xxxxxxx

"This is what I wanted to show you," Vanessa said.

Danny and Tucker's eyes grew wide at the sight of the circular, eggshell-white building towering over them. At the top of the structure stood various rays that nearly covered the setting Sun. Rows of windows revealed people hurriedly rushing across the floors. The sign in front of them read "SPECTOR DETECTORS".

"What is all this?" Danny asked.

Vanessa smiled. "Your company."

The front door slid open, and they walked onto the tiled floor.

Behind a wooden desk with the sign "INFO", a woman with long, chestnut hair and wearing rectangular glasses grinned.

"Vanessa! Nice to see you again," she said.

"Thanks, Savannah. How's the baby?"

"Bella is doing well, thank you," she said. "She's learning so many new words! We miss you and your singing at the daycare."

"I promise I'll go back to volunteering once school lightens up. Is Tara…"

"The gym."

"Thanks a bunch, Savannah!"

"Who're your friends?"

Danny and Tucker froze behind Vanessa. Her eyes widened.

"Who? Oh! Them. Right, um, they're from school!"

"Okay. I'll just need their names to sign them in," Savannah said.

"Sure." Vanessa gestured to Tucker. "This is…Teddie."

"Wha—" Tucker started.

"And that's…" Vanessa said as she pointed to Danny, "…that's Darren!"

Danny made a face.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Darren and Teddie," Savannah said. "I hope you enjoy your visit at Spector Detectors."

xxxxxxx

"Teddie? Darren? Are you kidding me?" Tucker asked when the elevator doors closed.

"Hey, they were the first names that popped into mind!" Vanessa said.

"You could've given me a cool name, like Thor or something. Even Ted would've worked! But no! I get the name of a stuffed bear."

"Does it really matter?" Danny said. "What matters is we get in undetected, and we did."

Tucker folded his arms and stared at the changing elevator floor numbers.

3…4…

"So…a company? For what?" Danny asked.

"Ghost fighting, of course. You can't expect your family and yourself to keep fighting ghosts forever, do you? And Amity Park isn't the only place in the world experiencing ghost activity. The company's gonna grow worldwide."

"Whoa. This is unbelievable! And what was that whole daycare thing?"

"Lots of families work here," Vanessa said. "There's a small daycare back on the second floor where employees can drop off their kids. Tara and I volunteer after school."

7…8.

The doors opened, and they stepped into a room with people on exercise equipment.

"Here's where the Detectors do their conditioning."

"Okay, who came up with the name?" Tucker said. "It's kinda lame. No offense, Danny."

"Uh…I think that was actually Tara's granddad. Jack, right?" Vanessa said.

"Of course he'd name it that," Danny said with a sigh.

"At least it doesn't have the name 'Fenton' in it, am I right?" Tucker said.

"Let's keep moving," Vanessa said. "Tara's in the back."

She led them past the treadmills and weight machines to the other side of the room, and into a narrow hallway. The hallway ended in a room double the size of the gym; however, the thick, clear walls divided the space into smaller, rectangular rooms.

All of a sudden, they heard a faint, but ground-shaking Boom!

"What the heck was that?" Tucker said.

"I think they're in that room," Vanessa said, pointing to the room on their far left.

"They?" Danny asked.

Vanessa ran off, and Danny and Tucker followed quickly behind.

"Come on, is that the best you got?" they could hear.

"Argh!"

"Avoid, then find an opening to strike."

Inside the room, Tara, in her ghost form, floated above her father, who was in his human form. A green and white, ectoplasmic ball materialized in her hand, and she blasted it at him.

With the swipe of his hand, older Danny created a green shield, and the strike bounced off, finally exploding on the wall across from him.

"Try not to aim at the chest. It's a predictable area," he said. He then formed a giant snowball and threw it at Tara.

"Why am I attacking Tara?!" younger Danny said.

"Relax," Vanessa said. "It's just training."

Tara put her hands together, then spread them across her body, forming a circular, flaming blue shield.

"What is that?" younger Danny said.

The snowballs hit Tara's shield and melted.

"Really, really hot fire," Vanessa answered.

Older Danny stretched out his hand to his daughter for a high-five. "Nice work." She dove down and gave him a high-five back.

Suddenly, she spotted the three from the corner of her eye.

"Van? Tucker? Danny?"

She floated towards them, phasing out of the room and appearing in front of them.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.

"Just wanted to show them how you kick butt," Vanessa said.

Tara laughed. "Savvy."

"You guys shouldn't be here."

Older Danny phased behind Tara. "Vanessa, you shouldn't have brought them here. Having them experience the future firsthand could set the whole timeline off."

"I think that timeline ship has sailed, Dad," Tara said.

"I'm just trying to keep our present as intact as possible," he said.

"So…what was that fire-thing you just did?" Tucker asked.

"You mean my fire powers?" Tara said, cocking an eyebrow.

"You can control fire?!" younger Danny said.

"She's pretty strong, Danny," older Danny said. "She has all of our powers, plus she's developing her own. She just needs to learn how to use and control them."

"Hey! I'm getting better," Tara exclaimed.

"I know," he said and ruffled her hair. He looked back at the trio. "In all honesty, though, I think she's the strongest ghost in our time. She has developed powers I haven't seen before in any other ghost, and she's only 14. I can't even imagine what she'll be like at 15, or 16, or even 20."

"That's amazing," Tucker said.

Suddenly, a white owl phased through the wall and landed on older Danny's shoulder.

"Angel?" older Danny said.

"Danny Phantom, you must follow me at once! Clockwork would like to see you immediately."

"Clockwork? This can't be good…Vanessa, Tara, take Danny and Tucker back to their time. I'll see you at dinner, Tara."

He and Angel then disappeared.