DarkFoxKit: Hey readers. Sorry I'm being slow again. I've been working a lot on Child of Mew, The RESET Warfare and A Cold Reality that I haven't had time to work on We Are Phantoms lately. Please try to bear with me and be patient. This would be a lot easier if I was in a Danny Phantom, but sadly I'm not. Now I do plan on updating more, however I ask that you all be patient with me for the time being.
Andy: You never did say you were through with the hiatus.
DarkFoxKit: No, I wasn't, but I didn't want to let the fans down. They've been looking forward to this for a while.
Andy: You shouldn't force yourself. If you force yourself, the story won't turn out as good as it could've been had you wrote it with passion.
DarkFoxKit: *sigh* I know.
Andy: Maybe you should take a break from working on your other stories for the time being then.
DarkFoxKit: Yeah, I need to make time for this one.
Andy: Oh, sorry about that readers, we know you were expecting a funnier AN, but this is just to tell you DarkFoxKit here has been running herself ragged lately. But she does it because she cares about you guys, so try to support her any way you can.
DarkFoxKit: Don't say that, now they'll think I'm just saying this for their reviews. Which I'm not, I just want to make sure you guys understand why I've been slow lately.
Andy: What's wrong with a little support? Fine, you self conscious fox.
DarkFoxKit: They've been showing me support. And I appreciate it. I just hate to ask them to be patient with me because I want them to be able to enjoy the story without having to wait so long. Speaking of which, you guys go ahead and read the chapter now.
Chapter 37: Future Andy
When everything went quiet and I heard nothing but breathing, I slowly began to open my eyes. When I did I saw I was in what appears to be my own house…? It was a lot messier here, almost looked abandoned. Valerie was there too, but she didn't seem quite as surprised.
"What…? How'd we get here?" I asked.
"Cutting it a little close there, don't you think?" Valerie said to nobody in particular… I think.
"Huh?" I blinked at her.
"You might as well come out, nothing happened to Dan when he came in contact with his past self," Valerie said nonchalantly.
"What?" Now that sentence intrigued me, because it could mean several things, but the most logical thing to believe is that she's talking to a future me.
I noticed someone coming from behind the kitchen wall, the person was about the same height as Valerie if not a little taller, he wore similar pants to mine, and he also wore a dark blue coat. He had his hood up, so it was a little hard to see his face, but I have no doubt who this is.
"You…" I said, feeling both amazed and awkward.
The figure pulled down their hood, revealing their face. It still shocked me to see my own face on him even knowing who he was. It's one thing to know something, it's another to actually see it. His face looked like mine, the same eyes and hair style, he just looked more… mature than I do.
"Heh… I didn't think I'd finally meet my past self face to face," he said.
"You say that like you knew this would happen," I said.
"I know Clockwork personally, you think this wouldn't happen eventually? Besides, this isn't technically our first meeting." he smiled.
It isn't? The future Andy must've noticed my confused look, because he gave a chuckle before he said, "Do you remember those dreams of Dan? And those voices you'd hear in your head occasionally?"
Realization hit me like a truck, "That was all you?"
Future Andy nodded, "Yes, it was."
"But why? A-and… how?" I asked, feeling confused.
"My temporal powers are different from yours, and I was also struck by an incident with a Time Medallion when I was fighting with Dan," he answered. "It made me lose my ghost side, but I gained more control over my temporal powers. Because of this, I'm able to communicate with you via dreams or when your future visions kick in as they are links between the past and future. My actual temporal power is the ability to stop time on those around me, though I can't hold that forever."
"Andy," Valerie spoke up, catching both my and my future self's attention. "Uh… my Andy, so you saved us with your time stopping powers, right?"
"Yup," he nodded.
"Did you know that your brother from the past, back when he was innocent and a hero, is here?" Valerie asked.
"You basically just told me he was when you said Dan came in contact with his past self," he answered.
"Wait… so you know about us being half ghosts?" I asked Valerie.
"I only found out a few weeks ago," she answered. "Your future self here told me everything when Dan killed my father and almost destroyed Fenton Works."
"Wait, you mean Dan's been here for a few weeks?" I asked.
