Lady Liberty stood tall in the destroyed ruins of what used to be New York. Two Sentinels passed by the old statue as they flew above the city. Not a single person walked the streets. No tourists visiting what used to be known as the Big Apple. No residents going about their lives. Without anyone, the state of the city had gone under.
The buildings cast ominous shadows across the cityscape. Rubble and debris littered the streets, the remains of what had once been a thriving metropolis.
The only signs of life were the occasional scavenger, searching for anything of value. New York City had become a wasteland, a ghost town. Its population gone. Its homes vacant, a reminder of the devastation that had befallen it.
But despite its desolate state, there were still those who fought to survive in this hellhole.
From a nearby sewer tunnel with the word X-Men carved in the wall, Wolverine emerged.
Life had taken its toll on the mutant. He now sported gray hair, showing how old he had become. He still wore his old uniform, but it was under a trench coat. Alongside him was an old man, and, oddly, a teenage girl. She wore a blue sweatshirt, red shorts, sneakers, and a red beanie. She had raven-black hair and familiar blue eyes.
Wolverine shushed the old man when he made a sound as he tripped. They couldn't be spotted. He then started running down an alleyway as the others followed him.
They weren't silent enough, as a Sentinel detected them and burst through one of the buildings. It then started to chase the three.
"Halt mutants!" It commanded in its lifeless robotic voice.
A second Sentinel appeared in front of the old man and the girl. Cutting them off from Wolverine.
"Another one!" The old man exclaimed.
"Back the other way!" The girl cried as a ring of white light appeared from her waist. It split into two, with one going up the girl's body and the other below. Once they reached the end, they faded away, leaving the girl transformed. Her black hair was now white. She wore a black shirt that showed her midriff. The right side of her shirt was white and the left was black, divided diagonally down the middle. Her gloves were different colors. White on the left and black on the right. Her pants were black with streaks of white that went down to her boots. Her familiar blue eyes were now an emerald green that glowed supernaturally. On her chest was a logo. A white D with a black P inside it.
This was Dani Phantom, the new ghost hybrid. She raised her arms up at a nearby building and blasted it with her ghost ray. It collapsed and buried the Sentinel behind them.
As they retreated back to where they came from, the old man decided he wanted to take down the remaining Sentinel.
"Gotta clear some trash." His arms glowed before turning metal.
"Surrender, or be..." The Sentinel didn't get to finish its threat as the old man ran through its leg, tearing it off. The man then walked up a wall and did a backflip. Running back, he tore through the other leg. With no support, the Sentinel lost its balance.
"What a shame." The old man snarked as his arms turned back to normal. "Now we can't surrender."
Just then, a third Sentinel slammed its foot down, prompting the two to continue fleeing as the Sentinel tried to apprehend them.
"Halt!" It aimed its hands at them, about to fire.
"No!" Dani cried. As if the Sentinel obeyed her, its chest exploded. Wolverine, who was responsible for the Sentinel's destruction, leaped off its back. Dani managed to move herself and the old man out of the way so the wreckage wouldn't fall on them.
"That was close." Dani said.
Wolverine gave his claws a once-over. "Used to take those tin cans out in half the time. Must be getting rusty."
"I'll say." A man piped up. He was a bearded black man dressed in a blue uniform, riding a hovercraft.
Dani glared at him. "Tracker!"
The old man charged at the tracker, only to be shot by his huge blaster. He did the same to Dani, who failed to go intangible in time. Wolverine managed to dodge a couple shots before he was hit like the others.
The authoritarian got out and stood over the three. "Scratch three rebels."
Wolverine gave him one last scowl before the pain of the blast caused him to black out.
The first thing Wolverine saw when returning to consciousness was bars. He quickly realized that he was in a cage. So were Dani and the old man, all loaded up in the tracker's vehicle.
"Awake already, sleeping beauty?" He taunted his captives. Wolverine tried to bend the bars, but the defenses electrocuted him.
"You heal up pretty fast for an old guy." Wolverine's captor noted.
"Thanks a lot!" Wolverine replied cynically. He had an idea of how to get out. "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"
The man didn't fall for it. "Good try, rebel, but you're heading to a mutant termination center, and the Sentinels there don't care who you know." They soon approached the termination center, where two Sentinels stood guard at the entrance. "Why can't you rebels stop attacking those bucket heads? All it gets you is termination."
Wolverine tried to make the idiot see sense. "Wake up, rookie. The Sentinels want to kill all mutants."
"Just you rebels, old man." The man shot back. "They treat the rest of us just fine." He pulled out an ID card for the Sentinel to scan.
