Disclaimer: All rights go to the respective owners of DC Comics and Nickelodeon/Butch Hartman. The author of this story owns nothing; this story is for fun, not money or profit of any kind.
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and a lovely holiday season!
Chapter 22: Flashpoint: Part One
Barry Allen, the Flash, the fastest man alive, felt light in his heart. He had quickly sped Danny Phantom and the unconscious form of his greatest enemy, Eobard Thawne, several blocks from his childhood home.
He had chased the Reverse Flash from the present into the past. Reverse Flash had been intent on destroying the timeline by killing both of Barry's parents, the past versions of Joe and Iris West, and Barry's child self.
Unknowingly, however, Danny Phantom had been caught up in the whirlwind of their race, and therefore had been brought into the past. In the chaos, Danny Phantom had saved Barry's mother, Nora, from the Reverse Flash. In doing so, the young ghost had, himself, unwittingly altered the timeline.
"Uh, Flash, mind explaining what the heck is going on?" Phantom demanded. "More importantly; where are we? Shouldn't we get back to the Hall? I mean, not for nothing, but there is an invasion going on!"
Flash set down the Reverse Flash on the ground, whom Danny had restrained with ecto energy. Sighing deeply, Barry lowered his cowl. Thanks to Thawne, Barry's identity had been revealed to the other members of the League. "I know this might seem out there," he began, not knowing where to start. "But we are in the past. Fifteen years in the past, to be exact."
"What?!" Danny exclaimed. "The past?! Why? How did we get here?"
"Back at the Hall of Justice; during the fighting," Barry explained. "I was chasing Thawne. He had decided to run back in time to destroy me and my family. I was racing to stop him, and you were caught in a blast, that sent you careening right into our path-"
"Causing me to get pulled along for the ride," Danny finished. "Oh, great. I've already had enough time travel to last me a dozen life times..."
Barry frowned at that and said, "W-wait a second. You- you've traveled through time before?"
"Oh, yeah, a few times, actually," Danny said. "But that's not important, right now. After all, we stopped the bad guy! We saved your mom! Timeline saved!"
Barry sighed again, and rubbed his gloved hands over his face. This was going to be awkward. "Uh, yeah... About that," he said. "You sort of... stopped the wrong Reverse Flash."
It was now Danny's turn to frown. "What do you mean?" he asked.
Barry was about to respond, when he noticed Reverse Flash beginning to stir. "No time to explain," he said as he hoisted the Reverse Flash across his shoulders. "We need to get out of here and back to our time."
"Works for me," Danny said.
Grabbing Phantom's shoulder, Barry ran and in a flash of light, the Speed-force opened up once more...
The Present...
Upon emerging from the Speed-force, the Flash, Danny Phantom and their prisoner were once more in Central City in an abandoned industrial warehouse near the river. Everything seemed quiet. Too quiet, actually. There were no winged aliens causing mayhem. Certainly, there would be some kind of panic or emergency broadcast...
Danny Phantom tried raising the other members of the Justice League, but received no response. "Something's wrong," he said to Flash. "I'm just getting static."
"Me, too," Flash said. "Caitlin and Cisco aren't responding, either." Sighing inwardly, he pretty much knew that the timeline had been altered. He just had no idea how much it had been altered. He lowered the Reverse Flash to the floor. "Danny, I think the timeline might have been altered more than we thought.
"Hang tight here, for a second," he told Danny. "I'm going to S.T.A.R. Labs, and see what's going on." He then pointed to the Reverse Flash. "If he wakes up at all, just zap him, again." Even with his arms and limbs bound by ghost energy, Thawne might still pose a threat.
"Oh, count on it," Danny nodded. While he didn't like being told what to do, he knew this was important. In a gust of wind and lightning, the Flash sped off. Glaring down at Reverse Flash, Danny decided to turn invisible. You just never knew.
Danny noted that he felt a little... off. Not totally noticeable, but like a faint itch in the back of his mind. Flash said that he took out the wrong Reverse Flash; whatever that meant. Danny knew first hand that time travel was bad. At least, in his experience. Was this Clockwork's doing, he wondered?
