Chapter 10: The other side! (Part 1)
Neighter the 38-years old Danny Fenton, nor his 'teenager-ghost-doppelganger' expected this. Both did not expect this... especially not the younger one. Actually the week started very nice...
Several days ago, 14 years old Danny Fenton from Amity Park, Illinois woke up for the first time in weeks when his alarm-clock starts to beep and not by his ghost-breath. It was actually a quiet time since the incident with Freakshow and the Reality Gauntlet several weeks ago in which Danny got exposed and they had to flee across the country. Now Danny had some time to recover and to relax...
Beeing a 'Halfa' (a half-human-half-ghost-hybrid) was not always fun. But Danny trained hard to get his ghost powers under control and to hide them from his ghost-hunting parents. He knew they would accept him. He knew it from the incident. But it was just not the right time.
Danny opened his curtains to let the sun in. It was a wonderful summer morning in Amity Park. Calm, peaceful and much to Danny's pleasure: It was ghost-hunting free. After thier cross-country trip was ceased, Danny and his friends Tucker and Sam decided to have a nice summer here in town. But they had no concrete plans for today. While Danny put on his clouthes he checked his cell-phone. Sam suggested to go to the mall and Tucker to go to the cinema... Danny walked down the stairs to get to the kitchen. He could smell fresh coffee. So his parents would be in the kitchen now. Much to his surprise he found them both sleeping on the table...
"Good mor... ehm..." Danny was confused. His parents were sitting on thier regular chairs but they where laying on the kitchen table, thier heads placed on thier arms, sleeping peacefully. Danny's sister Jazz mentioned his appearance and immediately hissed on him to be quiet. "... Jazz, what's going on?"
"Psst... Danny, they were awake all night! Give them a few minutes..." Jazz told quietly and handed him a bottle of orange-juice to have breakfast in the living-room.
Both could hear thier father snore in the kitchen. Sometimes asking themselfs how thier mother was able to endure this sound. They also talked about the recent events and thier plans. Danny could talk openly with Jazz as she was the only one, next to Tucker and Sam, who knew about his secret identity as Danny Phantom...
"I have no clue when I had a peaceful night for the last time!" Danny said relieved. "I haven't sleep so good for a long time. It's pretty quiet."
"I am glad for you!" Jazz said. "Sometimes I wish our parents could relax for just one day... You know that Dad even talks about ghosts when he sleeps..."
"Yeah... What did they did all night?" Danny asked a bit worried. By now he learned not to ask anymore. There was nothing weird about his parents that could shock him anymore.
"When I came down, they just left the lab, sat down at the table and fell asleep quickly. Whatever they did I think it bother's them!"
Danny just nooded. He thought about going down to the lab and just look. Maybe it was nothing serious. But maybe it was something that could cause trouble? Trouble he would have to handle?! It would not be the first time.
The two siblings went down to the lab. The Fenton's lab was a huge room with reinforced walls and ceilling. It was deeper than any other basement in the neigbourhood. According to thier parents, the lab was originally an air-raid shelter. The previous owner extended the original basement and converted it into an bomb-prove shelter by the end of World-War II. Later it became a simple wine cellar. But when thier parents bought the house, before Danny and Jazz were born, they converted the former air-raid shelter/ wine-cellar into thier lab. Not the only peculiarity about thier home. The huge 'chamber' over thier actuall roof that contained the 'Emergency Ops Centre' and the 'Fenton blimp' was often a reason for the neigbours to complain. Not only that it was big and ugly, beeing an eyesore for the neigbourhood and blocking the sun. It was so big, some people were just waiting for it to collapse and crumble the house, and propably the surrounding houses, too. Danny and his sister never asked thier parents how they got the permission to build it. If they even had a permission...
Some people called the Fenton's house a big dangerous ticking-time-bomb with dangerous booby-traps and other anomalys people didn't even dare to imagine. Danny and Jazz new that behind every picture on the wall and under every floor board was a weapon hidden. Danny knew that he had to be careful and always watch his step, especially when he was in ghost-form. But now they were just looking for thier parents reason to stay awake all night.
So far the lab looked as usual. The same mess as always. Luckily the portal to the ghost zone was closed and sealed. So his father did not let a ghost to thier world again acidentally. When Danny checked the table he found something...
"What is that?" Jazz asked when she joined him. "Photos?"
"Yeah, I found them here..." Danny told. But that were not standard photos. They looked like they were printed with thier home-printer. Most of them were pretty blurred. But some looked more clearly. "...gosh... Jazz, that's the ghost-zone!"
"The ghost-zone?!" now Jazz was upset, too.