"ID, tracker, Bishop." Bishop informed the two guards. "Three recoveries. So, where's my money?"
"Tracker Bishop recovery quota reached." The Sentinel blasted the ID from Bishop's hand. "Tracker Bishop no longer needed."
Bishop held his hands out in confusion. "What do you mean?"
The Sentinels approached him menacingly. "Terminate them all."
Bishop, Wolverine, and the awakened Dani were walking, with Wolverine carrying the old man in his arms, as the Sentinels escorted them to their destination.
"Ready to bust out?" Dani asked Wolverine, wondering why they were letting these things take them this far.
"Not yet." Wolverine answered quietly. He then acknowledged Bishop. "So what do you think of their new retirement policy, rookie?" Wolverine couldn't help but take a jab at the mutant who helped track down others for these monsters.
"Shut up, old man." Bishop snapped back.
"Quiet!" Something had caught Dani's attention.
They were a couple of gravestones. Sloppily put together as if it were done at the last minute.
"The legendary X-Men." Bishop said in awe.
And he was right. These were the final resting places of the X-Men who had died. Their codenames, instead of their real names, were etched on the granite. The one that Dani paid most attention to was the one in the middle.
Danny Phantom.
Dani couldn't help but kneel down in front of his grave. And how could she not? She was technically his daughter. Well in terms of coming from his genetics. Dani sighed. She was different from everyone else. She wasn't born. She was made.
Back when Danny Phantom was still alive, there was a chance of hope, but it died with him. She was made to finish what he started, but it seemed she could never live up to her father's legacy.
"Hey dad." Dani greeted as if the gravestone could talk. "I'm sorry I haven't visited you in a while." She gave a sarcastic chuckle. "These rust buckets have made it difficult."
It was quiet, and Dani felt stupid and pondered why she expected the grave to talk back to her.
Hell, would Danny have even seen her as a daughter or a genetic monstrosity made to be his replacement? She only knew bits and pieces about him from what Wolverine would tell her. He would say that even though he wasn't technically a mutant, he still fought for their cause because he believed it was the right thing to do.
"Your dad was a good man. Never gave up whenever the situation got rough. And he always looked out for the people that mattered to him the most. If he had survived, I think the world would have been a better place."
If he was a good man, why didn't he come back and save us? Then Dani remembered that Danny was killed in his ghost form, preventing him from coming back as a full ghost. If it was his human form that he perished in, then he would've been back here.
But then, why didn't the other X-Men come back as ghosts? She once asked this question to Vlad, who only gave her a half-assed answer.
"Even if people die horrific and untimely deaths, it doesn't automatically guarantee they come back as ghosts. I've been engrossed in this research for more than sixty years, and I still don't know why some people come back and others don't. There could be several factors that we are not witnesses to."
Dani then turned her eyes to the grave right next to Danny's.
Rogue.
Of all the other X-Men. Dani was mostly interested in learning about Rogue after hearing how close Rogue was to Danny. That she was her father's girlfriend. How only Danny was able to touch her without getting hurt.
"They loved each other, kid. I don't believe in soulmates or any of that crap, but those two would have been contenders for sure. It was rare to see them without each other for so long."
Although she didn't share any DNA with the southerner, Dani still saw Rogue as a mother. On some nights, she would dream of a better life. A world that hadn't destroyed itself. One where she was never a clone of Danny but an actual child of his. She imagined growing up in a nice house with Danny as her father and Rogue as her mother. Taking care of her. Raising her. Loving her.
Only to wake up to the depressive state that was her actual existence.
Wolverine joined Dani with a mournful look on his face that was more pronounced than Dani's. After all, he actually knew these people, fought alongside them, and watched them die.
Dani took in the other tombstones. Cyclops. Jean Grey. Storm. Beast. Morph. And Jubilee. She was Danny's foster sister, and she could've been like an aunt to her if she were still alive. Wolverine's eyes filled with even more grief at seeing Jubilee's grave. She died so young.
The Sentinel had enough of this distraction. "Do not delay, mutant."
The reminder of the Sentinel's presence only served to anger Dani as she blasted it. She had enough of living in fear of these buckets of bolts. It was time to fight back.
She gave one last look at Danny's grave. "I'm sorry I could never be as much of a hero as you, dad." Having said her piece, she started to engage with the Sentinels.
Wolverine pulled his mask on. The old man, now conscious, turned his arms to metal again.
"Move, rookie!" Wolverine urged Bishop. "This ain't no dress rehearsal."
Wolverine got onto the downed Sentinel and started to rip it apart with all of the pent-up rage he had carried over the course of his life.
