Chapter 4
(Author's notes: Been so crazy for me lately. Have been trying to keep pushing through. Will hopefully be able to keep up the pace. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your reviews. I've fallen asleep twice while writing this so I'll get on with it.
I don't own the rights to Danny Phantom or related characters.)
"Time may change me, but I can't face Time." – David Bowe, Changes
Danny went through the rest of the morning as if he were swimming in a nightmare. Drained, emotionally and physically, Sam had eventually drifted back to sleep, which Danny was ambiguous about. He was glad that she wouldn't have to deal with all of the business of the day that had yet to be taken care of, but he didn't want to have to do it without her. She was his center and without her to balance him he felt emotions boiling inside him; ready to explode with a force to shatter the world.
Never the less, he walked numbly into the kitchen and made the calls that had to be made. First he called his boss and, even though he was already late, he let his boss know that he wouldn't be in. Then came, as he knew it would, the awkward conversation as to why he would be late. Danny didn't dwell on the details, but not out of a sense of secrecy, but, rather, because he didn't want to think about them himself. His boss listened silently while Danny gave him the gist of the situation. Not surprisingly he was very understanding, but he didn't offer platitudes or tell Danny sorry he was instead he simply gave Danny a piece of advice.
"Don't go and do anything stupid."
The sentiment was crude but earnest, and Danny loved the man in that moment. As he hung up, Danny found himself choked up with emotion and he made himself some toast. He wasn't hungry, but he needed something normal to counteract the sureality of the morning.
He ate his toast dry and washed it down with cold coffee preparing himself for the next call he had to make. Talking to his boss was bad enough but Daisy was a friend and Sam's assistant, and she wouldn't take the news well. She had known the Fentons and the Mansons through Danny and Sam and she was fond of them both, as they were of her. Mrs. Manson had even called her 'a good influence on Sam'. She was the closest thing to a sister that Sam had ever had. Even closer than she had become with Jazz.
Danny dialed the numbers and let the phone ring and ring. Eventually the machine picked up and Danny sighed with relief.
"Hey... uh... this is Daisy. Leave a message?"
That was Daisy in a nutshell: short, sweet, and not quite sure of herself.
Danny wasn't sure what to say, but he went on as best he could.
"Daisy, its Danny. Sam's not going to be able to open the store today. Not trying to worry you but stuff has been going on. Take the day off but if you get a chance swing by and I'll explain everything. Thanks."
He hung up the phone and prepared himself for the worst call of all. From a compartment in his wallet he pulled a folded piece of paper. He carefully unfolded it and dialed the number written on it. A teenage girl answered on the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Don't talk; just listen. Vlad's back and he is worse than he ever was before. You need to go hide somewhere as far from Amity Park as you can." Tears began to run down his cheeks but he continued, "He's coming after me first, but I'm sure you'll be next."
"Danny what happened?"
"Don't make me explain it, Dani. Just hide."
Tucker sat uncomfortably in a high-backed leather chair, at the end of a long polished oak table, in the largest of the three large conference rooms at City Hall. The other men in the room looked as uncomfortable as he felt but Tucker knew that their discomfort had only just begun. All they knew currently was that the mayor had called an emergency meeting even though it was still quite early in the morning, and Tucker had yet to tell them why.
Tucker pushed himself back from the table and stood up. He looked around the room once more and began.
"First off I would like to thank you all for coming." Someone might have had a remark on the tip of their tongue, but the complete lack of Tucker's usual care-free attitude invited an air of silence, "I realize that it is early and I appreciate you all getting here so quickly."
Tucker began to pace around the room.
"By now everyone in this room should be aware of the incidents leading up to the meteor. The numerous plots and ploys of Vlad Masters, also known as Vlad Plasmius, most of which were foiled by our home town hero Danny Phantom, including his stolen election. Many of these plots were blamed on Danny Phantom and one of my first official acts as mayor was to apologize on behalf of the city for years of mistreatment and mischaracterization.
