Author: A huge thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, and story plus-d. My motivation remains strong with your approval and suggestions and comments help me pick out weaknesses in the story.

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and associated characters do not belong to me. Alas.

Chapter 4

Daniel looked up from the laptop he was idly typing on, hearing three more people come in. He made

three strike marks under the 9PM-10PM slot on the sheet of paper next to him. Business was slowly picking up as the night progressed. No-one had been here until roughly 7.30PM and now there was a growing sample that Daniel was keeping track of. He was watching what machines were played the most often, what ages groups played them, and a number of other factors.

Now that he had (partially) adopted the establishment as his own, he was beginning to seek ways to make it better and draw in more customers. He'd have to go and look through the other arcades nearby and in a few surrounding towns, just to get a feel for what the a "normal" arcade contained, and what an "exceptional" arcade had.

He was already pondering finding a way to introduce food and drink vending machines. He remembered that the presence of such was tempting to those walking along the boardwalks of the beaches of New Jersey. The food and drink would draw them in and the games would make them stay. It was a pretty good set-up, at least in his mind.

When the voices of the three who had just entered drifted over to him his hand tightened slightly on the pencil before he forced it to relax.

They weren't his Sam and Tucker. His Sam and Tucker were dead.

"This new place isn't all that bad," he heard Tucker say.

He tried his best to wrench his attention away from the young geek's voice, but found himself paying attention.

To check for quality, Daniel justified to himself. Tucker always had the best intuition when it came to games (but that didn't keep him from dying because of you).

Daniel saved the management file he had been working on and closed the laptop. He didn't want to be visible by the light of the computer. It would draw attention to him, as Tucker would be interested in the model, and his face would be vaguely familiar to them. He would put off their meeting until he heard something worthwhile that he needed more clarification on.

He sat back in the folding chair and watched the trio as they passed through the ambient light of the different machines, while also keeping an eye on the other customers.

He was distracted from Tucker's dialogue as he heard an extended clink of coins coming out of the change machine. It was going on far too long for them to be simply getting change for whatever bill they had put in. His eyes narrowed and he stood fluidly, walking silently over to the two stooping over the change machine. He stood behind them and watched for a minute before coughing politely as a way to announce his presence.

The two whirled and Daniel gave them an even, calm look that was followed by the most malignant of smirks.
"What are you doing?" he asked loud enough for his voice to carry through the arcade, getting a few people's attention.

Nervousness flashed briefly through one of the potential thief's eyes before giving Daniel and innocent look. "Just collecting our change."

"Mm," he replied. "You do know that the machine takes nothing more than a 20 and I'd hazard to guess you have at least a 50 in that little bag of yours," he told them and leaned in slowly, his movements languid as he reached out for the bag.

One of the thieves, the one without the money, began to bolt, but Daniel's arm moved faster than the thief would have thought, catching him by the back of his shirt before his other hand caught the bag on the back of the other retreating thief's back and yanked backwards, making the thief sprawl on the floor.

He had ignored the other's squirming, his hand placed in just the part where no matter how hard the thief tried to reach, he was unable to get to his wrist.

Daniel let go of the shirt, making the boy stumble, then spin, looking at Daniel with wide eyes.

"Now, I'm going to be nice tonight," he told them calmly, eyes and voice cold, swinging the coin-heavy bag onto his shoulder, "and not report you to the police. I just want you to remember this one thing: I catch you trying to make off with cash from here ever again, I'll break your wrists and then call the police."

Daniel wasn't joking. Those martial arts lessons Vlad had bullied him into taking had their applications.

The two ran away, terrified, and he sighed, running a hand through his hair before turning back to the change machine.

"Now, how did they get around you?" he murmured, ignoring the looks he was receiving. There was a general feeling of a shrug from those who had noticed before activity went back to normal.

Daniel decided, after ten minutes of looking over the machine, that it would be a task best dealt with when there weren't other things to worry about, like other customers. He threw a cloth over the broken change machine and put up an "out-of-order" sign. He stepped back from his handiwork and rubbed the back of his neck.

