Dani blinked awake, groggily staring into the darkness of her bedroom. She was having a nice, deep, dreamless sleep, the kind that teenage half-ghost superheroes rarely got. What woke her?

The answer came a second later - her whole body shuddered violently despite her double quilt, and a blue wisp escaped her mouth. A ghost, then - ugh. It better be a little one, because Dani was in no mood to fight right now (another rarity). And unfortunately, she was the only one able to protect Amity Park, since Jazz was at school, the other Fentons plus Tucker and Sam were in California, and Valerie was visiting distant relatives with her dad.

With a sigh, Dani threw off her covers and stood up. She transformed into her ghost side and then passed through the wall of her bedroom. Hopefully the ghost was still in the Fenton lab and she could dispatch it quickly and go back to bed.

When Dani entered the lab, however, her jaw dropped at the sight before her.

A very large group of ghosts (a host? a haunting? what was the collective noun for a group of ghosts anyway?) were gathered in the Fenton lab. They ranged from the smallest ectopuses to hulking animal-like creatures. Some were clad in prison suits (escapees from Walker, most likely) while others wore old-fashioned garb that made Dani think of Dora's kingdom. Others had the strange black-and-white appearance of the 1950s version of Casper High, where Poindexter lived.

In the back of lab, the Fenton Ghost Portal opened and closed like a Hungry, Hungry Hippo opening its mouth; with each revolution more ghosts poured through. A few huddled together in the lab, but most of them flew upwards, passing through the walls at a breakneck speed, howling as they went. To Dani's disbelief, floating by the control panel was Skulker, who pressed the "Open" button over and over.

"Wha - what the flapjacks is going on!" Dani screeched. Immediately the nervous chatter and wails from the ghosts ceased as every eye turned towards her. The sudden silence was broken by a revving engine, and then Johnny 13's motorcycle soared over the crowd's heads to land in front of Dani. Johnny drove, while Kitty sat behind him, clinging to his middle.

"Oh, Dani!" Kitty wailed, launching herself at Dani to wrap her arms around her. "Oh, it's terrible! We have nowhere else to go! He - he's destroying everything! Please don't send us back!"

"Wha - Kitty, what are you talking about? Who's destroying everything? Why are you all here?" Dani pushed Kitty away, overwhelmed by everyone's presence. "And - and Skulker! Get away from there! That's for authorized personnel only!"

Skulker sent her a withering look. "When the Ghost Zone becomes uninhabitable, we ghosts must look to Earth - they are two sides of the same coin. And honestly, child, if you knew the whole story you would be thanking me for doing this rather than the alternative."

Dani's eyes flashed as she flew over to Skulker. She slapped his hand away from the Portal button. "Then let's hear the whole story, you stupid tin can! And make it quick, because I've got a boatload of ghosts to catch tonight! I don't even know how many thermoses I need!"

"This ghost, he showed up out of nowhere," piped up one of the black-and-white ghosts. "And he just started running amuck in the Zone!"

"Destroying landscapes, invading lairs," added a green gorilla-like ghost, holding an arm gingerly against his chest. "Nothing was safe from his rage."

Dani frowned, drifting away from Skulker. "Who is this ghost? How powerful can he be?"

"He calls himself Phantasm," answered one of the prisoners. "Nobody's ever seen him before. His powers are vast - pyrokinesis, ectoblasts, duplication, shapeshifting - "

"Forget that!" cried Ember, pushing her way through the crowd. Her fiery hair was extinguished and she wore no make-up. A bunch of strings on her guitar was broken. Glaring up at the Dani, she continued. "Any ghost can do those things! Maybe not all at once, sure, but the big thing you're leaving out is - this ghost can do Phantom's Ghostly Wail!"

Dani stiffened, shocked at this news. Danny's Ghostly Wail? They had both been under the impression that only he (and maybe her, one day) could do the Wail. They'd never encountered another ghost who could do it, and many Ghost Zone residents were leery of the power. But if there was someone else who could do the Wail, and who apparently liked causing destruction, then that was a big problem.

"And you might be interested to know," began Skulker, causing Dani to turn back towards him, "that he is searching for the Ghost Boy. Everyone he comes across he demands that they bring him Phantom."

