Chapter 4: Rescue
A few minutes later a crowd had gathered to watch the two Danny Phantoms fight a mechanical ghost. The crowd was so thick, nobody noticed the rip in the time/space continuum and a tall, muscular black-haired man with blue eyes coming out.
The man looked around at the crowd and then up to see what everyone was watching. He sighed and crossed his arms as if someone was in trouble, and not the life-threatening kind
Of course, the man smirked when he heard one of the Danny's shouting out suggested attacks earning a 'I/He can do that?' look from both half-ghost and full ghost
The newcomer smiled as the halfa who was shouting out suggestions figured that his partner hadn't gone through his 'ghost growth spurt' yet
Suddenly, the real Danny Phantom was knocked out of the battle as he went flying
"NO!" a group of voices yelled
The newcomer sighed when he saw a 10 year old ghost girl looking between where Danny had gone flying and D.J. was looking stumped
"I'm going…" the man started to whisper but then froze as a certain ghost who deals with time clicked his staff in his lair allowing the man some memories back
The man stopped and watched to see what D.J. would do facing a tougher ghost than what he had been previously allowed
After all, the grounding came from D.J. attempting to fight the Fright Knight after his father had specifically forbade him from doing it only to have his father come to his aid
Realization that he was about to fight something that wasn't the Box Ghost, Boxed Lunch, or Ecto-pusses, D.J. momentarily froze. Then he realized that this was his chance. Since nobody TECHNICALLY knew him here, he could fight without having to prove himself.
He just had to prove to himself that he could do this. After all, his father wasn't here (as far as he knew) and his little sister…well…D.J. wouldn't even THINK of putting Lily in this situation
"Don't you DARE come near me!" D.J. told Skulker
"Is that a threat whelp?" Skulker asked
D.J. shot an ice beam from his palm stopping up Skulker's ecto-blaster and then a few ecto-blasts at the hunter.
"Hey look! Is that Ember McClain?" D.J. asked Skulker
"Huh?" Skulker asked as he turned so he could wave at his girlfriend, D.J, managed in a few punches.
The newcomer ran over to Team Phantom who was joined by Danny who had decided to back off a bit to see just what his future son was capable of. And daughter as Lily had flown up to give her brother a hand
"Tucker. Can I borrow one of your P.?" the newcomer asked
"Depends. Who are you?" Tucker asked looking the guy over
"In the eighth grade when Sam went to go defend Carol from Paulina, you switched her veggie burger with a REAL beef burger" the man said. "The P.D.A. QUICKLY"
Tucker, immediately recognizing the story, handed over the P.D.A. and RAN as Sam realized what was going on.
"YOU DID WHAT?"
"Vicious" Danny praised his older self as Sam chased after Tucker
"Desperate times call for desperate measures which you will learn soon enough" Daniel (older Danny) said as he typed something into the P.D.A.
Just before D.J pulled out a Fenton thermos, Skulker's P.D.A. went off
"Go to Africa and study the mating rituals of the purple-backed gorilla?" Skulker asked before looking down and seeing the two Dannys waving at him "oh crud"
He flew off
D.J. and Lily looked down and saw Tucker running very quickly from a very pissed off Sam. They gulped at the sight of the man standing next to Danny Phantom looking none too happy with them.
"Sam. Don't worry about it. What Tucker didn't know was that I had swiped his burger out with a veggie one when he was flirting with Star." Daniel called over
"You WHAT?" Tucker exclaimed
Danny looked up at his taller future self confused
"You wanna deal with Sam murdering Tucker?" Daniel asked
"Not really" Danny said.
"Okay. Nothing to see here" Daniel said to the crowd. "Beat it!"
"And why should we?" Maddie asked as she stepped forward with Jack, both holding a bazooka.
Jazz Fenton ran forward and tried to talk her parents out of attacking the three ghosts
"TIME OUT!" Daniel yelled
Everyone froze. Daniel then touched Team Phantom and his kids on the shoulders so that they could
"SWEET!" Tucker said realizing what Future Danny had done. "How'd you do that?"
"I'm more interested in the when I learn this" Danny said as Jazz blinked confused
"Nice try" Daniel said
"What is going on?" Jazz asked
"In a minute Jazz" Daniel said before giving his kids a look "Now…what were you two THINKING?"
