A/N: …
Phil: Hello, Phil here. Torch appears to be hiding, probably because she gave up on her updating schedule. It took her a month to write this chapter, and then another week when she decided to add on Danny's point of view at the end. I personally think he's completely out of character, and Torch has been smiling like an idiot all day saying she "broke Danny."
She's weird, okay?
If you know it, Torch doesn't own it. Now excuse me while I go try to find her.
Chapter 5;
"Guys, I just have a quick question. How exactly did that house blow up?"
Kelsey and Darry shrugged, and I rolled my eyes. "You guys are so informative."
"Well, I honestly didn't know that it exploded." Kelsey replied, "I thought it just... you know... spontaneously combusted."
The three of us were currently sitting in the past Fenton Works Ops Center while Danny caught up on his sleep. We'd promised we would tell him everything after he got some sleep and Darry was patched up. He had reluctantly agreed, mostly because he was still shocked from Darry's "revelation," and brought us up to the Fenton Works Ops Center. Now Darry was holding a bag of ice to his ankle and we were trying to get our story straight.
Well, and talking about the house that burnt down.
"Nope, it exploded." I confirmed, "I got blasted up into the air by something, and that was it."
"Before we get even more off topic," Darry cut in, opening up his bag of now-melted ice and splashing the cold water on his face. "I have the basics for a cover story. Here's what we say; Liz, Kelsey, about a year ago you guys went you went with Liz's parents to Vlad's mansion when he invited them for a business deal. There you found me and another clone; a female named Jaclyn. You two set us free and accidently found out Vlad was a halfa when he tried to put us back, claiming we were incomplete. Kelsey called him a Fruitloop, Jaclyn blasted him, and we left. Kelsey got me and Jaclyn to live with her, considering the fact that her parents looked after a bunch of other foster children. We had been there for a few months when a "mysterious person" donated a bunch of technology. Everyone else thought of it as a gift, but I realized that there had been a ghost there. At school few days later we were attacked by Vlad. Vlad let it slip that he wouldn't give up until he got me and Jaclyn back. A week later, some of the "gifted" technology blew up and I got blamed for it. Jaclyn basically told me that I was ruining her life, and that I should just leave. Which I did, but you two came after me. Liz, you managed to convince me to go back, but when we did Kelsey's house was on fire. Nobody got out, and the cause was determined to be faulty wiring in the gifted technology. We figured it was Vlad and that he wasn't going to give up trying to harm us, so we ran for our lives. After a couple weeks of being on the run, we were starving, so we weren't in any shape to defend ourselves when Vlad showed up again. We were captured, but instead of trying to kill us, we basically became his pawns. He trained us to fight ghosts and tried to study me because I wouldn't melt into ectoplasm. He gave us these charms so that he could create invisible walls that prevented us from entering certain areas. But one night, we escaped, took weapons that Vlad had created from Fenton blueprints, and ended up in Amity Park. After that, we go with what happened when we arrived. Is that good?"
There was a moment of awkward silence before Kelsey said, "In other words; Asher and Kya's backstory from Saving?"
Darry rolled his eyes, "Yes, Asher and Kya's backstory from book four of Going Ghost! but with Liz worked in, and Jaclyn will not be magically working with Vlad Masters like Amy was with Frank Lewis."
"Good," I sighed, "I was beginning to think your Mom was rubbing off on you."
"Um, ew." Kelsey shuddered, "I really did not need that mental picture."
Darry twitched, "...No. Just... no. So, new topic; what time is it?"
"Just after ten in the morning; Danny's still asleep."
The three of us turned to see Jazz, just standing at the entrance. She was staring at us, and I cringed.
Oh, this wasn't going to go very well.
"Uh... hi?" Darry spoke up, waving. "You, um, wouldn't happen to have any food, would you?"
In spite of everything, I almost started laughing at that. Asking for food, more proof that Darry's a typical teenage boy.
"I'll bring you up some later." Jazz paused, and looked the three of us over. "I did hear you talking yesterday. I don't know exactly how you managed to convince my brother to bring you here, but I do know that you probably lied to get it. I'll ask again; how far in the future are you three from?"
"...Um, do you have a calendar?" Kelsey asked, standing up. "Because, well, we don't know the exact date..."