"Yes, he's taking his time on destroying everything and hunting down everyone," Future Andy said. "He wants to drag out the fun I guess, and we've been trying to slow him down. But nothing we do will stop him, this present is pretty much doomed."
"I'm tired of your give up attitude, there's always a way!" Valerie snapped at him.
"Yes, there is," he said. "And I'm looking at him."
"What? Y-you mean me?" I frowned.
"Well in a sense," he said. "More specifically I mean the only real way to change this future is to change the past. I've been trying to send warnings to you whenever I could to try and prevent the disaster that turned our brother into this destructive demon, but he still exist… so evidently I've failed."
"You said this happened after the C.A.T. right? Maybe there's still time to stop it," I said. "And Danny won't- wait… Danny! He's still out there with Dan!"
"I wouldn't worry about your brother," Future Andy said. "Dan won't kill him, if he did then he'll cease to exist."
"So what are we going to do?" Valerie asked.
"I'd say the best thing we can do right now is sending my past self back to his own timeline," Future Andy said. "As he is now, Dan would rip him to shreds and I won't exist anymore. Perhaps he could still stop the disaster that brought this future in the first place."
"And how are we going to do that?" Valerie asked.
"Simple; take off the medallion he's wearing on his neck. It's what's keeping him tethered to this time period," Future Andy said, pointing at the Time Medallion around my neck.
"But what about Danny?" I asked. "I rather he came back with me."
"Don't you worry about Danny, I'll make sure my… your… brother makes it back safely," Future Andy said. "You have to go back and make sure the disaster never strikes."
"... The Nasty Burger… that's where it happens, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes," Future Andy nodded. "You'll have to go back and see if you can stop it. Leave your brother in my hands, okay? I'll make sure he gets back safely."
I took the Time Medallion in my hand, should I really leave it up to my future self? He's me, but it looks like he's been through hell .
Future Andy gave me a sad smile. I looked at him before he said, "Take care of yourself, and your brother, always cherish what you have."
Future Andy took his hand off my forehead before he took my Time Medallion and slipped it off my neck.
"See you in another time, preferably a more peaceful one, Andy," Future Andy said as everything around me began to get disoriented.
When I was able to open my eyes again, I found myself standing in the living room, only it was much cleaner. I looked around before looking out the window, the town wasn't in ruin, and I think I can hear Mom and Dad doing stuff in their lab again. Yup, I'm definitely in the present. I think I better go find Tucker and Sam and see if we can stop the Nasty Burger explosion, I just hope my future self will be able to get my brother back here in one piece.
Then the door opened.
I hope my past self can stop Dan before it's too late. "Come on, Val, we've got a young hero to save."
"You've become such a risk taker in these past ten years. I remember when you used to get paranoid over everything," Valerie said while rolling her eyes, but I could see a slight smile on her face.
"When things goes to hell like this, you really can't afford to lose your mind over every little thing," I said with a bitter tone.
"Yeah… so how are we going to save your past brother from his evil future self? I don't think he'd kill him because if he did then he'd cease to exist… and so would we," Valerie said.
"Ah yes, time shenanigans, don't you just love it?" I frowned. "It's too bad that if this timeline ceases to be, so would we. But I don't care, I don't want to live in a future like this."
Valerie nodded, "Me neither. That ghost took everything away from me! My home, my family, everything… we're pretty much all that's left now."
"Then we better make it count," I said. "Let's hurry before Dan gets the idea to use Danny's Time Medallion to go back in time."
Valerie activated her hoverboard. I jumped on it behind her and we took off. I looked around to try and find my brother… both of them. It wasn't hard to find them, because the powerful aura both past and present Danny exhibit was by the Nasty Burger.
"There," I pointed.
Valerie landed a few feet away so they wouldn't hear us coming.
I took the lead and tried to get in closer while keeping close to the ground. I could see my past brother Danny was still unconscious, but he was tied up with ecto strings that he wouldn't be able to break out of as human or ghost.
Dan was nearby. Just seeing him gave me the chills, he was not only powerful but scary in other ways. He was insane yet intelligent, he wants nothing more than destruction yet he can reason. He's not only strong but he's smart, which makes him a very dangerous enemy.