"That technically the ghost portal was in the house so the Ghost Zone wasn't forbidden territory?" D.J. suggested
"You KNOW you and your sister aren't allowed in there without supervision" Daniel lectured before sighing as he knelt down to his son's level. "D.J. I know that despite everything I've told you, you still feel that you HAVE to be me. But I still remember how stressed out I was. I don't want that for you. I want you to have a normal life… well… as normal as the life of the son of an international superhero can get. And that means no going after ghosts with a difficulty level greater than 4"
"I thought the rule was two" D.J. said
"Not after what I just saw" Daniel said proudly
Seeing the pride in his father's eyes made D.J. smile and hug his father
"But you and your sister are still grounded for two weeks. Extra in your case" Daniel added
"WHAT?" Lily exclaimed
"Lilith. You KNEW your brother was grounded. You shouldn't have even SUGGESTED this little trip" Daniel said before turning to D.J. "And you should have known better than to agree with your sister. I can't tell you the number of times I ignored your Aunt and the number of times she's ignored me"
Daniel then turned a glare on his now younger sister
"Like when I tell her to NEVER use the Fenton thermos in my presence because she has a tendency to use it on me letting the ghost get off Scott free"
"You're my little brother. I'm not SUPPOSED to listen to you" Jazz told him immediately recognizing him for who he is
"There you have it D.J." Daniel said "Right from your Aunt's mouth"
"Way to go Aunt Jazz" Lily said sarcastically
"So now what?" Sam asked
"I'll have Clockwork put these memories on hold until the three of us return home" Daniel told Sam as he placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered "Don't give up on me. I realized my feelings not long after the Technus and Valerie incident, I'll just be too scared to act on it."
Sam smile at the fact that she was going to be Danny's.
"What about me?" Tucker asked like a kid at Christmas. "What happens to me?"
Daniel winked at his younger self before signing sadly.
"I haven't seen you since the accident that killed you Tucker." Daniel sighed.
D.J. and Lily looked at each other confused
"What? I STILL die?" Tucker gasped horrified
"Choked on a piece of ham" Daniel said trying so hard not to laugh
Sam and Danny realized what Danny's older self was doing and tried so hard to hide in the laughs.
"Wait a minute!" Tucker realized seeing the humored glint in Daniel's eyes. "Danny!"
"I HAD to do it Tucker" Daniel laughed. "You're not as easy to get worked up anymore and I remembered how you reacted during our first time travel adventure and…it was too tempting"
"Though, I'm sure not as tempting as THAT" Danny said pointing
Daniel and the others turned and saw that Vlad was still frozen in time
"This is why we share the same mind Danny" Daniel said. "But you guys are going to have to move him. If I touch him, he's going to be able to move freely."
A few minutes later (had time not been stopped),
After a bit of 'Revenge on Vlad' Daniel in ghost form cut a hole in the Time/Space Continuum
"In" he told the kids
"Thanks for the fun and the advice" D.J. said as Lily hugged the human Danny and Sam
"So no Dark Dan?" Danny asked his future self.
"No Dark Dan." Daniel confirmed. "But don't stop doing what you're doing. It's as you said after you used the wail on him. 'The Future isn't set in stone'"
The time travelers vanished with Daniel being heard shouting 'Time in' after Sam, Jazz, and Tucker went to where they had been standing and Danny hung back in the crowd pretending that he didn't know his parents
SPLASH
The confused citizens of Amity turned and saw their esteemed mayor in the fountain wearing a pink tutu, a Jack Fenton Jumpsuit, and white water wings with little ghosts on them
Revenge was sweet.
0000
A few weeks later 17 years into the future,
D.J. Fenton was looking through a photo album when he heard a knock on his door
"C'mon in" he said
"Your first day of freedom and you're reading?" Daniel asked his son "You're becoming your Aunt"
"Don't worry Dad" D.J said with a smirk before sighing. "It's a photo album"
Daniel walked into his son's room and sat down on the bed next to his son and saw a picture of him, Sam, and Tucker after Danny had saved the entire world from annihilation
"I still can't believe how GEEKY you three were back then" D.J. told his father.
"It was the best way to hide the secret" Daniel said with a shrug "But then came the Disasteroid incident and your aunt blabbed after the Fenton Jet crashed. She thought I had been in it"
"Dad? Will I ever have to save the world like you did?"
"I don't know Dj." Daniel confirmed. "I can just stop and restart time. I can't rewind or fast forward. But I do know that when you're sixteen you'll be able to copy other ghosts' abilities like I did. Just….for the time being, just focus on developing your powers. Don't worry about what others think you should do"
"So…if I want, I can take Francisca out?" D.J. asked
"It's the only way to know if she likes you for you or if she likes you for me" Daniel said with a smile. "And maybe…prove your mother wrong for once"
"I better not be hearing any blasphemous talk about me being wrong" a black haired woman with violet eyes said leaning into the room from the doorway
"Of course not Sam. Why would I ever say something like that?" Daniel asked innocently
"C'mon you two. It's dinner time" Sam said
"Coming Mom" D.J. said putting down the album
The End