DarkFoxKit: What's this? A new update? Yup, got a new update.

Andy: *was playing on a handheld.*

DarkFoxKit: Andy, what are you doing? Don't you know it's rude to ignore people?

Andy: Hmm? You mean you're actually updating now?

DarkFoxKit: Yes.

Andy: Ah, okay. *Looks up from the handheld* Hey everyone. Still reading the story? Yes? Okay good. Enjoy this next one. *Goes back to the game.*

DarkFoxKit: ... Andy! You're not Chiaki! You gotta greet the readers better than that!

Andy: Hey, I'm sure they're eager to get on with the story. No need to waste anymore of their time.

DarkFoxKit: *Sigh* Fine. Okay readers, you heard him, go and read the chapter. XP

Chapter 38: Ghostly Wail

Setting: Present

When the door opened, I thought it was Tucker and Sam coming in to see if Danny or I made it home.

"Guys! I'm glad you're here, we need to-" I stopped when I saw who it actually was.

"Hey bro, good to see you home." It was Danny.

"Danny…? I thought you were still in the future, fighting with… yourself," I said, looking at Danny. Something just didn't feel right.

"I defeated my other self quite easily, so there's no need to worry about him anymore," Danny said. "I was just at Sam's place to play some video games with Tucker and Sam. We had some good laughs and raged against the machine."

"... Why were you playing video games? Aren't you worried about the C.A.T. tomorrow?" I asked.

"I'm not worried about the C.A.T., after all I'm confident in what my future is going to be," Danny said calmly.

Danny's not worried about the C.A.T. anymore? That doesn't seem right. Even after that whole 'Back to the Future' adventure, Danny should still be freaking out about it. Why would he just suddenly want to play video games when the C.A.T. is tomorrow?

"I see… so you're not worried about it anymore," I said, trying not to sound suspicious. "Hey, so how were you able to beat your other self? From what I could see, your future self was pretty strong and intimidating."

I noticed a faint prideful smile on Danny's lips, "Yeah, he was pretty strong and intimidating, but I still handled him. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room."

I watched as he flew up and went through the ceiling. That was not Danny… at least, not my brother Danny. I don't know how, but Dan disguised himself as my human brother. Oh this is bad… if Dan's here, then what happened to my Danny?

"Andy?"

I looked up to see Jazz, and she looked pretty ticked off about something. She was holding Danny's backpack.

"Jazz… what's wrong?"

"Andy… did you know that Danny stole the test answers to the C.A.T.?" She asked me.

My stomach sunk, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she found out.

Jazz didn't give me time to answer before she said, "Mr. Lancer came to me earlier… he said that he knows Danny has the test answers, and he's giving him until the C.A.T. tomorrow to bring it back to him. If he doesn't, then… Danny will fail. And you know what I found in Danny's backpack?"

I frowned as she pulled out the folder of the C.A.T. answers to show me. "I'm going to talk to him, Andy. I think it's time I told him the truth."

"Jazz… Danny isn't quite himself right now," I said, not sure how I should tell her.

"I don't care, he needs to hear this," Jazz said as she began going up the stairs.

"Wait Jazz!" I hurried and grabbed her arm. "Please, Danny isn't-"

"Ah, Jazz, coming to talk to me again?" I froze when 'Danny' stood above the stairs, looking at us.

"Yes, I need to talk to you about cheating," Jazz said with her lecturing tone, holding up the C.A.T. answers in front of him. "Danny, don't you realize what you're doing if you go through with this?"

"That I'll be ruining my future? Please, I don't need to hear your lecture, Jazz, especially since you don't even know the half of it," 'Danny' said as he grabbed the test answers and the backpack away from Jazz.

"Jazz, maybe we should leave him alone for a bit," I said, tugging on her arm but trying not to seem too suspicious.

Jazz shook her head. Ugh, Jazz! Of all times for you to decide to be as stubborn as a mule about this, why did it have to be now!?

"I'm telling him, Andy," she said before looking at Danny. "Danny, I actually do know, about everything. I know you're… I know that you're part ghost, and that you've been using your powers to protect this town from other ghosts. I've been covering for you from Mom and Dad because I'm proud of all the good that you do… until now."

'Danny' actually looked surprised at this, "You knew?"

"I know," Jazz nodded. "And that's why I wanted to confront you about this."

"Jazz," I said. "We really need to talk."

