Series Title: Time Paradox
Author Notes: Ok Guys I have recently started rewatching some of my old favorite Nicktoon cartoons! And have decided to continue an old story idea of mine. What show is the story based off you might ask? It's Danny Phantom! You know the half ghost, half boy who saves the world from Dark ghouls!
Yes! Anyway, I just recently finished the Episode called: The Ultimate Enemy, and this episode reminded me of a story I had written back when the show was still fairly new, and I've decided I want to finish it. But before I get to the story, I wanted to explain what it's about, and how it came to be since it deals with Time paradoxes, a subject that can be confusing to some people.
So, like I said this idea originated from the episode The Ultimate Enemy!
Chapter1: Episode Recap:
Ten years in the future, the Earth is a wasteland. The only surviving location is Amity Park, which has become a bustling future metropolis. It is protected by a huge ghost shield, operated, and run by Damon Gray, while his 24-year-old daughter Valerie serves as the city's sole protector from ghosts. The ghost shield was nigh-impenetrable and had protected Amity Park for ten years, until one new, very evil, and very powerful ghost uses his newest power, the Ghostly Wail, to easily break through the ghost shield. Valerie is then ambushed by the Fright Knight who is now in servitude to the new ghost. She heads to safety in Fenton Works, now occupied by her and her father. The new ghost gets through from below, and reveals himself to be an adult Danny Phantom. He then blows up the entire house. All this is being watched by Clockwork, ghost master of time, and the mysterious Observants. As the Observants can only watch and never interfere, they task Clockwork with saving the future - by destroying the present Danny Fenton. However, Clockwork, decides to test Danny instead in hopes that Danny will make the right decision proving that no one needs to fear for the future.
In the present, Lancer makes a public announcement to the students about the Career Aptitude Test, which will determine their future. Jazz already passed with flying colors, while another classmate named Irving failed and now works for minimum wage at the Nasty Burger. Irving tries to explain how his job is very important, as if the Nasty Burger special sauce overheats it could cause a massive explosion, but none of the other students seem to care. Lancer shows the students that he has the folder containing the answers to the test, then locks the folder in his briefcase. Clockwork watches all this from his lair while the Observants urge him to destroy the boy. Clockwork insists that he knows what he's doing, and they continue to watch Danny.
Back home, Jazz tries hard to help Danny succeed in his studies, but this makes him even more frustrated about how he feels she's smarter than he ever will be and how little success he feels he will gain. He is then hit by the Booomerang, a new Fenton device designed to home into a ghost's unique ecto-signature. His parents are confused why it keeps targeting Danny, suggesting that it might be malfunctioning.
Clockwork then sends Box Lunch, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady Ghost, from the future to the present to test Danny. Jazz quickly leaves upon seeing the ghost to let Danny handle the situation, and the two fight, eventually flying all the way to the Nasty Burger where his friends and Mr. Lancer are. Danny remembers what Irving said about the Nasty Sauce and throws a packet of it at Box Lunch and heats it with his Ghost Ray, causing a huge explosion that destroys half the building (and damages the machines in the boiler room, causing it to slowly rise in heat). The explosion flings Danny back to where the masses have gathered. His trajectory takes him straight through Lancer's briefcase. Everyone runs away, leaving no sign of Box Lunch. Danny finds the time medallion Box Lunch had been wearing, as well as the answers to the C.A.T. which Danny had inadvertently phased out of Lancer's briefcase. Clockwork hopes Danny will make the right decision and give Lancer back the answers without looking at them, but instead Danny openly admits that he's going to use them to cheat on the CAT. The Observants coerce Clockwork to send another ghost to stop Danny, However Clockwork claims that the future is now sealed.
The next day in school, Tucker and Sam berate Danny for his possible plans to cheat on the C.A.T., something Lancer overhears. Opening his suitcase to find his test answers gone, he calls for Jazz to talk with him after school where he reveals to her that Danny must have stolen the answers. Jazz tries to defend him, stating he has no proof, so Lancer gives Danny until the day of the test to return the answers.
