Author's Note: Before you begin this story, please be aware that this is the sequel to The Ultimate Enemy, which is an AU version of the episode of the same name. I own nothing of Danny Phantom you recognize, just Hanna.
"People are crazy," an eight year old announced as she marched into Clockwork's lair. Her purple backpack bounced between her shoulder blades and she was clutching a clear plastic Tupperware container in one hand that was filled with what appeared to be a black mass speckled with little flecks of gold glitter. "Where do you want this?" the girl asked the room in general, shaking the container pointedly. The thing inside sloshed about a bit before releasing an angry growl that the girl ignored in favor of adjusting the violet fabric of the headband holding her straight blonde hair away from her face. She waited in the certain of the room for an answer but when she received none, she scowled and moved further inside.
"I mean, who calls a ghost from another dimension when the book flat out says it's bad?" the girl ranted as her footsteps echoed off the high ceiling above. The thing in the Tupperware container growled again and she pouted at it, saying "Oh shut up you."
-seal is breaking Clockwork," a low voice said, intruding on the usual silence of Clockwork's domain. The girl had also broken the silence, but the room had seemed to accept that, as if she were a natural part of the surroundings. The new voice disturbed the peaceful atmosphere, making the little girl scowl. She made her way around a corner to pout in the general direction of the pair of Observers.
"The seal will hold," Clockwork replied calmly but the girl could tell he was irritated simply by the way he was holding himself.
"You can't know that," the second Observer protested. "You've seen the future as well as we have. You know the seal will break."
"Yes, I do," was Clockwork's brisk reply. "But not for some time."
"It does not matter how long we have," the first Observer snapped. "It simply matters that it will happen. This eventuality must be prevented."
"It cannot," was the simple response.
"Lies," the second Observer hissed and the girl scowled, tapping one foot impatiently on the floor. She had homework to do, but she couldn't start it until Clockwork dealt with the creature trapped in the Tupperware container.
"Excuse me," she cut in impatiently. "But I sort of have a problem." She shook the container pointedly in the direction of the Observers who had turned to stare at her, startled by her sudden appearance.
"Not now you insolent child," the first Observer hissed. "We grown ups have an important business to discuss."
"Just 'cause you're dead doesn't make you grown up," the girl retorted. "And I don't think you're acting like an adult." The Observers released offended noises in tandem, but Clockwork chuckled and reached down to tousle the girl's blonde hair. She beamed up at him and thrust the Tupperware container towards him proudly, showing off her catch. Clockwork smiled down at her and opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he was about to say was washed out by a horrible beeping noise.
Hanna Weiss groaned and dug a hand free of her covers to smack the source of the irritating sound, silencing the alarm. She was tempted to go back to sleep, but if she did she would miss her window of opportunity when it came to the small, naturally occurring portal in the local park. The blonde rolled out of bed with a groan and headed for the bathroom, bleary grey eyes barely open enough to help her avoid running into any walls or furniture. Hopefully a warm shower would help wake her up completely because she had a lot of work to do today.
Hanna Marie Weiss, formerly a resident of the rainy city of Seattle, Washington, had moved to Scottsdale, Arizona just after her eighteenth birthday. She had been mourning the death of her foster parents, killed in a car accident on a icy January day, and had wanted to get as far away from Seattle as possible. Scottsdale had the added perk of a natural occurring portal to the Ghost Zone that opened every day at 7:10 in the morning. Unfortunately this meant that the twenty year old had to get up early on her few days off from the couple classes she was taking at a community college and her part time job selling lattes to tourists and locals alike so she could train with Clockwork.
Hanna was half ghost and in line to be the next master of time should anything happen to Clockwork that rendered him unable to continue his duties. It wasn't a job she particularly wanted, especially not after watching Clockwork deal with the pesky Observers for years, but it did have perks. One of them was that, even outside of Clockwork's domains, she could see threads of the future. She didn't catch all of them, but she could normally pick up a wide variety of options for a person. Making guesses about how the future was going to happen was always easier when she could combine several connected threads at once because it narrowed down options, but Clockwork always said that being able to pick up some of the picture was always better than nothing.
"Speaking of some of the picture," Hanna mused, pulling her still damp hair into a ponytail and allowing it to fall over one shoulder. The dream had been weird. It wasn't that she had dreamed about something that had actually happened, she'd seen enough strange things by this point in her life to have nightmares for years, but that the dream had been so clear and easy to follow. Most of her dreams, real or simply figments of her imagination, were jerky and difficult to follow once she was awake but this one had been as clear as if she was watching it on the television. The whole situation was weird and she found herself wondering whether or not it had been significant.