"Heh…" 'Danny' chuckled before he looked at me. "So you figured it out, Andy? You both were always smarter than I gave you credit for. If Andy knew I was half ghost, naturally Jazz would've known too."

Before either of us could do anything, 'Danny' summoned those rings of light on his torso before they split and changed him. But this time it wasn't the ghost form I have come to known, but rather… a being from my nightmares…

"W-what?" I almost couldn't breathe. I was expecting Dan… not…

Corrupted Danny gave that wicked smile at me.

"D-Danny?" Jazz squeaked, unsure what to make of this situation.

"Hey bro, remember me?" Corrupted Danny smirked.

I felt like throwing up. I never thought I would see him again!

"Jazz, if there was one word I could describe what to do right now… it's this…" I grabbed Jazz's arm and yelled, "Run!"

Setting: Future

"Well this is going to be a joyful ride through the Ghost Zone," I said as I held onto the past 14 year old Danny. We were floating through the Ghost Zone.

"How are we going to get to Vlad's place like this? Can you even fly around the Ghost Zone?" Danny asked.

"Unfortunately I left all my flying equipment back home," I said. "So we'll have to make do with swimming."

"Swimming?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, swimming," I said. "That's how we mortals move around in the Ghost Zone without ghost powers or a machine to fly around in."

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Danny grumbled.

"Don't get impatient on me now," I said.

"..." Danny sighed. "So what about Valerie? Will she be coming with us?"

I sighed at that, "... Valerie… I don't know. She may not even be alive anymore."

"What?" Danny frowned.

"She and I knew we had to bring you back to your own timeline, even if it means our deaths," I said. "Because only you can stop this from happening. If you can go back and stop the Nasty Burger from exploding or save everyone from the explosion, then this future will cease to exist, as well as everyone in it."

"Cease to exist…?" Danny looked down. "But why? Wouldn't the future just change into a different one?"

"Heh… in kid's cartoons maybe, but in reality our present have to be erased in order for the new one to exist," I answered. "But I'm fine with it, because it would mean a better future for everyone. Maybe it's my karma for not disappearing into the void the first time."

"But I didn't want you to disappear, Andy," Danny protested.

"Did you know there's a timeline where I did actually disappear?" I said. "I saw some of it myself. I wonder how different things would've been if you never had a twin brother, maybe not that different."

"Andy…"

Then a cold blue mist out of my brother's mouth. Uh-oh, looks like we've got some company.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The human brother of our enemy and his past weaker self all wrapped up in one nice little box."

I glared as I looked up at a familiar ghost, "Don't even think about it, Box Ghost."

Box Ghost had changed quite a lot over the years. He's a lot stronger now, and even creepy when he wants to be. He has a hook on his left hand and an eyepatch on his right eye. He and Dan had a few scuffles and Box Ghost sustained serious injuries, so much so that his ghost form could not recover from it. He's a lot more muscular than he was ten years ago, and he has a heart shaped tattoo on his arm with an arrow through it.

"That's the Box Ghost?" My younger past brother asked, sounding unsure and surprised.

"He's not a comedic idiot anymore if that's what you're thinking," I warned. "He's the leader of the ghost resistance here."

"Beware," Box Ghost hissed with intimidation before raising his hand and creating three cubic ectoplasm energy.

I couldn't navigate through the Ghost Zone very well like this. I pushed Danny back while Box Ghost threw those ecto cubes at me. The sharp burning pain blossomed in my chest as I was thrown back.

"Andy! I'm going ghost!" I opened my eyes in time to see Danny transformed into his ghost form, but he was still unable to really fight back or move with those ecto ropes binding him.

"Look out!" I struggled to move towards Danny and grab onto his feet… well I tried to. "Stop kicking your feet!"

"Ugh, I still can't get out of this!" Danny growled.

"It's made of ectoplasm, of course you can't get out of it!" I said.

Oh no… I see a fat but angry Ember up ahead. She held on her guitar as she glared at us. Danny noticed her too.

"What the…? What happened to Ember?" he said.

The fat Ember glared with hatred, "After you destroyed my vocal chords with that Ghostly Wail of yours, I lost everything!"

"And you also really let yourself go," I added.

Ember screeched angrily before she struck a chord on her guitar to lunge a big purple fist at us. I waved a hand over the fist, stopping it completely with my time power before moving Danny and myself out of the way before it moved again, passing us.

