DarkFoxKit: Hey everyone. My break from this isn't quite over, but I figured I might as well throw you guys a bone since you've all been so patient and all your supports and reviews inspired me to keep going for you. I don't want this story to end up forgotten and put up on the shelf after all. Oh, and it seems some of you really want Andy to come back to the ANs. Well... I guess I could drag the boy back on here, if you guys have anything you want to ask specifically to Andy feel free to do so now. I'll drag him back on here as soon as I can. ;)

Chapter 34: Predetermined Future?

Amity Park: 10 Years In the Future

So… it looks like Amity Park has been prosperous, technology had advanced, people are driving in hovercars, everyone is getting along, and there had been no ghost attacks. Heh… that's because there's a powerful ghost shield that had domed over Amity Park since 10 years ago. Valerie had grown into a strong young woman who watches over Amity Park and always makes sure the ghost shield was up and running. Where did they get the technology for the ghost shield? … From my… parents' lab.

I looked through the ghost shield. Nobody was to ever leave the ghost shield, because… there was a powerful ghost out there destroying the world. Everything outside of this shield was in ruins. We had to provide our own food to make sure we stayed alive. I looked over at my reflection in a window. I hadn't changed much physically over the years. I still had my black hair in the same style as when I was 14. My body was just taller and looked more mature. I wore my signature dark blue jacket over my body, keeping my hands in my pockets. I sighed as I looked up.

I walked over to the statues of people who had died in an awful accident with the Nasty Burger ten years ago. My parents… my friends… and even Mr. Lancer. They were gone but not forgotten. Dash and Valerie tried to help make things better, but after Danny… Dash didn't make it… and Valerie was too busy making sure everyone is safe to hang out anymore. Not that I blame her, I've grown used to being alone.

Then there was a loud noise, so loud it was hard to describe what it was exactly, but it sounded like some kind of… ghostly… wail? The entire city was shaking, glasses on the windows were shattering. I got a few cuts from being too close to one. Looking up, I can see the barrier that had protected us was beginning to shut down. Whatever that was, it was strong enough to blow up all the generators that kept the ghost shield running.

You could practically hear the tension among the people of Amity Park. The shield had all but disappeared, leaving us vulnerable to what was about to come. Shortly after the shield disappeared, the alarms began blaring across the city. People were to run to underground for safety. The evacuation had already begun, but I would not to be joining my fellow humans. This is our final stand. There wasn't a place in this world that was safe from him anymore.

I ran through the crowd, looking up to see Valerie was in the sky on her hoverboard. She was hit by something big and purple. I hurried to get to where she would land. The Nasty Burger 2… heh, looks like this place was already in ruins. Valerie almost hit the ground, but I held up my right hand and made her body freeze in midair. Hard to believe even after I lost my ghost powers I could still use my temporal powers, but then I've had those before the second accident anyways. My temporal powers can freeze something or someone in time. I gently had her body land on the ground before I released my hold on her.

"Ugh… you?" She looked at me.

"Hey Valerie…" I waved to her.

"Look out!" She jumped and pushed me down, barely avoiding another big purple ball, it hit the Nasty Burger.

I could see the Fright Knight had flew in, arms crossed and all.

"Why are you here?" I demanded.

"Because I was told to be here and I serve a new master now," was his answer before he formed another ball of energy.

Valerie activated her hoverboard again, forcing me on with her. "Andy, you need to get out of here!"

She had to move to dodge more blast balls from the Fright Knight. Whatever happened to his sword and horse? I guess he destroyed that too? I wouldn't put it past him at this point. Valerie was heading towards my old home; Fenton Works. The OP Center was still in tact… that was until the Fright Knight shot a huge blast ball at us and completely destroyed it.

I lost my balance and fell to the road just as Valerie landed in the house. I ran behind the house as the Fright Knight looked around before flying off. I gave a small sigh of relief before I heard that ghostly wail again. I covered my ears as the ground began to crack under me. The cracks were glowing green, and I gritted my teeth. How fitting that he would come out from under the ground… like the devil that he is came up from hell itself.