Well, that had been taken care of easily enough.

He went back to his small "desk" and marked that two more people had entered before moving away and beginning to discreetly make his way around the arcade. Most players hadn't seen him—just heard his voice. Therefore, in their eyes, he could be, and probably was, just another player. He stood for a while near the crane games, keeping track of who came to play them, which ones garnered the most attention, and which prizes were won the most. The shooting games gave him a different demographic, as did the racing ones, puzzle games, games of chance, and physical action-oriented games (such as DDR, Guitar Hero and the like).

It was fascinating.

He slipped back to his observation point and picked up his laptop before sitting on the fold-up chair. It wasn't comfortable by any means, but it kept him awake.

He was about to open the laptop, but hesitated, hearing the Tucker's voice drift his way. Perhaps he had something to say about the selection.

He did.

It left Daniel wavering. There were a few points that Tucker applauded—namely, the variety—but there were also a lot of things that, according to the techno-geek, left a lot to be desired. In other words, the arcade had breadth but not depth. Daniel assumed that most arcades would be content with one or the other, but that wasn't enough for him—living with Vlad had ground the need for perfection into him. Especially because Vlad wouldn't accept anything but perfection, and as Daniel unfortunately had to deal with his living arrangements as they were, he had to adapt.

He sat back in his chair, fingers tapping idly on the still-closed laptop. How would he figure out how to make the arcade better in that sense? Perhaps finding the most popular/best in each category that they carried?

He watched the trio exit and sighed softly. Not yet. He wasn't ready to face them (coward sick stupid).

His ghost sense went off and he scowled. If it was here, there was only one ghost it could possibly be.

"Stupid Technus," he growled softly, darkly.

When the ghost's face began to appear on the screens of the games, he calmly walked over to the master switch and flicked it off, sending the already dim room into total darkness. Daniel conjured a number of ghostly lights and sent them off, making pathways to the exit, which the citizens gladly followed, albeit a little nervously. Once he was sure all the citizens were out of the arcade, he dispelled the energy and walked over to a plug, taking it out of the main power-strip. The cord belonged to one of the more finicky games—one that no-one played. Daniel didn't mind frying it.

He put his hand over it and sent a shock of ghostly energy through it, and pulled, dragging Technus out of the electric grid, noting idly that it was his Technus. The ghost of electronics floated, disoriented, above Daniel, giving him time to create a portal into the Ghost Zone.

Before the ghost could entirely gain his bearings, Daniel shoved him into the Ghost Zone, closing the portal behind him. He sighed and dodged an ectoplasmic beam, vanishing into the darkness and slipping through the machines to the circuit breaker. A soft glow told him his younger self was currently loitering about, but he didn't really care.

He closed his eyes and flicked everything back on all at once.

He heard a small yelp that signified his younger self going partially blind, for even though the light wasn't much, it was different from total darkness.

"Is someone there?" Daniel asked 'nervously'. When he received no answer he let his eyes slowly open, having adjusted to the change in light levels. Daniel walked slowly through the arcade, checking to see if anyone really was there. When he was certain no-one was, he heaved a small sigh, shoulders slumping. He had forgotten how active Amity Park was. Sure, his own home was a hub of ghostly activity, but it seemed just so much more troublesome to deal with the ghosts here.

No-one returned, but he was pretty certain that everything would be fine the next day. There was a perverse human fascination with going places that were potentially hazardous to their health. He had it too, a little, but had also gained a sense of self-preservation that had come from getting smacked around when he did trespass.

Daniel closed up at 1AM to be able to tinker with the change machine. If he couldn't fix it—and he doubted he would be able to—he would, unfortunately, have to call in someone to repair it. That was frustrating because they didn't have a lot of money to spare as of the moment, but if they wanted to make money, they had to be able to change bills into coins.