"There's one over there," Jazz pointed to the far side of the Ops Center, and Kelsey made her way over to it.
There was a pause, and then, "Holy mother of Clockwork! Twenty-one years, three months! Oh my gosh... guys... we're twenty-one years and three months in the past..."
"So you guys are from the future, aren't you?" Jazz asked, smiling. "Knew it. But why are you in this time, anyway?"
Darry frowned, "I'm kind of surprised that we haven't created a temporal imbalance yet..."
"Well, Jazz," I spoke up, using her nickname. It honestly felt really weird to say. "That's simple. Vlad was being creepy and Darry thought that the Fenton Time Machine would give him ghost powers."
"Hey, it was powered by ectoplasm and electricity!" Darry replied, "Logically, it should've!"
"It wasn't a defective Fenton Portal, Darry!" I shot back, "And you are not your dad!"
"You two forgot someone, didn't you?" Kelsey spoke up, and the two of us looked over at Jazz. "So, yeah. Please don't tell Danny. We really would rather not be killed by Clockwork."
"Fenton Time Machine?" Jazz asked after a quiet moment, "Really?"
"Hey, it's your parents who aren't very creative, not ours." I replied. Kelsey and Darry exchanged a small smile, probably because they found a reference or something in what I had said. We all stayed where we were for a moment, and then Danny entered the room.
"Hey everyone, I..." he stopped, "uh, hi Jazz. So, uh, I see you met..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and Darry rolled his eyes.
"Darryll, though I go by Darry." He stepped forward, and offered his hand to Jazz. "A fully human clone of your brother created by Vlad Fruitloop-Plasmius-Masters. The blonde is Liz, one of my best friends, and the brunette is Kelsey, I'm basically her adopted brother."
"Whoa, wait, what?" Jazz took a step back, "You're a clone of Danny?! But I thought-"
"Yeah, sorry about what we said before." Kelsey broke in, attempting to replicate her nervous twitch. "We weren't sure if Danny could help us, and we only arrived here by accident... I started spewing the first things I thought of, which was to make us ghost hunters. Darry went along with it, as did Liz."
"Yeah, we're sorry." I added on, "But anyway, we have all agreed that we are starving. So, breakfast?"
"Oh, right!" Danny nodded, and changed into his ghost form. "My parents are out chasing ghosts and my friends will be here in about ten minutes. Until then, I'll grab something." He flew intangibly through the floor, and then Jazz turned to face us, one eyebrow raised.
"Okay, start explaining. This time with real names and the truth." She crossed her arms, and Kelsey winced. I shot my friends a look and noticed that they looked guilty, and I sighed.
"I'm Liz Moore, I think you might know my mom, her name is Starlet Garcia. Kelsey is Kelsey Foley, her dad is Tucker Foley. And of course, we have Darry Fenton. Your brother's son. And yes, he actually is a full human. His little sister is a halfa, though. We actually did come here because of the fact that Vlad Plasmius locked us in the Fenton Time Machine and turned it on. Our main goal is to wait it out until Darry's dad comes to bring us back. In the future, your brother is very over protective." I shrugged, "Then again, if I had a bunch of ghosts going after my family and I was the most able to fight them, I'd probably end up very overprotective, too."
"And the fact that Darry's not a halfa doesn't help in the least, 'cause all the ghosts think he is even though Uncle Danny keeps telling them that he isn't." Kelsey added on, and Darry cringed slightly.
Why do we have to keep bringing up Darry's full-human status? I know he doesn't like it.
"Hey, I'm back!" Danny's voice called as he came up through the floor, a few boxes in his arms. "Apparently we have muffins and power bars, plus I found a few juice boxes. Eat up!" he changed back to his human form and set the food on ground. Darry was staring blankly at the muffins, and I knew that Kelsey would be making her very poor joke in a few moments.
"Hey, Darry," Kelsey elbowed her cousin, "Will you be eating mooffins in your sleepers?"
"You just can't let that die, can you? I wasn't thinking right!" Darry replied, rolling his eyes. I shook my head and reached for the muffins, my friends were weird in their own right that was for sure.
"Are there any chocolate chip mooffins?" Kelsey asked, laughing, and Darry facepalmed.
"Just let it die! I had a cold!" he called, and everyone besides me and him broke out into muffled laughs.
