Chapter Seven: Back to the Past
Danny and the other had finally reached Dan city just as the sun was rising. They were just on the outskirts near a highway. On the road was a sign that used to say Washington D.C. but that was crossed out with a big red x and replaced with new words.
"Dan City: A Horrible Place To Live. Fear Dan. That is all. Man, that is so like Dan." said Alicia. (Idea from Missmeliss4251, thank you :))
"So this is Dan's city, what a dump." Said Ember as she looked around
The city that was the capital of Dan's empire was, out side of the government buildings, a complete dump. Most of the buildings where the humans lived were dilapidated and a depressing grey color. Some of them did not look like they had been repaired since Dan attacked ten years ago. The only new buildings were recruitment stations that tried to get people to serve as cannon fodder in Dan's galactic conquest.
"When we get back to the past I will make Dan pay for every one of their futures he ruined." said Danny.
"Just save some for the rest of us." said Valerie.
Our heroes entered the city, making sure they kept a low profile. This fear was justified when they saw several wanted posters with their faces on them. They knew that even if almost everybody hated Dan, there were still some people out to make a quick buck by turning them in.
So Dennis, where is this friend of yours were supposed to meet." said Rob to Danny.
"He owns a shop on the edge of town Randal, it is not far from here." said Danny/Dennis.
"I hope so, my feet are killing me." said Jazz.
They traveled through the city until they got to a little mail supply shop. They entered the shop to see an old, familiar face was the owner.
"I am the Box Ghost, how may I be of service to you today?" said the Box Ghost.
"Yes, I have a package that I have to mail to an old friend, by the name of V-man. Would you happen to have any special deliver stamps?" said Danny.
"Why yes I do, they are in the back." said the Box Ghost as he motioned for them to go into the back room.
Once our heroes entered the back room Danny spoke to the Box Ghost.
"Is it safe to talk?" said Danny.
"Of course it is, I may not be the brightest ghost around but even I'm not stupid enough to risk my family like that. Honey come out here, we have guests." said the Box Ghost.
"Well if it isn't those nice kids from the resistance, how are you dearies?" said the Lunch Lady.
She was much different from her past self. She had lost a lot of weight and was thin now, in fact you could say she was almost gorgeous, if you didn't mind having the wrath of the Box Ghost fall on your head for flirting with his wife.
"We're fine, almost didn't make it when one of Dan's patrols stopped us, but fortunately he hires dumb goons for the patrols." said Danny.
"Well I'm glad you made it, would you dears like something to eat?" said the Lunch Lady.
"Yes, thank you." Said Danny, the Lunch Lady left, but then her daughter entered the room.
"Uncle Danny!" shouted Box Lunch as she ran over to give him a hug.
"Hey Box Lunch, how you doing." said Danny.
"I'm fine uncle Danny." said Box Lunch.
"That's good, you sure have grown since the last time I saw you." said Danny.
"Yeah, it just seems like yesterday she was born." said the Box Ghost.
"I remember the day she was born, it was such a nice day." said Jazz.
"Yeah, and I remember we had to go through enemy territory to get to where she was born." said Alicia.
"Yeah, remember when the patrol stopped us and Rob used his fake Scottish accent." said Tucker.
"Hey, it worked didn't it?" said Rob.
"Yeah, the patrol men aren't very bright, but it was still funny, you sounded like Scotty from Star Trek." said Valerie.
"Ack! Captain it's the dilithuim crystals, we just don't have the power!" said Rob, doing his best Scotty impersonation.
Everyone laughed at this and felt slightly better. That's when the Lunch Lady walked in with a tray of sandwiches.
"I'm glad you kids are enjoying yourselves, what brings you to Dan city?" said the Lunch Lady.
"We're going to break into Dan's fortress." said Ember, at this the Lunch Lady dropped the tray she was holding.
"You-you're actually thinking of breaking into there? That's crazy." said the Lunch Lady.
"I agree, what form of madness has possessed you to try to get into there?" said the Box Ghost.
"We believe that Dan has Clockwork's time portal in there." said Danny.
"You mean the legendary time portal, the one that you could use to go back in time?" said the Box Ghost.
"Yes, our reports tell us that he does have the portal." said Jazz.
"So that's why you asked for a blue print of Dan's fortress." said the Box Ghost.