He grumbled a number of uncomplimentary things about the machine, but eventually did manage to figure out how the two would-be petty thieves had figured out how to get more than they put in. It was ingeniously simple, and Daniel packed it away for later examination. He would never use it, but knowing and recognizing the signs of tampering would probably be a worthwhile skill to have.

He finally left at around 3AM, stretching and sighing.

So.

He had seen his former friends from afar. Had heard their voices. Knew they were alive. But...

It hurt more and less than he had thought it would. More because it made him realize how few friends he had in general, and less because they weren't his friends. They were this world's Danny's friends. He had nothing (well, almost nothing) in common with them anymore.

Daniel huffed softly and a small smile formed on his face, his mind drifting to the few people he had come to consider "friends" in his own time-line.

He wondered idly if he would ever see them again

(nope).

--

Daniel sighed and looked at himself in the mirror. After seeing Danny in his human form, he had decided that they looked alike. However, the years and his different experiences had changed him into someone that resembled Danny Fenton, yet wasn't quite him. If stood next to each other, they would look related, but not the same person.

He had hit his growth spurt and was now a little bit taller than Vlad—he had acquired his father's height, but, thankfully, not his bulk. His eyes were more distant than his younger self's, more cautious, weighing, and, he hated to say it, cruel. The awkward lankiness of his body was almost entirely gone, especially because of the training he put himself through. His voice was deeper, he carried himself differently, he dressed differently than this time's Danny, and with the new hair cut he had gotten yesterday...

Sure, the might look almost exactly alike from behind or when glanced at quickly, but the minute Daniel turned and spoke, the illusion would be broken.

Brothers?

Possibly.

Cousins?

More likely.

He had been astonished at the changes in his ghost form. He had expected that there would be some, as his last name, and therefore a bit of himself, had been altered, but he hadn't expected quite as much as what had happened.

Instead of his normal black/silver motif, he sported a black/red one. It was...eerie. It really made him look more malignant than he truly was (oh really now?), especially with the addition of the cape (black on the outside, red on the inside). His hair had stayed the same color, but instead of only his irises being bright green, his entire eye was filled with the same unearthly green glow. It made him nervous, but he wondered idly why he hadn't expected it—something had taken pains to make sure no-one connected the dots quickly.

Clockwork?

Maybe.

Perhaps it was an effect of whatever he had traveled and fallen through?

Also a possibility.

He couldn't be certain.

In any event, it was...interesting.

He looked at the calendar on his wall and sighed. It had already been a week and he hadn't the foggiest idea of what he was supposed to be doing. He hated not having direction in his life. Sure, it was a welcome break from being connected with and to Vlad, so people didn't act nervous or watch their words around him.

Well, they should watch their words, but he was happy the nervousness was gone.

He grabbed his light jacket and slipped his arms into it before exiting, closing and locking the door automatically behind him.

Did he have any clues as to what he was supposed to be doing?

He slipped his hands into his pockets as he exited the building, absently turning the events of the past week over in his mind, as well as what he had discovered through eavesdropping, research, and conversations.

Ghost attacks were a fairly normal occurrence here, which didn't surprise him—why should it? His life was intertwined with ghosts too much for them not to be drawn to him, no matter where, when, or who he was. Most people appreciated the presence of Danny Phantom, although there were still a number who distrusted, or just plain disliked, the boy.

His parents being among them, Daniel thought, a small smile flickering across his face.

He couldn't really think of this Danny as being him. They were far from the same person. It was always a little odd to see an old photograph of himself walking around and interacting with people, but he figured that the uneasiness and surprise would fade eventually.

He still hadn't met his family, though, which was a very good thing. If one of their ghost-hunting gadgets turned on him, he couldn't use the excuse of being their son to call them off, since, in this world, he wasn't.

It wasn't as if he couldn't lie his way out of it, though. He might not be as good as Vlad, but he was probably good enough to get out of his birth-parents' grasp.