Darry wasn't laughing because of the obvious fact that the joke was about him, and I wasn't laughing because Kelsey's old and overused joke made me miss my family even more.
XxXxX
I think that the past version of Darry's mom has a grudge against us.
All throughout Darry's "explanation" of how we got here, she would not stop glaring at us. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Sam Manson, even when she's around twenty years younger than the Mrs. Fenton I got to know, is scary.
"...And then Danny brought us here." Darry finished, taking a deep breath. "Any questions?"
"Yeah, I have one." Sam announced, crossing her arms. "Why do your "charms" just change Danny back to his human form?"
"We don't know," Kelsey answered, "like Darry said, we didn't even know they had anti-ghost powers until Vlad tried to hit us and whatever happened, he couldn't."
"And then I shot at him. Multiple times." Darry added on, twirling his Fenton Pistol around a finger. "Oh how I love my gun."
"Can I see it?" Tucker asked, and Darry nodded before handing him his Fenton Pistol. "Oh, dude! This thing could be a real gun!"
"Then maybe you shouldn't point it at real people," Kelsey muttered dryly as Sam pulled the gun from Tucker's hands and smacked the back of his head.
"What does that tracer thing you have really do?" Danny asked, and Kelsey pulled her Ecto-Tracer out of her pocket.
"The Ecto-Tracer? Oh, um... we don't actually know..." she blushed, and I rolled my eyes. Of course we didn't know, yet in reality knew, that it was meant to detect and track abnormalities in Danny Phantom's Ecto-Signature. "We just grabbed random weapons before we left, and that was with them."
"Okay..." Danny frowned, "What about that ghost Skulker was telling me to lead him to? Who was he?"
"If he has golden eyes and looks like some weird assassin then he might be Golden Eyes," Darry replied, "but if not, then I have no clue. Did he use yellow-ish ecto-blasts?" me and Danny nodded, "Okay, then it's probably Golden Eyes. He's one of the ghosts with the abilities to "borrow," per say, another's powers. He also apparently took his look from another ghost, but that I'm not sure of. ...I also think he took the ability to time teleport, but I can't imagine who he got it from..."
Okay, I'm just going to assume he knows all of that because of his Dad's Ghost Files.
"You sound like you know him," Sam accused, and Darry shrugged.
"He had an encounter or two with Kelsey's uncle. Are there any more questions?" okay, looks like I was right. Golden Eyes is from Mr. Fenton's Ghost Files. When nobody replied to Darry's question, he nodded. "Okay, good. So, now what?"
"We kick Vlad's butt," Danny replied, his right fist connecting with his left palm, "The Fruitloop has cloned me three times, at least. He burned down Kelsey's home, and for whatever reason made it so Liz can't go home. That is unforgivable. I'll contact Frostbite and the others of the Far Frozen, Dora the dragon ghost, Pandora, Cujo, Wulf, and I'll see Clockwork about finding Danielle. She's my other clone. Maybe we can get Johnny 13 and Kitty on our side, I think they owe me a favor, and Amorpho might help. I'll even see if I can get my parents and the Red Huntress, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to. We'll think up a plan once we know who's on our side."
...Ah, crud. Well, we're going to be creating a temporal imbalance.
"Sounds good to me," Darry smirked and I rolled my eyes. Tempest and Clockwork were going to kill us for this. "Just make sure you let me know when you plan on going, so that we can come with you."
...Okay, judging by the silence and the looks that were exchanged between Sam, Tucker, and Danny that's not going to fly.
"What?" Darry, of course, suddenly became very clueless. "Do I have something in my teeth? Was there food colouring in my breakfast that is now on my teeth? Kelsey..."
"I did nothing!" Kelsey replied, holding up her hands in surrender. "And besides, last time it was TJ and Jaclyn!"
"Darry..." Danny sighed, "don't take this the wrong way, but..."
"You can't go into the Ghost Zone because Danny thinks his enemies will go after you and that he won't be able to protect you." Tucker broke in and I shook my head.
"Well, that was blunt."
Kelsey snickered, "It's probably ironic in some way."