I heard a loud blast coming from inside the Fenton Works.

"Valerie!" I called for her, but I got no response.

"Hello brother."

I turned to see Danny… or what used to be Danny. Now he was nothing more than a bloodthirsty demon with ghost powers, bent on destroying everyone and everything.

"Are you still going to try and oppose me?"

"Why would it matter? You'd kill me either way. At least by opposing you I can say I died trying to defend myself instead of cowering in fear," I said.

"You're no fun," Dan rolled his eyes.

"Let me ask you something… do you think even the worst person can change?" I asked, closing my eyes.

Dan just laughed, "Are you really that naive?"

"No… I guess I was just being hopeful. Well… sorry Vlad… but he's not my brother anymore," I said mostly to myself as I opened my eyes again, and gave a hateful glare at what used to be my brother. "Go into oblivion, you demon!"

Amity Park: Present

I was sitting in the auditorium right next to Danny, Tucker and Sam. Every freshmen in Casper High were called by Mr. Lancer himself to announce the C.A.T. coming this week. I had been dreading this since we came home from the camping trip… so had Danny, but for a different reason.

"Your future is not carved in stone people, but it may be carved with a no. 2 pencil," Mr. Lancer announced from the podium, holding up a no. 2 pencil.

Jazz and the manager of the Nasty Burger were sitting on each side of the stage. For what? I'm guessing to be used as demonstrations. Why Mr. Lancer didn't just bring up a real successor instead of a potential one is beyond me, guess the school couldn't afford someone like that.

"Oh please," I heard both Tucker and Sam say boredly, they obviously didn't believe in tests deciding our future, and to be honest I'm kinda with them yet also not at the same time.

I don't believe the test would decide our future, but it definitely would make it easier for us in the long run.

"Quiet! This is important," Danny hissed at them. And obviously my brother was more in the latter category.

"As most of you had probably forgotten," Mr. Lancer continued, and it's rather condescending that he's so sure most of us would fail. "You'll be taking the Career Aptitude Test on Saturday." The projection screen behind him showed the C.A.T.'s acronym.

"If you do well, like Miss Fenton here," Mr. Lancer gestured to Jazz proudly.

"Who got the highest score in the history of the C.A.T." Danny said at the same time Mr. Lancer did.

Then the projection screen showed off rich people with a lot of money, a fancy red car, a big castle-like mansion, and a yacht on screen… basically things I've seen a lot with Vlad. "And this successful future will be assured."

While having a big, rich successful life is nice, I didn't really care about that. What's wrong with just living comfortably instead of luxury? The way I see it, you get more stress trying to keep up your image as a big successful person. Though a little more money couldn't hurt.

"Fail like Herben 3rd Degree Burns here," Mr. Lancer frowned as he gestured to the chubby middle aged man, who was sleeping before he woke up upon his name being said. He gave a frown as Mr. Lancer was pretty much insulting him. "who got the lowest score in the history of the C.A.T. and you will be doomed to a career at the Nasty Burger, or just working at a fast food restaurant in general."

That's an insult to Valerie, she works there to help pay for her own future, not that Mr. Lancer seem to particularly care at the moment. Is it just me or does the C.A.T. bring out the worst in Mr. Lancer? It's clear he didn't have any respect for us or the people working at fast food places. Whatever happened to the Mr. Lancer who was trying to encourage and help his students? Maybe he's bitter that his own score of the C.A.T. doomed him of being a teacher.

Herben spoke up in his defense, "Hey, being the manager of the Nasty Burger takes more brains then you'd think! If our spices get overheated, it could explode and take out a whole city block!" Wait, what? Who'd make exploding spices? But nobody reacted to that.

Herben frowned, "Oh who am I kidding? My life is over…"

I felt sorry for him. I'm sure he could still make something of himself if he didn't give up hope. He already walked off the stage, hanging his head down in shame.

"These aren't just the answers to the test," Mr. Lancer said, holding up a gray folder. "These are the answers to your future. So study hard."

Mr. Lancer placed the answer sheet into a suitcase, locked it and handcuffed the thing to his own wrist. Uh… paranoid much?