"Troublesome boy," I heard Box Ghost say in annoyance. "Get out of our way so we can have our revenge on this ghost boy!"

"Sorry, but I won't let you hurt my brother," I hissed, keeping Danny close to me.

"If we have to get through to you to get to him, then it'll be our pleasure. I've been waiting too long for this moment to let it go to waste."

I glared at Johnny 13. He was in a wheelchair and half bold. Dan really did a lot of damage to these ghosts, and I don't blame them for wanting to take their revenge out on his weaker past self, but I won't let them do that, not to Danny.

We were surrounded by the ghost resistance. They were all out for Danny's head. Box Ghost summoned more of his ecto cubes and Johnny 13 summoned his shadow.

"Alright, bring it on," I challenged.

"A-are you sure you can handle them? You don't have your ghost powers," Danny said in concern.

"I didn't survive this long by hiding and cowering in a cave," I said.

"And we are well aware how dangerous you can be," Skulltech said. "Which is why I'm here. We have invented a gadget that will use your own time powers against you."

"What?" That didn't sound good.

Skulltech let out some kind of weird whistling sound that was hardly noticeable.

"No! Andy!" Danny yelled in concern.

What was- I suddenly couldn't move. My entire body was frozen… by what? I wasn't hit by any stun rays or needles, what could… I was frozen in time? But how?

"Andy?" Danny poked me, but I still couldn't move.

"He's frozen in time," Skulltech said.

"Heh, the boy's too easy once you can use his own time powers against him," The Technus part said.

"And now that he's out of the way, we can deal with you." Box Ghost smiled wickedly.

I could do nothing but watch was the ghosts ganged up on Danny. I wanted to scream out for him, to help him, to do anything! But I couldn't. As long as Skulltech had his stupid whistle thing I was stuck. It hurt to see the brother I cared about, the brother before he became Dan, getting the ectoplasm beaten out of him from the vengeful ghosts.

"Please stop!" I heard Danny beg, which tore me up.

"Stop begging. You have no right to beg for mercy after everything you've done!" Johnny snapped.

"You are a danger to everyone you came in contact with," Skulltech hissed.

"That means your friends, your family, and more importantly, us," Ember added.

"But I didn't do any of that!" Danny yelled.

And he's right, this Danny is innocent. He can't be judged for something he hadn't done yet, and maybe he still may not do it. I need to help him, I've got to do something, I can't let him fight them alone! I tried to get my finger to twitch, I have to break out of this frozen temporal.

Danny screamed as he was was knocked back and hit me. I was still frozen in time, but he turned his head to look at me. He frowned, probably seeing the pain in my eyes for being so useless.

"We're going to make sure you can never cause trouble for us again," Box Ghost hissed as all the ghosts were getting ready for the final strike together.

No… no, no! Danny! I can't let them do this!

"No, stay away," Danny said as he stayed in front of me.

"And we'll get rid of that pest behind you too," Technus said.

"NO! GET AWA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-Y!" Danny screamed so loud that his voice boomed, it was so loud that it felt like my head was going to explode.

Wait, this sounds… familiar. Green sonic boom waves came out of Danny's mouth as they blew away all the ghosts in one fell swoop. If my face could pale right now, it would… that was… the Ghostly Wail. How? How did 14 year old Danny learn the Ghostly Wail? I just noticed the ecto rope around him faded away as he was using the Ghostly Wail.

I was able to move again, because he knocked Skulltech back. I'm going to have to take precaution next time so that doesn't happen again. But right now, I was more focused on Danny. He stopped to take a breath. His hair turned black and his eyes were blue. That Ghostly Wail must've taken a lot out of him, but I still wonder how was he able to use it at this early in his age? And more importantly… should I be worried? Dan's strongest ghost power is his Ghostly Wail, he used it to break down the Ghost Shield surrounding Amity Park. But if 14 year old Danny just learned it now, would that mean Dan would have early access to it? What does this mean for the timeline now?

"Whoa…" Danny looked at the ghosts in surprise. They had all been knocked out, some of them were deformed a bit from his Ghostly Wail. "Did I do that?"

"Danny…" I found myself speaking out loud.

"Andy! Are you okay?" He asked me in concern as his hair turned back to white and his eyes back to green. I guess the Ghost Zone provides him with enough ecto energy to keep him in his ghost form.