"Oh, I get it," Darry mumbled, standing up, "this is because I'm fully human, isn't it? Danielle can take care of herself; Jaclyn can take care of herself; but me? Oh no, fully human, so I must be oh-so-defenseless." I noticed a look of pure anger appear on Darry's face as he stormed past Sam, pulling his Fenton Pistol out of her hands as he went. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back eventually. Computer, one to the kitchen." The transport-tube-thingy appeared, pulling Darry out of the Ops Center.
For a moment, the room was silent, and then Kelsey sighed. "I would say we should go get him, but I kind of would rather not have my head bit off."
"Geez, is he always like that?" Tucker asked, groaning. "It's like a moody cross between the lovebirds."
"We aren't lovebirds!" Danny and Sam replied, perfectly in sync. Kelsey and I probably would've snickered at the irony, but at the moment I'm pretty sure what had just happened with Darry was concerning us both.
"The last time I saw him act like that was when Jaclyn told him to stay home because the outside was too dangerous." Kelsey muttered, leaving out the fact that Amity had been slightly overrun by ghosts at the time. "He then managed to get us into the Ghost Zone in an attempt to prove he could take care of himself, Jaclyn went crazy trying to find us, and we all got thrown in ghost jail."
"You left out the part where you said trust me and then called Walker a useless turd." I added on under my breath, though Kelsey didn't seem to notice and continued on.
"You have to understand, Darry... he hates not having ghost powers. He hates being reminded of it because he thinks it makes him a disappointment; a mistake. I'm just as guilty as the next person for bring his human status up, but at least I'm trying not to do it so much. If he's babied, he'll only rebel and do what you're trying to stop him from doing. Be it ghost hunting, something illegal, or wandering off on his own. He hasn't been hurt worse than a cut or a bruise yet. Just because he doesn't have powers doesn't mean he can't look after himself." She shook her head, and I gave her a small smile. What do you know; she pays more attention than I give her credit for. "Danny, you should probably go into your parents' lab and apologize before Darry finds another way into the Ghost Zone."
His eyes widened as he fazed through the floor, Tucker and Sam sighing before they used the tube-thing to follow. Leaving me, Kelsey, and Jazz just quietly sitting on the floor.
"You know," Jazz finally broke the silence, "I think I know what he meant when he said even in the past he can't get out of Danny's shadow. He was talking about the ghost powers factor, wasn't he?"
"Yeah," I replied, "no matter how many times the ghosts are told, they always go after him. And Mr Fenton's fangirls and fanboys heard the rumor of Danny Phantom having a son, so there's that in case he ever does suddenly develop ghost powers, and then the fact that every male Fenton in the history of Fentons has had something to do with the supernatural. Darry... he wants to be a pilot."
"A pilot for the air force," Kelsey added on, a sad look on her face. "Remember? He said he wanted to protect his country from human threats because there was little he could do against the ghostly ones."
"He sounds like he's under a lot of pressure from what everyone expects him to be, so he chose to take a path towards what he thinks would earn him respect." Jazz replied, folding her hands in her lap. At once I was reminded of the school psychiatrist she would become. "I think he needs to come to the terms with the fact that he can't please everyone, and..." she was cut off by the sound of something exploding, "...and he shouldn't be making bombs in my parent's basement."
I believe it took about three minutes for Kelsey to stop laughing.
XxXxX
"Hey, Darry," I greeted, coming up beside him. After his outburst he had gone to sit on top of the Ops Center, completely ignoring everyone. A few hours later, Danny had gone somewhere with Sam and Tucker while Jazz and Kelsey started a conversation that I wasn't nearly smart enough to follow.
Our second day in the past was halfway over, and I hated it. Mr. Fenton should've come to pick us up by now.
"Hi, Liz," Darry replied, patting the ground- roof? Aw, whatever- beside him. "Come sit."
I did as he had asked and cleared my throat, "So..." he raised an eyebrow, "how's life?"
My question earned me a snicker, "Well, I'm in the past with my cousin and my best friend, I just spazzed at the past version of my dad, who by the way has school tomorrow so we won't be able to go into the Ghost Zone, I'm completely useless, I'm just waiting to be rescued like some damsel in distress, I blew up my grandparent's lab, well part of it, Golden Eyes the creep who calls me his young Lord is here, oh, and I'm pretty sure I sat in water. My life is just plain peachy."