Actually, he hadn't interacted with any of the members of his past on a personal level at all. It was a relief and a source of anxiety. He had to know if he could make them think he was someone other than the former Daniel Fenton, now, apparently, Daniel Masters, but at the same time he was too lazy (cowardly) to seek them out. It would be...odd, anyway.

Vlad had become Mayor only recently, and it was apparently because of something this Danny did. In a way, he wasn't surprised. If he hadn't moved into Vlad's life and had his mother not died, he could easily see Vlad moving here, if only to be closer to the "love of his life".

Daniel would say that it would be better to say money was the love of his life, but when he had told his foster-father that he had been tossed into the Ghost Zone with the Portal's door slammed in his face. Thankfully, he had befriended Frostbite by that point and the Inifimap had gotten him out of the situation rather quickly, much to his Vlad's dismay.

With only a little bit of effort he had managed to gain access to the school system's mainframe, and had looked idly through this self's grades, and had been highly amused. It was as he expected it would be. When given the opportunity, he slacked, and since there was no Vlad on this Danny's case, he wasn't surprised that the grades were lower than his own tended.

He had also been amused to see how much collateral damage his younger self racked up. He was glad he hadn't been living in Amity Park—the taxes must be murder with how much the school budget had to stretch to cover damage costs. Vlad's also probably taking a substantial portion for himself, too, Daniel idly thought to himself.

He felt that he should probably spend a day at Casper High, if only for nostalgia and to get a feel for the current climate that was influencing this self's actions. He'd have to be very careful, though. He didn't think this self could sense half-ghosts, but he needed to be prepared for that possibility.

As well as any of a billion other ones, he sighed to himself. Like not reacting when people call 'Danny!' They don't mean me.

It was slightly depressing.

He had also done a few searches on the current political and economic climates, as well as some recent world and national news, and all of it was depressingly familiar.

He exited his apartment complex, and he decided that he would go pay a...visit...to his old high school the next day. This Friday he had off from both ING and the electronics store...might as well.

The smallest of smirks spasmed across his face before it fell back into the neutral, pleasant expression that was expected.

--

Daniel was having an unholy amount of fun.

This self couldn't sense him either, which made things so much easier for him. Oh, he wasn't petty enough to pull pranks on this self—he had at least that much respect for the teen—but that didn't exempt the rest of the student and teacher population.

It was never anything big. Just little, vicious things that would happen occasionally anyway, just through some bad luck. Or, good luck, depending on whom you spoke to.

Daniel could see that this self suspected that maybe something might be up, but as Daniel was more interested in watching him and his interactions than performing little inane tricks, the concern was pushed aside when Daniel's tricks subsided.

Daniel was quite content to sit with them during lunch and just listen:

"Things have been pretty hard for you of late," Sam said, brows furrowed slightly at how Danny was still nursing a cut on his arm.

('That must've come from him...nothing else takes that long to heal.')

Danny nodded. "It's...frustrating! I don't know where these guys are coming from but they're stronger than anything else! I mean, it's getting to be even more frustrating than the frootloop!"

(Daniel ruthlessly suppressed a snicker.)

Tucker shrugged and put away his PDA in favor for the consumption of a sloppy joe. "Still, you're getting stronger, right?"

"See, that's the thing!" Danny half-exclaimed, half-growled. "I don't think I am."

"How can you beat all those guys, then?"

"I dunno...it's like...remember that spider-ghost?"

The two nodded.

"And the armored one?"

Another nod.

"I...I didn't defeat the armored one, and you know it. Someone else did! And none of us ever really saw whomever did it. Then, with the spider ghost...I..." Danny's shoulders slumped, "it wasn't me who released you from the stuff it caught everyone in."

"What?" Sam asked, and frowned.

(Daniel was astonished. Had he ever been this open with his Sam and Tucker?)

"I don't know how it happened," Danny continued, "but all I know is that I was fighting the ghost and suddenly there's a soft glow from behind me and I turn and the stuff had faded entirely, leaving everyone free. I...couldn't have done that. I didn't have any idea how I would have gotten you guys out—I figured that I would deal with that once the spider-ghost was down."