Vlad used his abilities time after time with destructive results and endangered the citizens of Amity Park with a brazen lack of regard for the damages caused or the effects it had on people. According to the accounts given after Vlad revealed himself, and his subsequent failure to stop the meteor, we had assumed that he had gone into a self exile. We were wrong.
Last night Vlad Masters returned to Amity Park."
Tucker stopped pacing and let the words sink in. Then he hit them with the worst news of all.
"This morning he set fire to the Fenton works building. The Fentons and three other people were inside at the time. He has lost what little humanity that he may have had left, and we can only expect that he has planned something for Amity Park that is as bad or worse than the fate of the Fentons."
As the stunned silence became a cacophony of panicked voices Tucker went back to his seat. He'd have to wait for them to settle down before they could begin to discuss in earnest how they would begin to prepare themselves for Vlad.
Danny was still in the kitchen when Sam walked in. Her eyes were still puffy and red from crying, her hair was tussled form the bed, and she had put on a rust colored smoking jacket that she used as a housecoat. He had bought it for her with his first paycheck. They had been walking through a yard sale out in the countryside and she had lit up like a pinball machine. She'd tossed it around her shoulders, not caring about the layers of dust on it, and spun around. He'd laughed and told her that she looked like Sherlock Holmes.
"I know, right?" Sam had replied.
Then she had turned to him, looking almost comically serious, and held aloft an imaginary pipe.
"It's elementary, my dear Danny." She'd said in her most mysterious tone.
He'd bought the smoking jacket, without any thought about the price, and she wore it the whole way back.
He knew that the memories they had of their parents could never be replaced but the memories that he and Sam made together would help them to ease the pain. He made a silent promise to Sam that they would live life to the fullest, because he never wanted to see her like she was now ever again.
She shuffled over to him, leaned into him, and put her arms around his waist. She seemed so fragile like a china doll. He didn't want to see her like this ever again.
"Can I get a cup of that?" She asked, talking about the coffee. Her voice was thick and horse from tears and sleep.
"It's cold. You want me to warm it up?"
With her head resting on his chest he could feel her reply, "No, I just want something, you know?"
Danny reached behind him into the cabinet to grab a mug. He purposefully passed over her favorite, a mug shaped like a skull, and grabbed a large green one instead. He filled it with coffee around her and walked her to a table. They sat down and Sam took a sip of coffee. She grimaced as the bitterness of the robust brew hit her.
"I'll get the creamer." Danny said starting to get up.
"No!" Sam yelled with an over-inflated sense of panic, and he sat back down, "Don't go anywhere."
Danny saw how terrified she really was, "No Sam, I'm not going anywhere."
"You promise?" She pleaded.
He tenderly put a hand on her cheek. She was shaking like a leaf, "I promise."
Danny reached into his pocket, it wasn't what he thought of as the right place or time, but he wanted Sam to know that he would never leave her; Never. He wanted to put her at ease. He pulled out the ring box.
"Sam I'm never going to go anywhere. I don't ever want us to be apart. There is nothing in this world that I want more. Its something I've been thinking about for awhile." He looked down at the ring box and then back up at Sam, "Sam?"
A knock at the door surprised them both and Danny quickly slipped the box back into his pocket. Together they walked over to the door. Danny kept Sam behind him as he carefully opened the door. On the other side Jazz hunched over panting. She walked into the apartment around Danny and Sam, and Danny shut the door behind her.
"Okay, Danny, I don't even know how many laws I broke getting here, but now I want to know what's going on around here." Jazz demanded.
Sam grabbed Jazz and emotion overwhelmed her again.
"Oh, Jazz!"
Jazz's mind lit up like a railroad caution sign.
"Danny? What's happened?"
Danny sighed, and sat back down, "It's Vlad. He's back, and he burned down Fenton works."
He paused and waited for her to digest this information before continuing, "Mom, Dad, and the Mansons were still inside."
Jazz and Sam collapsed to the floor.