"Do you have them?" said Danny.
"Yes, I do, here you go." said the Box Ghost as he handed them to Danny.
"Good old Poindexter, I knew he won't let us down." said Danny as he laid out the blue prints.
"Ok, here is the plan; there is one access road that leads into Dan's fortress. This road is heavily guarded and is monitored all the time. But there is one stretch off road that goes by some woods Dan planted for Sam on their third wedding anniversary. We hide in these woods, Tucker you'll take out the cameras and me and Rob will ambush the driver of the delivery truck that comes by at 12:00 p.m. Rob will use his shape shifter powers to impersonate the driver and we'll hide in the back." said Danny.
"What happens when we get in?" said Valerie.
"That will be easy, because Dan does not allow humans into his fortress we'll all be disguised as ghosts. When we get in you have to act like you belong there, if anyone questions you act like your doing important work and say if your interrupted you can get them in trouble, this should work on most people. If it doesn't work take them out quietly. Once in the main hall we'll all split up and take different routes to the store room. Rob and Ember take left, Alicia and Jazz take right, me and Tucker, and Valerie will take middle. We will all meet up at the store room and there Tucker will break the lock. Once inside we activate the portal and go back in time." said Danny.
"You really are going through with this." said the Box Ghost.
"Yes, if there is any chance we can find this portal and undo this horrible world Dan created, then we're going to do it." said Danny.
"Then all I can say is good luck." said the Box Ghost.
"Thank you, so is everybody clear on the plan?" said Danny, everyone nodded their heads.
"Good, then lets go." Said Danny as he and the others left to infiltrate Dan's Fortress.
Outside Dan's Fortress, Access Road, 11:55 P.M.
Our heroes were sitting in the woods just outside Dan's fortress. When he had taken over Dan had leveled all the buildings in the area near his fortress, but the forest he had planted for Sam made an excellent hiding place.
"Ok, Tucker I see him coming, disable the cameras." said Alicia.
"Will do, its show time little guy." said Tucker as he released a small robot fly.
The fly flew to the computer control of the cameras on that stretch of road. It latched on and wires came out of it and hooked into the computer. From his PDA Tucker was able to hack into the cameras and make them show an empty road, so as to not alarm the guards monitoring them.
"Ok, the vulture is blind." said Tucker.
"You still got it, baby." said Valerie as she kissed Tucker.
"Quiet, here comes the truck." said Alicia.
The truck was coming down the road being driven by one of Dan's ghostly henchmen. As soon as he got close enough Jazz ran out into the road. The driver slammed the brakes and got out of the truck to see what was wrong.
"Hey you! Human girl! What are you doing here?" said the truck driver.
"Oh Mr. Ghost, I got lost and don't know how to get back to the south side of town." Said Jazz, playing the innocent lost girl.
"Stupid human, it's just down this road…" was all he said before Danny knocked him out.
"Who you calling a stupid human." said Jazz as she kicked him.
"Ok Rob, copy him." said Danny.
Rob used his shape shifter powers to make himself a exact duplicate of the driver.
"Well how do I look?" said Rob.
"I like your normal face better." said Ember.
"You look alright, get behind the wheel, the rest of you get into the back of the truck." said Danny as he and the others got into the back of the truck.
Rob got into the truck and noticed a problem.
"Damn! It's a stick shift, I hate stick shift, can't Dan buy automatic gear shift." said Rob.
"You know him, he's the ruler of the Earth and yet he is still cheap." said Alicia.
This was very true, despite being the lord and master of the world, Dan was very cheap.
Meanwhile at the fortress.
"Five Hundred Dollars for a Dress! Do I look like I'm made of money!" shouted Dan.
"But dear, it looks so good on me, and you technically do have all the money in the world." said Sam.
"I know, but that doesn't mean you can try to spend it all." said Dan.
Back with our heroes.
"Could you just drive, we don't want them to suspect anything." said Danny.
"Fine, but I still hate stick shift." said Rob as he clumsily got the truck into drive and drove down the road.
"Ok guys, when we get in there we have to keep our heads down until we get to the store room. These hologram bracelets Tucker and Alicia made should make us look enough like ghosts to keep people from suspecting anything." said Danny as he handed the bracelets to everyone.