Was Danny meant to save Barry's mother, and somehow prevent Darkseid's invasion? How that would prevent a super-evil alien warlord from across the universe from invading, he had no idea. 'Ugh, time travel gives me a headache!' he thought in irritation.
Almost as soon as he had left, the Flash returned. "Yeah, the timeline is definitely different," he sighed as Danny became visible once more. "S.T.A.R. Labs is... not an option."
He explained that upon arriving at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry found the parking lot full, and the building not damaged. Keeping hidden, and using his speed, he made his way through the facility to find it bustling with people and scientists, unlike before. And no Cisco or Caitlin. Barry had also gone through computers, and he found no records of the Flash. Or the Justice League.
"Wait, what?! No Justice League!?" Phantom said, taken aback.
"Apparently, the League never formed, because Brainiac never invaded," Barry theorized. Thawne began to stir, and Barry landed a fast blow to the villain, returning him to unconsciousness.
"We have to keep him locked up," Flash sighed. His mind moving quickly, he quickly came up with an idea. Danny watched with admiration as Flash moved at incredible speed, coming and going as he constructed a large, rectangular structure inside the abandoned warehouse. Once finished, a fully constructed prison cell with some heavy duty tech rigged up to it stood in the center of the room.
He then picked up Thawne and placed him inside and locked the door. "The cell walls are lined with a special tri-weave induction polymer from the particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. Labs," Barry explained. "It's what we used to lock up the dangerous meta-humans in the pipeline. He's not going anywhere."
Nodding, Danny shrugged. Raising a glowing hand, the ecto restraints around Thawne's wrists and ankles evaporated. "Alright, that's something," he said calmly, before exploding. "So, how about we focus on the fact that the Justice League is, oh, you know, not a thing anymore!"
"Take it easy; things will be alright," Barry raised his hands.
"'Alright'?" Danny repeated. "How is that alright? There's no Justice League!"
"Let me explain, okay?" Barry said. "Remember when I told you that you took out the wrong Reverse Flash? Well, you actually took down the Reverse Flash from the past, so to speak. The Thawne from our time; the one with the Legion of Doom; vanished because you stopped his younger self from killing my mom."
Danny frowned. He had no idea what he was talking about. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"You see," Barry said. "Thawne wanted to kill me as a child; he's kinda obsessed with destroying me. And on the night the we went back to, he and I were already there. Our previous selves from the previous timeline. On that night, he originally killed my mother, which eventually led to me becoming the Flash. You altered the timeline without knowing it."
Danny pondered that for a moment. It was confusing to him, but he slowly started to make sense of it. "So, how are you still here?" he asked Barry. "I mean, if I altered the timeline, shouldn't you have faded away, too?"
"I don't know," Barry shrugged. "I wanna say it's because of the Speed-force, but I have no idea. Honestly, I don't think it matters. Things turned out for the best."
"Wait," Danny said, the pieces falling together. "Your mother. That's why your acting like this isn't a big deal, isn't it? Your mom was killed in the previous timeline; but I rescued her. That's why you don't care what happened; your mom is alive, now. That's... Actually, I can understand that. I guess I'd be happy, too, if that happened to me."
"Like I said," Barry grinned. "There's no Darkseid invasion. The world is safe."
"If saying it would only make it so," came the voice of the Reverse Flash from inside the cell. Danny and Barry looked over to see the villain slowly rising to his feet inside the cell. The effort was clearly difficult, as the speedster grunted and groaned shaking his head. He stood on unsteady legs, and leaned on the cell door. His expression one of rage, he glared at Barry.
"My head's still ringing from whatever the hell hit me," Thawne grunted. "But as I was coming to, I could have sworn I heard you two idiots say something about changing the timeline."
"You don't need to worry about anything," Barry scowled at Thawne. "Your not going anywhere. Ever again."
Thawne smirked and chuckled softly. "Oh, is that so?"