"I'm fine, but…" I looked at him. "You just did the Ghostly Wail. That's a power your future self shouldn't have gained until recently. The fact that you were able to use it just now worries me what this could mean for us."

"Oh great," Danny groaned. "Everywhere I look my evil future is smacking me in the face!"

"Now I wouldn't say that," I said. "This could also be a good thing. The Ghostly Wail is a very strong ghost power, not many ghosts can use it. I never learned it when I was still half ghost, I don't even know if I ever could learn it. Regardless, if we're able to prevent this future, then this new power will serve you well as a ghost fighting hero."

Danny blinked before he nodded to me.

"Well, it seems you're free now. That Ghostly Wail must've disrupted the ecto ropes around you," I said. "Which means you can take us to Vlad's portal in no time."

"Oh yeah." Danny smiled before taking my hand. "Are you sure he can help us?"

"Yeah, but I must warn you… Vlad's not exactly all there anymore since what happened ten years ago," I said.

"He's always been a fruit loop," Danny said as he flew us across the Ghost Zone. This was much better than that slow swimming.

Setting: Present

I dragged Jazz out of the house with me.

"Andy! What's going on? What happened to Danny?" She asked as we kept running.

I pulled her to an alleyway, hoping it would buy us some time. I grabbed my head and rubbed my hair. If this was a bad dream, then please wake me up!

"Andy! Calm down and tell me what's wrong?" Jazz yelled as she put her hands on my shoulder.

I looked up at her, trying to calm myself down. "Jazz, that wasn't Danny… at least I don't think it was…" Could that have been Dan or was it actually Danny but corrupted again? I don't even know anymore!

"Andy, please, you have to tell me what's wrong," Jazz said gently. "What's wrong with Danny?"

"That… I think that was… look, we went into the future and met up with an evil grown up Danny, we call him Dan. Dan is apparently all ghost and can transform, I think, to look like our Danny," I answered.

Jazz raised an eyebrow before frowning, "The future…? Okay, I won't even ask how that's even remotely possible since I remember you did go through some time shenanigans before, but if that was Danny's supposedly evil future self, then why did his ghost form look so young?"

"That… that shouldn't be his ghost form…" I hesitated. It can't possibly be Corrupted Danny, he's gone, I've stopped that from ever happening. "It was bigger and muscular… this is… this other form… it shouldn't exist…"

"Oh, but I do exist, bro, I'm still here as you can see."

My face felt cold as all the blood left it. I could see that familiar dark red hair, those blood red eyes, that sharp tooth and that creepy smile. He was right in front of me.

"I told you, you can't escape from me," Corrupted Danny whispered in my ear, making my entire body go fuzzy and numb.

"You're not Danny! He'd never do that to Andy!" I heard Jazz's voice snapped, and remembered she was here.

"Oh Jazz, if only you remembered what happened when I gained this much sleeker and better form back then," Corrupted Danny said to her before turning his attention back to me.

I wanted to scream, to run, to hide, to do anything but stand here, but my body wouldn't move! He put his red gloved hand with those sharp claw-like nails on my cheek.

"And I meant what I said: you will be mine," Corrupted Danny said.

Suddenly I felt really hot and like knives were shoved through me. I let out a scream as I was sure I was being electrocuted.

"Andy!" I heard Jazz scream out for me.

NO! THIS CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN! Please! I can't be the last human on Earth again! I can't let Corrupted Danny turn me into a corrupted half ghost! I have to… I have to fight back! I… I…!

"Enough, annoying girl!"

"Ah!"

I opened my eyes when I heard Jazz scream. She fell to the ground, her eyes closed. She looked unconscious… I hope she's just unconscious.

"D-Danny…?" I felt my heart beating against my chest.

Corrupted Danny smirked back at me, "Now hold still, Andy. This will hurt a lot."

I gasped as I felt the white hot pain again. He's trying to turn me into a halfa, I can't believe I failed to escape… Wait… wasn't I already a halfa? That's right, I didn't fail… this can't be Corrupted Danny. It's gotta be Dan, he must be using his shapeshifting powers to use my post trauma stress disorder against me. I've gotten over this, Danny is no longer the Corrupted Danny I fought months ago. He and I made peace, this isn't him. I have to stop him before he hurt more people and ruin our future.

"Let… go… of… ME!" I shouted before I kicked him in the gut and managed to shove him away. "Dan, I know that's you!" I let the rings appear on my torso and have them change me into my ghost form.