Everyone put them on and activated them. The bracelets worked like a charm, our heroes looked exactly like ghosts, and more importantly they were almost completely unrecognizable from their old selves.
"Wow, it actually worked, and they didn't blow up." said Jazz, looking at her now green skin.
"Oh sure, I cause one three megaton explosion and you just can't let it go, can you." said Alicia through her now long and blue hair.
"Well it did turn out alright, we did stop that arms shipment." said Valerie, who now looked like a Valerie version of Spectra.
"Yeah, but we almost went with it." said Ember, who had red hair and green skin now.
"That was a memorable day. Hey, remember when Rob stole the ring Dan was going to give to Sam for their anniversary to give to Ember." said Tucker, who looked sort of like that time Desiree gave him ghost powers.
"I remember, I had to go through enemy territory to get it, and then break in to the lair Dan was in, and then get back out. It was almost perfect except for the fact they found me just before I left. I swear he had the whole army after me that day, but I got it." said Rob.
"Yes, and it made a lovely wedding ring." said Ember.
"Only the best for my girl." said Rob with a smile.
"I love stories about making Dan look stupid, remember when we messed up his global broadcast with fart noises." said Alicia.
"Yeah, that knocked a few points off of his fear rating." said Jazz.
"Can the small talk guys, we're here." said Rob as they approached the front gate.
The truck came up to the guard station. One of Walker's guards, who worked for Dan now, was manning the post. He motioned for the truck to stop and floated up to driver side window.
"Ok, what is your purpose of visit." said the bored guard.
"Just delivering some supplies." said Rob.
"I know that Jimmy, but the boss says that we have to look out for rebel activity today." said the guard.
"Yeah, those guys can be pretty bothersome." said Rob.
"Tell me about it, Well everything looks fine here, go on through." said the Guard as he opened the gate.
Rob drove the truck into the main loading area and backed it up to one of the doors into the building, no one else was there.
"Ok Tucker, make with the invisible man act." said Danny.
"Right." said Tucker as he sent the flybot out to disable the cameras.
"Danny, you are now the invisible man." said Tucker. (AN: I love that line from the movie National Treasure!)
Danny got out of the truck and made his way to one of the side doors. The door had an electronic lock on it, but that was no problem for Tucker's code cracking PDA. Danny attached it to the key pad and it began to crack the code. It was quickly done and the door opened, Danny signaled for everyone to come to the door.
"Ok guys, once we get to the main lobby we split up, you all know where we are going. Rob here is a holobracelet for you." Said Danny as he handed it to him, Rob put it on and changed into a ghost.
"Ok, lets go." said Danny as they went into the fortress.
Our heroes walked down the hall way, soon they came to the end and found they were in the main room. It was gigantic to say the least; the ceiling had to be 50 feet high at least. The whole room seemed to be designed to make anyone entering fell small and insignificant. In the center of the room there was a huge statue of Dan holding a globe in his hand, seeming to crush it.
"God, this guy really loves himself, doesn't he?" said Rob.
"Ok everyone, you know what to do, I hope to see you soon." said Danny.
He, Tucker and Valerie took the middle hallway, Ember and Rob took the left, and Jazz and Alicia took the right.
Ember and Rob were walking down the hall way, making sure not to draw any attention to them. They had just rounded a corner when they bumped into something. They looked up to see the face of Technus staring back at them. This was a very bad turn of events, because if he did not recognize Rob, he most certainly would recognize Ember.
"What are you two doing here?" said Technus.
"Uh, we're uh, going to get more paper to do some important paper work." said Rob.
"Really?" said Technus.
"Yes, and we better hurry or our boss will have our heads." said Ember.
"Oh, then I will not keep you." said Technus as he continued down the hall.
"More paper for paper work, that was the best you could do?" said Ember.
"Hey it worked didn't it? Lets get going, the other will be at the store room soon." said Rob as they continued down the hall.
As they were walking away Technus looked back at them.
"What ever those kids are planning, I hope it works, Dan has been ruling for too long." thought Technus as he continued on his way.
As this was happening Jazz and Alicia were walking down the hall, trying to blend in as best they could. They just were turning a corner when they ran into someone. They looked up to see Spectra looking at them. They knew that they might be in trouble.
"What are you two girls doing?" said Spectra.