The Sentinel didn't take this lying down, as it seized him in his hand.
Wolverine tried to wiggle out of its grasp. "Hey! Watch the material."
Bishop, realizing that he couldn't just stay put, fired two beams of blue light from his hand at the Sentinel, frying it and freeing Wolverine.
"Thanks, kid." Wolverine thanked.
"The name's Bishop." Bishop stated. They heard something moving in their direction. "Now what?"
Another robot flew out of the darkness, but this wasn't an ordinary Sentinel. It was made of shiny steel, which gave it a muscular look. It had a red face and white eyes that conveyed that it had no soul whatsoever. It sent a blast at the old man, killing him instantly.
"Party's over." Wolverine told Bishop. "Someone invited Nimrod."
They all ducked for cover except for Dani. She stood still as Nimrod came toward her. The smoking body of her comrade only filled her with more anger. She had seen death from an early age, and it never seemed to end. Now it was time to end it.
"Dani! Move!" Wolverine shouted, but Dani didn't listen.
"I'll make you proud, dad." She then unleashed her first ghostly wail. It managed to push Nimrod back. Dani then turned back to her human form in exhaustion.
The others, seeing Nimrod distracted, went over to Dani and grabbed her as they escaped.
"Good work, kid." Wolverine praised.
"Still wasn't strong enough like Dad's was." Dani said defeatedly.
"You'll perfect it." Wolverine stated.
They kept on moving until they reached the entrance to their underground headquarters.
Wolverine knocked on the metal door. "Open up! It's me, Wolverine!"
The door opened, revealing a man of Native American descent. He had a hard look in his eyes, as if he'd seen the end of the world, which technically was true. Next to him was an elderly man who had a long white beard, as if he hadn't shaved in years. He wore a torn-up business suit, hinting at the status he had before the world ended. "This is Bishop. He's with me. Bishop, say hello to Forge and Vlad."
Dani smiled at Vlad. He was the one who created her. The point was to create the perfect replica of Danny, but there were some errors that resulted in Dani coming out as a female.
"I'm glad to see you're safe and sound." Vlad hugged her.
"Define safe and sound by living underground." Dani said with a droll sense of humor.
"We must hurry." Forge grabbed the cylindrical object that Wolverine brought back.
"Yeah, right." Bishop said awkwardly.
"You are injured." Forge said absentmindedly, more focused on getting their invention finished.
Wolverine was examining their last hope to save the world. "Who, me?"
"What is this?" Bishop asked. In front of him was some kind of portal-looking device.
"It's a ghost portal." Dani explained. "A portal to the ghosts' home dimension, the Ghost Zone."
Bishop gave her an incredulous look. "How's that going to help us?" Ghosts. What kind of crazy people did he run off with?
Vlad brought out an ancient tome. He opened it to a page, showing a sketch of some hooded spirit. "This is Clockwork, the ghost of time. He watches over the time stream to protect it. If we can find him, then we can possibly convince him to change the flow of time to prevent this awful future."
"How do we even know that he's even real?" Wolverine questioned.
"In my experience, most legends are often true to a certain degree." Vlad mentioned.
With the final piece added, the ghost portal was now complete. Vlad then grabbed two cords and plugged them together. In a flash, the green light of the ghost zone formed in the center of the device.
Vlad was ecstatic at their success. "It works."
"Now we have to find this time ghost." Wolverine said. "If we know where to go."
"I have heard that his lair will appear to those who need it." Vlad commented as he transformed into his ghost form. Plasmius was now a lot less muscular than before. He also now sported a black beard.
Dani also transformed. They were all about to enter when they heard the alarms go off.
"Sentinels." Forge grabbed his gun. "Sooner than anticipated."
"I'd love to stay, but we've got a future to save." Wolverine grumbled.
Forge gestured for the others to flee. "Go! I'll hold them off! Leave now so I can destroy the portal so they don't follow you."
The Sentinel ripped the door off as Forge fired at it.
"Go in peace." Forge said to the others who were hesitating about leaving him behind.
"We'll give them hell for you, Forge!" Dani promised as she and the other three passed through the portal into the Infinite Realms that was the Ghost Zone.
Forge then saw Nimrod enter.
"If I'm going out, then I'm taking you with me." He fired at the ecto-filtrator.
'Good luck, my friends.' Were Forge's last thoughts as the explosion consumed him.
In the Ghost Zone, the four heroes, except Vlad, were taking in their surroundings.
Wolverine rubbed the back of his neck. "This is so trippy."
Dani couldn't help but agree. This was also her first visit to the Ghost Zone.
