IT'S HERE. The continuation of Back to the Past.
Why has Evil Danny started a war? Will our heroes visit the future? What will happen between Tara and Tucker? Will Danny and Sam ever get a chance to be alone without a ghost interrupting them?!
Let's find out…
(Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon own "Danny Phantom" and the original characters. I own this story and the new characters I've added in. Please do not copy without my permission.)
xxxxxx
"He's escaped, Danny. And now he's started an all-out war."
Danny's whole body froze. Not a sound escaped from his mouth, even though his jaw had dropped. The sound of his rapid heartbeat pounded in his ears.
The voices of his friends seemed so far away when they appeared behind him.
"Tara?" Sam said in amazement. She then grinned. "Tara! I can't believe it's you!"
"Tara!" Tucker said as he ran up to her and pulled her into a tight hug, even lifting her up slightly from the ground.
"Yeah, it's me," she said with a laugh.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked with a smile.
"Have your parents eased up? Are they letting you visit us?" Tucker said.
Tara bit her lip. "I wish that was the case."
Sam's face dropped. "Then why are you here? What's going on?"
"Did something bad happen?" Tucker said.
"Um…"
"Yes," Danny finally whispered. "Something really bad happened."
They all looked at Danny, who was staring at the ground.
After a while, someone finally walked up to him and held his hand.
"What happened?" Sam said.
"…My evil self escaped from Clockwork's castle."
She dropped his hand. "No…"
"Well, we've kicked his butt once before. We can do it again, right?" Tucker said.
"Hello! Earth to Tucker! We barely made it out alive last time!" Sam yelled.
"That's not all," Tara said. "He's declared war on the ghost zone."
"What? How can he do that?!" Tucker said.
"Follow me; my dad will explain everything," Tara said, and she ran off.
The others quickly followed.
xxxxxx
Not too far from the DMV, Tara led the group through a narrow alley, where the light of the day barely illuminated their path.
"Wait, where's the time machine?" Tucker said when they reached the tall brick wall at the end.
"My grandparents—your parents, Danny—came the other day to our house to give us this."
Tara extended her arm to reveal a silver band, with a small green ray on the top, around her wrist.
"What is that?" Danny said.
"My grandmother was able to take the same technology from the time machine and basically shrink down its size. This ray can open time portals."
"That is so cool!" Tucker said.
"I know, right? Come on; my dad's waiting on the other side," Tara said. She aimed her hand at the wall and pressed a couple of buttons on her wristband.
"'Come on'? As in, into the future with you?" Sam said.
A blue beam shot out onto the wall. In front of them opened an opaque, oval-shaped portal.
"Yup," Tara said.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker looked at each other unnervingly.
"Uh," Danny said. "Don't we need those time-traveling suits or something?"
"Nope, my grandmother made these rays and portals safer for travel."
Tara then turned and saw her friends' worried faces.
"Guys, relax. This is super safe, trust me. Dad wouldn't have given this to me if he hadn't tested it out first."
"Your dad came to the past? When?" Tucker said.
"A few days ago, I think. Not for very long, of course. It was in and out, just to see if it worked. Now let's go, before someone spots us."
Danny took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do this."
"You guys go first—when I go in, the portal will close behind me," Tara said.
"Oh, great. No warming up, huh? Just dive right in?" Tucker said.
"That's the idea!" Tara said.
The three walked to the front, where the blue light from the portal shone in their faces.
"Ready?" Danny said nervously.
He took Sam and Tucker's hands, and together, they jumped in.
xxxxxxx
"AAAHH—oof!"
The trio fell onto a hard, gray floor.
Danny opened his eyes to find someone in red Converse shoes and blue jeans right in front of him.
A large hand with a silver wedding ring reached out to him.
"Need some help up?" his future self said with a kind smile.
"Nah, I got it. Thanks," Danny said as he stood up and stretched.
Sam took his hand.
"I think I landed on my arm. Ow," she said as she got up. Her right arm was curled up against her chest.
"How bad does it hurt?" future Danny asked.
"I think it'll be fine. Thank you, though." She massaged her arm with her other hand.
Tara then strolled in through the portal, and it disappeared behind her.
"Hey guys! See, it wasn't so…oh. Yeah, probably should've told you to just walk through. Sorry about that."
Tucker got onto his feet and looked around.
"Hey, you guys don't have a ghost portal?" he said.
"We do. But like these time rays, we made the ghost portal mobile in the form of gloves," Tara said.