He tried to access his speed, but nothing happened. Thawne looked surprised for a moment glanced around at his surroundings. He then sighed and pulled down his yellow cowl. "I see; a power dampening cage," he said. "Clever. But you wont be able to hold me forever. I promise, I will destroy your life, Flash."
Barry scowled at Thawne and turned to leave the warehouse with Danny following him. "You can't ignore me forever, Flash!" Thawne screamed as they left.
Soon, Barry ran Danny back to Amity Park. They agreed to stay in touch, just in case. Danny warned Barry that something felt off, but he couldn't place it, to which Barry insisted that Danny stopped worrying so much. After all; if something were seriously wrong, they'd be the first to know about it, right?
Upon arriving in Amity Park, Danny took the opportunity to turn invisible and looked around. So far, everything seemed as it should be. Maybe he had been overreacting? After all, he was more worried what Clockwork would say about his messing with time, rather than actually messing up time.
Then it hit him as he came upon his street. His family's odd home was still there, but the massive UFO-shaped ops center on the roof was missing, along with the Fenton Works sign! 'Oh, cheese logs,' Danny thought grimly. 'Boy, do I hate being right, all the time.'
He circled the building, worried what he would find inside. Knowing his rotten luck, Vlad would be his father in this timeline! Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself, and silently floated through the front door. Everything seemed to be in it's proper place. Some pictures were slightly different, but otherwise in their rightful place.
'So far, so good,' he thought. He just felt so exhausted! Yawning, he rubbed his eyes and floated straight into his bedroom, which looked in order. Slightly in disarray, as usual. Yawning again, he changed back into his human form. The rings of light traveled over his body, and left an unusual feeling inside him. He couldn't quite place it, and it didn't hurt, so he shrugged it off and crawled into bed.
As the feeling of exhaustion overcame him, Danny drifted off into a dreamless bliss...
The next morning, Danny awoke bright and early, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Quickly dressing, he headed downstairs for breakfast. He was slightly concerned when he found no trace of his parents, or Jazz. Frowning, he noticed a sticky note on the refrigerator.
"Danny, I had to leave early because of an emergency at work! Please make sure your sister gets up early, for once! And get to school on time!
Love, Mom"
Danny wasn't sure what to make of this. The sinking feeling of a changed timeline returned to him and he sighed. The more Danny thought about it, the worse he felt. What other changes happened?
'Quit worrying, so much,' he scolded himself. 'It's probably only a few things out of place. Nothing major. Just have to stay calm, and figure out what's different so I'm not caught off guard.'
Deciding the best place to start looking for any changes was right at home. He decided to check on Jazz, first. If his mom's note was anything to go by, something was up with his sister. He headed upstairs and cautiously knocked on Jazz's door. No answer.
Slowly opening the door, Danny peeked his head inside and was shocked by what he saw. Her normally bright room was painted black, and looked so dreary, even Sam wouldn't feel comfortable. "Uh, Jazz? You in here?" he asked,
Jazz slowly rose from beneath her blankets and Danny was shocked. Jazz's bright red hair was dyed jet black and she looked like she hadn't seen the sun in a month! "What the heck?!" Danny exclaimed.
Jazz leveled an angry, sleepy glare at Danny. "What?" asked irritably.
"What happened to you?" Danny retorted. "You look like you got ran over by a truck carrying black ink!"
A pillow was tossed at his face. "Gee, thanks," she scowled. "Now get the hell out of my room, you worthless creep! You know, the last thing I need in the morning is to be greeted by your dumb face."
"Whoa, harsh," Danny frowned in return, but was quickly filled with concern for his sister. She was normally so perky and positive, but now she was... very different. And that scared Danny. "Seriously, Jazz, what happened to you?"
"You woke me up, that's what happened," she huffed and plopped back onto her pillow.
"Clearly," Danny deadpanned. "I mean, what happened to make you like... this? The Jazz I know isn't so... depressed."
Jazz leveled a dark glare at her little brother. "Get. Out. Now."