Dani pursed her lips together. There was no shortage of ghosts who had a grudge against Danny Phantom - his rogues' gallery, for one, of which Skulker was Exhibit A - as well as some who simply wanted to test their mettle against the half-ghost. These challengers ranged from pathetic to an active threat. Unfortunately, it sounded like this Phantasm was the latter category.

Dani took a deep breath (though she had no need to breathe), calming herself. Then she rose up towards the ceiling so she was above all the assembled ghosts.

"Alright, you lot," she declared, causing everyone to look at her. "Here's how it's gonna go. You all can stay here for the time being, at least until I've taken care of this Phantasm or whatever he is. Jack and Maddie aren't here so no one's gonna try and dissect you - but. No terrorizing the town. I mean it. Or else you'll be sucked into thermoses quicker than you can say "butter biscuit." She narrowed glowing green eyes at the Ghost Zone denizens. "Understood?"

There were reluctant nods from her audience. Skulker crossed his arms and frowned, but he said nothing and had moved away from the portal. Johnny let out a low whistle.

"You're gonna go face him all by yourself, little Phantom? That takes a lot of moxie," he exclaimed.

At his side, Kitty nodded. "Oh, please be careful, Dani! I don't want to lose you!"

Touched by this concern, Dani smiled at them and said hopefully, "Well, I mean, not that I couldn't take 'im, but maybe I don't have to do this all by myself..." She trailed off, hoping someone would jump to her cause.

No one did. Kitty shifted a little and wouldn't look her in the eye. "Well, I don't want to lose you," the green-haired ghost repeated, "but better you than me or Johnny."

Dani sighed. She hadn't really expected anyone to join in, but Danny had told her about he had worked with other ghosts to contain large-scale threats before. This Phantasm fellow must have them really spooked.

Skulker moved a little closer, still frowning. "This ghost," he began. "There is something not right about him. He shouldn't exist, and yet...he does."

Dani raised an eyebrow. "Wooowww. Way to be super cryptic and unhelpful. Are you trying to steal Clockwork's job?" And yet, there were some nods from the crowd, apparently agreeing with Skulker's statement. Did they know something Dani didn't?

Suddenly a loud BOOM sounded outside, just as Dani's ghost sense went off again. Shuddering from her power, Dani gave one last pointed look at the ghosts around her.

"Remember, you can stay here as long as you play nice. If not, thermos." Then, not waiting for an answer, Dani Phantom turned intangible and floated up through the ceiling and outside.

Dust filled the night air when Dani emerged from FentonWorks. She frowned, waving away the smog from her face. The dust was coming from a house a couple blocks away from her family's home; it looked like the building's roof had exploded.

And floating above the destruction was a ghost.

"Hey!" Dani called, crossing her arms as she hovered in the air.

At her voice, the ghost turned to face her. He was long and skinny, easily twice Dani's size, with a long face and pointed ears. His skin was a mottled blue-green color, stretched tight over a gaunt frame. His unkempt shoulder-length hair was the same shade of yellow as old paper. Blood red eyes stared out of sunken eye sockets.

Despite how haggard he looked, however, this ghost had a wide grin on his face, revealing a row of shark's teeth. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Dani Phantom."

The grin disappeared as he stared at her. "No, you're not."

Dani rolled her eyes. How typical. "Sorry, were you expecting a guy? Let's try this again: I'm Dani Phantom. With an I."

He still seemed confused, a puzzled look on his face. Then his eyes widened and his pointy-toothed grin returned. "Oh! I do know who you are! You're the clone!"

The word cut into Dani like a knife. She flinched, before desperately trying to recompose herself. Since the Fentons had adopted her, she'd become more comfortable with herself and her origins. Her family's support and assurance that she was her own person, that she was real and herself, was invaluable. Still, Dani hated being called a clone; it was a harsh reminder of all the pain Vlad had caused her.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Dani bit out, "Sorry. I think the C-word you're looking for is cousin." She narrowed her eyes. "Now. Tell me. What do you want? What are you doing in Amity? You've caused quite a lot of damage in the Ghost Zone, too."