"Remember, it's your future! Do you want fries with that?" Mr. Lancer remarked, really making it look like he didn't believe in any of us and it's starting to tick me off.

Honestly, Mr. Lancer really is at his worst when it comes to the C.A.T., he should be encouraging us to do our best, not scare the living daylights out of us that our future hangs in the balance of a stupid score on some stupid test that freshmen are forced to take. Not everyone has a big genius brain for school, but that doesn't mean we'd be 'doomed' to work at the Nasty Burger, and even then it's not all as bad as he makes it out to be. From what I heard from Valerie, she's made some friends there and she get discounts.

"Danny, you okay? Dude!" I heard Tucker say in concern.

I looked over at my brother… yeah, that's the face of someone who truly believed what Mr. Lancer said.

"Bro, don't let what Mr. Lancer said get to you. You have much more of a future than what some stupid test says," I said, and I should know since I got a glimpse of a possible peaceful future with him a while back, though it's hard to say if it would actually happen, I still like to believe it would.

"... Andy, we're going to need to study," Danny told me.

And what I said just completely went over his head. I sighed, studying will only get us so far. Stress is going to make it hard to retain anything.

"But don't we have plans?" I asked.

Danny did say we were going to work on our powers and then watch some movies at Sam's place if no ghosts attacked, but I guess that was before the C.A.T. announcement.

"There's no time, we can do all that after the C.A.T.," Danny said.

I sighed, "Fine, fine, we'll go study, but let's try not to overdo it, okay?"

At least it'll be easy to keep an eye on him if we're just going to stay inside and study all day long.

Now that we were home in the kitchen, Danny brought out all the books to look through, and was using a C.A.T. sample test for us to practice with. I sighed as I looked at it. You know, I've never understood the point in all this. Is it so we could get into one of those high standard college like Yale or Harvard? And then what? We get a high paying job that eventually makes us millionaires? How does one become successful in the first place?

"Andy, pay attention," Danny said to me.

"Danny, I just don't see why we have to stress out over a stupid piece of paper," I growled, feeling irritated at the whole thing.

"Because this 'stupid piece of paper' will determine our future. Do you want to be flipping burgers and scraping off the grease of a grill all your life because you made a low score on this 'stupid piece of paper'?" Danny stressed.

"Since when were you the one paranoid about our future?" I grumbled. "That should be my thing," I said that as a joke.

"Then you should be worried about it! Come on, bro, I want us both to succeed. Don't you want to have a better future?" Danny asked me, looking worried.

"You do know that I saw the future at one point, right?" I deadpanned.

"You also know that the future is not set in stone, right?" He deadpanned right back.

"Exactly, so stop freaking out. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for, Danny, I know you can pass with at least a decent score on this test if you just don't stress yourself out," I told him.

"Are you two still arguing over this?" Jazz said when she walked into the kitchen.

"Andy and I are just having a bit of a disagreement with the C.A.T…." Danny sighed.

"It's not going to kill you to study, Andy," Jazz said. "And I want you two to succeed."

"I didn't say we shouldn't study, just that we shouldn't be stressing ourselves out over this. I'm sick of teachers putting us down and students freaking out that their future is all on this test," I said.

Danny was twitching and sweating as he was looking through the books. I pointed at him.

"You see what I mean?"

I picked up the books and said, "Danny, this isn't the right way to study. Not only is it daunting, it's overwhelming for the human brain to even process."

"Then what do you suggest?" Danny asked.

Before I could answer, there was an incoming metal-like boomerang object coming this way.

"Duck!" I said.

"Wha- OW!" Danny was hit behind the head by the boomerang before it fell to the table. "What the? A boomerang?" He picked it up.

"It sure looks sleek and fancy," I said. "Is it another one of Mom and Dad's inventions?"

As if on cue, Mom and Dad rushed right in, both of them looking excited. Danny threw the boomerang, out of irritation, as it flew into the living room.

"I call it the Booooomerang. It locks in on the nearest ghost's unique ecto signature and seeks it out wherever it goes," Dad explained.