I wasn't sure how I was going to get smaller Danny out of this without some kind of fight, and us being the losing team, being broken out… that is until Danny started waking up.
"Ugh… what…?" I stayed hidden and gestured Valerie to keep her head down. "Mom…? Dad?"
Danny must've seen the statues of our deceased family and friends. I don't know why they're all together while Mr. Lancer got his own statue.
"Where's the Nasty Burger?" He asked himself before turning around, seeing it in rubble.
You know, I'm surprised Danny didn't ask why he's tied up or tried to break out of it, I mean that's what I and any other sensible person would do. I guess he's too shocked seeing the statue of his friends and family as memorials and all.
Dan decided to make his presence known to his past self as he walked up to the fallen sign of the Nasty Burger, "Strange how overheating some condiments could ruin your whole future."
Danny looked down at himself, "Where's the Time Medallion?"
I would've asked why he'd tie me up for, but I guess the Time Medallion thing was a valid question too. After all if he didn't have it on him then how is he still in this time period?
"I fused it inside you," Dan answered. "Nice huh? It's unreachable for you whether you're ghost or human, which means you can't go back in your own time."
Now that's disturbing. Wouldn't Danny feel the cold metal of the Time Medallion inside his body? That would be very uncomfortable. Where did Dan put it and how far inside? Must be pretty deep if Danny himself wouldn't be able to reach it without help.
"It doesn't matter if I go back or not, I'll never turn into you, never!" Danny snapped.
"Of course you will." Dan smirked as rings of light appeared on his torso and split horizontally.
I hadn't seen that kind of transformation in years, I remember when he first used it to trick Valerie and me.
Dan turned into his human form… his 14 year old self. To this day I still didn't know if he was able to transform to look like his past human self or if this was his human self before he killed him and turned his corpse into his puppet that he use to look human. That was a really dark thought, so I prefer to think of this as a transformation.
Danny himself looked really shocked, not that I blame him, I would be too.
"It's only a matter of time," Dan said in his older voice that didn't sound right with his younger self.
"Andy if we're going to save your past brother, we should move now," Valerie whispered to me.
I nodded to her, I could see Dan was already opening the portal to the Ghost Zone. It was time to move in.
"Then it's time to vaporize you, ghost!" Valerie shouted, getting Dan's attention.
Dan looked at her in shock before she blasted him with her bazooka. I ran over to my past brother and grabbed onto the ecto rope that had him tied up.
"Y-you…?" Danny looked at me, completely surprised. "A… Andy…?"
"No time to talk, let's get out of here," I said urgently.
The ropes were too strong and too tight, I'll have to carry him. I grabbed onto Danny and lifted him bridal style. Danny yelped in shock as I carried him away.
"Keep him distracted, Val!" I yelled to my partner.
"What's going on? Are you really my brother?" Danny asked, still in shock.
"Yes and no," I answered.
I could hear blasts being thrown in the sky. I knew Valerie was fighting against Dan. I want to help her, but I have to get Danny to safety. After that I'll have to figure out a way to remove the Time Medallion from inside of him… that's going to get messy.
I was heading towards what used to be Casper High when a leg, that's right a leg, came out of the ground and I had no time to react before I tripped over it. I gave a surprised yelp as I fell to the sidewalk and dropped Danny in the process.
"Ow! What the?" Danny groaned.
I got to my hands to look at what I just tripped over and… what the? A ghost came out, but it wasn't like the other ghosts from the Ghost Zone and it wasn't Dan either. This ghost looked to be around teenager age and looked almost human if it weren't for the green skin and red eyes.
"What do you think you're doing?" The ghost kid said. "Trying to save this kid? He's the one who's responsible for this future! Don't be an idiot and kill him while you still have the chance!"
I glared at this ghost kid, "You're… Dustin, right? What makes you think I'll kill my own brother in cold blood?"
"IDIOT! You said it yourself; your brother is dead. You might as well kill him now to save yourself the trouble of facing his far stronger counterpart!" Dustin snapped hotly. "He's tied up, he can't do anything! Kill him now before Dan finds you!"