Phantasm laughed. "You wanna talk C-words? Sure. How about catastrophe?" Suddenly, he reached out a hand and directed a green ecto-blast into the street. Dani's eye widened at the size of the crater, using her powers to shield herself from the flying debris.

"Or carnage?"

Another ecto-blast, this time directed at one of the neighbors' houses. Dani gasped and sent her own ecto-energy towards the building, creating a protective bubble around it. The ghost's blast shattered her shield almost instantly, but the house appeared unhurt.

"Or, my personal favorite, chaos!" Phantasm rose even higher into the air, above all the buildings except FentonWorks. And then he opened his mouth and screamed.

The force slammed Dani like a tidal wave. She flipped, tumbling head over heels, over and over until she crashed into a building. Her skull collided with the ground - she'd been too disoriented to go intangible - sending searing agony through her whole head. All the while, haunted, howling screams rang in her ears, the desperate pleas of the undead crying for release.

(Dani and Danny had debated multiple times whether there actually were souls trapped in the Ghostly Wail. For the sake of their sanity, they decided the answer was 'no.')

It took Dani a while to get her bearings. When her hearing returned, Phantasm's awful laughter greeted her. He unleashed more ecto-blasts, littering the streets with craters and cracking off chunks of buildings. People were finally starting to appear, running out of their houses. Their screams and startled questions filled the air.

Gritting her teeth, Dani brushed herself off. She ignored the bruises littering her body and flew back towards Phantasm – just in time to encase a family of four in an ecto-bubble, protecting them from another attack. The family looked up at her, nodded their thanks, then ran in the opposite direction. Smart.

Phantasm seemed delighted with the emergence of people. He kept aiming for them, causing Dani to make shields or grab citizens out of the way of his attacks. It left little time for her to actually fight him. Eventually, sirens sounded in the distance, reinforcements arriving. That was good, as the police department had a few FentonWorks equipment on hand. They would also be able to coordinate evacuation.

But, just as the police cars and fire engines crested the hill, Phantasm turned towards them and unleashed another Ghostly Wail. It caused a chasm in the street and flipped a few cars over. The remaining emergency personnel stopped to help their fellow officers.

If Dani's half-dead heart beat in ghost form, if would be slamming against her chest. She was alone, then.

But then, something wonderful happened. As Dani was about to pull a couple of kids out of the way of falling debris, they suddenly turned intangible; the debris fell straight through them. Dani blinked, startled. Then a ghost – one of the 1950s Casper High students – emerged from the concrete. He gave Dani a look, then carried the human kids farther away.

Dani turned, and sighed in relief. A bunch of ghosts were slipping out of FentonWorks, apparently no longer content to remain in the basement. But as they fled, many of them flew civilians away with them, dropping them safely a way's away. Others, like the Casper High student, used their intangibility to protect them.

Dani grinned. They had disobeyed her order, but she was willing to forgive them under the circumstances. Now she could focus on beating Phantasm.

"Alright, that's it," Dani growled. She flew toward Phantasm, fist pulled back; when she was only about three feet away, she thrust her arm forward and struck at Phantasm with an ecto-fist. He dodged, but just barely; a bruise formed on his cheek.

They entered into a type of dance then, Dani and Phantasm, trading both physical blows and blasts of ecto-entergy. Dani kept trying to lead him towards the more uninhabited areas of town, but Phantasm seemed determined to fire on as many residences as possible (as well as the Nasty Burger, with what seemed strangely like a personal vendetta). Emergency services were at least able to protect most civilians with their FentonWorks-issued ghost shields. Some officers also took aim with weapons like the Fenton Bazookas. Unfortunately, Phantasm managed to dodge the blasts as if he was used to them.

One shot, however, clipped Phantasm's side, sending him crashing onto the roof of Casper High. As he lay there, stunned for the moment, Dani positioned herself above him. Tucking her arms and legs close to her body, she let gravity pull her out of flight, landing like an anchor on top of Phantasm's stomach. The force of her landing on the already-damaged roof caused a cave-in, swallowing both ghosts inside the damaged building.

Having a building collapse around her wasn't fun, but Dani managed to get up first. She held her side as she limped away from the wreckage, then turned around to keep an eye on Phantasm. He still lay on the ground, an arm and a leg peeking out from chunks of roof.