Both checked the photos. That were not the first pictures of the ghost-zone thier parents got. But they were never as detailed as now. Danny was able to recognize some familiar places... But than it became really weird. There were other pictures... Pictures that obviously were taken with the same device, as the ones from the ghost-zone. But instead they saw a person on it. First they thougt that it was a ghost from the ghost-zone, but it was definetely a human. Many of them from a different angle. But it was always the same man. Both guessed him around 50. Black hair... some pictures were blurred but others looked normal. It was a man in a house, doing normal things like reading a book or having dinner with another person. The picture was too blurred to recognize the woman. But Danny had a weird feeling about that man... It felt like... gosh...
"Jazz... I think that's me?!" Danny realized shocked.
"You?!" Jazz took the photo to look on it. And than she saw it, too. "Oh... my... gosh... This is really you!"
"And this is a picture they got from the ghost-zone... This is not good!"
Danny was pretty scared. His parents somehow got a picture of an adult himself from the ghost-zone. What if they remember thier capture by Freakshow? What if the Reality Gauntlet did not fully erased thier memories? There was only one way to figure out...
"MOM! DAD! WAKE UP!" Danny yelled when he stormed back to the kitchen. His parents both shrieked when they woke up and Danny smashed the picture on the table in front of them. "WHAT IS THAT?"
"Oh,... This... is..." Jack Fenton stammered, obviously thinking about his answer before talking. And that was really really uncommon for him. "Ehm... Nothing... Just work..."
"Is that me?" Danny asked directly. "Please tell me the truth... I found the photos down in the lab. And why I am so old on that pictures?..."
Maddie and Jack Fenton looked on each other. They knew that they had to confess everything to Danny sooner or later. First they wanted to check everything before and talk to him after a few more hours of research. But now that he figured out by himself they had to tell him. Not that he believes that they have bad intentions or else.
"Okay! Sit down, please! You too, Jazz!" Maddie said. She decided to talk. And her kids were glad that she did it, because thier father would make everything much weirder than it already was. "You know that we used the 'Fenton-drone' to study the ghost-zone. We send it in again a few days ago and it regulary send us this pictures. But... two days ago... something weird happened."
"What?" Danny was really afraid now. Was this the moment, his parents confess to him that they know about his ghost-powers? And has he to confess now that he lied to them, altered thier memories and did some other not really honorable things?
"The 'Fenton-drone' somehow got struck at one of these doors..." Jack continued.
"Doors?" Jazz asked. She and Danny knew that the 'doors' in the ghost-zone's void led to other realms.
"Something is different... and something happened... we still don't know what it is. But... we never ever had an annomally like that..." Maddie explained her expression became worried. And that was uncommon for her, too. "It could be a wormhole? But whatever it is, the drone is strucked there and we created a connection to this other realm. First we thought that the drone just found another ghost-portal and that the man... you see on this photo... is just some guy. But... after watching him a little bit we figured out that he is... well... He is you, Danny!"
Danny became pale. So that it now! "Are you... sure?"
"Yes, we don't know why but... somehow we think that your older-yours is... he seems to have a connection the the ghost-zone. It's like... like... your future self is somehow ghost-affected?"
Danny was shocked. But according to his mother's words, she had no clue that he was Phantom. For now! "What do you mean with that?"
"I don't know! I don't even know how we did that? Or what time that is. It could be 20 years from now, or 30 years... But what ever it is, your future self seems to have a connection to the ghost-zone?"
"Danny... That accident you had several months ago, down in the lab... what happened?" Jack asked.
Danny became upset again... He told them often that it was not as bad as it sound. "That was just a electric shock... not that bad. It was a bit painful but that was nothing serious."
That was a lie! In truth Danny never ever felt such a pain. Sam and Tucker, who witnessed everything told him later that Danny was litteraly 'ripped into pieces' and was just a swarming cloud of little particles for a minute or two. But both of them were too scared to tell his parents the truth back then and told his parents the same lie Danny told them.
His parents than start to tell him more about the 'wormhole' to the 'future' and that his 'future self' seems to be connected to the ghost-zone. And that they needed more information...
"NO! Mom, Dad... sorry, but I don't like this! You want to spy out my future self?!" Danny asked shocked. His parents just nooded. "NEVER EVER! This is my life! I don't spy after you, too. So please forget it!"
That were pretty harsh words. Even for Danny. But he had to. He couldn't risk that his parents figure out about him beeing Phantom by spying out his future self. Sure he wanted to tell them some day... maybe... but not now... and not this way. Danny stormed out and went to his room. He had to tell Sam and Tucker about this. Jazz, thanks god that she was there, was aware of Danny's situation, too and would help him to keep his parents from syping him out.