Bag packed and breakfast eaten, she slipped on a pair of her favorite flip flops and headed out the door, making sure her apartment was locked before hitting the street. Warm sunlight was already filtering down on her as she headed for the park. Even though it was only April, temperatures would still be reaching the eighties or nineties each day but it was early enough that the brilliant sunlight still felt good when it reached her shoulders. People were out and about this early to avoid the worst of the heat so Hanna found herself waving at bicyclists or people walking their dogs as she made the fifteen minute trek to the park. Once there, she jogged down the path to a secluded area not far from the bathrooms and glanced around to make sure no one was watching before stepping through the portal.
The Ghost Zone was always a cooler temperature than Arizona and Hanna shivered, regretting wearing shorts and a tank top during the moment it took for her to transform. She soared along towards Clockwork's domain, not really paying attention to where she was going. She had the route memorized. "What'cha up to babypop?" a familiar voice called and Hanna turned her head to grin at Ember. The former pop star abandoned one of the natural occurring islands of earth in the Ghost Zone to fly along the young woman. Hanna had known Ember since she was six because she'd gotten lost and accidentally wander out of Clockwork's domain. She'd ended up in Ember's home, sobbing hysterically because she had just wanted to go home. Ember had comforted the small girl and they'd ended up building an eventually friendship. Unfortunately that friendship often involved Ember calling the other girl babypop like she was still six instead of twenty.
"Training as usual," Hanna replied, rolling her eyes. "Nothing fun, I promise you."
Ember made a face at that. "You need to relax babypop. All work and no play makes Oracle a dull girl." Hanna grinned at that and Ember grinned back, reaching over to tug on the other girl's now blue hair. "We need to have a girl's night out soon."
"Sounds good," Hanna agreed, grinning at the thought of all the chaos she and Ember could cause together. "I'll stop by your place after training and we'll set a date for our girl's night." Ember nodded and drifted off, probably heading over the check on her sometimes boyfriend Skulker. Hanna increased her speed and a few minutes later she entered Clockwork's domain.
Her surroundings were quiet but that was far from unusual. Aside from Dan Phantom pounding on the inside of the Fenton Thermos where Danny Fenton had trapped him, the area was normally quiet. The current state of Clockwork's home was worrying. It looked as if someone had staged a battle within the confines of Clockwork's home. Drips of ectoplasm slid down the walls along with some kind of black sludge that seemed to have gold glitter flecked through it. It reminded her of the creature she'd been carrying around in the Tupperware container in her dream.
Hanna made her way cautiously further into the room, stepping around puddles of black goo. "Clockwork?" she called hesitantly, voice echoing off the high ceiling. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably when she didn't get an answer. The bad feeling wasn't helped by the fact that every single one of Clockwork's viewing windows was dark. She reached out a hand to touch one of the windows, jumping when static rushed across it but no picture. Something was wrong here. "Clockwork?" she called again but this time she wasn't expecting an answer. Behind her, a Fenton Thermos rattled ominously.
For once everything in Amity Park was quiet. Danny Fenton slammed his locker with a grin, glad that he'd made it through the third school day in a row without a ghost attack. He'd been given more leniency for missing school by his parents, who had learned the truth about their son when he'd been helping save the world from the Fenton's referred to as the Phantom Planet incident, but that didn't mean they were happy about how often he did run out of classes. It just meant they didn't give him more chores if he missed his curfew. "Three days without an attack," Tucker said as he and Sam approached.
"No kidding," Sam agreed, leaning over to link her arm with Danny's. "I actually got an uninterrupted date for once."
"It was nice," Danny admitted with a grin at his girlfriend, still marveling at the fact that he and Sam were actually dating.
"Hey," a female voice called and Valerie Gray hurried over to join them, backpack slung over one shoulder. Besides Tucker, Sam, and his family, Valerie was the only other person who knew that Danny Fenton was Amity Park's hero, Danny Phantom. That the Huntress actually knew Danny's secret made ghost hunting a whole lot easier than it had been before. "Do you guys have plans tonight?" Val asked as she walked with them towards the entrance to the school.
"I don't think so," Danny said. "With all this free time, my homework is even done. It's weird."
"I know the feeling," Val agreed with a wry grin. "If you guy's don't have any objections, there's a new action flick out in theaters and I have a day off from work. Want to go see it?"
"I heard the CGI in that is awesome," Tucker said, looking up from his PDA to grin at Val. "Count me in!" Danny glanced at Sam in question and she nodded slightly.
"We're in," he told Val with a grin. "Meet you guys at the theater at eight?"
"Sounds good," Val agreed.
