghost Danny put it out of his mind, as his ghost sense didn't go off again that night.

The next day in the late morning, Phantom was sitting on the couch. It was Thursday which meant one more day 'til Friday, which meant one more day 'til the weekend. Ghost Danny blew out a breath. The weekend. That would be nice. Jazz and Fenton would be home all day. Maybe he could get Sam and Tucker to come over and hang out. They can try that sitting on the ceiling thing again.

There was a bang from the lab, the sound of welding, quiet conversation, a distant chuckle. Mom and Dad were working down there, as always. They'd probably be coming up for lunch soon. The corner of his lip turned up. That'd be good, to actually have someone to talk to for a bit. Phantom shook his head. What was his half life coming to, that he thought that?

Oh well, it was what it was. They'd finish up with the ghost catcher soon enough and he'd finally be able to go back to school, as all of him, and he wouldn't have to worry about that. But...the ghost catcher… Huh…. he hadn't actually thought about that in a while. So much had happened since Sunday, when it blew up...he hadn't even thought to ask why, or how progress was going. He should probably do that. And…

Ghost Danny frowned. He hadn't actually told them about Plasmius either, despite agreeing with Fenton that they'd tell them later. He definitely needed to do that. Phantom floated to his feet. He should go ahead and do that before he forgot… or chickened out. The thought of bringing up the possibility of another halfa made his stomach flop but...this was important.

Phantom knocked on the door of the lab and asked if he could come down. After his parents yelled in affirmation, he opened the door and floated down the stairs.

Dad lifted his welding mask. "What's up kiddo?"

The ghost's eyes flickered over the still half assembled ghost catcher. "Just wanted to see how it was going and…" His gaze moved to Mom, who was sitting on the other side of the lab. "I just remembered I needed to tell you guys something."

Mom put down the pen she'd been writing with, looking concerned. "What is it, honey?"

"Nothing to worry about right now but…" Phantom bit his lip, despite the words. "Fenton and I forgot to mention it when we talked about Sidney. So I figured I should bring it up, before it actually is important."

"Alright." Dad frowned slightly, motioning for him to continue.

"So… Sidney said he'd heard rumors that there might be another halfa, called Plasmius. He has a kinda vampiric appearance, hence the name, I guess? Sidney also said he appeared in the Ghost Zone about ten years ago and has been looking for minions and ghostly artifacts. Long story short, he's powerful and dangerous. Sidney said we should try to avoid him. So...Yeah, he didn't know much but… it's something, right?" The boy shrugged. "Like...this guy might end up hearing about me or we could run into him. So, it's good to know something, at least." He paused, waiting for the adults' reactions.

Dad spoke first, nodding. "Right. It's better to know something. Thanks for telling us, son." Phantom also nodded, still feeling nervous. Then the adult offered him a half-smile. "These are rumors, right Danny-boy?" He put a hand on the ghost boy's shoulder. "It's probably not as bad as it sounds. So don't worry until we know there's a problem."

Ghost Danny let out a breath, relaxing. "Okay, yeah. You have a point." He did trust that Sidney was telling him the truth but second hand stories weren't necessarily the most reliable. "Mom, what do you think?" He turned towards the other adult, expecting her to agree. But the woman's brows were furrowed, face pensive. His stomach dropped. "Mom?"

She blinked, seemingly realizing she was being addressed. "I was just thinking… but the timing doesn't really line up." Mom shook her head.

"What is it, Mads?" Dad asked.

"You remember Vlad's accident?"

The man blinked. Then his eyes widened, a guilty look crossing over his face.

Phantom waved his hand. "Wait. Who? What? Accident?"

Mom's eyes flickered to him and she sighed. "In grad school, for our final project. We were trying to make a ghost portal." She looked to the swirling green vortex in the lab, guilt passing over her face before she continued. "It was a smaller version of that one. A prototype."

The ghost frowned. "A prototype. You…" His eyes widened. "You made another portal? Before?"

His mother shook her head. "No. It failed but… our research partner, Vlad…" She trailed off.

"He was my roommate and best friend." Dad swallowed. "We wouldn't have gotten that far without him but… when we tried to start up the proto portal… it literally blew up in his face."