Dani breathed a sigh of relief, allowing herself one moment to relax. Then she reached for her Fenton thermos, ready to throw this guy into the cylinder and put an end to his destruction. She would need to take the time to interrogate him later, but that would have to come after helping preliminary disaster clean-up and sending the rest of the ghosts help.

Except, there was one problem.

She didn't have a thermos.

Dani began patting her sides, but her fingers found nothing but her jumpsuit and an empty gadget belt. What? Sure, she'd been shocked by the amount of ghosts in the lab, but had she really not grabbed a single thermos?

As Dani tried calculating how quickly she could zoom home and grab a thermos, the rubble began to move. A green light emanated from the wreckage, and then a chunk of roof exploded into smaller pieces; the pieces scattered around the hallway, crashing into lockers. Dani turned intangible, letting the debris pass through her, then adopted a defensive stance.

Phantasm was laughing, even as he hauled himself up slowly enough for Dani to tell he was just as injured as she was, if not more. His blood red eyes were wide with delight as he looked at Dani.

"This is fun, little clone!" he exclaimed. "Nice to know someone else in this family isn't so weak!"

Dani's ire over the word "clone" made room for confusion at Phantasm's mention of family. Were there more like him? Were they destroying more of the Ghost Zone, while she fought Phantasm? But…it almost sounded like he was referring to her, and they couldn't possibly be related. Unless he meant because they were both ghosts.

Or…because they were both half-ghosts. Could Phantasm be a halfa?

Phantasm raised a hand, then, and snapped his fingers. Dani watched him warily, but at first nothing happened. Phantasm frowned, then snapped his fingers a couple more times. And then finally, to Dani's great surprise, a small, glowing green portal appeared in the air in front of Phantasm.

A portal…to the Ghost Zone?

Dani's stomach dropped. Phantasm could create portals? Sure, the Fentons had created their own Ghost Portal with technology, but a ghost with the ability to make natural portals was rare; Dani only knew of two creatures within the whole Ghost Zone with that power - Clockwork, and Team Phanton's Esperanto-speaking friend Wulf. Just what was this Phantasm, that he had so many rare powers? And what did he want from Danny?

Movement from Phantasm caused Dani to refocus on him. The ghost reached a hand into the portal -

- and grabbed Dani's shoulder in a vice grip. Dani jerked in surprise, twisting around to see a small, glowing green portal behind her. It was a match to the one in front of Phantasm.

"Hey, cuz," Phantasm cooed, voice full of vicious glee. "Let's keep the party going, what do ya say?"

And then he yanked Dani backwards into the portal with him.

A.N. - Ah! It's been a while! I hope you have been safe and well, physically and mentally during this time.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It is part one of two or three; we'll see how the writing plays out. I debated for a while if I should post it before having all of the next part written, since it's a cliffhanger, but then I thought it best to add what I have. Also, because you, dear readers, have a small say in what may happen in the next chapter or two! Do you think Danielle should:

A) Develop the Ghostly Wail

B) Develop her own special power

C) Not gain any special power in the fight against Phantasm

I would love to hear your answer! And your thoughts on anything else in this chapter. I hope the battle/power scale was believable and not too biased against Dani - to me, she had a bit more on her mind, such as trying to protect civilians and reduce damage, whereas Phantasm was just happy to blow off destructive steam. But it's perfectly fine if you disagree.

Also...I had this idea in my head for a while, long before February 2022, but since this chapter touches on a destructive invasion that forces residents to flee their homes, I want to provide resources that are aiding Ukrainians as they defend against the Russian invasion of their country. You can find clickable links in my profile as well. Some of these resources also support survivors of war and violence, and natural disasters, in other parts of the world:

Razom ("Together") For Ukraine (razomforukraine .org)

Voices of Children - Ukraine (voices .org .ua/en)

Interrnational Rescue Committee (rescue .org)

World Central Kitchen (wck .org)

Women For Women International (womenforwomen .org)

Save the Children (savethechildren .org)

Thank-you as always for your support, for reading, favoriting, and/or leaving reviews. It always makes me happy 😊