"Well, you're no fun, Andy," 'Corrupted Danny' said, his voice sounding deeper and older. Yup, that's Dan alright.

Rings of light appeared on 'Corrupted Danny's torso before turning him into the adult ghost Dan I knew he was. He was still as intimidating as ever.

"Then I guess we'll have to do this the hard way, just like always, dear brother," Dan said as he smirked at me.

"I'm no brother of yours," I hissed.

I knew in reality I didn't stand a chance against him, but I couldn't just let him go and cause havoc either. I didn't know what his plan was, but I had to find a way to stop him at all cost.

"If you think you can stop me, then you're even crazier than my old cheese head arch nemesis," Dan laughed. "But go ahead and come at me, let's see if your weaker self can stand up to ten years of pure power and destruction."

OMNISENSE95: Maybe, it depends on if the situation calls for it or not. Like when Danny gets his ice powers, Andy will be somewhere else entirely so the story will deviate a lot from the canon to follow Andy.

Blue: Thanks, I'm glad you understand. Although alternating is kind of what's slowing a lot of stories down since I tend to get the other story's mixed in my head while writing a different one. I appreciate the concern about me.
I was worried people would complain about sending present Andy back to his timeline so early, but I think it works best this way. Logically speaking, Future Andy wouldn't want his past self to stay in a dangerous timeline, and we get some time for Future Andy and Danny to be together. ^^ And surprisingly nobody's complained about it, which makes me relieved. And it's fine, you don't have to show me proof about Journal 3.

Andy: Hey! Don't compare me to Makoto Naegi! If anything I'm more like Hajime! ... And I am not a dork! What makes me a dork? XT

XChatNoirX: Okay, thanks for letting know. And thank you, I'm happy to know you and your friend enjoy this story.

sjsreader: Yeah, it's understandable that Tucker and Sam would be closer to Danny than Andy. Heh, you really wish they'd see more of heroic, selfless Andy, huh? Well don't forget, Andy did save Sam's life during the Control Freaks chapter. Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the idea of rewriting episodes, especially my favorite ones, so I guess it's what took form in the art of fanfiction. You also flatter me. ^^

Luna Lillyth: Hah! XD Better watch out Dustin.

ZAFT Prime: It is hard to keep updating when the motivation is hardly there, but I still try because I want to keep going until the story is finish and I want my fans to be happy.

Andy: More fanart? What would it be like?

leslidannyphantom: Someone's star struck by Future Andy. XD And thank you for the fanart, they're awesome as always!

Andy: I like both actually, although cats, in my opinion, are a bit harder to control since they can go everywhere and knock down everything. If you want to know my favorite animal, it would be... *Looks at me* ... fox.

DarkFoxKit: OwO

Andy: Don't you dare say a word.

Auguste the clown: Well, here's the next one. XP

spatterson: That's the reason you don't like Dan? Because he called Danny a child for making a promise? ... Okay. ^^'

Mana: Well how I came up with Andy's backstory was just imagining what it. But if you did like the backstory, then great, I'm glad. ^^
Thank you for being so patient.
Too bad that they ran into angry and vengeful ghosts instead. But at least Danny finally gets his Ghostly Wail.
Yeah, most people say Vlad hid away in a cave to keep Dan from finding him. They never gave us an explanation in the show so that's the reason people goes with. Dan did say he didn't know where Vlad was.
Ah, you read that part? And yeah, but I guess it's because he looks mostly Danny due to his 'DP' emblem that they decided Dan is more Danny than Vlad... somehow.

SmileRen: You didn't? Well I'm glad you found it now. ^^' Yeah, I think after book 1, Andy's grown since then. I'm sure there's a lot of good books and fanfics out there, but I only read the ones I'm interested in. And I hope you continue to enjoy this fic.

PrincessDragon96: Thank you for that. Hah, seems you love a lot of things about future Andy. XD

I did remember seeing a Youtube video about Butch Hartman drawing pictures of Danny, Sam and Tucker ten years older. The Danny Phantom series may be revived with a ten year time skip? ... Honestly, I don't know how I feel about that. It would be great to see the series return, but at the same time I really like the 14-15 year old Danny, I'm not sure if I want to see him as an adult. I guess it depends on how Butch would handle the story if the series does get revived like that. Until then, I won't give my final verdict on it.