Ghost Danny paled, feeling his core clench almost painfully. "What?"

Mom held up her hands. "He survived, barely but he was quarantined. The doctors thought it was radiation poisoning… or some new disease. He was... horribly disfigured. We kept telling them it was ectoplasmic contamination but they didn't believe us."

The other adult looked down. "They wouldn't let us see him for months and when they finally would, Vladdie refused to see us."

Mom gave the man a compassionate look, putting a hand on his shoulder. "He disappeared soon after that, after he was released from the hospital. We tried to get up with him but he didn't leave the hospital with any contact information so we couldn't find him. We did see him on TV, years later. He must have had some serious plastic surgery. He's a successful businessman now but.. It'd been so long."

Dad was still looking down. "I tried to call him once, after that. He cussed me out and said he wanted nothing to do with me."

Mom continued rubbing his back comfortingly. And ghost Danny stayed floating there with wide eyes. He had...not been expecting that. That was...a lot. Really heavy. His core churned in sympathy at the vulnerability.

Phantom bit his lip. "Dad. That sounds… that must have been awful. I'm...I'm sorry."

His father looked up, offering him a half smile. "It's alright, Danny. That was a long time again. And don't apologize. You didn't do anything, kiddo."

"Still… Sorry I brought it up...uh… painful memories." The ghost rubbed the back of his neck. Then his brow furrowed, confused. "Why...um… did you bring this up when I mentioned… another halfa?"

Mom shook her head. "For a second, I thought there might be a connection. But like I said, the timing is all wrong. This all happened twenty years ago, not ten. And the portal didn't actually open."

"Right." The man nodded his head. "Vladdie was standing too close and the frame...uhh… blasted ectoplasm in his face before it blew up."

Phantom grimaced. That still sounded really bad, even if it was really different from his own accident.

The other adult continued. "This Plasmius is someone else. Natural portals theoretically should be able to open anywhere at random. Perhaps he happened to get caught in one and fell into the Ghost Zone… Infinite Realms and got trapped there."

"Besides… Vladdie's a good person. He wouldn't do anything bad like your friend said, even if he's still mad at me." Dad sounded confident, despite the hurt in his voice at the end.

Out of the man's eyeshot, Mom looked possibly dubious. Phantom shrugged. He didn't know either way. It wasn't like he'd ever met, let alone heard of this Vlad before.

"So…. you know about Plasmius now." The ghost boy blew out a breath, looking to change the subject. "I did have another question." His eyes flickered to the device on the table. "How's it going with fixing the Ghost Catcher?"

Dad's expression shifted, looking more enthusiastic as he took the segway. "It's going pretty well, son. We're still trying to find batteries that will work with the changes we made."

"And those changes?" Ghost Danny raised a brow. "And...uh...why did it blow up in the first place?"

"The batteries actually were the problem. We overloaded them." Mom started.

"Overloaded but…" He looked down at the invention. "They worked the first time so…"

"I'll explain." The woman motioned him to sit. (Had he really been floating this whole time?) The boy sat down. "At first, we thought that finding a way to remove that anti-ecto residue would be enough. But your father and I realized that there's another problem, with how the ghost catcher itself works. The problem is the ghost catcher's function, and its only function, is to strip ectoplasm from real world material."

"Okay? I get that but-" Phantom interrupted.

"Let me continue, sweetie." Mom put up one hand and the ghost closed his mouth. "We took another look at how exactly the separation worked in the first place. And we realized there's an entropy problem." She paused, taking in his confused face. "Do you know what I mean by entropy?"

"Yeah it's… how random something is, right? Like in physics."

The woman nodded and offered him a smile. "Basically. Yes. Entropy is a measure of how disordered, how random a system is. And according to the second law of thermodynamics, closed systems always tend towards more entropy, more disorder with time."

A confused blink. "Okay. Yeah. I think I remember learning about this in school. But the connection between that and me…."

"The point is, making something more random or disordered, separating something is easy, because you're working with entropy." Separating… Phantom's stomach clinched. He had a feeling where this was going. "But making something more order, putting it back together, that's hard because you're working against entropy."

