Danny Vandread

Disclaimer: Nickelodeon’s Danny Phantom and Vandread all belong to their respective creators, so please make all those frivolous lawsuits disappear.

Note: This story takes place near the end of the Danny Phantom Movie Reign Storm and before the first stage of Vandread.

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 1

Going Ghost

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Danny Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, (or Inviso-Bill, which he hated), knew that this was the end as the Fenton Battle Exoskeleton’s console indicated that his power levels were dwindling down to critical levels. Though the armor increased his ghost powers a hundred times, it put a tremendous strain on even on his human-ghost hybrid body.

It had been a long and tough battle as he forced the Ghost King Pariah into the Sarcophagus of Everlasting Sleep and shut the lid. However, his opponent would not go quietly as he thrashed and pounded on his prison. It was taking all of Danny’s strength to keep the Ghost King contained. However, as he felt the last of his strength leave him, his thoughts went back through the last few months since he had become Danny Phantom.

His flashbacks began with the accident inside the Fenton Ghost Portal when his friend Sam and Tucker had urged him to check out his father’s greatest invention. It was during that time that his body’s genes had gotten fused with ectoplasm, granting him ghostlike powers. Unfortunately, at the same time, this had caused a link to form between the Ghost Zone and Earth. Ghosts of every different shape, size and personality, (mostly bad), had begun to invade the real world. As a result, Danny was forced to learn how to control his powers, and fight off all the ghosts that were coming through.

It hadn’t been easy and he had been stumbling through his adolescence with powers that were often the problem, rather than the solution. (1) It was especially difficult to fight the ghosts, as well as those who wanted to destroy them, such as his parents, who were professional ghost hunters. There was also Valerie Gray, a classmate of his who had a personal grudge against ghosts.

Now, in his greatest battle against the strongest ghost, he could feel his consciousness slipping away. Pariah was about to escape as Danny slid down into defeat. However, a certain someone appeared and ensured that the Ghost King would never again threaten the Earth. With one simple twist of the Ghost Key, Pariah was forever sealed away.

Danny shook his head and looked over his shoulder to see all of his ghost enemies and Vlad Plasmius standing behind him. In Vlad’s hands was Pariah's Crown of Fire. Danny’s Arch-Enemy smiled as he looked upon the boy and nodded. Everything had gone according to plan. Using Danny to take down Pariah and turn the Fright Knight into his ally had worked and now he was about to take possession of the Fenton’s Exo-Skeleton. With it, he would become powerful enough to control the energy within the Crown of Fire. Nothing would be able to stop him now!

However, unknown to him, Pariah had one final trick up his sleeve. Knowing that he was forever sealed away, he sent a telepathic signal to the Crown of Fire. The mystic object started to glow intensely and it’s power levels began to rise. If he couldn’t rule the Ghost Zone and the Earth, he would destroy them both!

Vlad let off a scream as the powers within the crown engulfed him and reduced his body into nothingness. The other ghosts began to scatter as the energy started to lash out, obliterating anyone and anything it touched. Skulker’s armor was no protection as he was annihilated. Walker was given final justice as he too was obliterated. Ember was reduced into... well, embers and the Box Ghost could only say ‘Beware!’ one last time.

Danny watched in horror as the power of Crown of Fire wiped out hundreds of ghosts in seconds. He also looked down at his console and saw that the energy was heading toward Amity Park and the outside world. If he didn’t do something, then everything would be destroyed. Thinking desperately, he summoned up the last of his strength and powered up his Ghost Barrier, surrounding himself and the crown He said one final goodbye to everyone he knew and loved as he set the Exo-Skeleton to maximum power. Hopefully, the shield would contain the rampant energies.

<Sam... I’m so sorry. I never did get the chance to tell you that I...>

At that moment, the Crown of Fire exploded, engulfing Danny Phantom. However, due to a cosmic twist of fate, the blast did not destroy the 14-year-old, but rather cause a temporal rift to be opened. The energies were sucked into the rift and neutralized, causing the imbalance between the Ghost Zone and the Real World to stabilize. However, Danny was in the center of the chaos and was forever removed from this point in time.

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Eventually, it was discovered that the Ghost Zone was permanently sealed off from the Real World, thereby solving Amity Park’s and Earth’s ghost problem. However, the price that was paid had been high.

The Fenton Family mourned the loss of their youngest member as Jasmine finally revealed Danny secret to her parents. As for the rest of the students at Casper High, Danny had finally gotten the respect he deserved. The school bully Dash wasn’t popular after being compared to the heroics of former wimp Danny Fenton. However, Danny would never get to enjoy the fame that was finally given to him.

Fate had other ideas.

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The future...

In a flash of light that was the equivalent to a supernova’s, Danny Phantom in his Exoskeleton Battlesuit came tumbling out of the time vortex and into airless space. Then the tear in the fabric of the space-time continuum sealed itself up, leaving a human-ghost hybrid to drift in the cold vacuum. With Danny unconscious, he immediately reverted back to his human form. At the same time, his suit also reverted back to its original appearance with the Fenton logo.