Vlad grabbed Bishop. "Now we have to see if Clockwork will help us." He kicked off the ground and started flying, with Dani, carrying Wolverine, following behind.
It had been what seemed like hours before Vlad spotted something in the distance. "There!" He pointed. "I think we found it."
Getting closer, they could see that it was an ancient-looking clocktower.
Dani gazed at the tower. "Looks like a place you would find a time ghost."
They floated down towards the entrance. At the doors, Vlad knocked. Immediately, the doors opened on their own, granting them entrance.
"He must be expecting us." Bishop said.
"Well, he does know everything." Dani remarked.
Walking in, they were all mesmerized by all the gears and mechanisms working together.
"No time for sight-seeing." Vlad pressed them to keep moving. "We have to talk with him."
"We might not have time, but I'm sure he has plenty of it." Dani joked.
Vlad rolled his red eyes. Dani seemed to have her father's sense of witty banter.
At the end of the hall, they saw some kind of window that resembled a searchlight. In the center, moments of history were being shown. From the fall of Rome to the creation of automobiles.
A door opened, and out came Clockwork. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting; I just had to put something away."
Astonishment was on all of their faces as they gaped at the powerful spirit.
Vlad stepped forward and cleared his throat. "You know why we've come?"
Clockwork nodded. "Indeed, you hope to possibly change the future?"
They all had hopeful expressions. This could mean that their hell is now going to be over.
"Can you prevent this from happening?" Vlad's eyes were filled with desperation.
"Yes, but you must do it. I will send you back in time in order to erase this catastrophe." Clockwork grabbed one of his medallions as he continued speaking. "This was all triggered by the assassination of an anti-mutant politician. If the assassination never occurred..."
"Then none of this misery would have happened?" Bishop asked for confirmation. "None of the Sentinels, none of the camps, none of the terminations?"
"Yes." Clockwork said. "Unfortunately, most of my time medallions are currently under maintenance at the moment. I only have this one. Wearing this will keep you anchored in the past. Remove it, and you will be instantly brought back to your time period."
Bishop still had reservations about this plan. "Save some egg-sucking big shot, and suddenly everybody loves each other? Yeah right."
"What, you think you know better about time than him?" Dani snarked.
Bishop then brought up the next topic. "So who will be going?"
"I will." Dani answered vehemently. "I'll stop all of this from ever happening."
"It's too dangerous!" Wolverine snapped.
"As dangerous as living back home?" Dani countered.
"Dani," Vlad said softly, "this is very important and..."
Dani interrupted Vlad. "You made me because you wanted me to save the world. That's my entire purpose for existing. Now that I have a chance to fulfill my purpose, suddenly you don't want me to do it? You couldn't handle Bishop over there; what makes you think you can handle this?"
Wolverine shook his head. "It's not just that. In order to stop the assassination, you have to stop the assassin. I know as well as you do that you aren't willing to pull the trigger."
Dani stopped. Wolverine had a point; she couldn't kill anyone. She seemed to have her father's distaste for killing. And she was also afraid that if she did it, she would make Danny ashamed of her.
Dani stared Wolverine in the eyes. "I'll find another way if I have to. I won't fail you all. I'll give my life if I have to save everyone. No matter what, I'll prevail." She smirked at Vlad. "You always did say that dad had a knack for finding his way out of tough spots." She went back into serious mode. "You and Wolverine have always protected me. It's time that I return the favor."
Clockwork agreed with Dani. "She is right, and her youth is an asset."
Wolverine and Vlad shared a look. They knew that Dani wasn't going to back down. She was a stubborn one. Just like her father. They brought Dani in for a group hug.
"Then I guess this is goodbye then, kid." Wolverine said. "It was a pleasure fighting by your side."
"You have been my greatest creation." Vlad said, taking her head into his hands. "The only good thing I have ever made in my entire life. Know that your father would be very proud of you."
Dani wiped her tears. "I promise you, I won't let this future happen."
"We know." Vlad whispered.
Dani gave them one last look and slipped the medallion on.
Clockwork was at the controls for the time window, changing it to the appropriate date and time. "It is ready. Walk through this time window, and you will end up at your destination."
Dani gave Clockwork a thumbs up and passed through the portal.
Back into the past.
A cat hissed and fled as a rip in the space-time continuum appeared. It spat out Dani before disappearing.
The young hybrid fell on her head. Groaning in pain, she looked around. She was in some disgusting-looking alley. It looked like she was back at home.
"Did I do something wrong?" Dani asked herself. "Or did this place always look crappy?" She sighed in irritation. "Should have just taken the subway."