"I'm not killing Danny. My own brother may be dead, but this Danny's still alive and himself. It would be wrong to kill an innocent person, and even though I hate Dan, I still love Danny," I said calmly.
"Ugh! You haven't changed, you are still the merciful idiot that you were ten years ago!" Dustin growled. "Fine, if you won't end it then I will!"
I stood in front of Danny as Dustin summoned his swords.
"Stay back," I hissed. "If you fight me here, you'll draw Dan's attention to yourself, and I know you don't want that."
"No, I don't, but if I can strike at the boy's heart faster than Dan can get to me then that's all that matters!" Dustin snapped. "You've seen how terrible this life is for both humans and ghosts, why would you let the very thing that destroyed everything and everyone, to live? The longer he's kept the alive the more you risk Dan finally killing you off and destroying the world for good."
"No!" Danny shouted from behind me. "I promise I won't turn into that!"
"As if we could believe you!" Dustin snapped at him. "The fact that Dan still exist means that you'll turn into him despite your petty promise!" Then he turned his glare back to me. "Andy, you've been suffering yourself all these years because of what your brother's done, why not take revenge on his weaker, younger self while you still can? It would be justice after all, nobody would blame you."
I could hear Danny taking a sharp intake of air.
"I already told you; I'm not killing Danny. The fact that he's here at all proves that Clockwork has a plan to fix this terrible future, a future that never should've come to be," I said. "I still remember that peaceful future I saw back when Danny was corrupted by the power in Freakshow's orb… a future that was unfortunately erased because of what happened with the Nasty Burger. Even though it's too late for me, I intend to bring back that future for my own past self even at the cost of my own life and existence. Heck I've risked it once before, what's it matter if I did again? Besides, I don't really have anything left to lose at this point anyways."
"That so-called peaceful future you saw was only an illusion! It was just a dream brought onto you because of how pathetically hopeless you were!" Dustin snapped angrily. "Don't waste your time on an illusion! Kill him now and this future will be erased anyways! You could live a much better future without that boy!"
Danny was being very quiet.
I couldn't help but give a chuckle, "You know it's funny… I used to think the same way with Danny being better off without me. After all, I did screw up time and space more than once, and I didn't deserve a second chance. If I'm going to kill off Danny because of his own mistake, that would make me a hypocrite and I might as well kill myself while I'm at it."
"I don't care about how you feel! Just take out Danny or we're all dead either way!" Dustin shouted before running at me with those swords.
"Look out!" Danny yelled.
I shoved my hand in front and stopped Dustin in time. His body was frozen, and I threw him a few good feet away.
"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Danny asked. "And not even in your ghost form?"
I turned back to him. The innocent look in his blue eyes made me steal my determination to save him from this fate.
I picked him up and head on into the school, hoping Valerie managed to escape from Dan. Once I was inside the abandoned building, I placed Danny down next to the lockers.
"I don't have a ghost form anymore," I told my past brother. "I've lost my ghost powers eight years ago."
"What?" Danny stared at me. "Y-you did? But then how did you do that thing where you telekineticed Dustin away like that?"
"That wasn't telekinesis, that was my temporal power," I said. "It's something I've always had after the whole Halfa era fiasco even as a human. There is one other power I got to keep despite not having ghost powers anymore, but let's hope I don't have to use it."
"... Andy… did I… really do all of this?" Danny asked me.
I could see the innocence yet horror in his eyes. It was so different from Dan yet exactly how I remembered who Dan used to be. It almost made me want to cry.
"... No… you are dead," I said, making him cringe a bit. "That thing is just a demon that was the result of a terrible accident."
"... Andy… could you please tell me how this happened?" Danny said.
I frowned and wondered if it was a good idea to tell him… eh, why the heck not?
"... It was ten years ago… dating back to about your present. It was after the C.A.T., Mr. Lancer called our parents to meet him at the Nasty Burger… Our parents, Jazz, Tucker and Sam were all there. A heater or something might've been too close to the spicy sauce, because the entire Nasty Burger exploded. Only you and I survived because we instinctively went intangible, but everyone else weren't so lucky… Since we didn't have anywhere else to go, other than our irritable aunt in Arkansas, we decided to live with Vlad. Vlad actually isn't so bad once you get to know him. He's been nothing but kind and supportive since we've lost everyone."
