Chapter 12:
Danny POV-
So, somehow, I am fighting a war that I don't know about.
It's a relatively disturbing thought, especially considering that it wasn't some figment of Wren's imagination, it had been confirmed three times.
But how?
Needless to say, this question buzzed around in my head for several hours of the night.
'Maybe I should ask them more about their parents…or maybe I should ask someone else. Or maybe there isn't a war at all, maybe this is just some kind of scheme to catch me off guard,' I considered, but, as possible as that was, this seemed way too well-thought-out, even for Vlad.
'The alien race idea is sounding better and better,' I shook my head rolling over again.
'I need a snack,' I decided, getting out of bed to go to the kitchen. I looked down both sides of the hallway before turning invisible and phasing through the floor. I became visible again in the kitchen, setting my feet down on the cold tile floor and getting a poptart out of the pantry. Instead of rattling the plastic of the poptart, I easily phased the pastry out and put in on a plate.
I had just finished breaking all the crust off of my poptart when I heard a squeak on the stairs. Not a minute later, Wren wandered into the kitchen.
She was startled when she saw me seated in the dark.
"Couldn't sleep?" I guessed and she nodded, pulling a poptart out for herself.
She quickly ripped open the metallic plastic before putting the poptart on the plate and removing the edges, and then, eating the edges before the poptart itself, which she broke in half, and in half again.
Exactly the same way I eat my poptarts, which I found funny because Jazz and Sam had always thought it was weird. I finished my crust and broke the fruit filled part in half, and then took the half and divided it into a forth, eating that part first.
I looked at the clock on the oven. The glowing red numbers read that it was 6:00 in the morning, and, on cue I heard my parents and Eli get up to make breakfast.
My mom flipped on the light and jumped when she saw Wren and I enjoying our poptarts.
"Well, you two are certainly up early," she pointed out scooping coffee into the percolator.
"Couldn't sleep," we answered at the same time, and I yawned as if for emphasis. My mom nodded as the coffee machine gurgled loudly and coffee began to pour into the pot. My dad and Eli came in next.
My dad took out the bag of mini powdered doughnuts from the cabinet and grabbed four for himself and two for Eli.
My mom poured my dad and herself some coffee and sat at the other end of the table.
"Danny Phantom was in my room last night!" Eli exclaimed joyfully, his mouth full of powdered doughnuts. My eyes widened.
'Shit!'
Wren POV-
"Danny Phantom was in my room last night!" Eli told us, powder all over his face and hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what almost looked like fear on my dad's face, the kind of look of fear you get when you go into class and realize that you had homework you didn't do.
"He WHAT?!" my grandparents exclaimed in unison.
"I can't believe that awful ghost was in our home! Didn't you set the ghost shield last night?!" my grandma exclaimed looking at my grandpa who clearly didn't remember if he had set the ghost shield. But I found her reaction weird. In the future, my grandparents and Danny Phantom are allies. What could have happened to make them go from hating him to working with him?
"He knew my name too," Eli added cheerfully. Now that was weird. In the future, of course we know Danny Phantom, but he never calls us by our names, and even more, why would he know our names here?
'Maybe he has talked to my parents in the future,' I thought hopefully.
"I swear, I'm going to rip that ghost apart molecule by molecule!" my grandpa exclaimed, and my dad visibly paled.
"Did he say anything else?" I asked Eli once my grandparents had left the room, yelling about tighter security.
"No," Eli said, a little too quickly.
'Great,' I thought noticing the guilty look on his face, 'Eli let something slip about the future.'
Eli stuffed the rest of the doughnut in his mouth and ran upstairs to brush his teeth, leaving me alone with my dad again.
He seemed to be deep in thought as he stared at the table.
"Why do they hate Danny Phantom so much?" I wondered quietly.
"He's a ghost. They're ghost hunters," my dad stated, a little bitterly.
"But that's not how it's supposed to be…" I thought, realizing a second to late, out loud.
"What?" my dad asked.
"I mean…um….uh…what happened to make them hate him?" I covered quickly. My dad studied me carefully before answering my question.
"He was framed for several things and now they consider him a 'menace to society,'" my dad said, then he stared at me, "How do you guys even know who he is?"
Crap. I'm really not good at lying on the spot.
"I've well…um…heard about him at school since we got here. It seems to me that almost everyone considers him a hero," I lied, managing to smooth out the stutter in my voice.
"Almost everyone, with the exception of my parents, Valerie, and somehow unanimously elected mayor," my dad remarked.
I vaguely knew who Valerie was. But I remember that she had moved out of Amity Park right before the war really began, convinced that Phantom had been the cause, but as far as the mayor went, I wasn't exactly up to date on my Amity Park elected officials history.
"Who's the mayor?" I asked.
My dad scowled in distaste, "Vlad Masters."
I nearly choked to death on my last bite of poptart.
Vlad Masters?!
The same Vlad Masters who becomes dictator and calls in the ghosts to take over the world? The same Vlad Masters that everyone in my family hates with a burning passion? The same Vlad Masters that wants my family?
That Vlad Masters?! He was the mayor of Amity Park?!
I tried to keep my rising panic under control but something tells me it still was obvious on my face judging by the look my dad was giving me.
Thankfully, that was the moment Jazz decided to come downstairs, giving me the excuse to run upstairs to finish getting ready for school.
Danny POV-
"What's up with her?" Jazz asked, pointing at Wren who had just run out of the room in panic.
I shook my head, unable to say anything else.
She knows who Vlad Masters is, and is clearly terrified by him. But, again, I didn't know how.
Sure, Vlad Masters is a well-known billionaire, but the only thing that would inspire that kind of fear would be to know what he is actually like, and Wren couldn't know that. Or, at least, Wren shouldn't know that.
But she did.
And now I had even more questions to find the answers to.