"Come on, over this way."
Dani instantly turned invisible when she heard that. Peering from a corner, she saw some kids playing ball. No worry. No fear.
"Children playing in the street in daylight without a care in the world?" Dani said in amazement.
"Come on, let's get out of here." The kids then left the area to go play somewhere else.
Dani turned visible and stepped out of the alley. Looking around, she saw a plane flying overhead and cars moving in the streets.
"It did work!" Dani cheered as she turned human to blend in better. "I'm back in the past! Now what do I do to save the future?"
Dani didn't know where the assassination was going to take place or who was going to be assassinated. Worse of all, she didn't even know who the assassin was.
Dani facepalmed. "I should've asked them that before leaving. Stupid. What am I going to do now?"
She passed by a newspaper stand and thought that looking at the news would be a good start.
She read the headline. "Professor Charles Xavier delivers speech on recent mutant persecution." Next to it was a photo of a bald man.
Charles Xavier. The man who founded the X-Men. A world of humans and mutants coexisting was his dream. A dream that turned into a nightmare. She remembered how Wolverine would talk about him.
"He was the one who managed to bring us together as a team. He gave all of us a new home, a new family, and a new purpose. And in return for all his generosity, all of his work was undone by one of his own students."
Dani snapped her fingers as she got an idea. "I've got to find Xavier." Perhaps Xavier could help her find out who the assassin was, along with the X-Men and Danny Phantom.
She stopped in her tracks. "They're really here." Dani couldn't believe it. It had to be a dream. "The X-Men. And him. Danny Phantom. Dad."
Dad was here, and he was alive. Dani couldn't stop the smile from forming on her face. Finally, she would get to meet her father. The person whose DNA she was created from. The hero whose adventures were told to her as bedtime stories.
"I'm going to meet my father." For a brief second, Dani was no longer a time traveler looking to prevent the apocalypse but a girl who wanted to see her dead father.
"Find anything that you like, sugar?" Rogue asked Danny as they browsed through a book store.
Danny shrugged. "Not really?" As a teenager, reading wasn't a hobby that interested him, unless it was comic books, of course. "I'm not really much of a reader."
"I doubt that, spooky. You just need to find something that you're into." Rogue pulled out a book. "What about this?"
"Amityville Horror?" Danny raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you might like something that was familiar." Rogue grinned. "Aren't haunted houses right up your alley?"
"Honestly, I've actually never been to any haunted houses." Danny admitted. "The ghosts I fought didn't really stick to one area."
"Really? What about this one?" She pulled out another book. "Cujo."
Danny shook his head. "The real thing is even scarier than what Stephen King imagined."
"What about Dracula?" Rogue placed her hand on Danny's chest. "An undead being that knows his way with the ladies. Doesn't that describe you perfectly?" Her voice took on a sensual tone.
Danny placed his forehead on Rogue's. "I see myself more as Frankenstein." He flirted. "Misunderstood and attracted to sexy ladies with a streak of white in their hair."
Rogue licked her lips. "Does that mean you'll show me the sweet mystery of life?"
"I'll show you that and more." Danny brought her in for a kiss.
Rogue was in heaven. Finally, after so long, she got to have a kiss with a hunk of a man. When she got together with Danny, she used any excuse to make skin contact with him. Whether it was cuddling on the couch while watching a movie or holding his hand while taking a walk in the park, Rogue took everything she could get.
"Well." Rogue ended the kiss. "I know one thing. You don't need romance novels." She leaned into his ear. "Why would you when I got you wrapped around my finger?"
"I think you got it the other way around." Danny told her.
"Who was the one that managed to drag you into a bookstore?" Rogue reminded him.
"Hey, this isn't my first bookstore." Danny replied. "My friend Sam would drag me to this place called the Skulk and Lurk to search for anything that interested her."
"What kind of books was she into?" Rogue was interested.
"Mostly occult and that kind of stuff." Danny answered. He looked around, and something caught his eye. "Something like that." He grabbed a book and looked at the cover. "A Guide to Supernatural Artifacts." He read. At the bottom was the name of the author. Frederich Isak Showenhower. "I think I'll get this one."
"Told you I'd find you something." Rogue said triumphantly.
"Even a broken clock is wrong at least twice." Danny poked fun at her receiving a mock slap from his girlfriend.
As they were checking out the books, Danny thought that Sam would have loved this store for its selection of books. He wished that she had gotten to visit it.
'And she never will. All because of me and Dan.' He mused depressingly. The terrified look in his friends and family's' eyes as they met their end was still etched into his mind. The last words he said to them were that he would never become Dan.