Fortunately, his father had designed the suit to work in all environments, including out in space. The life-support system immediately began recycling oxygen and pressurizing the cockpit. After several minutes, Danny came to and was shocked to see that he was now floating in space.

It was then that he looked down at the control console and gasped at the readouts. The chronological meter that was installed in the Exoskeleton registered that the year was 2547 AD!

<Huh? That can’t be right! According to this I’m in the future! But how did...?!>

Danny’s train of thought was abruptly interrupted, when the suit’s proximity alarm went off. He looked down at his console’s main screen and saw that three objects were heading toward him on an intercept course. Not knowing whether or not they were friendly, he decided to take the safe route and hide.

“I’m Going Ghost!”

After transforming into Danny Phantom and powering up his suit, he immediately became invisible, cloaking the Exoskeleton as well. A moment later, a trio of fighters came into view and started to sweep the area. Danny looked in awe at the futuristic craft. No doubt about it, he was no longer in his own time zone.

----------

The lead pilot looked about and checked her scanners. According to her readouts, there should have been an unidentified object flying about this sector, but she couldn’t see anything. Furthermore, the signature that she had picked up from before was no longer showing up on her energy sensors.

After searching the area for a few more minutes, she signaled to her wingmates to break off and head back to base. The alarm which had caused the fighters to scramble had been a false one. The fear that the men of Tarak had invaded Mejele space was unfounded and dismissed.

----------

Danny let off a sigh of relief as he watched the ships leave. However, he still had to decide on what to do. He was alone, out in space, in the future. He had no idea of how to return to his own time, and had to face facts that he may be trapped and would never see his family and friends again. He resisted the urge to cry, but couldn’t stop his eyes from welling up with moisture. Then he noticed the warning lights that his console was giving. His suit was dangerously low on power.

Steeling himself for the task at hand, he became visible again and started to used the suit’s scanners to locate any place that he could land. He began to wonder if it had been smart to hide from those ships. They might have led him to their planet. It was then that his sensors went wild as something big was about to emerge. A hyperspace rift opened up to reveal a large ship as it dropped into normal space. The Exoskeleton was swamped in the gravitational backlash, but Danny managed to right the suit by using its thrusters. He then decided that this was his best chance as he went invisible again, and used his intangibility powers to phase through the hull. When he ended up inside of a large, storage area, he checked his sensors and determined that the atmosphere within the ship was breathable. He then transformed back to his human body and powered down the Exoskeleton. He then fell asleep.

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On the bridge of the Tarak Ship...

“That’s odd.” The navigator commented.

“What’s odd?” The captain asked.

“For a moment, I thought I picked up something near the ship, just as we dropped out of hyperspace. It had a configuration similar to our prototype Van-Types, but it was smaller. It‘s not there any more.”

“Ridiculous!” The captain snorted. “Those new weapons are the military’s most closely guarded secret! There’s no way that those accused women could have one! Besides, we’re here to map out this sector of space, and do intelligence, in preparation for our glorious assault on those innards-sucking monsters! We are fortunate that we were able to arrive undetected and didn‘t encounter any patrols. Now begin scanning all incoming frequencies. With enough time, we should be able to crack all of their military codes.”

“Understood sir.”

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An hour later, the Tarak Ship departed and headed back to the all-male homeworld, not knowing that they had a stowaway.

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Five years later...

“Hey Danny! Do you want to go get some grub?”

Danny shook his head as he told his co-workers that he wasn’t hungry and headed home. He wanted to work on his Exoskeleton’s modifications as soon as possible. He was almost ready to leave this planet behind and find his destiny among the stars.

It had been five long and lonely years since Danny Fenton had landed on Tarak and he had just about had enough of this all-male planet. When he had gotten off the Tarak Scout ship and explored the world he was on, he had learned that the men and women had long ago separated and were now enemies. He had gotten himself set up as a worker by using his ghost powers to falsify his records. During the next few years, he had been toiling away at one of the factories, building parts for the new weapons, the Van-Types.

It wasn’t easy and Danny had to learn hard and quickly. However, the job did have some benefits. For one thing, Danny was no longer the scrawny youth that he had once been. Lifting heavy weights and pulling large loads helped build up his frame, making him stronger and better defined than that bully Dash ever was. His features were more defined and he had become a handsome young man. A recent growth spurt added several inches to his height. At nineteen, he was a respectable 5’11”. Furthermore, working on a place which built robots and other weapons gave him a good opportunity to learn electronics and engineering. Being a former C student, Danny eventually grasped the principles of machinery and computers. And the factory was also provided parts for his Exoskeleton. Sneaking them out was a cinch, thanks to his ghost powers, which had also increased substantially over the years.

Though Tarak had been his home for five years, Danny did not want to stay there forever. He wanted to explore the universe and see other worlds. He wanted to learn more. And most of all, he wanted to see some girls! It was frustrating for a young man like himself to be on an all-male planet, especially with his hormones raging after puberty. He was put off by all the propaganda by the government on how women were these hideous monsters that ate men’s livers.