The ghost paled, looking at the ghost catcher. "Mom. Dad. So...does that mean…"

Dad seemed to understand the unspoken question, putting a comforting hand on Phantom's arm. "Harder, not impossible kiddo. Like your mom said, that's if we're talking about a close system, nothing in or out. If nothing interferes, things get more disorderly. But we can interfere."

Ghost Danny shook his head, not feeling comforted. "But...what? How?"

Mom gave him her best comforting smile. "Think about it like this, okay? You have ice cubes on the counter. If you just leave them there, they'll melt, right? You don't have to do anything, just let them sit and you'll get a puddle, instead of those orderly cubes of ice." The boy nodded in understanding. "But. If you take that puddle of water and collect it. Put that water in an ice cube tray and pop it in a freezer, in a few hours, it will be ice cubes again." Another nod. "But...that takes energy. You have to put that water in the freezer, which has to be hooked up to electricity. The freezer has to be working, it has to be using power to refreeze that ice."

Phantom gave another nod, his brow still furrowed. "So… I'm the puddle in the analogy. And...I need to be put back in the freezer?"

Both adults chuckled. Then Mom shook her head. "What I'm saying is, it will take energy to get you back together. A lot of energy. I did the calculations and…" Her face turned sober and she looked to the portal. "I don't think you two can reintegrate without a huge amount of power. Like as much as there was during the portal accident." Phantom shivered at the word. "We obviously can't try something like that. We have no idea what it would do to either of you."

The ghost paled, frankly terrifying images passing through his mind at even the suggestion. Getting ripped apart by the energy tearing through him. Fenton screaming. His human body, burned and broken and dead. Just like he'd thought, for the horrible time between when he realized that the ghost catcher didn't work and when he found what he thought was his comatose body in his-

Mom cut off that horrible thought. "That's why we've been trying to use different batteries. We tried to put too much power through the last ones. We've figured out how to use the ghost catcher to separate the residue from your human counterpart but we still need more power if the merging is going to work."

Phantom swallowed. "Okay. So… but… what if we just used the ghost catcher as it is now? What would happen?"

The woman frowned. "Well, it would definitely fail to reintegrate the ectoplasm of your ghostly body with the cells of your human body. As far as we can tell from your old samples, the two need to be combined at the molecular level for you to return to your previous state."

"Molecular level?" The ghost's eyes widened, looking down at his hand in a strange kind of awe. "That makes sense." As far as he could tell, that was true. He and Fenton were supposed to be one whole person, truly, deeply. In body, mind, soul, and spirit. They weren't made to be like this, pulled between two. They were made to work together, made for wholeness. Their soul and spirit agreed. Their mind was working on it. If only they could get their body… or currently bodies… to agree. "So…." He looked up. "What if that doesn't work?"

Mom blew out a breath. "The best we could hope for would be if you're able to overshadow Fenton. But that would just result in you both being stuck as two minds in one body." Phantom's core fluttered nervously. Overshadow…. That didn't sound good. "You wouldn't be able to transform. I doubt your core and brain would be able to communicate efficiently, if at all, especially if the two have diverged too much." He suddenly sat up straighter. What was she... "You and Fenton still very much talk and act the same but you haven't been separate for all that long." Something about that didn't feel right...

"Mom. I don't think-" Phantom's train of thought was cut off by a voice in his head.

Phantom? You need to see this.

The ghost was gently pulled away. He blinked and he was…. At that familiar picnic table behind the school. There were Sam and Tucker and….. Something hissed near him, drawing his attention.

Eyes widened. "An… ectopus?" The creature flexed its tentacles, its own eyes nervously flickering between him and his two friends.

"Danny?" "Sweetie?" Two voices said. Was that the other two teens? Why would-

Far away, a hand appeared on his shoulder. Green eyes blinked and….. Phantom gasped in a breath. Right. He was in the lab with his parents.

"What's an ectopus?" Dad asked, looking confused.

The ghost's brow furrowed. "What? How did you… Oh. I said that out loud, didn't I?"

Both adults nodded. Then… "You left us for a little bit there." Mom said, without much surprise. "What was it?"

For just a moment, Phantom blinked again. She wasn't… surprised or thrown off by his weirdness. He shook the thought away. "Fenton at school. There's a ghost."

There was a pause and then… "A ghost!" Dad practically had stars in his eyes. He stood suddenly, eager to run off.

