The two wealthy men of Paris and Amity Park both stood in front of a metal cage, where what lies inside its green, illuminated bars was a spectre of a distorted figure.

Hawkmoth who narrowed his brows at the spectral creature was somewhat at a loss of words. He had been skeptical at first, after partnering with the man beside him, Vlad Masters, he thought the American had lost his mind when he explained that ghosts and the ghostzone existed. It was only until now that he believed it all to be true. Ghost were real, and so was the ghostzone where most inhabited in. The ghost in front of them now was a common type of phantom, from what Vlad Master had stated and was now going to be their subject of their experiment.

The infamous villain of Paris turned to his associate with a raised brow.

"You want me to akumatise a ghost? A non-living entity that lacks a physical form." The man recalled the halfa's suggestion. The half human, half ghost in question gave a knowing smirk.

"Word for word." Vlad reached into his inside pocket of his suit and took out a metallic ring. "This ring is made of compressed ectoplasm and nickel." The ghostly villain then slipped his arm through the bars and put the ring on the specter's wisp of a finger. "The ring should act as an anchor for your akuma to possess." Vlad explained to his magical partner. "Ghosts are restless souls who are chained by their emotions and regret, even if it's a common ghost its despair should be enough to attract your little butterflies." Vlad waved his hand in emphasis. Hawkmoth scowled at his childish gesture towards his akumas.

"They are moths, Masters." He corrected the ghost, who shrugged it off without a care. Hawkmoth turned back to the Phantom and did sense the feeling of regret radiating from it, but he still had doubts that the ring was enough for his akuma to take root in the phantom's heart. He needed the targeted object to be of sentimental value to his victim. He let out a sigh, he could try and provoke the spirit somehow. "All right, fine. Though there is no guarantee that this little experiment of yours will succeed." The moth Miraculous wielder turned to head to a desk where his cage full of pearlescent butterflies were and released one. He clasped his hands around the delicate insect and after a moment or two of surging his powers into the butterfly, he released it to reveal its dark transformation into an akuma. The akuma fluttered through room and had slight trouble navigating itself to the spectre, but eventually slipped through the cage's metal bars and akumatised the phantom.

"Haha! A success!" Vlad grinned maniacally. Vlad was right, it really did succeeded in akumatising the spectre and soon enough it transform in appearance and a phantom mercenary took its place.

Hawkmoth smiled at his new minion and found that it expressed no will to oppose him, "You shall be known as the Phantom Mercenary." the two villains' little experiment became a new and interesting discovery, and was definitely something to add to their plans.

***

School had ended and I had the rest of the day to find a present for Adrian. With a quick stop at home to drop off my bag, found Master Fu tending to a customer. I tip toed past with a wave to Master Fu who smiles and nods my way and I made it to my room to leave my things. As soon as I came in I left the apartment and headed straight to Quatre Temps, a large mall not far from here. A quick trip by bus I arrive at the mall. The mall to put simply was huge. From the outside the building was covered with clear, blue windows, and the mall itself was rectangular. Compared to Amity Park it was the largest mall I've ever stepped into- well Amity Park didn't have a mall, so the Qautre Temp was the only mall I've ever stepped into. As I walk around the mall, I came to revelation.

"What does Adrian want?" I stop walking and blink, the guy was literally rich and as far as I remember from my time in his room his shelf was stocked with every video game franchise and game console I could name and more. I wish I had Marinette with me to help. "I can try and call her, that's an idea." I conclude and went to a quieter area to start ringing her. It didn't take long for her to answer. "Hey, I gotta ask since you're the 'expert'. What does Adrian like?"

"Adrian?" She replied, and for a few, long seconds of silence an ear-rape of a squeal cause me to recoil my ear from the phone.

"Chill!" I snap and she apologises. She's obsessed, I sigh.

"Sorry!" She said for the last time. "Okay, so Adrian has almost everything for sure, but he does fencing, piano and sometimes he'd order cheese related snacks." That's an odd thing to be interested about, well I can't really judge, "Adrian mainly loves things made from the heart, he's wholesome, caring, charming and-"

"Okay! Okay. I got it Bluebells." I chuckle in amusement. She's kinda cute when she rambles, but when it's about Adrian it can be a bit too much. "I think that's enough for me to have an idea on what I'm looking for." I hear her hum through the phone before she spoke.

"Are you looking for a birthday present for him?" She asks, I hum a yes through the phone.

"Yeah, I'm at Quatre Temps." She lets out a light yelp in surprise. I raise a brow is concern. "You all right-"

"This late? Danny the stores close in an hour!" I blink a few times. An hour left before the mall closes? The information slowly sinks in and my eyes widen in realisation.