As he came home to his quarters, he immediately went into the large room in the back where his Exoskeleton was stored. The machine had underwent several changes and had more angular lines. Danny had been steadily improving on his parents’ original design. There was more armor and the bubble canopy was reinforced. In addition to increasing his ghost powers a hundred-fold, he had finally solved the glitchy Neuro-Interface System by stealing the plans to the Van-Type’s cybernetic interface circuitry and modifying it. The suit also had auxiliary weaponry so that he didn’t have to tax his own powers. All sensors and guidance systems were upgraded. Powerful new thrusters on the ankles and back replaced the old foot jets. Lastly, the power core was now self-regenerating, giving the suit a range that was effectively unlimited.

The cockpit was more roomy and had a compartment in the back where extra equipment and food could be stored. In the past few weeks, he had been hoarding those God-awful pill rations. They didn’t taste like much, but at least he wouldn’t starve. Though he really wished for a Nasty Burger and fries. He hoped that the other worlds that he would encounter would have something more edible than the food on Tarak.

Danny nodded and decided that tomorrow would be the day that he would leave Tarak forever. It was going to be the same time in which the new ship, christened the Ikazuchi, would be launched. The plan was simple, which was to sneak aboard the ship with the Exoskeleton, wait until they were well beyond the sector and launch from there.

With his course of action decided, he then went to get some sleep. As he lay down on his bed and closed his eyes, images of his former life flashed by in his mind. One image in particular, which was a certain Goth vegetarian girl with a top-knot ponytail, was the most predominant.

“Sam...”

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During the day of the launch, Danny’s plan went off without a hitch. Using his powers, he easily slipped aboard the Ikazuchi undetected, and landed his Exoskeleton Battlesuit in one of the Vanguard hangers. Though the mecha were larger than Danny’s, his machine was by far more powerful, especially with a human/ghost hybrid at the controls. He then waited for the ship to launch so that he could begin his journey into the cosmos.

However, when the Prime Minister of Tarak decided to launch early, that was when things started to go downhill.

About an hour into the trip, Danny had to exit the suit in order to answer nature’s call. He chided himself for not going before sneaking onto the Ikazuchi. Using his ghost powers, he snuck into one of the lavatories to relieve himself, then headed back toward the hanger.

However, he took a wrong turn and ended up in the engineering section where a large, strange crystal hummed amid the machinery. It was then that he began to feel strange and dizzy. It was if something in the room was trying to reach out toward him, despite him being invisible to all those present.

The Paksis Pragma reacted to the presence and let loose with a flash of light, which caused Danny to feel a sudden bout of nausea. As a result, he couldn’t maintain his focus and became visible.

“Hey you! What are you doing here?!”

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Later...

<Well, this is just peachy!> Danny thought as he sat in a security cell that had once been a storage area. After being discovered, he had been immediately captured and thrown in the brig to await execution. Though he could have easily gone ghost and fought back, he decided to let them arrest him. He could always escape later.

As he sat and stared at the robot that had been assigned as his guard, he wondered if he should just blast the thing with an ectoplasmic energy bolt. Then the general quarters alarm went off as the ship shook with the sounds of explosions. Danny immediately looked out the window of his cell and saw that the ship was being attacked by the same type of fighters that he had encountered five years ago.

Seeing that this was the perfect diversion, he then cried out...

“I’M GOING GHOST!”

In a flash, Danny Fenton became Danny Phantom. He then turned about and charged straight at the energy bars of his cell. He instantly became intangible and passed right through them and the Navi Robot that had been watching him. This caused the robot’s circuits to short out. When it dropped lifelessly to the floor, Danny paused, then decided that he could take it along and fix it later.

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Outside in space, there was total chaos.

The men had been caught totally unprepared as the female space pirates began running rings around them. None of the defensive fire hit the enemy as the Dread fighters were too fast to track. Even the new weapons, the Vanguards were of little use as they were piloted by inexperienced trainees. Soon their forces were overrun as pirates began to infiltrate the Ikazuchi on many different levels.

In the engine room, Danny flew in the direction where he believed his Exoskeleton was, but then an alarm rang out. Then a massive explosion occurred as a ship crashed through the wall, catching Danny off-guard before he could go intangible. Then everything went dark.

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When Danny came to, he realized that he was on his back and in his human form. He also realized that something, or rather someone was sprawled on top of him. When he heard a feminine moan, he reached out and grasped something soft... and squishy. It took his befuddled brain a moment to realize what he was touching. He immediately blushed and retracted his hand.

<Ohmigod! Ohmigod! I touched it! I touched a girl’s...>

He quickly scrambled out from beneath her and sat up. At that moment, the girl cried while taking off her helmet.

“Wait!”

“Huh?” Was Danny’s intelligent reply as he gazed upon a very pretty young girl with long red hair.

“Wow! It’s a real live alien!”

To be continued...?

Author’s Notes

Well, that’s what I get when I have writer’s block and have the TV on the Nickelodeon channel. This was also due to a dare by my friend, who said that I could never merge a Kids cartoon with an anime. Well I proved him wrong. Where could I go with this? Well, it’s possible for Danny to encounter space ghosts and also add some other elements not found in the Vandread universe. It’s just an idea.

(1) You’ll have to check out Danny Phantom on TV to get the whole story. I’m just giving a bit of a recap.