"It actually didn't sound that bad," I supplied, smiling. "You've had worse days. What about the time Jaclyn let Fright Knight out and Kelsey's mom told us the only way to save the people his sword had hit was to throw the rotten pumpkins at him, and TJ dropped about half of them on you? What about when "Fun Danny" decided to have a disco party at our school, on our lunch table? What about the time-"
"Okay, okay," Darry sighed, "I get your point. The disco party was mortifying."
For a moment we just sat, watching the sky, before I finally got the courage to ask. "Darry?"
"Hmm?"
"Why did you say you were a clone? I mean, with Kelsey on our side, we could've probably came up with something else to say."
Darry scoffed, "Yes, Miss Folia was a wonderful help." He sighed, "I don't really know... I mean, you found out the Danielle was a clone of my dad during the first time we met Vlad, right? What did you think they were before then?"
"Well..." I paused. From what I had seen, Danny and Dani Phantom had always seemed like... "They seemed like siblings. Is that why you said you were his clone? You wanted him to think of you as a sibling and not a son?"
"I guess," Darry replied, shrugging, "maybe it was something like that. I don't really know."
"Darry, your dad is just as protective of you and Jaclyn as he is of Danielle. But, whatever, you'll have it all figured out by the time we get home," I replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Until then, we'll keep up with your idea. Come on; let's go get something to eat. You must be starving."
I led him back inside, completely unaware of a teenager in a black hoodie who had been watching us from the ground. As we left, he flipped up his hood, shadowing everything on his face except for his glowing gold eyes. We missed his fanged smirk, and his mumble of, "And now it begins, young lord."
Dani Phantom flew above Amity Park, enjoying the free feeling of flight. Ever since she had joined up with Danny to become the second of Amity's ghostly heroes, she was much more willing to act like the child she had missed out on being. Waving to some teenagers on the ground, Dani then swooped downwards...
...Right through the windshield of a car.
Thanking her intangibility, Dani slowly sat up. She found herself in the back seat, the driver of the car having pulled to the side of the road in panic.
Dani put on an innocent smile, "Oh, hi Jazz. Where are you going?"
"Danielle!" Jazz shouted, "You just went through my windshield and all you can say is hi?! Why aren't you answering your phone?! Danny's been trying to contact you since yesterday!"
"I've been out patrolling for hours, plus I think my phone died sometime yesterday morning." Dani replied, blinking innocently. "Guess what? We apparently we have a Sewer Ghost now. Oh yeah, and Danny should know that Jackie's at my house, though. And Mark's still hanging out with Valerie. They're..." Dani paused, trying to compromise what the youngest halfa and the Red Huntress had asked her to say, "going to be spending the weekend with me and Val. Jackie for relaxation and Mark to do paperwork. Poor kid. So, why was Danny trying to call me? Jackie seemed upset when I saw her." It wasn't a lie; Jaclyn had looked like she had only recently finished crying and seemed very determined. Dani had decided that she would honour what Jackie had asked; the little girl had definitely needed to do something.
And then there was the fact that she had been asked to say that Mark Foley was doing paperwork all weekend with his boss, Valerie Grey, when he wasn't even at their house.
Dani was over a hundred percent sure she was missing something here.
Jazz sighed, "There was an accident with one of my parent's inventions."
"Is everyone okay?!" Dani burst in, gripping the seat in front of her.
"...No," Jazz whispered, "Darry, Kelsey, and their friend are gone..."
"Gone?!" Dani leaned forwards, "What do you mean, gone? Are they like dead gone or missing gone or gone gone or what?!"
"We're hoping it's just missing gone," Jazz muttered, "Danny's beating himself up. Plasmius put the three kids in my mom and dad's new Fenton Time Machine and turned it on. Danny's blaming himself; he thinks he could've saved them. I was on my way to tell Elizabeth's parents what had happened. Danny keeps putting it off, so the job fell to me. I'm surprised that her parents haven't called me to ask where she is yet."
Dani frowned, "Plasmius? Oh, that's bad. Now I know why Jackie was so upset. Good luck with the parents, Jazz. Give me a call if you need any back up. I should probably be going now, I don't want to miss dinner time, or Valerie might forget to cook anything."
"Have Jackie call Danny! He's really worried!" Jazz called after Dani as she flew out of the car, but the halfa only waved her hand to signal that she knew. Dani shot home, ducking through her bedroom window and changing back to her human form. She ran down to the main room, turned right out of it, and threw open the first door on her left.