As if on cue, again, said 'Booooomerang' came back into the kitchen and hit Danny in the head again.

"Although why it's keying into Danny is way beyond me," Mom said when she caught it after it bounced off of Danny's poor head.

I think I know why it's been keying into Danny and not me. Dad said it locks in on the nearest ghost's unique ecto signature. Danny was standing an inch closer to the lab than I was, so therefore he was the closest and the Boomerang locked onto him instead of me. Even though we're twins, we're still different enough to have our own unique ecto signature, at least I think that's how it works.

"Maybe you shouldn't be throwing that too much, otherwise Danny will have a large bump on his head," I said while Danny was rubbing his now sore head.

"I could've sworn we set it to look for ghosts, not humans." Mom frowned. "Must be a bug in there somewhere."

"Hey, what're you two up to?" Dad asked, looking at the Career Aptitude Test sample. "One of those stupid CAT tests? I failed that and I didn't turn out to be a CAT."

Jazz frowned and Danny grumbled. I chuckled a bit, at least someone in my family agreed with me, even if he didn't know it.

"Try not to worry too much about the test, kids. Just try your best and study hard," Mom said.

"How'd you do on the test, Mom?" I asked.

"I had a high score though I'm not exactly a big wealthy woman. But I'm happy, I like with what I'm doing," Mom said.

Actually she could still be a big wealthy woman if she and Dad would sell some of their inventions, like the submarine I mentioned before, but I guess I can see why they never did since they've made them to specifically hunt ghosts.

With that said, she and Dad walked into the living room, presumingly to work on the Boomerang some more. I heard Danny give a sigh.

"This whole thing is just-"

Jazz was starting to sneeze.

"What's with you?" Danny asked, looking at a little girl ghost.

"I am Box Lunch! Daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!" She declared.

"Um… eeew!" Danny looked in disgust.

A big box came down and smacked me in the face.

I blinked… what was- was that a vision?

"-stupid!" Danny finished.

"Choo!" Jazz sneezed.

Suddenly my throat became hot as a dark blue mist left my mouth, and a lighter blue mist came out of Danny's mouth at the same time, signalling a ghost was nearby.

I looked back to see… that ghost girl… Box Lunch…? From my vision seconds ago. Wait, when did Box Ghost and Lunch Lady… get together like that? How do ghosts even have kids? ... You know what? I don't want to know.

"Now get out of our room!" Danny yelled to Jazz.

"We're in the kitchen," Jazz pointed out.

"Uh Jazz, we have something to take care of… alone," I told her.

Jazz blinked before her eyes widen and nodded, "O-oh, right, then I'll just leave you two alone for the next several minutes!" Then she quickly left the kitchen.

Did she have to add in 'next several minutes' bit?

I looked back at Box Lunch, trying to figure her out, before I noticed something around her neck. Wait… is that…?

"What's with you?" Danny asked when he noticed her.

"I am Box Lunch! Daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!" She declared.

"Um eeew!" Danny said in disgust.

I turned intangible just as a big box was about to hit me. I sighed in relief, that wouldn't have been comfortable.

"And now face my tasty wrath of doom!" She shouted.

I watched as she covered her body with food boxes, making an armor of cans and boxes.

"She is definitely Box Ghost and Lunch Lady's child," I said.

"Going ghost!" Danny transformed into his ghost form. "Well Andy, are you going to talk to her too?"

I transformed into my own ghost form. "I don't think there's anything I can say to her right now."

I say this because of the thing she's wearing around her neck. If that is what I think it is, then she'll attack us no matter what I say.

"Then we fight!" Danny jumped at her, tackling Box Lunch out of her flimsy armor of snack food.

I followed him out of the house, firing ghost rays at her. Danny flew up close to punch her. She was getting overwhelmed by us pretty quickly.

Box Lunch floated over the Nasty Burger and fired burgers at us.

"Danny, look out!" I yelled to my brother.

Box Lunch had summoned hot burgers from the Nasty Burgers under us. People were screaming in panic that their food was 'coming to life'.

Danny turned intangible as I flew up, making the burgers miss us completely.