Danny calmed down soon. And Jazz helped to convince his parents that Danny is just upset because they break into his privacy. Danny didn't want to bother himself with this. But he agreed that he was a bit curiou about his future. Will he be an astronaut? Does he look good? That blurred photo was suddenly not enough for him! After another long conversation with his friends and his sister, he decided to check down in the lab that his parents really kept thier words and do not spy out his 'future self'. After changing into his ghost form and turning invisible, he flew down into the lab carefully. He just put his head threw the celling to look down. His parents turned off the monitors and talked about getting the drone back and about the wormhole that hopefully closes by itself. Danny was relieved and flew upstairs again to tell the others.
But in truth his parents didn't dare to stop thier research. They respected Danny's privacy, no doubt. But they were worried why his future self seems to be 'ectoplasmic-affected'. Is thier work down in the lab affecting them upstairs somehow? Should they wear jumpsuits, too? Will Danny be in trouble because of his connection to the ghost-zone? There were so many questions and the only way to find answers was to spy out thier future-son. Even if it meaned to break into his privacy...
The following two days both spend a lot of time with 'observing' thier son in the 'future'. A future that looked a lot like the early 90s (according to the furniture and the electronic devices in the house). Future Danny seemed to be between 45 and 50 years old. He never left the house for work, instead he had to check his blood-pressure three times per day and took medicine. So he was obviously sick. Much to thier joy, he was married! They guessed the woman to be Sam! But of course she looked pretty different, too. And he had kids. They saw two kids bedrooms with four beds in total. So he had four kids. There was never a real indication for a date. But future Danny mentioned Rockford. That was not far from Amity Park, so they guessed Danny neighter moved to Rockford or a town near it... He never mentioned them. They did not know why. But suddenly, something weird happened...
It was evening (in thier realm) when Danny went upstairs and Sam turned on the TV... All devices in thier lab start to beep immediately, like she did not switch on the TV but somehow affected the drone. It stopped when she turned the TV, off. The next morning, both watched them having breakfast. By now they figured out that Danny was sick, married to Sam, had four kids and financial problems. No word about ghosts, the ghost-zone, ghost-hunting or anything else. Sam asked Danny to look after the TV, because it was flickering...
Some time later, Danny came down the lab alone and surprised his parents doing what he probited them: Spying out his future self!
"HEY!" Danny yelled. His surprised parents dropped thier box with popcorn. "You promised to me, to leave him... ehm... me alone!"
"Aww... We are sorry, Danny! But we..." his mother tried to defend but Danny was too upset.
"MOM, I DON'T SPY YOU OUT, TOO!" Danny screamed. It was honestly a lie, because he used his ghost powers sometimes to spy them out, to figure out ways to use his ghost powers in the house without activating any weapons or traps. But his secret was in danger. "I thought you trust me..."
"We only want to know why you are sick in the future!" his father interfered.
Danny and his parents start to argue. After a minute Sam, Tucker and Jazz came down and joined the fight. So nobody mentioned 'future-Danny' turning on the TV again to check it...
All alarms turned on immediately again. Something was happening again. The sensors start to freak out. In the moment, 'future Danny' turned on the TV, neighter the drone, nor the wormhole, nor something else got crazy. But the Fentons were too deep in thier fight. Danny stormed out of the lab, his parents followed him upstairs. So they first did not mention that something was going on. They did not mention that the 'wormhole' to the future start to grow and got bigger, manifesting in a vortex right over the TV of 'future Danny' and returned to the living-room to check everything.
"Look,... that's you..." Sam suddenly yelled and they stopped fighting. Danny ran back downstairs to see it.
"Sam?!" the older Danny asked in his realm. Now they realized that they breaked threw completely and were shocked. The open portal to the ghost zone slowly turned into a 'window' to the other realm, too. Now they not only saw him on the monitor of the computer, they saw him in the ghost-portal, too. It looked like they could just walk over and greet him.
"Hey, he can hear us..." Tucker said shocked. Adult Danny was shocked, too.
"Who is there?" adult Danny yelled. He looked afraid and shocked to hear voices. His family in the 'past' realized that they went too far and became upset. Especially when teenager Danny saw his adult version suddenly having his 'ghost-breath' activated. Propably because there was now a gate to the ghost-zone in his living-room. But it became worse. "What the hell is going on here?"
The situation was going to escallate. Danny looked for a button to turn it off. His parents came back... they continued fighting. All while, there was a wortex forming in 'future Danny's' living-room. A picture of a old lady (Sam's granny) was suddenly thrown into the lab. Followed by a picture of four kids (Danny's and Sam's children). And adult Danny was finally able to see threw the portal and he was able to see them all...
When they mentioned that adult Danny was able to see and to hear them they were shocked.
"No... NO THAT IS NOT TRUE..." adult Danny yelled shocked. Everyone could hear that he was shocked, horrified and overwhelmed by this situation. Danny could see in his adult face that he was not used to this situation, so his adult version was visible shocked. "You... you are not real... no you..."