Sighing, inwardly, Danny closed her door and walked down the stairs and leaned against the wall. He felt thoroughly lost. 'I gotta get to Clockwork,' he realized. 'He has to set things right.'
He ran down into the basement and nearly tripped over himself when he was greeted by the sight of his parent's lab was no longer there! "Wha-?" he gasped. All around him was just a regular basement, filled with boxes and other items that were clearly not in any way related to ghost fighting.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he said in exasperation.
Danny, frustrated, quickly got ready for school and closed the front door where he was greeted by Sam and Tucker! "Hey, Danny!" they said in unison. Danny blinked briefly and looked at his friends. Tucker looked more or less the same, but he was missing his trademark hat and had a rather large and odd-looking afro.
Sam's black hair was now very long and fell to just above her waist, she also looked less dour and more upbeat. What was most jarring, however, was her clothing. Gone was the color black, the skirt, her choker and tank top, the purple leggings and combat boots that screamed 'Goth'. Instead, she wore simple jeans and an orange sweatshirt.
Danny looked bewildered as he tilted his head to the side, his mouth very slightly ajar as he took in the sight of his best friends. Sam and Tucker glanced at each other before mirroring Danny's look. "Uh, earth to Danny?" Tucker said as he snapped his fingers in front of Danny's face.
Danny blinked and shook his head. Oh, uh, sorry, guys," he said. "I was in another world there, for a second. Long night. Let's go."
Danny followed close behind his friends and listened quietly as they chatted. As they arrived at school, Danny noted that things seemed mostly the same. The same jocks, the same nerds, the same teachers. During recess, Danny and his friends were sitting at their usual table outside eating lunch. It felt so surreal to Danny; so familiar, and yet so foreign. Things were the same, and yet so very different.
Seeing Sam look and act so... normal was, to put it mildly, was jarring. Tucker, he had discovered, was also different. He was no longer a tech nerd; quite the opposite, in fact, as he now barely had any idea how to turn on the computers in the tech lab. Seeing Tucker preferring to read books instead of fool around with his beloved tech was like seeing a fish flying instead of swimming.
"Danny, what's going on?" Sam asked, bringing the half-ghost out of his musings. "You've barely said two words the whole day. Is something wrong?"
"Hmm? Uh, no, I'm fine," Danny shook his head.
"You know we can tell when each other is lying, Danny," Tucker pointed out. "We've known each other since the first grade."
"I know, Tuck, it's just-" Danny sighed. What was he supposed to say?
Something like: 'Sorry, but me and my super friend messed up the timeline, so now everyone and everything is different? You're you, but not the real you that I've known my whole life, and I'm the only one who remembers? Also, surprise, I've got super powers, and we used to fight crime and ghosts, but now you don't remember any of that because it never happened?'
Yeah, that would go over well. A sure fire way to be thought of as a lunatic.
Before more could be said, the bell rang, and Danny sighed once more, this time in relief. Saved by the bell...
Later, after school, the trio were walking home from school. They stopped outside of Danny's home, and Tucker waved his goodbye, and Sam was about to do the same when she turned around.
"Danny," she said, placing a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I know it's been hard for you. Having a loss like that in your life... I don't pretend to know what you've been going through. Losing your father like that, so suddenly; not even a chance to say goodbye-"
"My father?" Danny whispered, startled. His eyes widened and he became frozen in place.
"And I want you to know," Sam continued. "I'm here for you. And so is Tucker, in his own way. Don't shut us out. Please, Danny. If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me." She then gave Danny a hug, and turned to walk down the sidewalk, leaving Danny shocked.
Danny felt like he had been punched in the stomach. Hard. His dad...
He realized Sam's words were meant to comfort; after all, she had no idea about the timeline. But her words had unknowingly caused pain, instead.
He had told his mom that he wasn't feeling good, and he wasn't feeling like supper, and locked himself in his room for the rest of the evening. Deep down, Danny felt his blood begin to boil. Was Vlad the cause of his father's death, in this new timeline? He sat at his desk in front of his computer and he searched the web for his father's obituary, which was only from four months ago.