Valerie's private study; otherwise known as the ghost hunting room.
"Dani!" Valerie shouted, jumping up and using her body to shield the computer screen she had been looking at. "I... I didn't hear you come in! How was your patrol?"
"Val, the truth, now." Dani took a step towards her best friend, "Why do I have to say Mark's staying with us? He's not."
"Why do we have to say Jackie's staying with us when she's not?" Valerie replied, and Dani groaned.
"Don't you dare turn this around! Jackie has ghost powers; she can take care of herself! What can Mark do, file papers? I need to know, Valerie!" she frowned, "His parents are already missing their daughter, okay?! She was caught in a time machine with her cousin and friend because of Vlad!"
"She's missing? Because of Vlad?" Valerie blinked in surprise and then a look of realization crept onto her face. "...I get it. That might have to do with why I lost the signal."
"Signal?" Dani crossed her arms, "Val, what signal?"
The Red Huntress paused, "If I tell you, you can't tell anyone you know, okay?"
"Okay," Dani nodded, "now, spill. What signal and how does this relate to Mark?"
"...Mark's the Shadow Hunter and not just my assistant. He said he needed me to cover for him while he checked something out." Valerie answered, quickly. "I hacked into his suit's tracker, but it died sometime last night. Dani, that suit has backup generators for it's backup generators. It doesn't just die."
"So Mark's the Shadow Hunter? That explains a lot, actually." Dani replied, shaking her head. "If the tracker has so many backup generators, then why did it die? Was it out of range?"
"No, the signal was really strong before it died." Valerie shook her head, "And that was when they were in the Ghost Zone! I've been trying to get the signal back since I lost it, but I just can't!"
"They were in the Ghost Zone? Val, they could've been sucked into a natural portal."
"The closest thing his suit detected to that was a surge of ecto-energy right before the signal disappeared. The weird part is that its signature was like a cross between your cousin's and Plasmius'."
"That doesn't sound right at all." Dani frowned, "Danny and Plasmius? Why would those two ever team up if the world didn't depend on it?"
Valerie shook her head and moved to reveal her computer. She pressed a button, muttering, "This is from his suit's audio recorder. Listen to this voice."
There was the sound of someone freaking out, and then, "You've protected her? Pitiful. The young hybrid, my daughter, should be able to take care of herself. Very well, Tempest. These two are your problems now. I'll be off to find the boy now, ta-ta!"
Dani took a step back, "What in the name of Pariah Dark was that?! It sounded like Danny... but it also sounded evil... oh no, Danny..." she paused, "I'm going to go get him. Stay right here, Valerie, I'll-" she stopped as she breathed a breath of cold air, "-apparently be taking care of the ghost. But after that I'm going to get Danny."
Turning to her ghost form, Dani shot intangibly upwards, looking around for the ghost.
"You must be Danielle... my "cousin." How quaint."
Hearing the voice that Valerie had recorded, Dani turned, half expecting to find Danny.
Instead, she found a ghost wearing her cousin's uniform but with a cape instead of a trench coat, blue skin, flaming hair in a ponytail, pointed ears, red eyes, and fangs. He appeared to be in his twenties, and something about him caused Dani to shiver despite the fact that he seemed to be producing heat.
Oh boy, a Fire Core.
She hesitated barely a moment before before pressing a button on the back of Fenton Phone that was currently in her right ear and triggering the emergency beacon.
Danny could wallow in his self-pity some other time. There was no way in the Ancients' name that she was going to deal with this herself.
Daniel Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, was a wreck.
The thirty-six-year-old hybrid sat alone in the lab he had built in his home. He was beyond sick with grief, worry, and fear.
That alone was troubling.
But he couldn't keep his thoughts away from the most recent accident at Fenton Works. What if the Fenton Time Machine completely destroyed the three children who were in it? What if it didn't, and they actually were in the past? Oh no, what if they-
"Emergency beacon triggered." Danny's thoughts were interrupted by a mechanical voice, and he looked up. He so did not want to deal with this right now... "Engaging trackers to locate the source; Danielle Phantom."
Where there had once been an empty wall, a map suddenly appeared. A flashing red light was visible on one part of it, and Danny stood up slowly.