"Ghost portal gloves…man, the technology of the future is insane," Danny said.
"We still have the main portal at my grandparents'."
"Did she make it back?" a young female voice called from the top of the stairs.
"Yeah, Tara's here with our past selves," future Danny yelled back.
Vanessa ran down the stairs.
"Whoa," she said as she walked up to Tucker. "That's my dad from the past?"
"Whoa, you're my daughter in the future?"
"Sure am! I'm Vanessa." She extended her hand out for a handshake.
"Can I get a hug?" he said with a chuckle.
"You totally can."
She dropped her hand and opened her arms. He reached in for the hug.
"Wow! This is the coolest and yet weirdest thing I've ever done in my entire life!" he exclaimed.
"Trust me, your lives will only get cooler and weirder from here."
Everyone looked over at future Sam, who was leaning against the handrail.
"Sam! I didn't hear you come down the stairs," future Danny said as she walked to him.
"What can I say? I'm sneaky like that."
"Uh, hi Sam," younger Danny said as his cheeks turned red.
Sam smiled at him, making him blush even more.
"Hey there, Danny." She looked towards the rest of the group. "I hate to break up this tender moment, but I just got Megan down for her nap. The time to talk is now."
"Right. Let's go upstairs," future Danny said.
They followed him up the stairs to the living room.
Mounted on the wall was a flat screen television, as well as wooden shelves of DVDs and books. Turquoise couches circled around a small coffee table, and on the blue, carpeted floor laid stuffed animals and colorful blocks.
"Vanessa, hit the shades. We don't want anyone looking in," future Sam said.
"You got it, Mama." Vanessa ran for the windows behind the couches.
"Mama?" younger Danny asked Tara, while Sam and Tucker looked at her with confusion.
"Oh, uh…" She then lowered her voice. "Mrs. Foley died when Vanessa was really young. Ever since then, my mom's kind of been like her mom too. She's the only motherly figure Vanessa has."
"Oh…that's so sad," Tucker said.
"Sit down," future Sam said to the teenagers, and they sat on the couches.
"So…what's going on?" younger Danny said.
Future Danny sighed. "It's like this…
"We gave it a while before going back in the ghost zone. After all, we were in panic-mode the whole time Tara disappeared. We needed a little break. But then, weird things started happening."
"Ghosts were disappearing," future Sam said. "Our allies within the ghost zone started coming to us with news of ghosts going missing."
"Allies like Wulf," future Danny said. "He thought something was up when he noticed ghosts like Fright Night, Hotep-Ra, and even Bertrand were nowhere to be found."
"That's when we traveled back to Clockwork's tower."
"It was a mess. There were gears, bells, time medallions…pretty much everything was all over the place. Sam and I looked around for any clues of what might've happened. Then, we heard someone calling us."
"I followed the sound to find the Fenton Thermos stuck under a gear. When I opened it up, out came Clockwork and all his assistants. He yelled, 'We have to go after him! We have to find him!'"
"Apparently, my evil self managed to topple the Thermos off the table it was on. It landed right on the 'release' button, setting him free."
"Whoa," younger Danny said. "I've been inside the Thermos plenty of times, and that thing's pretty hard to budge."
"Well, remember, he is the strongest ghost we've ever faced," future Danny said.
"Clockwork tried to get him back inside," future Sam said. "He even called in reinforcements. But Dark Danny was stronger than them. Much stronger."
"I think he got more powerful in the Thermos. I don't know how."
"We promised Clockwork we'd begin our search the next morning. We came home and then…"
"We saw Frostbite in our living room."
"Megan gave this, like, ear-piercing scream when he appeared," Tara interjected. "Well, I mean, who wouldn't? The guy has a skeleton ice-arm!"
"Wait, what was he doing there?" younger Danny asked.
"He came to warn us about my evil self…and to urge our family to go into hiding," future Danny said.
"What? But why?!"
"It seems that after Dark Danny escaped from the Fenton Thermos, he went to Pariah's Keep. He stole the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire, and obliterated Pariah Dark in the process."
"Obliterated? What do you mean by obliterated?"
"Have you ever wondered what happens to ghosts when they die? Well, I am you, so I know you've thought about it before.
"One thing we know for sure is ghosts are immortal. Some can grow and look physically older, while others stay the way they look forever. But just because ghosts are immortal doesn't mean they can't be killed.
"They don't exactly 'die' like humans do, leaving something solid, like a body, behind. They simply vanish into thin air. Poof. Gone.