'I did keep my promise, but for how long? Will all my efforts fail or can I truly change fate?' Danny had a faraway look in his eye.
Rogue squeezed Danny's hand. "Is everything okay, sugar?"
"Do you believe in destiny?" Danny didn't know why he asked it, but it just seemed to slip out.
Rogue contemplated the question. "I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if my powers are just an accident or some event that was always meant to happen. Why do you ask?"
Thinking quickly, he came up with a convincing lie. "I remember this one book I read back in high school. It was about a man learning that he's destined to become a monster and how he tries to stop it from happening."
"Sounds like an interesting book. What was it called?"
Danny cursed silently at Rogue's inquisitiveness. "Don't remember. It was so long ago."
Rogue, thankfully, only asked one more question as they left the store. "Do you remember how it ended? Did he change his future?"
Danny stopped in his tracks. Despite the lies he told, the next thing he said was no lie at all.
"I don't know."
Dani had come out of a coffee shop. She used her powers to pickpocket some cash to buy her a cup of coffee and a muffin. Sipping the drink, she considered what her next move would be. A part of her wanted nothing more than to go ghost and search the city until she found her father, bring him into a hug, and never let him go. But living in the future taught her patience and to always think things through. Those who didn't do that ended up dead. So she instead walked along the sidewalks. It at least allowed more time to appreciate the beauty of the city. She should find the X-Men and her father, but what could she do? Even if she managed to get them to help, how would they even be able to find out who the assassin was?
"Come on, let's play your new cartridge, Assassin."
"If only I knew who my assassin was." Dani murmured. Even if she managed to get the X-Men to help, how would they even be able to find out who the assassin was? "I mean, it could be anyone."
Thinking back over her conversations with Logan, she tried to recall anything that he said that would be a clue to who the assassin was.
"Why didn't he ever tell me who the assassin was?" She muttered to herself as she kept trying to bring up every memory of Logan talking about the past.
None of them gave her any useful information, except possibly one.
"He was the one who managed to bring us together as a team. He gave all of us a new home, a new family, and a new purpose. And in return for all his generosity, all of his work was undone by one of his own students."
Dani's eyes almost burst out as she brought to mind that last sentence.
"And in return for all his generosity, all of his work was undone by one of his own students."
"The assassin." She said numbly. "The X-Men. Oh, man! One of the X-Men is the assassin. And I've got to stop them." She snuck into an alleyway and turned ghost. "I've got to warn them."
Up above, she looked over the city, trying to find out where the Institute was located. It took her about ten minutes before she spotted it. She launched herself to her destination like a bullet. Landing in front of the gate, she walked through it, not caring to turn invisible. She needed their attention and help anyway, so what was the point in hiding from them?
"Security check; everything clear." Jubilee was leisurely sitting in the War Room, looking over the security cameras. So far, nothing strange has happened, which she already suspected. Why would there be any intruders? Not that many people knew about this place being a school for mutants. The only exceptions were Magneto, Juggernaut, and Sabretooth. But she doubted that they would attack head-on.
The youngest member of the team was about to doze off when something caught her eye. Some girl, not that much older than herself, walked straight through the gate. Jubilee was drawn to the outfit she was wearing, more specifically the symbol that she had. It was the same one Danny had.
Following protocol, Jubilee spoke over the intercom. "Strange girl in sector G."
The X-Men rushed over to that sector to confront the intruder.
Dani stood speechless at seeing the X-Men alive and in the flesh. They weren't just old stories right now; they were actual physical people that she could see and touch. It was so unreal.
"What are..." Cyclops stopped as he and the others recognized her outfit.
The X-Men all looked at each other. Why did this girl have the same costume as Danny?
Wolverine sniffed his nose. "She smells dead. Just like him."
Scott took in that information. So she was half-ghost, just like Danny. She had the same ghostly aura as their teammate, though Scott wondered about her connection to Danny.
"Who are you?" Scott asked calmly. The girl didn't appear to be hostile and wasn't trying to attack them.
Dani grimaced. "It's a long story." Wolverine walked forward, and she couldn't help but smile at him. He looked just the same, except younger.
"What's your connection to Casper?"
'Now this part.' Dani thought. 'Well, it's like what they say, the truth shall set you free.'
"I'm his daughter." She proclaimed with pride as all the X-Men's jaws dropped at the revelation.
"You're lying!" Wolverine accused. "If that were true, then given your age, you would've been conceived when bub was a teenager."
"And that can't be possible." Cyclops joined in. He turned to the other X-Men. "I distantly remember Danny mentioning that Rogue was his first girlfriend."