Clockwork, the ghost of Time, looked on his monitor at all of the streams of time alternating from scene to scene just as his own form fluctuated from old to young in random patterns. All of time was to him simply a book to be thumbed through at will. Nothing surprised him and the foot steps heading towards him were no exception. He knew what would happen but he didn't like it. Sometimes he had to sit back and let events unfold, even though he could change them. Clockwork turned to watch his visitor arrive.
Vlad walked into the grand hall of Time more as the owner than a visitor.
"I must say that I love the decor, very post modern," Vlad said as he moved about the room admiring the clock theme like a patron at an art museum.
Clockwork turned back to the screen and spoke to his guest without interest, "Masters, I almost wish this was a surprise, but of course it isn't. You will not have it."
Vlad pulled from the folds of his cloak a book. He flipped through a few pages, and looked back up at Clockwork. The smile on his lips was obscene with thoughts of victory.
"Who would have thought that Danny would keep such a detailed account of his adventures?" Vlad began to explain, though it wasn't necessary to the ghost of Time, because he had practiced the speech on his way through the Ghost Zone, and he loved to hear himself talk, "For all his talk of secrecy and safeguarding the truth, he wrote it all down for anyone who might look for it to find, and what interesting things are recounted herein. Who would have known the disasters that Danny would have caused, Hm? Well, you of course.
To make a long story short, Clockwork, I've read so much about you and you have something that I want."
Perturbed Clockwork turned back to Vlad with a scowl, and addressed him directly, "I do not like to repeat myself! You will not have it."
Vlad tossed Danny's dairy to the side and shrugged.
"Well after everything else since my return, I guess it would be too simple for you to just give it to me." Vlad said and rose into the air, "Then I'll just have to take it!"
Clockwork hit his stopwatch scepter.
"Time out."
Vlad stopped his mad flight midair as if frozen in time. Clockwork simply raised an eyebrow and watched. Nothing happened for awhile and Clockwork turned back to his screen. A fiery blast threw him into a nearby wall. Vlad walked up to him and bent down to dangle one of Clockwork's medallions.
"Its amazing what you can find in a young man's bedroom."
He kicked away Clockwork's scepter and made a quick job of tying Clockwork up with the Fenton's ecto-fishing line. Clockwork might control Time but he was no less powerless against the unbreakable filament than any other ghost.
"Masters," Clockwork pleaded, "This is not the path that you want to take. It leads to nothing good for you."
Vlad smiled, "I'll be the judge of that for myself."
A quick search of the grand hall gave Vlad the prize he had sought. It was a highly dented cylinder of metal with a cup shaped cap. It was a used Fenton thermos. He picked it up and stared at it in admiration.
"All the evil contained in this small container," Vlad mused, "To think that I wouldn't have known. Thank you Danny."
He pulled off the cap and hit the release.
A blinding light projected out of the thermos into the grand hall. Once the light burned out a large figure was left crouching in the middle of the hall half engulfed in smoke. Slowly the figure stood and stretched out its limbs. The figure's cape flapped and its head lit with white fire that almost looked like hair. Its eyes flashed a blood red as they trained on Vlad.
"Been a loooooooong time, Plasmius. Can't say this is a happy reunion." Dark Danny said showing his fangs, "but I have always wondered what it would be like to take you on at full power and after being cooped up in that thermos I could use a little warm up."
Vlad laughed, "I should have known you'd be just as cocky as Danny is."
Dark Danny filed the hall in front of Vlad with doppelgangers, all bearing identical lopsided grins, and in a unified voice that shook the hall with it intensity, replied, "Not cocky; sure."
Before Dark Danny could make a move a wave of fire crashed down onto the floor destroying all of the doppelgangers, and leaving Dark Danny a mess; charred, but alive. Thousands of Vlads dropped from the ceiling and one by one joined with the original. Once back together Vlad walked over and crouched over the fallen villain.
"I told you long ago that you would never beat me." Vlad taunted Dark Danny, "but you'll have your part to play."
(Final thoughts: I want to apologize to everyone for how late this chapter is. I'm glad I was able to get it out by Halloween. It has been crazy lately. I hope that this chapter is worth it. Please enjoy, and I'll try my best to have the next chapter out in the next week.
-D)