Ghost Danny held up a hand. "Hey. Wait. It's just a little one. Looks like an octopus."

"An octopus?" Mom asked.

"A ghost octopus!" Dad exclaimed. "That's why you called it an ectopus."

The boy nodded. Then Fenton's voice returned. Hey, ghost me. You should…uh… come and get it. Use that thermos thing Mom and Dad have.

"Fenton said I should come and get it. Can I use that thermos thing?" He asked, floating out of the seat.

Mom put a hand on his arm. "Danny. You can let us deal with it. Your father and I know how to deal with ghosts."

Phantom crossed his arms. "I am a ghost."

That gave the woman pause. She removed her hand. "Sweetie… that's not… you don't know anything about this ghost. You've never even seen it before."

The ghost boy frowned. Then he realized… Oh. "Actually I have." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"When?" Mom crossed her arms.

"Uh… before me and Fenton told you guys… about me. I saw an ectopus in the park. It just kinda hissed at me and flew away. So…" He held out his hand. "Can I use the thermos? I'll fly there, capture it, and be back in like ten minutes tops."

The adults looked at each other, the woman's expression still doubtful. Then Dad sighed. "Mads, let's let him try it. If it goes bad, they can always call us." He looked up, giving the ghost a proud smile. "Look at that. Our son wanting to be part of the family business."

Phantom shivered, holding back a grimace. "I don't know about that…." He held out his hand. "But still… I should go deal with that." Both adults gave him knowing looks before Dad handed over the device. The ghost turned it over in his hands, inspecting it. He bit his lip. "Uh… how do I use this?"

"Screw off the cap first." Mom did so with her son still holding the thermos. She pointed. "And press this button to activate it." Phantom looked down into the barrel of the device. He frowned at the empty space. It looked like the normal inside of a thermos, like the kind you'd use for soup or hot coco. He shrugged, moving his finger to press the button.

The woman quickly moved her hands over the opening. "Make sure it's facing away from you, sweetie."

The slight panic in her voice gave the ghost pause. Dad winced. "You wouldn't want to accidentally catch yourself instead of the ghost you're after."

Phantom's eyes widened. He shoved the thing away from him, holding it at arm's length with a wrinkled nose. "Thanks for the warning."

Both parents chuckled. His father clapped him on the back. "You'll be fine, son. Go ahead and get going."

"Right." With a nod, Phantom recapped the thermos and floated up towards the ceiling. He phased through, giving his parents a wave. I'm coming. Ghost Danny pushed the thought along the line connecting the two parts of his mind. Can you try to keep the ectopus busy 'til I get there?

Yep. You got it. Came the reply.

Phantom nodded, in confirmation. And then he chuckled. Right. Fenton couldn't actually see him. But laughter rang in his head in response all the same.

A few minutes later, he invisibly arrived at the school. The ghost flew around the back. There were the doors leading out of the cafeteria and… there, under that tree. Sam and Tucker were sitting at the picnic table, expressions alarmed and wary as they watched the space for intruders.

And Fenton… "Hey. It's okay. Just stay there." He was just visible in the little stand of trees and bushes. Phantom flew forward. "You're okay. We'll get you home really soon, okay?" The human had his hands up and he was talking softly and evenly, as if to a scared animal.

Ghost Danny stopped. And...he was talking to a scared animal. The ectopus was in front of him, surprisingly intelligent eyes surveying the scene for possible danger. I'm here. He softly said into his mind, from his place right behind Fenton.

The human didn't even flinch, gaze still on the animalistic ghost. His hand slowly swung back, effortlessly finding Phantom's wrist on the hand that wasn't holding the thermos. He gave a squeeze, a thank you without active thought. Phantom didn't have to be told what to do next. He slowly returned to visibility, letting his body gradually regain color and opacity. Behind him was a quiet gasp of surprise from both his friends. He ignored it.

"Hey. It's okay." Phantom held out his free hand after Fenton released it. "I'm here to take you back to the portal, okay? We're not gonna hurt you."

The ectopus' gaze flickered between the two near identical boys. Ghost Danny drifted forward slightly, towards the other ghost which wavered backwards and let out a hiss. Phantom stopped, lowering his hand and moving it towards the lid of the thermos. The animal reacted, seeming to give him a wary look and backed up farther.