Danny stared at me, but I continued as I tried to untie the ecto ropes. Dan sure knew how to make this impossible to untie for a human.
"If it means anything, they didn't suffer any pain before death. I wish the same could be said for us. Their deaths affected us in different ways, both negative," I continued.
"How so?" Danny asked.
"I began drowning myself in research about ghosts and how our powers work, doing everything I can to ignore my own emotions. You, however, fell into depression," I said. "I knew I should've done something, anything to help you out of the dark hole, but I didn't. I was too busy trying to ignore my own feelings to care about yours. I left you to rot in your own despair, because I was too afraid to talk to you and face my own despair."
"So… what happened?"
I gave a sigh as I gave up on trying to untie the stupid ecto ropes. I hated myself for what happened between me and my own brother.
"... Well… after a while, your depression finally got the best of you… I guess most of it was my fault since I locked my own emotions away. You told Vlad you wanted him to remove your emotions. You didn't want to lock them away like I did because you knew you'd still be bitter and cold. You wanted to live a carefree life without human emotion weighing you down. So you asked Vlad to remove your ghost half from your human half…" I stopped here. This part is what became really dark and messy, and to this day I still couldn't get over how terrified Danny looked before…
"So… he did it?" Danny asked, looking in concern, probably noticing my guilty face.
I put my hands over my face to wipe it before I said, "Oh he did it alright… I still can't believe he actually took such a dangerous request. He used these Ghost Gauntlets that phases through human skin. He used it to grab onto your core, where your ghost half resided. As soon as he pulled it out… well, I'm still not entirely sure what happened to this day, but I assumed your ghost half felt like he was under some kind of attack because he shoved Vlad away. Soon after, he grabbed onto the Ghost Gauntlets himself and pulled the ghost half out of Vlad. And after he did, he flew into Vlad's ghost to overshadow him, but… well… something about your pure ghost halves began to connect and the two fused together. I can only assume this happened because both of your ghost halves were missing the other halves and they naturally tried to replace it with each other. The two transformed into what you see now as Dan. I was there to see your human half shivering in the corner just as Dan… well… let's just say things got much worse without your human half after that."
"... I see…" Danny looked down.
"Listen, it's not your fault. Dan is not you, I don't see him as the same person as you are," I said. "He killed you as far as I'm concerned."
Danny sighed, "So what should we do now? I can't exactly go back home to my timeline if I can't get the Time Medallion out of me!"
"Do you remember those Ghost Gauntlets I told you about?" I asked.
Danny blinked at me, "What about them?"
"Vlad still has those," I said. "I can take you back to his place and with his help we can get you untied and remove the Time Medallion."
"Wait, Vlad? He's still alive?" Danny asked in shock.
I nodded to him, "Yes. I still live with him, even though I travel alone. But if we're to reach him, we'll have to use the Ghost Zone. It's shorter than having to walk there, and it'll keep us hidden from Dan."
"The Ghost Zone?" Danny blinked. "But how will we get there?"
I opened up my old locker and dug into it. "I've kept some of the more powerful ghost inventions my parents made before their demise. Vlad's been helping me upgrade some of these for different uses. Ah, here we go."
I took out a bazooka-like device.
"How's a bazooka going to help?" Danny asked.
"It looks like a bazooka, but it's been reconstructed," I said. "It can open a portal into the Ghost Zone."
I shot the bazooka in front of us, turning into a green portal.
"Now the ghosts in the Ghost Zone may try to hunt you down," I said as I put the bazooka down. "So try not to get separated from me while we're in there."
"Got it," Danny said nervously.
I grabbed onto him before jumping into the portal. This is going to be one hectic ride.
sjsreader: Hah, I like how you worded that about 'heroic Andy'. XD What were Tucker and Sam supposed to say? 'OH MY GOSH! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ALMOST DIDN'T EXIST!' Doesn't really seem appropriate in the situation they're in right now. I suppose they could've said something more, but they were in shock about it, and they wanted to know what's going on presently than focus on what could've happened but didn't. Come to think of it, Andy hasn't spent a lot of time around Tucker and Sam... maybe I should fix that.
