Chapter 24:
Danny POV-
"Umm…hi mom, hi dad," I smiled sheepishly at their furious 'if-looks-could-kill' stares.
"Daniel James Fenton what do you have to say for yourself? Skipping school? All of you? Now what were you all doing in the lab? And who are you people?" she asked directing the last part of her question to the older versions of myself and Sam and to Dani.
"Mom, I would love to chat but we kind of have a more pressing engagement at the moment," I tried to squeeze by her.
As I suspected, it didn't work.
"Danny nobody is going anywhere until we get some answers!" she scowled.
"You're going to want to sit down for this," I sighed, knowing that telling them, telling them everything, was now suddenly inevitable.
My parents didn't move, instead they stood planted to their spots.
"I'm serious," I told them. Still, they didn't move.
"Okay, fine," I sighed, realizing that they weren't going to move from the place they had cornered me in the kitchen. Now, I understood why Clockwork intended to stall, this was going to take a while.
"Okay, let me start by saying this. All of the kids from the 'exchange program' are not from Turkey, but, they are actually the future children of the teenagers in this city, who came here to be protected from a war with ghosts that is raging in the future," yeah, even knowing that it's true, it still sounds impossible, and my parents weren't buying it.
"Honestly Danny, tell us the truth, don't make up ridiculous stories," my mom sighed in a dramatic way.
"He's not," my future self stepped forward.
"Who are you?" my mom arched an eyebrow, probably ready to judo-kick him out of her house.
"Daniel James Fenton from 2035, and also Wren, Jackson, and Eli's dad," he smirked. My mom seemed a little taken aback by this and her head whipped between me and my future self, probably studying our faces searching for something that would make our stories appear to be false, and finding none.
Then she turned to our kids who waved sheepishly at her.
"Hi Grandma," Wren rubbed the back of her neck. At this, my mom seemed to recognize the merit of what we were saying.
"Okay, I believe you. But what is going on?" she asked, leaning against the countertop.
"Umm…actually, there's more," I sighed, swallowing the lump in my throat.
"More than the fact that my future grandchildren are standing in my living room?!" my mom exclaimed.
"Much more," I nodded, "Like I said, you may want to sit down."
This time, she didn't argue, sitting down in one of the bar stools at the counter next to my dad who was silently absorbing this.
"Umm…this is really hard to say but…umm…do you remember when you were first building the portal and it didn't work the first time you tried it?" I wondered. They nodded in response.
"Umm…" I scrambled to find the words to go on.
"Well, I convinced Danny to go inside of it," the two Sam's said at once.
"You see," my older self continued, "You had put the 'on' button on the inside."
"And I accidentally pressed it," I added.
"Danny, no offense, but that's ridiculous, if you pressed it the amount of electricity would kill you in an instant," my mom interjected.
"Not exactly," my older elf and I said in unison.
"The ectoplasm fused with my DNA, so instead of dying…" my older self and I shared a look, both transforming on cue, "I half-died."
I couldn't read the expressions on my parents faces which, scared me.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, my mom spoke up.
"So…" her voice cracked, "All this time…" she stared at me, "It was you?" I nodded slowly.
"I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you—" I started, but she cut me off, giving me a hug and taking me off guard.
"No Danny, I'm sorry! You had every right not to tell us, not after all the terrible things we said we would do!" my mom told me.
"No, it's okay," I told her, honestly, "You didn't know. I don't blame you."
She looked at our group, "Why do I get the feeling that there is more?" she asked anxiously.
"Because there is. We haven't even gotten to the war yet," I replied. My mom nodded, sitting down.
"Um…Vlad is half-ghost too," I told them, "in fact, he's kind of my archenemy and the dictator of the future."
My parents blinked in surprise at this.
"He got this powers from the lab accident while you guys were in college, and he blames you, Dad. And mom, as you already know, he kind of wants to kill dad and marry you. But um…after he met me, and found out about my powers, he became obsessed with having the perfect half-ghost son, a position which, I obviously refused," I said watching as my dad's shocked face turned to one of depressed betrayal.
"Which," Dani spoke up, "Is where I come in."