Jack Fenton had, surprisingly, been killed in action in Europe. A war. A large one was raging across Europe. Furrowing his brow, Danny began to do more research on the subject. He wanted to know what his father had died for.
The war was the result of Wonder Woman and her Amazons invading and clashing with the sovereign kingdom of Atlantis-
Wait, what?
Atlantis was real?
The more Danny read, the more he was shocked into horror. The reports of the Amazons brutality; in particular, their queen, Diana, were disturbing. Danny's heart sunk in a wave of sorrow. The Diana he knew was a woman of strength and compassion; one more prone to kindness, and certainly not capable of such heartless savagery. He wondered what had happened to make her so cruel and bloodthirsty.
He also read about the leader of Atlantis. While clearly no saint, himself, he seemed to be an equally cunning warrior. Danny filed that info away for later. Not much was known about the ruler called Arthur, nor the cause of the hostilities between Atlantis and the Amazons.
Not being able to stomach the footage and reports of the war any longer, Danny decided to search further into the world he had once new. What else was different?
He began with the most obvious subject; his arch nemesis, Vlad Masters.
Danny's jaws dropped when he also found Vlad's obituary! Vlad was also dead in this new timeline! The date on Vlad's obituary surprised Danny even more; it was from ten years ago. Danny had only been five at the time. Apparently, Vlad had been killed in a lab explosion.
He found more information on it, and discovered that Vlad had contacted Danny's parents with the intent of using ectoplasm as a means of producing cleaner energy. Danny's eyes narrowed. While unsure if Vlad had possessed his ghost powers in this new timeline, he could fill in the blanks.
Vlad had made his move to eliminate Danny's father far earlier than in the other timeline. But something had went very wrong, and Vlad had been killed. This explained why the lab in the basement was missing. Not knowing the monster that Vlad truly was, Danny's parents were deeply affected by Vlad's death, and they had given up their ghost research.
They lived normal lives until the war started, and Jack had reenlisted in the military. As a result of his parents not continuing their ghost research, the portal to the Ghost Zone had never been built, and Danny had never became Danny Phantom.
And yet, he still possessed his ghost powers. Why? He had no answer for that. Danny allowed his forehead to drop onto his desk with a thud. Groaning, he rubbed his temples. 'Ugh, stupid time travel...,' he thought angrily to himself. All he knew was that his life was a wreck.
No Ghost Portal also meant he had no way to get to Clockwork and beg him to set things right.
The teen knew things could be a lot worse, but that didn't make it any easier. All he knew was that he was miserable, and his dad was gone. He could deal with people acting different, but losing a loved one; having never even said goodbye... That was too much.
Danny turned invisible and floated through his door and peeked into Jazz's room and saw her laying on her bead with large headphones on, clearly fallen asleep. Danny felt his heart ache even more to see her so depressed, so listless. Their father's death had clearly hit her harder than anyone else, and turned her from the bright and perky, ever-pesky big sister into... this.
He then floated silently down the hall, still invisible, and looked in on his mother, who was sitting on her bed, sobbing softly as she looked at a family photo, clutching it tightly to her chest. Tears formed in his own eyes at the sight. He had never seen his mother so broken. He had never seen her cry; not like this.
He returned to his own room and sunk to the floor. His eyes clenched shut, and gritting his teeth, he made a vow. A vow to himself, to his family, to the whole universe. He would find a way to make things right.
No matter the cost.
Author's notes:
Not much to be said here; just Danny seeing what's different in the new timeline. I want it to be a parallel between Danny and Barry; Barry's life is great and Danny's is not so hot. I'll be combining elements of the Flash TV series version of Flashpoint and the comic book, but don't expect to see any more of the war between Atlantis and the Amazons. I just hated that part of the story in the comics and have no interest in writing it. I want it to be a more personal story, for both Danny and Barry and their respective lives.
Beyond that, no spoilers for what's going to happen next!
As always, thank you to everyone for reading and reviewing!