A/N: Didn't anybody wonder what happened to the 'ghost zone capsule' they launched in 'Reign Storm' (or whatever it was called, it's been a while since I saw that eppie)? It's been bugging me forever and only after I saw 'Infinite Realms', I realized where it went... I was going to create a nice little K-rated story, but it seems it wasn't meant to be.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
ROUND TRIP
"Launching ghost zone capsule now."
Damon Gray pressed the button and on the screen they could see the small capsule head for the glowing green of the enormous ghost shield that now protected most of the town. People were still coming in, fleeing the chaos Pariah Dark's skeleton army brought about. The whole town was in disarray, smoking cars, overturned, blocked every street, people were running, leaving behind all their worldly possessions.
The people in the basement of the building that originated the ghost shield observed the commotion quietly, silently urging on the men, women and children as they ran, every now and then averting their eyes when someone didn't make it. They had done all they could for the people, now it was time to put the ecto skeleton to use.
Meanwhile, speeding through the swirling green of the ghost zone, was the small capsule. It looked somewhat makeshift, as if somebody had transformed an old trashcan into a spacecraft and in fact that was exactly what Jack Fenton had done. In the short time span that he had, he had even named it: 'Fenton Ghost Zone Capsule' was painted on one of the side panels. It had a digital camera put on the front, and inside there was a processing unit with a hard disk to record the photo's. It also contained a small transmitter, which they hoped would enable them to find it again.
It was programmed to fly out for an hour, take as many pictures as possible and then return to Fenton Works. In fact, the first part of it's mission it worked admirably. It recorded many strange things, floating doors, floating islands, a whole floating castle even. Surprisingly though, it did not record a single ghost until it reached that castle.
As it was nearing the castle, it was overtaken by a robot like figure, quite large, with a DP symbol on it. The capsule stopped in mid flight and stayed stationary, as it was programmed to do. It recorded the whole battle of Danny Phantom in the ecto skeleton and the assorted ghosts of the ghost zone against the skeletons of Pariah Dark.
When it detected no more movement it beeped once, transmitted a short signal to it's base that would never arrive and continued on it's way, since it was not yet time for it to return. It was put together rather hurriedly and it had no means to interpret the pictures that were taken with it's camera. So when a door opened in front of it, it faithfully took a picture of that and then flew through the door.
Oliver Vanderbilt sat on his chair in the shade of his house and looked out over the road. It was very quiet there, very few traffic came by at this hour. The air was shimmering over the asphalt, making it look like it was a mirror. The desert was just that: a desert, a rocky, hot, inhospitable place. He could see the hills in the distance, hills that enclosed this valley, blocking any breeze that might have blown.
He wrinkled his nose at the smell of gas that was always hanging over the place. It couldn't be helped of course, a gas station smelled like it, but every now and then he wished for some fresh air. Absentmindedly he listened to the sound from the radio coming from within the house. Buddy Holly, he thought, but he couldn't be sure.
He lifted his hat and wiped the sweat of his brow, revealing his balding head for a moment. He quickly put it back on, even though there was nobody around to see it. Only thirty years old, and already he was losing his hair. Life was unfair.
He was just contemplating getting a beer from the refrigerator, which had the disadvantage that he would have to move, when something very peculiar happened. Something sparked over the desert, something greenish, and then something was coming his way. The sunlight reflected on it and he had to squint to look at it. He got up slowly as it approached, excitement rising. This was it, this was the real thing, after all these years of looking for it, it had found him.
He stared at it as it came closer, softly humming, and watched it come to a full stop, just thirty yards from the gas station. Then he realized he didn't have his camera.
"Darn it," he muttered, as he slowly edged sideways in the direction of the door. He didn't want to startle it, didn't want it to leave before he could at least get a picture of it. He jumped inside when he reached the door and started looking frantically for his camera, pulling out drawers and spilling the contents all over the floor. Every now and then he looked out the window, but the thing was still there.
"Got it," he almost shouted when he finally put his hands on the small camera and hurried to the door. When he reached it, he slowly stepped outside again and raised the camera to his head. He examined it for a moment, making sure he had the correct settings and then started snapping pictures. He kept doing that until the thing suddenly picked up speed and disappeared in the distance.