"Computer, engage audio transmission with Danielle Phantom's Fenton Phones." He muttered, sighing. What could Dani have gotten herself into that caused her to trigger her emergency beacon? Fright Knight better not be back... Danny didn't think he could deal with that right now. He wasn't even sure if he could deal with Box Lunch or that weird Soup Ghost in his current state.
After what had happened to his son, niece, and their friend he had forced himself to come back to his house and monitor his central control for rouge ghosts. He had already gone into the Ghost Zone to see if he would be allowed entrance to Clockwork's lair.
Needless to say, Clockwork obviously didn't want to see him, only digging the pity hole Danny had dug for himself even deeper.
And the others... they weren't much better than Danny was. Sam was spending the night at Fenton Works in case his parents found anything. Tucker was more than likely sitting in his daughter's room, playing with the girl's rabbit and his youngest son. Jazz... she'd probably gone off to let Elizabeth's parents know what had happened. She seemed to have the most faith out of all of them that the three teens would be returned home in one piece. And his parents... Danny knew his parents had more than likely spent every moment since Plasmius had done that machine on trying to find a way to undo it.
It was worse than when he had his "accident."
"Audio transmission engaged," the mechanical voice spoke up once more, "now playing audio transmission."
"You know me?" Dani's voice asked, sounding confused. "...You look like my cousin Danny. Only... there's some differences..."
"There's a reason I look like him," The voice wasn't Dani's, and Danny balled his fists as he heard it. With everything already happening, there was now this? Why?! Why, Clockwork, why! "I am him."
Wait... Clockwork! Of course!When Danny had seen him last, he had mentioned something about what had transpired catching up to him in time... granted, it had been a few years ago and right after Tempest had all but kidnapped his son for a weekend to help an Alternate Timeline with something that Danny would've prefered for his child not to know about and Clockwork had given him a weird looking rock to keep with him for some odd reason, but Danny did his best to remember everything Clockwork told him and keep everything the Time Master gave him. Now this made perfect sense!
...But he couldn't deal with it. Not now, at least. Dani would just-
Oh, right. He should probably give Dani a fair warning. Just because it wasn't the Dan Phantom created by his and Vlad's ghost halves from this Timeline, didn't mean that the possible danger was lessened.
Realizing he had zoned out, Danny pulled out his own Fenton Phone and placed it in his ear. "Dani? I got your signal."
No response.
"Dani?" Danny could feel his heart start to race. Dani couldn't be beaten, no! He couldn't risk losing her too... "Danielle Phantom, answer me!"
"Danielle is out of commission for the moment," Danny tensed as Dan's voice replied to him, "however, I am surprised you aren't. Tempest needs to strengthen her staff, it seems."
"Tempest's... staff?" Danny frowned, it was worse than he thought. From what he knew of Clockwork's Apprentice, she'd have to be re-killed, or rather have her existence ended, for her to willingly give up the blue staff she carried...
Oh no.
"What did you do to Tempest?!" the hybrid exclaimed, and all he earned from that was Dan laughing.
"I find it hilarious that you are more concerned for a ghost you don't even like than your family." The ghost replied, and Danny's ghostly aura flared up as his blue eyes turned green.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Well, let's see... your son is the first on my hit list, I just encountered our cousin, and your nephew, I believe Mark was his name, is off with your daughter in another dimension thanks to me." Dan laughed again, "Why don't you ask about any of them?"
"YOU WHAT?!" Danny screamed, immediately morphing into his ghost form and teleporting to where his map had pointed out Dani's location. As he arrived, he noticed that Dani seemed to be frozen in the spot and Dan was holding onto Tempest's staff with both hands.
Wait, Dani was frozen. It was almost as if... time had stopped...
If Danny wasn't directing all his focus to the ghost in front of him, he would've called himself clueless and wondered why he wasn't frozen in time like Dani.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!" he roared, and Dan raised an eyebrow.
"Was that supposed to be intimidating?" he asked, and Danny replied with an ice covered, blue energy fueled, Ghostly Wail.
Afterwards, Danny floated where he was. He glared at the ghost, and then suddenly took on a look of confusion.
He had just unleashed his most powerful attack, and Dan only had a few bruises?!