"Oh come on, if you're really the daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, ew, then you know how this ends!" Danny said.

Box Lunch slammed Danny down into the Nasty Burger, which caused people to run out of the place screaming their heads off.

I flew down after them before grabbing the little girl's feet and slammed her into the wall while I heard some of the employees yelling about the sauce.

"Who sent you here, Box Lunch?" I demanded.

"What makes you think anyone sent me?" She snapped back.

I grabbed the medallion around her neck, "This thing around your neck! It's a Time Medallion, isn't it?"

She frowned in confusion before I heard Danny yell from behind me, "Bro, look out!"

I turned to see Danny throwing a packet of Nasty sauce and moved away. The packet landed on Box Lunch's hat.

"Hey Box Lunch, beware!" Danny mocked as he fired a small ghost ray at the packet.

"Wait, Danny I was trying to ask her something!" I yelled.

"Too late now, brace yourself!" Danny yelled back.

The Nasty sauce packet was getting bigger and bigger. Oh crud… I turned intangible just before a big BOOM thrust me back. I yelped as I went through the window, literally, and landed outside. I looked over to see Danny had landed beside me, both of us were covered in hot sauce… while we were intangible? Don't ask me, I don't understand ghost logic. Remind me to not eat Nasty Burger's sauce… ever.

"LORD OF THE FLIES! RUN!" I heard Mr. Lancer's voice yelling before everyone ran away screaming.

"The Nasty Burger is a mess," I said as I stood up, seeing a big hole in the wall from that one sauce.

"What was that?" Sam asked as she and Tucker ran up to us.

"That was Box Lunch, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady," Danny said.

"Yikes," Tucker said.

"Actually it's more of an 'ew'. I don't know what's going on…" Danny said.

I looked down at the road and saw the medallion that was around Box Lunch's neck had bounced out here. I picked it up and examined it. … Yup, it's a Time Medallion alright, which means Clockwork is at work right now. I can't believe all this is happening right now.

"Hey bro, what's wrong?" Danny asked.

"You look a little pale… well more than usual," Sam said.

"This…" I said, holding the Time Medallion. "It's…"

"Hey, maybe I can look at it with my PDA," Tucker suggested.

"But it's-"

"Hey, what…?" Danny peeled something off behind him.

I forgot what I was going to say for a moment when I saw what it was; the folder of the Career Aptitude Test… the very answers Mr. Lancer was flaunting to us earlier.

"Oh my gosh, it's the answers to the C.A.T.!" Danny said after he looked at it. "HELLO BRIGHT FUTURE!"

"You're not seriously going to look at the answers, are you?" Tucker said.

"Of course I am, aren't you?" Danny smiled as he turned back to human… and all the hot sauce that was on him disappeared. Ghost logic.

"Danny, please don't," I said, changing back to human myself. "The point of the test is to test your skills and intelligence. Let's just return that Mr. Lancer, okay?"

"Come on, bro, I'm holding the key to a bigger and better future for us," Danny said. "Maybe fate decided this, shouldn't we at least take it?"

"Danny…" I frowned. "Do you really want to do that?"

"... Alright look, let's just go home and try to figure this out first, okay?" Danny suggested.

I looked down at the Time Medallion in my hand. Should I tell them? Would Clockwork even want me to? Is cheating the thing that leads to the despair that mysterious voice warned me about? If it is then I have to stop it… somehow…

DarkFoxKit: I've always wondered why Mr. Lancer was stressing the students out so much and seem to believe most if not none of them would even pass? He was really condescending in the episode and it bothered me, especially since it contradicted his attitude in the Teacher of the Year episode. So I'll be making my own headcanon reason why he's acting like the way he is. Anyways, time to answer your reviews.

sjsreader: I'm glad to hear that you liked the character development I have for Jazz here. And yes, Andy being the logical one does help her to see things in other perspective. And yay, here's the chapter you've been so patiently waiting for! :D

OMNISENSE95: I think Andy would do that to Dan seeing his reaction in this chapter. ^^'