Oliver jumped around in joy and ran to his car, not even bothering to lock up. When he reached the town, fifteen miles down the road, he immediately ran to the newspaper office where they laughed at him. He waived his camera in front of them and started shouting and the police came and took him away. When he kept at it, insisting on what he had seen they took his camera, but there was no film in it. He snapped.
When they finally had him in the straight jacket they put him in an asylum where he stayed for the rest of his days, with other people like him who claimed to have seen an UFO.
Tammy Carpenter pulled her long red hair back and tucked it behind her ears as she straightened her dress. She looked at the carving in the tree with a smile. It was a crude heart with an arrow trough it, on the one side 'TC' and on the other side 'KJ'. Tammy Carpenter loves Ken Johnson. You had to look really hard to recognize the heart for what it was, as Ken wasn't very skilled with his knife, but it was something.
They shouldn't be there of course, but she loved to sneak away with him and make out under that very same tree. The sun shone brightly down, sparkling in the river below. They were high on the hill, away from the dusty road and prying eyes. Ken got up as well and grinned at her, wiping some leaves from his breeches. They were just about to return to the road when they saw a dust cloud coming from the direction of the village. Quickly they hid behind the tree and watched as old Nick went by on his cart, it's old gray horse pulling it up the hill. Tammy giggled and Ken punched her.
Just as Tammy turned around to punch him back a strange green, swirling...something appeared in the air behind Ken's back. Before she had time to scream, something came out, knocking Ken down and flying right past her. She had barely time to register what the thing was as it flew over the hill in the direction of the village. When it had almost reached it, another green portal appeared and the capsule disappeared in it.
Her mouth hung open as she stared after it. It had looked strange, unworldly, reflecting the sunlight on it's surface.
"It's a sign," she thought bewildered, "A sign from God!"
She turned to Ken, who was oddly quiet and looked down on him. He was lying in the grass, next to the tree, unmoving. And he would never move again. She stumbled backwards, staring at him and then turned around and started running, holding up her dress as not to trip on it. She screamed all the way to the village and the villagers had never been able to understand her ravings about how God had punished Ken and her. What they did understand was that Ken was dead, his blood all over the grass, the tree and Tammy Carpenter. Since she must have been possessed when she did that and had obviously bewitched Ken with the strange sign on the tree, they burned her at the stake.
"beeb."
"beeb."
"beeb."
The processor tried to calculate a new trajectory as it flew through stranger and stranger environments. It didn't know it was lost of course, it merely took the data from it's sensors and fed it to the navigation program. And as they say, for any computer program goes: garbage in, garbage out. It took a turn, wobbling a bit and headed towards what seemed like a medieval castle, all the while taking pictures. It's hard drive was now half full, it had plenty of room for more.
Another portal opened and it went right through, passing harmlessly through a deserted forest, deserted in the way that no people lived there. One of the giant dinosaurs looked up at it, but it's brain was too small to comprehend that it was seeing something out of the ordinary. The next portal sucked the small capsule right in again and it entered the ghost zone once more, several millenniums into the future.
Andrew Frisk looked at his watch for the tenth time, nervously shifting in the uncomfortable seat at the airport. He had said goodbye to his family a good fifteen minutes ago and he knew they were waiting for him outside, expecting him to come running out again. He clenched his teeth. Not this time. This time he was going to go through with it. Millions of people flew in airplanes every day, he had no reason to be so ridiculously afraid. He had packed his suitcase that morning with care, neatly folding his jackets and pants. He was going to visit his sister in New Orleans, he was going to fly there like everybody else always did instead of driving for three days. He had kissed his kids goodbye and that was that.
He had never flown before. He got up as the plane started boarding and held up his boarding pass to the stewardess. She smiled at him reassuringly, recognizing his fear instantly. She made a mental note to herself to check on him after they left off, not only to see how he was handling it, but also to check that he wasn't drinking too much.
The plane was crowded and he felt disoriented for a moment until he found his seat. With some difficulty he put his hand luggage in the compartment above the seats and let himself sink into one. He had a seat by the window, as he had requested. If he was going to do this, he might as well enjoy the view. Slowly the plane filled and people were taking their seats. A heavy set man sat next to him and started talking to him. He listened politely, nodding every now and then, but he wasn't taking anything in.