Warm sunshine washed over them all as they exited Casper High with the other chattering students. There was only about a month of school left and the weather was finally warming up which meant that most students were anxious to get out of class every day. Danny and his friends were no exception. The four friends chatted amicably in the sunshine, none of them in a hurry to get moving. It was a nice day and they were enjoying not having to rush off to detention because of skipped classes.
"Hey Danny, are you coming?" Jazz called from by the student parking lot.
"Oh right, Mom and Dad had something new they wanted to show me," Danny said, smiling sheepishly at his friends. "I've got to go. See you guys tonight?"
"Yeah," Sam agreed, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "We'll see you later Danny." He grinned and waved a quick goodbye as he hurried to join Jazz, slipping into the passenger seat of the car she'd gotten for her eighteenth birthday. It wasn't the prettiest vehicle but it ran smoothly and Jazz was happy with it.
"How was your day?" the red head questioned as she pulled out of the student parking lot.
"Ghost free," Danny replied with a grin that Jazz returned. "I don't know what's causing this sudden lull in ghost attacks, but I like it."
"Maybe your reputation has spread far enough that ghost don't want to risk it," Jazz suggested. "This could be a more permanent situation instead of a temporary thing."
"That would be nice," Danny admitted wistfully. As much as he enjoyed fighting ghosts, part of him really wanted to be a normal boy with normal high school experiences. With the frequent ghost attacks, he couldn't even go out on a date with Sam without being interrupted. The past three days had been awesome. He had all his homework done, he hadn't missed class, and he'd had an uninterrupted date with Sam. Jazz hummed in agreement and pulled into the driveway of Fenton Works. "Do you know what Mom and Dad wanted to show us?"
"They didn't say," Jazz replied. "But whatever it was, they were really absorbed in it when I left."
"Guess we'll find out," Danny said and Jazz nodded in agreement.
They entered an unusually quiet house. Danny and Jazz exchanged worried looks. The Fenton home rarely managed to be completely silent. Even when their parents were in the basement lab, their children could normally hear their voices. "Mom? Dad?" Jazz called hesitantly and Danny allowed the transformation to sweep over him, hoping there wasn't a problem but unwilling to risk being with limited powers if there really was something wrong.
"We're downstairs sweetie," Maddie Fenton called from the basement and the two relaxed a little. Danny led the way into the basement where their parents were leaning over what appeared to be some kind of scanner.
"Is there something wrong?" Jazz asked when their father didn't spin around the instant they entered the basement and start babbling about his newest invention.
"We're getting very strange readings from the Ghost Zone, sweetie," their mother replied. "In fact, I think it might be best if we seal the Fenton Portal until we find out what's going on."
"Close the Fenton Portal?" Danny asked shocked.
"Yes Danny," their mother said firmly as their father continued to study the readings. "It's for the best."
"Are you sure Mom?" Jazz asked. "I'm not sure if that is the best option. What if you never find out what's going on? You can't seal up the Fenton Portal forever. It's the entire basis of your work."
"We'll do what we have to in order to keep you too safe," their dad cut in, looking up from the readings for the first time since Danny and Jazz had come into the lab. His usual jovial expression was worried as he gazed at them, as if he were afraid something might burst out of the portal to take them away at any moment.
"I agree with Jazz," Danny spoke up. "I think I should go into the Ghost Zone and take a look around. Maybe I can figure out what's going on."
"No," came the immediate reply from his mother. "It's too dangerous."
"It doesn't have to be tonight," Jazz said, trying to keep the situation calm. "You guys can seal up the portal tonight and think about it. If the weird readings are still around tomorrow, then you can debate over whether or not Danny can go in. If not, it's just a false alarm and everything can go back to normal. There's no need to take such permanent action over something that you don't know for sure is permanent. Or even a bad thing."
Danny waited nervously while his parents considered what Jazz had said. As much as he was enjoying the lack of ghost attacks, he couldn't picture his life without access to the Ghost Zone. The Fenton Portal had changed his life, changing him from weedy little Danny Fenton into a hero. Life without it just seemed strange. It didn't help that he now knew there was probably something nasty on the other end just searching for a way to get out. "Okay," their mother said at last. "We'll seal up the portal tonight and consider what both of you have said before making a decision."
"Thanks Mom," Danny said and Maddie smiled at him.
"Now that this whole mess is settled, why don't we go get some fudge," Jack Fenton suggested enthusiastically, smile only widening when when his family laughed. Danny allowed himself to relax at the sudden return to normalcy, turning back into a human. He didn't know what was going on in the Ghost Zone, but with his family and friends by his side he knew that everything would work out. It always did.