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The phone rings. Jack is the one to reach it, and less than a minute later he slams it down and turns excitedly to Maddie. “There’s a ghost attack at the Nasty Burger!”
It’s been a long day of false alarms. She’s lacking the exuberance Jack holds almost effortlessly, but she still manages to scrounge up an encouraging smile. “Let’s get right on it, then!”
The drive to the Nasty Burger is short, made even shorter when her husband’s behind the wheel. They roll out of the GAV, wielding powerful ectoguns known to land hits on Phantom. They’re ready for anything.
…They weren’t quite expecting what looks to be Phantom’s little sister.
She’s chewing happily on a burger, fries and a soda on the table below her, chatting with a black girl in a Nasty Burger uniform. They both look familiar, but Maddie can’t place it so she waves it away.
“Don’t let your guard down,” she warns Jack, “a little girl is just as dangerous when it’s a filthy ghost.”
Jack nods firmly, eyes set.
Idly holding their ectoguns, they step inside. One of the cashiers recognizes them and greets them, informing them they’re who called.
“I’m scared,” they admit. “But you’ll fix it, right?”
“Of course,” Maddie says, channeling her comforting voice she uses for her children. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of this.”
Maddie glances over at the ghost. She whirls around to stare at Maddie with piercing green eyes. She yelps and drops her burger, landing with a gross splat on the table. She whispers to her companion, who shakes her head, rolling her eyes, and gathers her and the ghost’s food to place in the trash, presumably. The ghost then phases out of the chair and goes invisible.
The girl moves up to them with hands full of trash. “Afternoon, Drs Fenton. Would you like to order something?”
“Are you harboring a ghost?” Maddie hisses, testing the trigger on her ectogun.
“Of course not,” the girl lies smoothly and moves past them to empty the trays into the trash bin. She turns around and sets her hands on her hips. “If you’re not going to order, I’ll have to ask you to leave. Loitering gets a call to the police.”
Maddie purses her lips. She turns to Jack. “Let’s go,” she relinquishes.
The girl smiles. “See ya later, Drs Fenton.”
Jack scowls but turns to leave with Maddie. Once outside the Nasty Burger, Maddie pulls out their radar: one weak blip she registers as Danny and promptly ignores, and one strong blip speeding off, a couple miles away at this point. Then, it rapidly slows.
Maddie’s confused, but this is to their benefit. She relays this information to her husband, who peers over her shoulder at the radar. The new ghost is now at a slow walking pace, near downtown.
“Let’s go ’n’ get ’em, Mads!”
Another car ride later, they’re circling the block the ghost is now at, searching for a parking spot. The radar is not terribly accurate, so they have to find her themselves. It’s not long before they’re out and about, searching the sidewalk and alleys for hints of a ghost.
Maddie’s the one to spot a hint of bright green. She calls Jack over and points. As they get closer, it appears to be a trail of ectoplasm: one with no end in sight.
They glance at each other. Silently, they agree to follow the trail.
“Let’s go this way first,” says Jack, indicating the direction where the ectoplasm path gets thicker. Maddie nods in agreement.
They wind around people on the sidewalk, following the trail of green. It’s busy, and hard, but the trail stays ever bright.
And at the end, inexplicably:
A human girl.
She looks like if Danny didn’t transition, Maddie notes hysterically. She turns to Jack, who looks just as numb as she feels.
The girl hasn’t noticed them yet. She’s curled into a ball, hugging her knees that’re covered in bandages. She wears a pullover hoodie and shorts with a beanie and worn out sneakers. The fringe of her bangs hang in her face, almost hiding her eyes that glint the same blue of Jack’s and Danny’s. She cries softly, sniffing and rubbing her nose.
Faintly, Maddie can hear, “…Valerie was right. I should’nt’ve gone to Nasty Burger…”
Maddie stares.
Maddie weighs her options: this girl could be human, having a hard day and Maddie can come in and temporarily adopt her while Maddie and Jack locate her parents. Or she could be a ghost incredibly talented at replicating the human phenome.
She does not appreciate a ghost preying on her motherly instincts.
So she raises the gun, aims at the girl’s face and…
Shoots.
The girl screams in pain and scrambles up from her ‘hiding spot’. “What the fuck?” she exclaims, and whirls around to see the two ghost hunters at the end of the alleyway.
Maddie got her right in the eye. Her eye drips tears, just as her nose drips ectoplasm, just as her skin drips viscous green liquid that falls to the ground and creates the path they’ve been following.
Maddie finds herself saying, “What are you?”
“None of your business,” the girl says haughtily, and rubs her nose. Her hand comes away stained bright green, and it doesn’t burn her human skin.
This girl is not human, no matter how human she looks, Maddie realizes with a chill. Then: She reminds me of Danny.
She raises her ectogun and shoots again.