Ghost Danny froze. Distract it. He instructed.

Fenton reacted instantly, putting his hands up again. "Hey. You're okay. You're fine." The ectopus' eyes fell on him. "That's good. Look at me. Good ectopus. Good boy." The ghost hissed again, almost in protest. "Or girl. Good… good little ghost. You're doing great." The human kept his face even, his voice soothing. And… it was working. The coiled tentacles relaxed, the intelligent eyes still on Fenton. The ectopus wavered forward.

Meanwhile, Phantom unscrewed the cap of the thermos as quietly as possibly. He carefully pointed the opening towards the other ghost, hovering his finger over the button to activate. And… he hesitated. The animal seemed to have calmed down. Phantom felt kinda bad. It wasn't really fair to trap the ghost as soon as they'd gotten it to trust them. It was like… burritoing a cat in a blanket to get it in the carrier, once it's finally feeling happy and safe enough to eat the offered treats. Mom had done that once when he was six to take a hurt stray cat to the animal shelter. He'd been upset just watching that then, just hearing how the cat cried once it was in the carrier. But… the ghost sighed. Mom had promised him that it was necessary, that the animal would feel better once the vet took care of it. It was necessary now too.

Ghost Danny pressed the button. Instantly, a white light poured out of the thermos. The beam fell onto the ectopus and the animal was pulled towards the device, with eyes wide and tentacles flailing. The thermos shook and Phantom braced it with both hands. He winced. Oh boy, yeah. He could feel the beam trying to pull at him, despite it pointing away from him. The ectopus was sucked up by the device, disappearing inside. The ghost boy struggled to push the button but with a grunt, he succeeded. The beam evaporated and he reaffixed the lid.

"Woah, that's done." Phantom blew out a breath, wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead.

Fenton gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Good job. And thanks for coming."

"No problem." The ghost smiled. He turned around, finally addressing Sam and Tucker. "Hey guys."

Both his friends smiled back. "Hey man." Tucker offered.

"Hey. You guys handled that like a pro. Great job." Sam nodded.

Phantom blushed at the compliment, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thanks Sam." His eyes flickered over the table, to the still uneaten food. His smile fell. "Dang. It sucks that that ectopus interrupted your lunch."

Tucker had already sat down and started picking up his sandwich. He shrugged. "We've still got ten minutes."

Sam and Fenton also moved back to the table. Both sat and ate. Ghost Danny watched for a long moment, feeling awkward and vaguely sad. His tail twitched, suddenly nervous. He didn't know what to do with himself. He could… he could get spotted by someone, like Wes. And…. Fenton was nodding at something Tucker said, giving a snorted laugh in response. Phantom swallowed. This was… weird. He didn't like it, the eerie feeling of being on the outside looking in.

Ghost Danny looked down at the thermos and then back towards the direction he'd come. "I should… uh… I should go. And deal with this." He shook the device in emphasis. "I'll...um… see you guys later." He floated a little higher. Then-

"Danny, wait." Sam's eyes fixed on him. She patted the table beside her. "Come and sit with us."

Phantom's eyes flickered around nervously. "But… someone might see…."

Fenton narrowed his eyes slightly. "Dude, you can turn invisible."

The ghost blinked once. Then he blushed. "Yeah. That's right." He looked over his friends and other self one more time and decided. His nervous expression melted away as he floated to beside Sam. His tail formed back into legs and he sat down.

Phantom smiled, enjoying his short time with Sam and Tucker until the bell rang and they had to go back to class.

"Fenton. You're gonna ace that quiz in history. We've got this." The ghost encouraged.

His human self blanched slightly before taking a breath. "Yeah. It's gonna be fine."

Phantom smiled, agreeing. He floated off his seat. "Sam. Tucker. See you guys later."

Both waved. "See you." "Later."

The ghost rose higher in the air, tail forming. Then Fenton pointed. "Don't forget that."

Phantom looked down and frowned. "Oh yeah."