"You seem to have forgotten that I am not like those other sad attempts at my creation," Dan replied nonchalantly, flicking at one of his ears. "While they only have a measly ten years as being both Plasmius and Phantom, I have twenty-three. Twenty of them I spent training and becoming stronger. On top of that, I kept the experience I had from you and the cheesehead. I was created stronger from the beginning." He held up Tempest's staff, "What is it that Tempest says? Ah yes, time in."
"-Want!" Dani shouted, and then sounded confused. "Wait, Danny? When did you get here?"
Danny ignored her and his hands coated in purple energy, "Tell me what you've done to my daughter!"
"I already did," Dan answered, "huh, I don't recall being that clueless."
"What's going on?!" Dani demanded, only to be ignored once more.
"Don't insult me and tell me happened to my daughter!"
"Oh please, I can do what I want," Dan smirked, "who'll stop me, you? Need I remind you of what happened when you used your Ghostly Wail? Perhaps, I should show you mine..."
Danny and Dani both tried to fly out of the way but to no avail as what appeared to be flaming black rings of energy erupted from Dan's mouth. Danny took the brunt of the attack while Dani received more of a residual shock, but the both of them were thrown back for a long while before crashing to the ground and changing back to their human forms. Bruised, beaten, and broken, Danny decided as he watched Dan turn the air around him into a portal that today was the worst day of his life.
"Danny..." he turned his head slowly towards where Danielle was lying, in much better shape than he was. "It's good to see you fighting again, but you have a lot of explaining to do."
"He sent Jackie and Mark to an Alternate Timeline... he's after Darry..." Danny muttered, trying to stand up and failing. "He had Tempest's staff, so he can freeze time... Dani, we have to find him. We have to fight him, we can't let him hurt-"
Danny's speech ended as the pain from his injuries caused him to collapse onto his front with a gasp of pain.
"Danny?" he felt a hand on his shoulder, "I'm going to contact Valerie, okay? Just hang on, okay? Stay awake, Danny, or Sam will hurt you."
Mumbling intelligently in response, Danny came to the decision that he was done with feeling sorry for himself. His son could very well be stuck in the past, but the boy was smart. Darry could look after himself, Kelsey, and their friend for a little longer, and Danny had faith they wouldn't change the future too badly. Jackie and Mark were in an Alternate Timeline, though, which couldn't end...
Wait, Mark was in an Alternate Timeline?
How did that happen?
Danny groaned, but not from the pain he was currently in this time. Tucker and Jazz were already missing their daughter, and now a powered-up Dan says that he sent their eldest to an Alternate Timeline?
Danny tried to force himself up again as he came to the conclusion that his sister and best friend were probably going to kill him when he told them about that.
Phil: So, it's over already? Good, this chapter sucks.
…
Huh, thought for sure that would get her to show up…
Anyway, though I have no clue why Torch has this chapter with two sections in third person, I'll just be pointing out the pattern she has decided on for the third person sections. First it's the point of view of a character in the future, such as future Danny. Second it's a character in the past, like past Danny. Third it's either Jackie or Mark, and fourth it's Tempest.
…Okay, so since Torch is not here and I have nobody to insult, I guess I'll be answering a question that was asked by Diana Lily because I get to be cryptic. The answer to her question is-
Torch: Well, if you look over this chapter and the second half of the last one you may find your answer.
Phil: I would be annoyed that you cut me off, but right now I'm more so confused about when you got here and where you were.
Torch: …Well, I wasn't hiding in my Pity Hole which magically worked its way into this story, that's for sure…
Phil: Somehow I doubt that.
Torch: Thanks to Diana Lily for favorting and following this story, and for her review!
Phil: The only advantage to you cancelling your updating schedule is that you can go back to focusing on your other story.
Torch: Considering the fact that I came up with a random ending for it, that isn't a half bad idea!
Walker: That hidden pun of yours is against the rules.
Phil: Wait, what? When, why, how- there was a pun in there?
Torch: You know what else is against the rules? Not reviewing, following, or favoriting!
Walker: …No it's not.
Torch: I CAN DREAM, HAROLD!
Phil: …I don't even want to know. But seriously, why is Walker here?
Torch: Heh, funny story… you see… me, him, and the Box Ghost...
Walker: Telling it is against the rules.
Phil: Darn it.
-Torch