But instead of turning it off his father worsened everything by 'greeting' adult Danny. And adult Danny's reaction was not as expected. He screamed in horror and hold his chest while he stumbled backwards over the coffee-table and faded away... all while thier monitors and computers caught fire...
The fire in the lab was quickly extinguished with a fire-extinguisher but more shocking was the fact that future Danny propably got an heart-attack after seeing them. After that Danny forced his parents upstairs and prohibited them to spy him out anymore...
But the incident made everyone curious: What happened to future Danny? Is he dead? Did he have an heart-attack? Why he was so scared? Did he really thought that he sees ghost?
Danny's parents had thier own theory: They are already dead at that time? Because that Danny was shocked to see them. But Danny and his friends were confused: Danny expected his future self to turn into Phantom and attack them. Instead he screams like in a horror-movie and gets an heart-attack? Why he did not fight? Does he still have his powers in future? Or did something happen?
What ever it was, both parties realized they 'had to' check it. Just to keep sure that they did not kill future Danny.
So first his parents, and later Danny and Jazz checked 'future Danny' over the monitors in the lab (after they were repaired). Only to keep sure that everything is fine. Danny was a bit astonished. The 'wormhole' seemed to follow his future self. No matter where he was. So his future self was really connected to the ghost-zone. But the 'only' place where they could hear them was the living-room. Right in front of the TV. They saw, but didn't hear him talking with Sam and thier friends in the garden when they heared thier parents returning. Danny turned the monitor off, took his sister, turned them both intaingible and flew threw the ceilling before his parents arrived...
His parents secretly continued watching thier future son, too. They thought that they may figure out why thier son has a connection to the ghost-zone. How it is affecting him and how they maybe can prevent it, if it will happen in the future? Both were well aware that some of the stuff they had in the lab was extremely dangerous. Maybe the accident Danny had in the ghost-portal affected him more than Danny admits? They felt guilty! Guilty and worried!
When they linked in back to the 'future' they saw future Danny talking at the phone. So far they realized too, that they could only hear Danny when he was in his living-room, near his TV. And they learned that he never met Vlad, or even remembered him. That was not true, as Danny met him several times. At least they figured out that Danny has blood-pressure problems in future and did not die with an heart-attack after seeing them... They continued watching him first calling Jazz and than Vlad. They were shocked when Danny told that they died 22-years prior. Jack and Maddie looked on each other ans asked themself when and how it would happen. But future Danny also did not seem to have a clue about ghost-hunting... which was very surprisingly. But they were happy to hear the confirmation they have four grandchildren. Propably the four kids on the photo, they found in the lab after the first incident.
Both decided to make a break and went upstairs again. With his ghost-powers, Danny went back into the lab to keep sure his parents were not there and continued watching his future-self by himself. He came in just when his 'future-self' asked himself about Vlad. Danny was shocked. This was not good. Suddenly he felt like he had to warn him. Danny opened the ghost-portal, and suddenly the TV in his future living-room start to flicker again...
Both Danny's had no clue why? But past Danny understood finally: Everytime... his future self turns on his TV while thier ghost-portal in the past is open, the wormhole between thier worlds opens and teenager Danny was able to communicate with his future-self. He thought, turning into Phantom would make everything easier... instead he scared his future self much more... and learned that it was not the future! Adult-Danny was living in 2004! Just like himself...
Danny turned invisible when his mother called. He had to go back before he busts himself again. Danny went back to his realm, while his mother saw the terrible burns on his 'adult-version'. She tried to reach him by jumping into the portal. Danny had to stop her and pulled her back. Both caused a heavy 'windstorm' that devastated the adult one's living-room and his parent's lab, filling it with various stuff from the other world...
Danny vanished threw the ceilling to turn back into his human-form and walked downstairs in his human-form. The vortex closed again, but now they listened together to the other one's life-story. Confirming that this was not the future... it was an alternate-reality. Another dimension... A dimension in which Maddie and Jack died in 1982 in a horrible fire, that destroyed not only the entire town... it also destroyed Danny's life...
It was a sad story. Danny was shocked to hear it. Not only because it will mean that he will look like 50 when he is in his late 30s. His parents were, too. There were a lot of things to fix. And not only the lab, that was filled with his alternate's stuff from the living-room...
When the friend of 'alternate-Danny' turned on the TV, suddenly all alarms went on again.
"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!" Danny's father yelled. He was afraid that the lab bursts out in flames again. And so they saw them fleeing the house after they fortunately turned off the TV... While they watched thier 'alternates' fleeing, Maddie found a DVD among the stuff that was blown into thier lab...
Please Review.