The war came as a surprise to everyone.
Actually, that's probably wrong. The guys say the higher-ups had to of known for months.
It certainly came as a surprise to me and every other American citizen. Suddenly, that piece of paper I signed to be able to vote meant something, and football scholarship or not it was either enlist or be drafted.
I enlisted in the Air Force. Surprise. Most people who know me would've thought Navy or Marines. But I've always loved flying. Sometimes, it was the best part of The Family Vacation.
I'm not exactly the smartest person. So I went through basic training knowing I wouldn't get to be a pilot or a navigator. I'm too tall to be a fighter pilot anyway. I'm strong though, football player, duh. I was really surprised though when I was chosen to be a gunner. Makes sense if you think about it, just aiming at a moving target like passing to the wide receiver.
I was initially deployed to a base in Warsaw. We lost a lot of good guys.
I've been reassigned to La Paz. My Captain said I'm a lucky bastard since the 17th battalion has the lowest casualty rates by far. But I'm more worried about the mosquitoes. They're supposed to be the size of a grown man's hand.
I'm barely settled before I'm sent on a run with my new crew. Rick's our pilot, Joey's the navigator, Red's the bombardier, and the other gunner is Casey. We were nearing the target, some factory, when we found out this wouldn't be a milk run. The enemy fighters engaged us and the five other bombers in our squadron.
"Heads up Dash." Casey warned. The only thing I could hear over the roar of our own engines and the crackle of my headset was the deadly spatters of the machine guns including my own. I chased the tail of one fighter before switching to another and getting a lucky shot to a fuel line. The flat pings of bullets came from my right missing me by inches. I turned to return fire, when one of our fighters flew by and sent it up in flames.
"Phantom!" Came Rick's excited shout over the com.
"What! Where?" I searched the skies looking for a familiar streak of black and white.
"On your right about two o'clock." Said Joey. I looked but only saw the fighter plane that had taken care of that monkey for me. It isn't till we're safely back on the ground that it's explained that,
"We call the Captain Phantom cause he's like a ghost." Joey explained over tonight's dinner, pasta and meatballs. "Comes out of nowhere and never misses. Haven't you heard the stories?"
"Oh, no, I thought you were talking about someone else."
"Who'd you think he was?" Red asked looking up from the novel he was finishing.
"I'm from Amity Park…"
"The ghost town?" Rick questioned.
"Yeah, well there's this one ghost whose called Phantom, he's really cool, always saves the day and protects the city from the other ghosts."
"It's all a hoax." Joey stated.
"No it's…"
"Mass hysteria and tourism propaganda."
"Phantom!" The call was taken up by the crowd spreading from door. "Nice to see you Captain!" "Good shooting today!" As the crowd slowly parted I got my first look at this phantom, a glimpse of dark hair between two people. Then…
"Dash?"
Inspired by Catch 22. I'm surprised no one else has sent Danny to war. Some fics have a ghost war, but we all like putting Danny in hard moral positions and war, a war between humans, would have the normal difficulties plus Danny's "unfair" advantages. If any one would like to adopt this, do something similar, or throw Danny into the trenches of WW1 PM me. I probably won't continue this, but if there is enough interest I'll make it a two shot probably a reveal.