"My guess is that's all that happens to them. I don't think there's an 'afterlife' for ghosts. This whole process is what we call 'obliteration.'"
"So, Pariah Dark is gone? No more?"
"Exactly. Now Dark Danny is King of All of Ghosts, and he's stronger than ever before."
"Great. As if his normal self wasn't hard enough to battle."
"It gets worse. Frostbite told us the reason why ghosts have been disappearing is because they're allying with Dark Danny.
"He wants to not just be King of ghosts, but King of the human world too. He's willing to fight a bloody war for that title, and he's guaranteeing all who fight with him will become rulers in the ghost zone or the human world."
"He is meeting some serious opposition in the ghost zone, though," future Sam said. "Those who are against Dark Danny are calling themselves 'The Resistance'. That should delay taking the fight to our world."
"But I think his motives are deeper than just wanting total world domination," future Danny said. "I think he wants revenge on not just me, but everyone who foiled his plans and locked him in the Thermos for all those years. Everyone includes Sam and Tucker. Frostbite agrees, which is why he wanted us all to hide."
Younger Danny hung his head and rubbed his temples.
"This is bad. This is really, really bad…"
"So what are you going to do? Why did you need us?" younger Sam said.
Future Sam looked at her husband.
"We've decided…we're not going to hide," she said. "And by we, I mean Danny, Tucker, and I aren't going to hide…But Tara, Megan, and Vanessa will."
Tara shot her head towards her mother.
"Wait, what?"
"You heard me. Your dad and I are going to fight alongside The Resistance. We are not dragging you into this. You need to stay with Vanessa and your sister."
"But I can fight too! You'll need all the help you can get!"
"No, it's too dangerous. We're not willing to risk your life, Tara."
"But…"
"Trust us, Tara. Please."
Tara sighed and sunk into the couch.
"And the reason why we called you over is…well, honestly, we think they'd be safer hiding in a different time. Dark Danny doesn't know we're in contact with our younger selves. He wouldn't think to look in the past."
"I'll fight with The Resistance too," younger Danny said.
"No way, dude! You're needed at home!" Tucker said.
"Tucker's right," future Danny said. "You three have to stay safe. If any of you die, think about how that will rewrite the future. There wouldn't be Vanessa, or Tara and Megan."
"Oh, man. That'll mess up the whole timeline," younger Danny said.
"To say the very least."
"I'm on board with this plan," younger Sam said.
"Same here," Tucker said.
"I promise I'll protect Tara, Megan, and Vanessa with everything I've got," younger Danny said. "Count me in."
xxxxxxxxx
In the future, later that evening…
Future Sam knelt in front of the cabinet underneath the sink. She tossed various items out of it—a hair dryer, extra shaving cream, small boxes of soap.
"No, no, no! This can't be happening. Where did I put it?" she mumbled.
On the other side of the closed bathroom door, a single lamp illuminated the bedroom in almost a yellow color.
Danny, who was in his pajamas and on top of their bed, looked towards the bathroom.
"I think that went well," he said.
"Me too," he could hear her say.
"I'm glad they said yes to the idea. I don't know where we could've sent the girls if they didn't agree."
Clank! "Yeah, we don't have much family outside of the U.S."
"I think we should leave soon, though," he continued. "I'll make arrangements at my work so that I can be gone for a while. I'll also call the girls' schools."
Sam's gray pajama pants and black underwear dropped to the floor, and she walked towards the toilet.
"Thanks, Danny."
"I'll grab as many weapons as I can get for The Resistance. We could use our home as a base for them."
Silence in the bathroom.
"I'm not going to tell anyone at work what's going on in the ghost zone. I don't want to start a panic. Right, Sam?"
No answer.
"…Sam? What do you think?"
Still no answer came from the bathroom. Danny sat up on the bed.
"Sam? Are you okay in there?…Sam! Say something please?"
Finally, Sam opened the door. Her eyes were wide.
She shut the door and leaned against it. Her arms crossed her stomach.
"Sam? Are you okay?"
"This can't be happening. Not now, not like this…" she whispered.
"Sam, you're scaring me. What's going on?"
Sam gulped.
"Danny, I wasn't feeling well all day today."
"You weren't feeling well like how? Stomachache? Cold?"
"I'm also late."
"Late? What do you mean by-"
Suddenly, Danny froze. His eyes became as big as Sam's.
She sank to the floor.
"No way…It-it's not possible."
"It is. Danny…I'm pregnant."