Danny Phantom Fan Fiction ❯ Glitches in Time ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13

"T.J.," Samantha turned her attention to the other Foley.

"Yes Mrs. Fen—"

"T.J.!" Two Phantoms roared.

"Oops!" T.J. exclaimed as he clamped his hands over his mouth, "I'm not suppose to say that."

 "I'm going to have to phone your father about this little incident." Samantha said as she dug out a cell phone, eyeing the three children curiously.

"Why does everyone assume I'm the one at fault?!" T.J. protested then cringed at the droll looks of those who knew him.

"T.J., you're the one who works with the gears, I'd have to say it's you who is the cause of this problem like so many others before this," Samantha said dryly as she punched in the number.

T.J. scuffs his foot against the flagstone, his expression of miserable dejection as he listened to the conversation between his father and his friend's mother.

"Don't fell so bad T.J.," Danielle attempted to console him, "At least the tower's still standing."

"Wait," Valerie said as she thought of a few things, looking at the two friends who stood to the other side of Ghost-Boy, "If you two still know each other in the future, and you Manson actually get together with Ghost-Boy—which by the way is just twisted—where's Fenton in the future? Are you still even friends?"

The three exchanged looks, how could they explain this?

"He colonel in the Air Force," Danielle piped up.

"What?" Danny exclaimed, looking owlishly at his future family.

"Yeah, he always said he wanted to be an astronaut but various incidents lead to him joining the air force instead and he's now a pilot for fighter jets." Danielle explained, knowing the double meaning behind Phantom's question.

"Huh," Valerie muttered, muddling though it. "How do you know that?"

"'Cause Mom's always said he looks hot in uniform!" Danielle giggled.

Sam and Danny both blushed, Sam embarrassed that she had made such a comment and Danny at having the comment directed towards him.

Valerie blinked. Well, that sort of answered her question. It was obvious that Fenton, Foley, and Manson were still friends but where and how did Phantom fit into the picture?

"Okay, thank you Tucker and see you this evening," Samantha said as the conversation concluded. Hitting the End button, she slipped the silver phone back into her pocked and then turned to Clockwork in an almost sly manner.

"Clockwork, I've got a meeting to attend shortly and won't be able to meet Tucker here. Would you watch over Jedidiah for me while I'm at my meeting?" Samantha said with seeming innocence as she shifted the toddler—Jed—over to her other hip.

"Samantha dear, do you recall what happened the last time you left him with me?" The Master of Time said urbanely.

"Yes," Samantha replied guilelessly.

"Do you remember who gave him his nickname?" Clockwork said in a patient manner.

"Of course, you did," Samantha answered with a pleasant smile as she set Jed onto the floor.

"And what did I call him?" Clockwork continued, eyeing the toddler as he crawled towards the group of teens.

"That Devil Fen-Phantom," Samantha responded in a naïve tone, correcting herself in the nick of time having realised what her eldest were trying to conceal from the past teens. The family's surname.

 "Precisely. You can go to your meeting and take that Devil Child with you." Clockwork said crisply, then continued after a momentary pause, "Leave the cookies though."

Samantha smiled fondly at the ghost and gave a half-hearted shrug, not really expecting to be able to fob babysitting duties off but doing it mainly to annoy the Master of Time. She was still rather ticked about having her memories erased, for the greater good or not.

"I really don't see what's so dangerous about him," Danny commented as he eyed the three-year-old that had sat himself before him. Realising that this was the infamous Jed the Phantom twins had spoken off and the one Clockwork spoke of now.

Those from the future rolled their eyes. Everyone said that upon meeting Jed, he just appeared too angelic to be the devilish trouble maker he was.

"Tuch!" Jed gurgled as he reached a chubby hand forward.

"'Tuch'?" Danny questioned, looking up at his future family.

"He means touch," Danielle translated.

Danny shrugged and did as the toddler bade him, bending over and held out his hand to the child. Jed eagerly leaned forward and wrapped his fingers around Danny's offered hand. The youngest Phantom contorted gleefully as ectoplasm energy surged from his fingers into Danny's body.

Danny screamed in surprise as his body arched. Foreign ectoplasm crashing though his system and then next instant Danny Phantom was—Danny Fenton.

"The Ghost-Boy?! You're the Ghost-Boy?" Valerie ranted angrily, giving a death glare to her somewhat friend and known foe.

"Fenton? You're a freaking hero?!" Dash exclaimed disbelievingly, the guy he beat up in school fought ghosts that could kill him?

"Phantom's actually the looser?" Paulina said wide-eyed, that couldn't be true. Phantom was a superhero, Fenton was a... was a... was nothing more then a looser.

"What are you?" Valerie raved, not understanding a single thing and finding it impossible to reconcile Phantom with Fenton in her mind. Phantom was an arrogant somewhat snarky ectoplasm entity who allowed no ghost or hunter to defeat him. Fenton was a reserved somewhat timid person who was bullied by all the members of the football team and 'cool set.'

"A halfa," Danny muttered a flush high on his cheekbones as he looked guiltily away from his classmates, tucking his hands into his jeans. Sam and Tucker shifting defensively closer to their friend.

"A halfa? A halfa brain Fentonio?!" Dash shouted angrily, to mad too even move and slug Fenton like he wanted to.

"I hate that term," Samuel grumbled suddenly, distracting them momentarily from Danny's revealed identity.

"Yeah, could you get any more unimaginative then halfa? That's as bad as calling a bat Batty," Danielle exclaimed as she threw her hands up in their air. "Who coined it anyway?"

"That would be Vlad Plasmius," Clockwork said softly who had watched the events and interaction that had and was occurring within the group with keen interest.

Danielle turned on the dark halfling with a scowl, "Halfa, come on I know you're intelligent, couldn't you have done better then that?"

"He's intelligent, not imaginative." Samuel said dryly.

"Point," Danielle conceded.

"Fine," Valerie said as she glowered back to Fenton, "You're a halfa. What exactly is that and how the hell are you one?"

"A halfa is half human and half ghost and we're usually created when a ghost portal is started and we're caught within the activated ectoplasm energy."(1)

The plural reference alluded Valerie and the others for the moment as they thought about what Danny had just reluctantly told them.

"Like Spiderman?" Star commented with a great deal of insight, "Only you didn't get bit by a radioactive spider but zap by a ghost portal? Or would the Fantastic Four be a better analogy?"

"Like that," Danny agreed.

"How'd you become one of these halfa's then?" Valerie growled.

"When my parents first created the Fenton Ghost Portal, they plugged it in but hadn't turned it on. I did that from inside and thus my body got hit by the activating ectoplasm... it changed me as you now know."

"So what exactly happened then?"

"No sure," Danny admitted with a shrug, "Either I'm bonded to a pre-existing ectoplasm entity or my DNA was rearranged and I've become one. He'd be able to tell you more," he said with a nod in Plasmius's direction.

"Why's that?" Valerie asked suspiciously.

"He's what you could say the worlds leading expert on halfa's, after all he named them.

Footnote:
(1) An interesting point to ponder actually, in the theme song it said that Danny's 'molecules get rearranged', which one must assume means DNA. However in "What You Want" when Danny accidentally flew through the Fenton Dream-catcher Fenton and Phantom are physically separated even though immediately afterwards Phantom dives right back into Fenton and they remerge. And then there's the little bit during "Ultimate Enemies" about one ripping out their ghost half...