Blue: Hah! XD Well I don't know when I'll get to the crossover, but I did at least start on it. And I love that you enjoyed the reference so much, seeing that picture of Andy staring down Monokuma just made me had to put in a reference somewhere. X3

ZAFT Prime: I find the C.A.T. more fun to write about with Andy because he points out how ridiculous it is to have one test determine someone's future, especially since it's teenagers taking it. Teenagers aren't stupid, but they often don't have the best... studying methods and attention spans. So I find it quite unfair all in all and so does Andy.

leslidannyphantom: Andy trying to bring peace instead of war. X3 And that is an awesome picture, I love how you made Andy as a fox. It went perfectly to the Megalovania lyrics I was listening to while looking at the picture.

Luna Lillyth: Thank you for reading the chapter and reviewing. :D

Mana: Yeah, I didn't see any real reason for Danny and Andy to have to fight and capture Youngblood. Youngblood in the episode wasn't really all that bad, and he didn't cause any real trouble to anyone unlike when he was being a pirate. Plus I think Youngblood could potentially be a nice ghost if someone just showed him the right way. And Forever Phantom was one of my favorites in Season 3 because I loved seeing how much his parents cared for Danny and it was also pretty funny to watch. They could've had the potential to have Danny show his true identity to his parents, but I was a little disappointed they didn't. Oh well.

Hopefully I can get to the Christmas episode soon. I've been wanting to write about Andy's fear of Bearbert coming to life literally right in front of Jazz. XD

I guess that's what money can do to people if they let it go to their heads. Hopefully I can avoid that when the time comes for me to write for Livin' Large.

SolarShade: I don't remember making a lot of references to Frisk's Determination. If I used the word 'determination' it's just the word itself, not an intended reference. The Fox heads are inspired from Sans' Gaster Blasters, but they're not intended to be a replica of it. They aren't bones, they're just shaped like skulls but they are made of pure fire and they don't shoot beams they shoot heat.

Just another fan: Nice Undertale reference. XD And wow, I loved how you reacted to my little Danganronpa reference. :D

Raidentensho: Uh... I only understood half of what you said. ^^' But right now I only intend for Andy to fight with his Plasma Rod the same way he has been.

Guest: Normally I would only respond to people reviewing on the current chapter, but I feel I must say this... Why does it make me an idiot to not like Phantom Planet? And 'perfect ending' my foot. There were a lot of things wrong with how it ended, but as Pinkiepie12 said; it's just my opinion. So please don't start insulting people just because their opinion is different from yours. If you liked Phantom Planet, fine, but don't insult someone just because they don't.

Pinkiepie12: The C.A.T. is pretty much like how any of those kinds of tests are in school. I've always found it ridiculous. And I hope you enjoyed seeing future Andy in this chapter. ;P

GhostWriter008: Yeah, I know my grammar isn't the best, but I am working to improve it. Thank you for your support despite these errors, some people just get turned off by this alone and stop reading it... after insulting me about my writing of course.
I like your speculation on Dustin, however nothing is revealed yet and I'll let you continue on your speculation until then.

Andy's FanGirl: It'll happen after The Ultimate Enemy. And yes, that is what I'm waiting to write myself. :D Also, love the name you gave yourself. X3

Joltik12: Hope you don't mind I've decided to answer your reviews last since you put up a lot of them. ^^' Anyways, I'm glad you said the peaceful resolution was inspired by Undertale rather than me copying it. Danny isn't stupid, but he just didn't think ghosts like Youngblood would listen to him if he just talked to him. After all Danny's been fighting with ghosts longer than Andy has and he's used to just fighting first and ask questions later. Um... which Andy are you talking about? The current one or the future one?

It's flattering to know you've reread the chapter 3 times. XD Uh... Andy's not going to lose his powers in The Ultimate Enemy, not really sure what gave you that idea. Unless you're talking about future Andy. And since Andy isn't here right now, maybe I can answer those questions for you? Or would you rather ask again when I bring Andy back? Also... you ship me with my own character? O.O' That's like shipping a mother with her son.

Heh... well on the plus side, it was because of this comment that I'm thinking about bringing him back, so there's that, right?