He grabbed the thermos and took off with another wave, flickering invisible. That was a close one. He almost left the thermos with the other ghost, the one he'd flown all this way to catch. He'd need to figure out what to do with it when he gets home. Should probably release it back into the portal. If Mom and Dad were fine with that. And… oh. His stomach flopped. He'd told them he'd be back in less than ten minutes. It's been longer than that. Hopefully they wouldn't be upset about that.

Invisible and intangible, he phased back into Fentonwork and then down into the lab. Both adults had gone back to working.

"Hey. I'm back." Phantom returned to visibility, still floating near the ceiling. Both parents jumped slightly at the sudden noise. Then they looked up. Ghost Danny smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's fine, son." Dad waved off the apology. "No need to say you're sorry."

Mom nodded, seemingly in agreement. Her eyes fixed on the thermos in his hands. "Did you catch the ghost?"

Phantom nodded. "Yeah." He lowered himself to the floor, noticing that the woman still looked a little nervous. Anticipating her next question, he reassured. "It was fine. The ectopus didn't give me much trouble. And the thermos works great."

Mom let out a relieved sigh. "That's great, sweetie. I knew you could do it."

Ghost Danny felt his heart warm at the praise. Or he would have, if he was currently in possession of his heart.

"And the thermos worked like a charm!" Dad smiled, enthusiastic that the invention worked. "You caught the ghosty. Can we see it?"

"Uh… sure, I guess." His eyes flickered to the portal… and then to the glass containment unit. "I was just gonna put it back through the portal though."

Mom frowned, also looking at the swirling green ectoplasm. "Oh. Are you planning to… fly through that again and let the ghost out on the other side?"

"No. I…" Phantom trailed off, the words giving him pause. Mom had bit her lip, sounding very uncomfortable with the idea but… she'd actually suggested that. Clearly she would trust him to fly through the portal and come right back. That was...that was big after he ran away through it, just days ago. He took a breath. No right now, he wouldn't go through but... Later…. "I was going to just let it out here." He continued.

"In the lab?" The woman's brow furrowed, skeptical.

A nod. "Yeah. If I let it go right beside the portal, it should know where to go." He looked down at the thermos. "The little guy probably just wanted to go home but got confused."

Both parents gave him strange, searching looks. But they conceded. "Go ahead then." Dad offered, waving to the portal.

Mom nodded, coming to stand beside him. "Just uncap it and press that button."

"Got it." Phantom gave a thumbs up. He gave both adults a moment to step back, behind one of the lab tables. Then he looked back at the portal, to his right side.

The boy removed the cap and released the ectopus. The other ghost was thrown out. It flailed and tumbled in the air, disoriented. The ball of tentacles let out a distressed gurgle. Then it righted itself. The intelligent eyes fixed on Phantom and the ghostly cephalopod hissed in displeasure. Ghost Danny tensed, expecting to be attacked. Then… the other ghost stilled. Its gaze fell on the portal and… it cooed. The boy blinked. It...cooed, reaching out to the mist with one limb. The churning mass reacted, gently swirling around the appendage. Phantom stared and… he found himself copying the action, his own hand reaching out to touch the curtain of mist. The portal reacted to him as well and the song… the song was louder in his head, singing to him and through him.

The corner of Phantom's lips turned up. His eyes met the still motionless ectopus'. "You can hear it, the song, too, can't you?" He asked, not really expecting a reply.

But the ectopus hummed, a low and melodic noise. Its gaze moved from him, to the portal, and then… back to him. It extended a tentacle towards him and…. Phantom's eyes widened. The limb gently wrapped around his wrist. He didn't tense or recoil. He knew, he just knew this wasn't an attack or a threat. There was… something behind the expression, the gesture. Maybe curiosity, maybe gratitude, maybe…. A strange understanding.

The ectopus let go and dived through the portal.

Phantom just stared after it for a long moment, mind whirling. He slowly withdrew his hand and the song was quiet again, fading into the background. He turned back to face his parents who were watching him with curious and thoughtful expressions. Their eyes were wide like they'd seen something surprising but… in a good way.

Ghost Danny offered a hesitant smile. "See. It went through the portal."

Mom nodded, walking forward and wrapping one arm around him in a side hug. "I think you were right. It just wanted to go home."

Phantom met her eyes and… his smile turned genuine. "It just wanted to go home."