"So who would have released us?" Tucker asked around a mouthful of ground beef.

"That's the thing!" Danny said, exasperated. "I don't know. Plasmius wouldn't."

"Maybe it was a timed thing?" Sam offered.

Danny hesitated.

('He knows that isn't right. He doesn't know how he knows, but he knows that it wasn't timed.')

"Maybe," came the answer after a long pause. "It's just..." Danny sighed. "It's weird. The other thing is that even the ghosts I know seem to change between being stronger and weaker more than usual. The one that really makes me wonder, though, is what happened at that arcade."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when I got there, Technus was already gone. Not in the simple 'became invisible and flew off' thing! He wasn't in the human world anymore." Danny grimaced. "I think there's a new ghost out there, but I can't tell you if it's trying to help me or is just playing with me."

('Both.')

The three looked between each other nervously. New, mysterious ghosts tended to be bad things.:

Conversation gradually turned away from ghosts to more mundane things like schoolwork, but Daniel never moved from his seat. This self was interesting, was different.

That he also missed his friends and the kind of easy banter that they were having was also what drove him to stay where he was, but he would never admit that to himself.

The end of the period bell rung and Daniel stayed where he was, watching Danny and his friends meander off sullenly to their next class period. He waited until the cafeteria was completely empty before standing, allowing a small sigh to escape his lips, remaining invisible.

Might as well stay for the rest of the day, he thought and the corners of his mouth twitched up in a brief smile. He didn't have to be at work for a while, afterall...

--

School culture in Amity Park was much different than the one at his home, but Daniel had expected no less. Afterall, there tended to be a significant difference between a private school and a public school, and it happened to be more than just the price tag. It probably also had something to do with the change of region. Sure, they weren't terribly far away, but it was enough for there to be a different local cultural climate.

Daniel sat on top of the school and watched the various sports teams practice, thinking. Here, he was still very much the social outcast. He still had only two real friends—Sam and Tucker—but he had gotten closer to Valerie than he had ever managed to. It was...interesting.

He still had issues with the jocks, but his crush of Paulina had faltered to the point that even this self was realizing how much he liked Sam.

He had never really let anyone as close as he had let Sam and Tucker since...

He heaved himself to his feet and sighed. He wasn't an adult—well, legally he was, but that was beside the point. He was too young to think these kinds of things petty. He supposed it was only because he was an observer—he was pretty certain that if he was caught up in the drama himself that it would be a completely different story. Daniel watched for a moment longer before a small, faint, sad smile formed on his face.

No!

The smile faded quickly to be replaced by a scowl as he turned and flickered into invisibility. Suddenly being forced to live in the past made ignoring it ten times harder than it had any right to be. He jumped off the building and into the sky, taking off quickly, letting the wind whistle through his ears while he kept his invisibility wrapped around him.

He landed in the back of the arcade and leaned against the wall, growling softly to himself. This wasn't his past. His past couldn't be changed.

This wasn't his past.

These people wouldn't, couldn't, know him. Daniel Masters didn't exist here. He was a fabrication from an alternate future brought here to help accomplish something.

He took a number of deep breaths, trying to exert his steely self-control again. Couldn't give in, couldn't give in, couldn't give in.

He didn't want to sink in that hole again. Didn't want to become that person again. He gripped his chest, allowing a pained look to flicker across his face, and he glanced briefly at his wrists before he shook himself physically.

He wasn't that weak, pathetic, boy anymore (it's not good to lie to yourself, Danny).

He was Daniel Masters.

He was slowly becoming a presence in the economic world in his home time-line, and he was living alone and helping run a business in this one. He wasn't like that anymore.

His scowl smoothed over and he walked around the building, slipping in the side entrance where the tiny office that held the administrative matters of the small shop were conducted.

Mark looked up when Daniel entered and gave him a wry smile as he waved the papers that Daniel had left on his desk before leaving the night before as Daniel sat.