"IN AN HOUR?" I exclaim, but soon regret it when people passing by sent me odd looks. I felt my face grow warm. That was embarrassing. "Okay, thanks for the help bye!" I didn't give her time to reply before hanging up. I knew it was rude to cut her off like that, but I'm pressed with time. I'll have to apologise to her when I get home. I continued to wonder through the mall and spotted some stores that looked promising. For instance, I enter a store full of board games. The only board game I remember from Adrian's room was a chess board with metallic pieces. While I wonder through the cozy store, I found a deck of Uno cards. "Is this good enough?" I pout at the deck of cards in my hands. "I feel like I should get him something better..." I mumble to myself, but there was nothing in the store that looks familiar, and majority of the games were D&D related things. I thought that the series was too complicated, in my opinion, and they were extremely expensive it would've destroyed my budget to get the starter set. I walk to the register and I paid for the deck of Uno cards. Once I left the store I look down at the deck in my hands and sigh, "This gift is so lame..." I put it in my pocket.

I went to leave the mall deflated in disappointment when a wisp escape my lips. I crease my brows and scanned the around me. A ghost? Here? I walked past the crowds and made it to a desolate area of the mall. After a quick check that no one was watching I took a deep breath and let the chill run up and down my spine, I felt the air conditioning in the area breeze through me and the familiar feeling of coldness spread throughout my now spectral form. Light on my feet I turned invisible and intangible, flying through the mall I scan around my surroundings to find the source of my ghost sense. After flying through a wall I spot a vivid form of a young girl. She was sitting down on a bench and was watching the crowd pass her with a distant look. I float over and her eyes fixated towards me.

"Hello Mister." She smiled. I decend down where my feet met the floor and walked over to the little girl. "Are you the Ghost King Big ghosts keep talking about?" She tilted her head. I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, but you can just call me Danny." I crouch down to her eye level and ruffle her hair. "And what's your name kiddo?" She giggles as she fixes her hair after I pulled away.

"My name's Delphine." She giggles while fiddling with her hair. I nod, I plop down on the bench next to her and gaze at the passing people. They walked and in the eyes of a ghost humans were phantoms themselves. Their figures left a trail of their echoing selves, a blur and otherworldly, sometimes I forget that I was human too when I'm like this. A ghost. Being the two faces of the same coin, both the living world and the ghost world were so estranged with me.

A quick shake of my head I turn my attention back to Delphine. "So why are you here, Delphine?" She lifts her head to meet my eyes before her eyes fell to the floor, her shoulders slumped down.

"I'm lonely in the ghostzone, mummy wasn't with me when I woke up." She pouts at nothing in front of her. I took me a few seconds to let her words sink and felt something weight down on my shoulders, with a hesitant hand I rest it on her smaller shoulder. She lifts her head and at that moment I couldn't say anything when I lock eyes with her. They gloss over with a tint of blue, it reminds me of the the clear streams of moonlight spread across the streets of Amity, chilling me to the core as if I was human again. The same rainy night where Vlad found me after... I shut my eyes and took a moment to inhale and exhale. My eyes flutter open and I steel myself as I gaze at Delphine's eyes again, I force my lips to part into a toothy grin- well, I hope it looks convincing enough that is. 

"I get it, it's pretty lame in the ghostzone." I laugh a little at how true it was, "But it's pretty boring out here too, trust me." I gesture to the now emptying mall, there were less people at this point and some stores were already beginning to close for the day. I watch her hum whilst swinging her legs until she beams. "Okay!" I smile at her cheery nature, she was quite tame by ghost standard. Then a thought caught my attention and my smile melts. Where did she come from? There's no ghost portal and she mentioned that she arrived in the ghostzone before she came here. While we hover off the bench with her smaller hand in my own I frown slightly, "Hey, Delphine how did you get here in the living world?" I see her raise her index finger and point towards a store that was closed and under renovations. 

"I saw a gap in the ghostzone and went through it, then I came out through there." She says and my eyes widen. "A gap?" I ask as I kept my eyes on the store. I hear her hum in confirmation, and we flew over to the closed retail store. We phased through the walls and my vision was swallowed by the unforgettable acid-green illumination of the ghostzone. 

I feel myself gasp while my eyes gawk at the green serene of the ghostzone, "What? How-" I stutter out. What is this doing here? How did this get here? I shake my head and my focus went to Delphine. She kept her eyes forward and pulls me along through the drift. When we came through the sight of the ghostly world made my body stiffen, this was the last place I expected to be today. "All right, you should head back to your area, Delphine." I hover down to meet her eye level, I place my hand on her shoulders as she pouts. I chuckle and shook my head, "Puppy eyes don't work on me little miss." I smirk at her when she sighed in defeat. "Okay..." She grumbles and huffs. We gave a short goodbye with a wave before she flew away. After she disappeared from sight I turn my attention to the rift. "Now how do I deal with you?" I chew on my bottom lip. 

"Hello, Daniel." I flinch and whip around to face the source of the new voice. Once I saw who it was I felt my body go cold, despite being somewhat dead in the first place. 

"Clockwork?"