"And you are?" my mom questioned.
"Well, biologically, I'm your daughter. But, truthfully, I'm Danny's clone. One of Vlad's 'mistakes' because I wasn't a boy, so he made me do his dirty work until I found out what he thought of me, so I ran away. Several months later I became destabilized, but thanks to Danny, he kept Vlad from melting me into a pool of ectoplasmic goop," Dani told them.
My parents did not know how to respond to that.
"Anyway, in his power-hungry quest, Vlad took over the future, which is why all the kids had to be sent here. But now, he's going to be coming back, so we have to protect all of the future kids and everyone from this decade or the future of Amity Park will cease to exist," my older self finished.
"Agreed," my mom said after a moment of silence, charging up her bazooka, "He's bringing an army right?" she asked and we all nodded, "I expected as much. Now, you all need to get to the school and have them execute procedure Alpha-6. We need to get everyone into the city's ghost safety shelters as quickly as possible. I'll get town hall to begin start the warning alarms," she said, already picking up the phone.
I nodded at my future self, and we all few our group to school. My future self was in the principal's office in a second, telling the principal the situation at hand. The ghost sirens started and I realized that they weren't coming from the school bells, they were coming from the streets where the people had begun to panic. Armed with guns, I saw my parents begin to direct the people towards the public ghost shelters.
Then, the school alarms started. I nodded at the rest of our group who immediately took the hint, running into the nearby classes and ushering students and faculty into the school's ghost shelter.
I flew into a classroom, which, just so happened to be Lancer's.
"Everybody out! This is not a drill!" I told them. The students, who had always been much bigger fans of mine than the middle-aged teacher, immediately moved to get up, but Lancer held up a hand, telling them to wait.
"Why should we trust you you're a ghost," he asked.
"Because you have no other choice. Now, either you get your asses up and get moving, or you can get killed in the invasion. The choice is yours," the kids needed no further explanation and got moving, followed, eventually, by Lancer.
"James wait," I ordered, grabbing his arm.
"Yes, Phantom…um…sir," he asked.
"I've talked to your dad. Yes, I know all about the how you guys came here from the future," I said in response to his wide eyes, "He said you can fight if you want to. But it's still up to you, do you want to fight?" I held an ectopistol in front of him.
"Yes sir," he replied, saluting me, of all things (although, I must say, it felt cool), and taking the pistol from my hands.
"Good. Now, direct everyone towards the shelter," I told him. He nodded, running down the hall.
"I want in!" Dash said, coming next to me.
"No," I stated simply.
"Come on, I can handle it. I've done it before when everybody saved their parents from that pirate ship, plus, you just let James join," Dash whined.
"I have permission from James's father for him to fight in this battle," I said, attempting to leave.
"How? James's father is in Africa," Dash said.
That was wrong, his dad technically was supposed to be in Turkey, but unfortunately, he did have a point, how would I explain that.
"Fine," I relented forking over another pistol, "Don't shoot yourself and DO NOT get yourself killed. We have an intense invasion on the rise and if you get killed bad things will happen to the time stream. Now go, focus on getting everyone down to the shelter." Dash nodded, running off after James. I cannot believe that I just allowed Dash to join, but there was no mistaking that he had the muscle to be fighting with us and he did know how to work an ectopistol. Plus, he's an ally in the future.
Not too far away, I saw Tucker had pulled Sasha away from the scramble.
"Um…hi," she said, not quite knowing how to address her father.
"He knows everything," I came up behind them, getting Sasha's attention, "We have orders from you dad, your future dad, that you can fight in this war, and you can use your technology."
"That is, if you want to," Tucker asked her, seeming a little concerned for his daughter.
"Of course I want to!" she exclaimed, grinning and pulling a lot of technology I didn't recognize out of her backpack, "I have wanted to use these since we got here."
"Wow," I smirked at my best friend, "She is your daughter."
"Sasha, first, help us get everyone into the shelter," Tucker ordered. His daughter nodded and they both took off directing people down to the ghost-proof basement of the school.
'This may actually work,' I thought to myself, checking the classrooms to make sure everyone had been cleared out.
That is, until the school began to shake.