Back in the Fenton household, Tucker tries to figure out the time medallion's functions, but gets no results. Danny is about to look in the folder (much to his friends' disapproval) when he meets another ghost from the future: Skulktech 9.9, a ghost made from the combined forces of Skulker and Technus. A long battle between them ends when Tucker hacks into their system. They fall, and their time medallion slips off, sending Skulktech as well as Danny, Sam, and Tucker to Clockwork's lair.
Inside, the trio looks through a portal to the future, witnessing the destruction Danny's future self is causing. Tucker then finds a few time medallions and puts one on in a failed attempt to go back to the present. Clockwork then appears seemingly wanting to kill Danny after all in order to prevent his dark future. Danny tries fighting Clockwork, but it's a one-sided battle, as Clockwork has the power of time control. Clockwork freezes Danny in place and lunges at Danny with his scythe, to try to kill him and prevent his evil future from happening once and for all. Unaffected by the time-out, Tucker figures out that the time medallion protects the wearer from all time-based alterations, and gives one to Sam and Danny, freeing Danny. Clockwork decides that they have seen too much and summons ghost soldiers from different eras to prevent them from altering the timeline. With nowhere else to go, the trio escapes through the portal to the future.
The future already proves grim for the three and even more so when future Valerie catches young Danny, ready to exterminate him, but she is shocked that Sam and Tucker are alive! Dark Danny then appears asking them "So, to what do I owe this little blast from the past? [His eyes widen as he notices Sam's Clockwork medallion] "Clockwork. Meddling again." He says, he then attacks Valerie Saying "I suppose out of respect for our past, I should let you live. But that's not how I work." Younger Danny rescues her and then passes out from exhaustion.
In the meantime, Sam and Tucker run away, only for Dark Danny to drop the rubble of the Fenton house on them with his Ghostly Wail. Before they are hit, Sam takes off their time medallions, safely returning them to their own time period. Sam and Tucker end up in an alley near the Nasty Burger where Jazz confronts them, having discovered Danny indeed had the test answers. She warns them, saying that she'll talk to Mr. Lancer if Danny doesn't confess. Afterwards, Sam theorizes that Danny cheating is what will lead him to become evil.
Back in the future, Danny finds out his family, friends, and Mr. Lancer were all killed when the Nasty Burger boiler exploded with them inside. Dark Danny comes to him, telling his past self that he plans to ensure his future still exists. To bind young Danny to this time, he places his past self's time medallion inside of him, unreachable by either ghosts or humans, and throws him into the Ghost Zone to keep him from causing any further distraction. Then, Dark Danny disguises himself as his 14-year-old human self and uses one of Tucker's time medallions to travel back to the present. The disguised Dark Danny reunites with his former friends in the present, telling them he has beaten his evil future self and that the Nasty Burger boiler is also taken care of (when in reality, it's still ready to blow).
Back in the future Ghost Zone, Danny finds the future versions of all his Ghost Zone enemies, all the worse after having encountered Dark Danny. Johnny 13 is in a wheelchair and pushed around by Shadow, Ember is overweight and has severely damaged vocal cords, and even the Box Ghost has an eye patch and a hook hand from being used as Dark Danny's punching bag. As an act of revenge, they gang up on him.
Back in the present, Dark Danny returns to his former room in the Fenton house, where Jazz is waiting to confront him on his cheating. She then confesses that she knows he is half-ghost and is secretly really proud of him for everything he's done. A bit surprised that she knew, Dark Danny turns into his normal form. Dark Danny confirms that he is her brother evil self and that his past self is floating in the Ghost Zone in the future. Jazz defiantly says that her brother will beat him, which Dark Danny highly doubts, as he destroyed the future Fenton Works' ghost portal.
Jazz wakes up the next day to find Dark Danny has already left to take the test. Quickly, Jazz takes the Booomerang, ties a note to it with her headband, and sends it to the Ghost Zone in the hope that it will reach Danny in 10 years.
Back in the future, Danny is helpless against the ghosts attacking him. In his frustration, he suddenly gains the ability to use the Ghostly Wail, knocking all his enemies unconscious. Soon after, the Booomerang finds him. Danny reads the note, realizes that Vlad is involved and goes to track him down.