"Unless you count that time he was unknowingly dating that ghost biker's girlfriend." Jubilee mentioned. "But still, Danny isn't the type of guy to have random sex. He told me that he didn't have much success with girls when he was younger."
"Which means bub couldn't have done it with some other woman." Wolverine stated.
Storm wasn't fully convinced by that explanation. "But how come her ghost form looks like Danny's?"
"Because I'm his daughter. I can prove it." Dani turned human, making the mutants gasp.
Jean analyzed Dani's appearance. "She looks just like him. Same hair and eyes."
Xavier hovered over to the group. "Perhaps we should bring this discussion to the War Room. I think I have an idea on how to see if she's telling the truth."
Beast looked over the DNA report. "She's telling the truth."
"WHAT!" The other shouted. They were in the lab, analyzing a blood sample taken from Dani.
"There must be some kind of mistake." Wolverine said. "There's no way in hell that she's Danny's kid."
"Beast's eyebrows furrowed. "That's interesting."
"What is?" Scott asked.
Beast kept looking over the information as he explained. "There doesn't appear to be any maternal DNA. It's all from Danny. Aside from the age and different gender, her DNA is basically nearly identical to Danny's."
"How is that possible?" Scott was disturbed. If she didn't have any maternal DNA, that meant she didn't have a mother, which couldn't be true.
"I don't know. But there's something else I found. Her chromosome has some kind of mutation, like it was altered at the time of her conception. From a Y to an X." Beast then put it all together. "She's not his daughter. She's his clone."
This shocked the X-Men to their very core. Clone. She was a clone of Danny. Who would clone Danny, and why?
Jubilee couldn't believe it. "Danny has a clone?"
"I think I better ask her what she knows about her origins." Xavier said. "I also think we'll need Cerebro's help for this."
Xavier and the others entered the War Room, where Dani was looking around. When she noticed Xavier, she peered at him with fascination. Here was the man who started it all. Charles Xavier.
Xavier gave her a comforting smile. "I was wondering if you would let me read your mind?"
"It won't hurt?" Dani asked worriedly. Even if it did, she would go through with it. Whatever it took to convince them that she was telling the truth.
"Not at all." Xavier replied, happy that she was being compliant.
Jubilee was connecting the wires from Cerebro to the monitors so everyone could see what was in Dani's mind. "This arm thingy is very weird. I can't figure out how to cross-patch it."
"We got this thing hooked up." Wolverine informed Xavier.
Xavier came up next to Dani. "Are you ready for me to try to help you..." He paused. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we ever got your name."
"Dani." Dani answered. "Dani Fenton."
"Are you ready for me to try to help you, Dani?" Xavier asked her.
"Anything to prove that I'm telling the truth."
Xavier lowered Cerebro onto his head as he connected his mind with Dani's. "I'm getting a jumble of images. Dark. Frightening..."
He stopped as he concentrated on the visions. The others were watching it all on screen.
There were Sentinels marching across cities. People being rounded up and captured. All of the memories were from Dani's point of view.
There was a younger Dani looking at herself in the mirror as she transformed into her ghost form for the first time.
Vlad then showed up as he was kneeling down to speak to Dani eye-to-eye. "You were made from the DNA of Daniel. He would've saved us all if he hadn't died; that is why you were made. You will save us all from this tyranny."
Dani practicing her aim by firing ecto-blasts at some targets that were set up.
Jubilee was confused. "What are we supposed to be seeing here?"
Storm was unsure. "I think it is the future."
Wolverine was still in doubt. "This is ridiculous. We know that bub can block out Xavier's mind. Who's to say that not only can she do that, but she can make fake memories to fool us?"
Wolverine's future self then appeared.
Logan smirked. "At least I don't lose my hair."
The future Wolverine was fighting a Sentinel before it changed to show the X-Men's graves.
Xavier's eyes opened in fear. His students were dead. "I have seen the future. We have failed."
The X-Men just stood there petrified at seeing their burial ground.
"All is lost." Xavier said hopelessly. "How can it be? A world condemned to darkness. And it's all our fault."
Scott tried to reason with Xavier. They couldn't be all dead. That can't be. "You can't mean you believe this girl's from the future. It could be some kind of trap. Just because she's a clone of Danny doesn't prove she's from the future."
Dani was frustrated that they still refused to believe her. "I'm telling the truth. I came back in time to stop this from ever happening. What will it take for you to believe me?"
Jubilee noticed the medallion that Dani was wearing. "Where did you get that?"
Dani was about to answer when the door opened and Danny walked in with Rogue.