OMNISENSE95: I guess you found out.
spatterson: Yeah, hopefully we'll get there soon.
Blue: Um... I never said we were back to weekly updates. So sorry to disappoint you. I'm surprised not a lot of people have tried to guess what Dustin's role is. And well, finally Future Andy comes in. XP I haven't been able to focus on the crossover since I've been doing three other stories right now, but no I haven't heard about Journal 3 being released. I haven't seen it anywhere. But someone seems pretty excited for it. ^^'
Andy: W-wah? Hey! Stop calling me a cute dork! DX
Auguste the clown: I wonder what you'll be expecting this chapter then? Meeting Future Vlad?
BLINIX: Yeah, I think Dan is really OP, or at least in a lot of fanfiction he is. In the show he was pretty dang powerful, which makes sense since he's a fusion between Vlad Plasmius and Danny Phantom, which makes me wonder... why doesn't anyone say Vlad was evil? Dan is a mix of both. The Observants and even Clockwork just say it's Danny.
Luna Lillyth: Yeah, it's really the darkest the series have ever gotten and it's a shame they never continued it. The show was cancelled before Dan could return, which is a big slap in the face when you watch the end of The Ultimate Enemy, knowing it will never happen.
Andy's Fangirl: Dan knows a lot about Future Andy and vice versa. And as you can see, Future Andy explained his situation to present Danny.
GhostWriter008: I don't do crossovers with my ANs. ^^' It would be too long then, maybe even become a story itself. Dustin does seem to be pretty involved, but why? :3
Andy: What? Why would... *pales* No! NO! NO! NO! I will NOT become Bearbert! How could you even say such a thing?
leslidannyphantom: Thank you. Dustin's really not happy with Andy right now. XD
Andy: What? I'm not awesome... And I don't really have a favorite music, I just like hearing what I like to hear. Singing? Me? I don't sing. I don't think Danny sings either.
DarkFoxKit: What about the time you sung a parody of Hellfire?
Andy: That doesn't count! And why would Ember ever let me sing a duet? She even says she doesn't do duets herself! DX
Mana: Yeah, that does seem to be the typical teenage reaction to a cool power when watching TV. But I'd like to go with that Danny's trying to cope with himself, not liking the idea that he'll be evil in the future and destroying cities. Future Dustin?
I suppose it would be, but I rather not. ^^' I don't really want to get into Dan's POV myself.
That's a nice theory, but Dustin doesn't really care enough for Andy to risk doing that.
Yeah, I decided to research it myself so I can put a fitting personality for Future Box Ghost.
Well Maddie might be more competent, Jack on the other hand... yeah, it'll be another Jazz incident but probably worse. ^^'
ZAFT Prime: Andy by himself can't prevent the future, but that doesn't mean he'll be alone. Fan art? Oooh, Andy's getting more fan art. c:
Cinnabon6: Thank you. Your kind words really made my day. Actually what inspired me to do an OC like this is another fanfiction in the Naruto fandom called Dreaming of Sunshine. The author did a great job with their OC fitting in perfectly with the canon universe. I was hoping to do the same with Andy when I created him, I'm glad to know I succeeded. I didn't give Andy powers in the first book because I wanted to people to like him for who he is, not what he has like most OCs. When I finished the first book, I've decided it was the right time to finally give him powers. It felt like Andy deserved it after all he's been through in the first book, and I'm happy to see the fans agree. If I had given it to him at the beginning, I'm pretty sure fans would groan a bit and say that the author's favoritism is what gave him powers. I'm very happy to know I've done a great job with Andy and I hope it'll continue to be a success. Thank you for reading and supporting the story.
GuneapigsplayMC: Of course I'm going to finish it, it's just taking a while because I've been doing other things right now. Why would I end it like that? And just because I haven't updated in a few weeks doesn't mean I've stopped writing it. ^^' This is why I'm asking for fans to be patient, because I'm behind in We Are Phantoms right now. I'm glad you like it and wish to see more.
Guest: That's the plan.