"Uh, Sam ordered us to get something from the kitchen for her." said Alicia.
"That girl, she's probably hungry for more of those vegetarian cheese puffs she likes, I won't keep you, I know how violent she can be when her orders are not meet quickly." said Spectra as she continued down the hall.
"Man, that was close." said Jazz.
"I know, lets get to the store, the others are probably all ready there." said Alicia as they went down the hall.
Spectra looked back at the retreating forms of our heroes.
"I hope what ever their planning works, Dan has had his comeuppance coming along time, especial after what he did to Bertrand." thought Spectra as a tear came to her eye.
Meanwhile Danny, Tucker and Valerie were making their way down the hall. They had just turned a corner when they ran into someone. They looked up to see Skulker staring at them. They knew that this could turn out very ugly. (AN: Wow, Dan's fortress sure has a lot of corners where people run into each other.)
"What are you doing in this hall way?" said Skulker.
"Uh, we're going to get some papers for Dan, and he doesn't like to be kept waiting so we better get going." said Danny.
"Yes, I know, I still remember what he did to the last guy who kept him waiting." said Skulker, shivering at the memory, he continued down the hall.
"That was close." said Tucker.
"Yeah, lets go." said Danny.
As Danny and the others walked down the hall Skulker looked back and smiled.
"I don't know what you have planned ghost child, but I wish you success on your mission." thought Skulker as he continued down the hall.
Soon all our heroes made it to the store room where the time portal was being kept.
"Man, that is one big lock." said Jazz.
And it was true, unlike everywhere else in his fortress the lock on this door was a giant pad lock.
"How the hell are we going to get in?" said Ember.
"Although me." said Danny as he blasted the lock on the door.
The door swung open and our heroes entered the room. There were many items in the room, such as trophies from some of Dan's conquests, and items he plundered from the nations of the world. But sitting in the corner was the item they sought, the time portal, with some of clockworks time medallions hanging nearby.
"My god, it is here." said Danny.
"I didn't believe it, but there it is." said Rob.
"So how do we activate it?" said Jazz.
"I don't think that will be any of your concern." said a voice from behind them.
They slowly turned around to see Dan and Sam standing right behind them.
"What are you doing here?" said Valerie.
"I live here." said Dan.
"Sorry, standard question." said Valerie.
"How did you find out we were coming?" said Danny.
"Its amazing what you can find out from interrogating a certain box themed idiot and his family." said Sam.
"What did you do to them!" said Danny.
"Let's just say they will not be bothering me anymore." said Dan.
"You monster, you will pay for that!" said Danny.
"I don't think you will be in any position to do anything about it." said Sam.
"Yes, there is nowhere to run." said Dan.
Then from behind them the time portal activated, showing the scene right before the bomb went off and destroyed Amity Park. Danny saw this and smiled.
"Nowhere but the past!" said Danny as he grabbed his friends and some of the time medallions and dived into the portal.
"My darling, they have escaped, their going to change the past and ruin our future, what do we do!" said Sam.
"Don't worry my dear, they will not get far." said Dan as the time portal changed to New York, just outside the United Nations.
Dan grabbed the two remaining time medallions and gave one to Sam. With the time medallions around their necks they dived into the portal.
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Ember: Sorry this chapter is late, I had to do some of Rob's midterm exams because he is not here, I think I did pretty well.
TechnoRob: You said British Prime Minister Peel was some dude who did some stuff.
Ember: Hey, I'm not good with history ok! It's not like it the end of the world.
TechnoRob: Yeah, but it is the end of Rob's grade point average.
Ember: Well it's not like you could have done it.
TechnoRob: I could have, I do have a remote controlled robot replica of Rob.
Ember: You do? Uh oh. Well, while me and Tech boy here go fix Rob's grades, here is the chapter summery
Well our heroes are on their way to save the past, but Dan and Sam are right behind them. Will the addition of these older versions of our heroes be able to turn the tide? Or will Dan still win and ruin the future? The only way to find out is to read the next chapter of the Return of Dan.
Ember: The next chapter might also be late, I have a huge paper to write, or should I say Tech boy has a huge paper to write.
TechnoRob: Ah man! I do all the work around here.
Ember: Until next time Danny Phantom fans, Read and Review!