"I don't know how you do it," he was told.

Daniel laughed and gave his employer an easy smile. "It's not that hard," he replied, leaning back in the chair he was situated in.

"I'm impressed anyway," Mark replied, flipping through the sheets that Daniel had created for him. "These are really professional-grade and hella easy to read."

"Again, I had some practice with my father's businesses..."

Admittedly, the numbers had been much bigger, but it was the same in principle, Daniel thought idly. "We're not making money, but we aren't losing it either," Daniel said. "Think I can get you to go a little into debt to buy a snack machine and a soda one?"

Mark looked pensive. "Why would you want those?"

"So that instead of going down the street to the 7-11 they could get something here, and so probably spend more time and money here."

Mark thought and Daniel waited patiently for his answer.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do," the man said after a long moment. "Just have to clear everything with HQ first—they won't let us do anything unless they run it through miles of red-tape."

Daniel snickered slightly. He knew exactly how the system worked and found it just as frustrating. Now he would have experienced it from both the manager's perspective and one of the person running the small business. He might even know a few ways that might expedite the acquisition of the vending machines that didn't even involve large sums of money.

"I'll figure out how much everything will cost and then I'll get back to you on it. By the way, one of the machines died."

"Oh? Which one?"

Daniel shrugged. "Not an important one. For as long as I've been observing no-one's even touched it, and that was even before it stopped working."

"Mm. I'll have to have someone take a look at it. Maybe we can salvage it..."

"Or we can just scrap it and buy a new one. It would probably cost the same."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Who runs this place?"

Daniel flushed slightly and looked away. "Sorry."

The man laughed and put a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Relax, kid. Everything that you're saying is making sense. I just find it funny that you've taken such an interest even though it's just a part-time thing for you."

Daniel fidgeted slightly. "It's more like a real job than anything else I've ever had. So, I want to see it succeed..."

Mark smiled kindly and patted Daniel's shoulder before making a shooing motion. "You've worked hard without any real breaks. Relax today. Even if you just sleep until tomorrow morning. You look like you need the rest."

Daniel shrugged and returned the smile with an amused one of his own, even if it did seem a little uneasy. "Fine. Don't blame me when your family gets pissed at you for staying out too late."

Mark laughed as Daniel stood. Daniel saw the man idly shake his head in amusement as he, Daniel, walked out the door, closing the flimsy piece of reinforced aluminum behind him.

An entire day off, huh? Even at home that was a rare occurrence. He supposed he should relish the experience.

Daniel walked idly along the street, straightening his jacket absently. Perhaps he would do as Mark suggested and just pass out until he had to get up for his work at ING the next morning.

Or maybe he would be unlucky and end up caught up in a battle between Danny Phantom and Skulker. Either worked.

Not.

Daniel ended up catching his younger self while being simultaneously slammed into a wall. It made him voice a yelp of pain, before he scowled at Skulker.

"Just hand the child over, human, and no-one gets hurt," the hunter told him, landing on the ground, jet-pack being pulled into the armored suit.

Daniel looked at the halfa in his arms and his eyes widened when, after a brief struggle to retain consciousness, the boy passed out, reverting to his human half.

Well, this will be an interesting conversation later.

Daniel placed Danny down and knelt in front of him, protecting the boy with his body, one hand resting flat against the pavement. A wicked smile slowly bloomed on his face, eyes narrowing almost maliciously. "You should watch yourself before threatening me."

"What?"

It was so satisfying to see the unsuspecting ghost drop into the portal Daniel had created at his feet. He closed it quickly behind the mechanical creature and sighed, turning to look at his injured, unconscious, younger self. There was the briefest of debates in his head before he turned entirely and slipped his hands beneath the teen's neck and knees, picking him up effortlessly.

Right now, Danny needed to recover, and as Daniel didn't want to meet his family quite yet, that meant he would be temporarily hosting this younger self.

Daniel sighed and vanished, invisibility slipping over him as he took to the sky to complete the final leg of his journey home.