Meanwhile, Dark Danny starts to cheat on the test, something his friends are still livid over. Jazz watches from afar, ready to destroy him with the Fenton Ghost Peeler. Dark Danny notices and sends an invisible duplicate of himself to knock her unconscious and drag her away.
Danny manages to find the portal to Vlad's manor (hidden behind a giant football), but upon entering, he notices that the manor is long gone, and the once proud billionaire is now a depressed old hermit. Seeing Danny and guessing that he's from the past, he tells the story of how Dark Danny came to be: After the death of his loved ones, Danny moved in with Vlad, as he was the only one who could possibly understand his pain. Wanting to make the hurt go away, he requested Vlad to remove his ghost half, something Vlad honored, pulling it out with the Ghost Gauntlets. However, once Danny's ghost half was removed, it went berserk, took the gloves and ripped Vlad's ghost half out of him. Danny's ghost half then attempted to overshadow Vlad's ghost half, only for the two ghosts to fuse and Vlad's evil nature overwhelming Danny, becoming the evil incarnation he is now. Blowing up Vlad's manor, and supposedly killing his human half, Dark Danny left to begin his ten year rampage of world destruction. Vlad laments that he spent the ten long years stuck in regret and guilt for all the damage he had caused. Danny, in a rare moment, forgives him, then asks for his help to take out the medallion inside of him using the Ghost Gauntlets. Readying his gadgets, Vlad remarks that he could instead eliminate Danny before he becomes evil, and strikes.
In the present, Dark Danny finishes the test and walks off, prompting Lancer to call his parents and arrange a meeting at the Nasty Burger. There he reveals his suspicions that Danny cheated, shocking his parents badly. Sam and Tucker then come over to warn them that the boiler is about to explode. Jazz arrives as well and blasts Danny with the Fenton Peeler, revealing Dark Danny's true form to the others. Alarmed, his parents are on the offensive, demanding to know where their son is, only for Dark Danny to reveal himself as their child.
Dark Danny smugly taunts his parents, saying how they claimed to be world's leading ghost experts yet couldn't figure out that their own son is half-ghost. They never even made the connection between the names Fenton and Phantom. Jazz was the only one to figure it out, much to Tucker and Sam's surprise. Dark Danny then ties up his family, friends, and Mr. Lancer to the boiler where the explosion would kill them.
Danny then comes from the future with a bunch of Fenton gadgets, ready to duke it out with his darker future self. A battle ensues. Dark Danny makes sure not to kill his younger self, as all he needs to do is stall for time so that Danny's friends and family die in the explosion, ensuring his future. However, he grossly underestimates his past self when Danny suddenly uses the Ghostly Wail on him. Shocked that he already gained a power he should not get for another ten years, Dark Danny is struck by another Ghostly Wail, causing him to crash into a building. Danny then captures Dark Danny in the Fenton Thermos.
Unfortunately, with the last wail using all of his energy, Danny cannot transform back into his ghost half, making it too late for him to stop the explosion, and all he can do is look on in grief and horror. Time freezes, however, and Danny finds himself next to Clockwork who has saved his loved ones. Clockwork explains to Danny that the Observants view time as a parade, watching each event in sequence, whereas he sees the parade from above, along with all the twists and turns that might or might not happen. Giving him a second chance, Clockwork sends Danny back into the past, before the start of the test, where Danny returns the test answer booklet and then confesses he was going to cheat, However because he was honest Mr. Lancer lets him off easy with a week of detention; Saying he can take the makeup CAT the following week, (much to the relief of his friends and sister.) Danny then goes out to the front of the school, where Jazz meets him, and she confesses that she knows his secret. With that said, the two embrace, Jazz is now part of Danny's team. A giant ghost then attacks, and Jazz gives her brother one last hug before letting Danny go to fight the ghost. As they battle, Jazz is splatted with ectoplasm, and comments that "this is going to get some getting used to".
Back in Clockwork's home, the Observants accuse Clockwork of cheating to influence Danny's choice. Clockwork answers that true, he cheated, but stating Danny made up his mind on his own, nonetheless. The Observants then task him with watching over the both the boy's present and future self. The Observants then give the thermos containing Dark Danny to Clockwork, as Clockwork is to be his sole guardian now that Dark Danny exists outside of time. Clockwork merely agrees, saying that he knows everything that has happened and will happen. He then locks the thermos away. The last thing seen is the room containing the Fenton Thermos, where Dark Danny struggles in vain to escape...