When the plane started down the runway he grabbed the arm rests tightly, his knuckles turning white, as he watched the world go by with increasing speed. Then suddenly they were into the air and he saw the ground fall away quickly. Several minutes later the plane steadied itself and he saw they were already very high up. He relaxed somewhat. This wasn't so bad, and the view was magnificent. The plane climbed steadily and he saw the houses getting smaller until he could hardly see them anymore, the river now a glowing line in the greenish landscape.
Greenish... he bend over and peered out of the tiny window. Something green had appeared a good distance away from the plane. As he was watching, something came out and headed their way. He could see it coming and instinctively knew it was on a collision course with them. Before he could open his mouth however, he felt a violent shudder going through the plane and suddenly he was sitting in a storm, magazines and luggage flying around his head. There was a big hole in the plane several rows in front of him and he saw several people being sucked out, including the friendly stewardess who had offered him an orange juice only minutes earlier. He was strangely calm as the plane tilted over, sitting between the screaming passengers.
"Well isn't this nice," he thought to himself.
He had known this all his life.
The young man walked up the trail in a brisk pace. He had left his companions far behind, because despite his bulky appearance he had great stamina. He could walk for hours and in fact he had done so, hiking in the rockies with his friends. He shifted his heavy backpack somewhat and looked back, but they were nowhere in sight. Then he looked up again and saw that he was not far from the top. He decided to go on a little further and wait for them there. That would also give him the chance to eat something, his favorite pastime.
He started out again, his large frame swaying easily as he strode down the path, every now and then kicking a stone with his boot. His black hair was a bit too long and it kept falling into his eyes, but he kept it that way because, well, she liked it. And he would do anything for her.
He reached the top of the mountain pass and eased his backpack on the ground. On second thought, it wasn't such a good idea to sit here. His back was sweaty from the backpack and there was a cold wind up there. He hesitated for a moment, but he couldn't really go on without his friends and to go back...
At that moment something strange appeared high in the sky above the valley. It seemed to be some sort of portal, green and swirling and he looked at it in fascination. Then something came through at a very high speed, flashing in the sunlight momentarily before it crashed into the mountain side, sending a shock wave through the ground that brought him to his knees.
"What the...," he stuttered, too surprised to move for a moment. A great cloud of dust hung over the place the thing had crashed, a mere two hundred yards from him. He looked back at the place the thing had come from and saw that the strange green... whatever it was was still there, but was rapidly getting smaller, until it disappeared altogether.
He looked back at the dust cloud, wondering what it was that had crashed there. Vaguely, in the distance, he could hear the voices of his friends, shouting. He smiled, at least they were alright. As the dust cleared somewhat he could see the large crater that had formed and he realized he had been very lucky. Slowly he started climbing over the rocks and debris, hoping to find something that was left of the thing that had made such a large impact.
When he neared the center of the crater he found bits and pieces, shards of metal. There was really nothing left of it. He took a few more steps and stumbled on a larger piece. He picked it up and stared at it, hearing the voices of his friends getting closer.
"Jack! Jack, are you alright?"
He turned and waived at them.
"Vlad! Maddie!" he yelled, "Look what I found!"
They came to him, climbing awkwardly over the rocks, Maddie's red brown hair dancing around, Vlad following in a slower pace. They had left their backpacks behind to be able to negotiate the difficult terrain better. Jack helped Maddie over the last step and the three of them stared at the large panel Jack had found.
'...on Ghost Zone Caps...', it read.
"Wow," Maddie whispered, fascinated. She picked up the piece and examined it.
"Ghost Zone...," Jack said, "Do you think there is such a place? Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could get there?"
Clockwork looked at his screen and smiled to himself. Everything was as it was supposed to be.
The 'burning at the stake' part came from 'Infinite Realms' (duh). I wasn't going to do that, they were just going to be surprised but the story decided differently. The plane crash idea came from the song 'Ironic' from Alanis Morissette, the UFO thing came out of my head.
OK what do you think?