"My, my, don't you all look serious." Rogue commented. She noticed Dani. "And we've got company, too. What's up?"
Danny was curious as well. "Yeah, what's going on? Who's she?"
Dani was frozen. It was him. He was standing in the same room as her. In an instant, Dani jumped out of her chair and leaped into her father's arms.
"DADDY!"
Danny's day had just gotten weird. Some girl was now calling him dad. He tried to pry her off, but her grip was surprisingly strong.
Dani let him go as she appraised him.
"Who are you?" Danny asked the girl. She looked familiar, but he couldn't recall ever seeing her.
Beast gave Danny a piece of paper with data on it. "We took a blood sample from her. She's a clone made from your DNA."
"A clone!" Danny shouted. He stepped back from Dani as if she had the plague.
"What do you mean she's a clone of him?" Rogue demanded, placing her hands on her hips. "Just what the hell is going on?"
"It's true. I can show you." Dani turned ghost, making Danny feel like he was going to faint.
"How is that possible? Who the hell would make a clone of me?" Danny didn't even think cloning was possible. Then again, ghosts existed, so who's to say that anything can happen? Looking at her, he saw the time medallion she was wearing. "Wait, are you from the future?"
"Oh, don't tell me you believe that too." Wolverine said in exasperation. It seemed like he was the only person being rational today.
"No, she's telling the truth." Danny explained. "That medallion she's wearing belongs to Clockwork, the ghost of time."
"Clockwork?" Jubilee frowned. Danny never mentioned him in any of his adventures. "You never told me about him."
Danny's expression darkened. "Let's just say I want to forget the circumstances under which we met." He looked at the others. "That medallion is used to anchor someone to a time period when they travel. If she takes it off, she'll be transported back to her own time."
This finally convinced Wolverine and Cyclops that Dani was telling the truth.
Danny grabbed Dani by her shoulders. "Who made you and why?"
"Vlad." Dani answered. "He made me because you died and the world needed someone to save it. So he made me from your DNA, but something happened, and I came out a girl."
A million thoughts were going through Danny's head. Vlad made a clone of him? He died? The world was in danger?
Danny decided to get to the root of this whole situation. "What happened in the future?"
Dani was taken aback by Danny's intensity. The X-Men were as well. It felt like Danny had been through some kind of trauma and was being forced to relive it.
"What happened?" Danny yelled at her, making Dani stiffen as she tried to come up with an answer.
"The Sentinels. They've taken over the world. All of this happened because of an assassin. If we can stop him, then we'll save the future."
"Who's the assassin?" Rogue questioned Dani as she inspected the hybrid. She truly did look like her boyfriend. It was so unusual, and now she was apparently from the future, which Danny seemed to be familiar with along with the concept of time travel.
"They didn't tell me." Dani replied with shame in her voice. "I was so distracted saying goodbye to my friends that I forgot to ask who it was. But I remember something Logan said that clued me in. He said, "Xavier was the one who managed to bring us together as a team. He gave all of us a new home, a new family, and a new purpose. And in return for all his generosity, all of his work was undone by one of his own students." It was one of the X-Men that was the assassin."
The team was giving suspicious looks to everyone. One of them was a traitor? How could any of them betray everything they fought for?
Scott was positive that Jean couldn't be the traitor. "It couldn't be Jean."
Jean didn't agree. "Of course it could. I've had my dark days, or have you forgotten?"
"But Jean..." Scott was interrupted by Storm.
"It could be any one of us. We all have dark sides to our souls."
"You don't know the half of it." Danny said knowingly making everyone give him questioning looks. Danny ignored them as he addressed Dani. "How do you know it isn't me?" This wasn't the first time Danny was responsible for a ruined future.
"Because you gave your life to save the world, and Wolverine always told me how great of a hero you were. It can't be you." Dani spoke to him passionately.
The tense situation was interrupted as Gambit walked into the room. "Everyone can relax. Gambit has returned."
Dani looked at Gambit suspiciously. She never heard Wolverine mention Gambit. "Who are you?"
"Monsieur Gambit at your service."
Dani narrowed her eyes. How come his gravestone wasn't with the other X-Men? And how come Wolverine never talked about him? Unless. Dani finally realized who the traitor was.
"You!" She aimed her hand at Gambit as it glowed with energy. "You're the reason I came back! You're the traitor!"
Gambit held his hands up. What did he do? "Mon ami, there has been, maybe, a small mistake."
"Shut up!" Dani was enraged. This man was responsible for all the pain and suffering, and he was acting like it wasn't his fault. "It was you! You destroyed my world!"
Her anger getting to her, she fired at Gambit.