Time Paradox series explained:
Now that you have a brief recap of the episode, I can get on to explaining the story I plan to write. It's a trilogy starting with the first Part called: The Dark Side of you. This is what it's about: It's a story of what would have happened if Danny had cheated on that test and Clockwork had not interfered. I know Vlad explains most of the story, or the gist, but Dark Danny hinted at the fact that he and Valerie had some kind of relationship, after Danny's family and friends died. He says to her "I suppose out of respect for our past, I should let you live. But that's not how I work."
Now if you are savvy in the ways of Danny Phantom then you would remember that up to this point the present day Valerie and Danny do not have feelings for each other as of yet. Danny still hates on her for trying to kill his ghost half, and the fact that she was once one of the popular kids that bullied him and his friends.
This made me wonder what could have happened from the time Danny started living with Vlad, and before Vlad separated him from his human side. Did Vlad's statues make Danny a wanted member of the popular crowd? Did Danny at least try to move on before he went to Vlad for help in making the "pain go away?" Is that how he ended up with Valerie? Did Danny give up ghost fighting after the death of his loved ones? Or did he try to carry on? What would have happened if Clockwork had just let the future playout?
These are the questions I want to answer within the first book of this trilogy!
However, Book two of the trilogy: One in the Same, would be using the original chain of events that happen in the episode The Ultimate Enemy, and would pick up after the final episode of Danny Phantom. It would explain how the Dark Danny escaped Clockwork, and tries to work towards the Dark future that the Observants tried to prevent in the first place. I wrote this story due to another thing the Dark Phantom says. When Danny, Tucker and Sam show up in the future in the episode Ultimate Enemy, Dark Danny askes them "So, to what do I owe this little blast from the past? [His eyes widen as he notices Sam's Clockwork medallion] "Clockwork. Meddling again." He says.
This makes me think Clockwork eventually changes his mind about doing nothing to stop the future, and took Dark Danny out of his original timeline by changing 14 year old Danny's mind about cheating. Clockwork confirms this when he agrees to Danny's accusation that the time ghost knew all along that this would happen. I think that originally Clockwork did nothing, and Danny went Evil, however Clockwork soon comes to regret his decision and since he is the master of time he went back to the moment that the Observants assigned him the job of killing Danny and decide that this time around he would try to stop Dark Danny from happening. However, younger Dany ends up going to the future where he sees this dark fate, and decides to never become Dark Danny.
I think this anger Dark Danny, and he steals one of Tucker's medallions, travels to the past and ensures the future happens anyways. Seeing this Clockwork rewinds time again, and Starts from the beginning in his task to spare Danny, while stop his dark-self from becoming a reality. Which explains why Dark Danny says Clockwork is meddling again! And he knows this because Clockworks abilities leave a bad feeling of Déjà vu within his victims; especially if he's manipulated a single moment or chain of events more than once. Which explains why Dark Danny remembers the last time he meddled. And of course, as we know this time Clockwork is successful in making it to where Dark Danny no longer exists in the current time line.
However, in the episode The Ultimate Enemy. Dark Danny states that Clockwork's and younger Danny's efforts to stop him are in vain, because he was still there! He still existed. Whether it be inside or outside of time. He had not faded away into nothingness! Which hints at the fact that Danny's Dark Future still happens! Just not in the same way it originally did. It would also introduce the fact that Clockwork is constantly manipulating time trying to keep The Dark Danny from getting what he wants. The Observants confirm this suspicion by stating that Clockwork is now in charge of guarding both younger Danny and Dark Danny, and keeping this horrible future from finding another way to come to reality!
Finally book three: Only Time Will Tell would be the Ultimate show down to see whether or not Dark Danny prevails. And to be honest since this book hasn't been finished like the first two; it could still go either way! Yep I am not sure if this story will be a happy ending or not!
Anyway, with all of that said; Thanks for reading Enjoy, and please review.
Yours Truly, RoxieDivine