Hey guys, It's Dresner again. Has anyone else had an issue with the Story stats counter? I can't view anything since Dec 31st 2013, Weird eh?
Got a review from a reader named Kyla asking about Karl and Dusk, What I can say about that is Yes Karl still loves Dusk. The ring she gave him in Dawn is still with him and he refuses to talk about out of longing for her. This will be shown in later chapters as one of the Sub-Conflicts in the plot, as well as his struggle with his own humanity.
As promised in the Character listing, I will have Dani Phantom, The younger girl version of Danny, and she will make an appearance soon.
All references to Cross the Rubicon with have a * after it's name and a # if it's from another writing of mine called Dawn.
Disclaimer: I own nothing by my OC's and Grumpydrawer owns Gigagen and the Doctor.
With Love ~Dresner
Chapter 2: Made of Stone
As Danny chased after the Sadistic Colonel, he looked down from the sky to see armed men cleaning up the streets and ushering the people of Amity Park back into their homes. They were a strange set dressed in a mix of modern battle gear and camouflage uniforms, some looking like they just jumped right out of world war two, and the same went for their weapons as well. From what he guess, the soliders were apart of the same outfit that Karl was apart of since they were not firing on him.
Karl and Danny soon crossed over to the more upscale side of Amity part were all the town's elite live in their multimillion dollar mansions. The homes of the elite were barley touched by the Undergrowth infestation, which was surprising to both Karl and Danny alike. Karl slowed down and allowed for Danny to catch up with him, "How did you enjoy the show Phantom?" Karl called to him with a chuckle.
"What? The way you wasted Undergrowth?" Danny said with disgust.
"Eh, That, the air show, and the saving of the city." Karl remarked arrogantly.
"If you have a beef with me, then spill it. I don't have to take crap from someone like you." Danny said firmly.
"If that is true then why didn't you kill that other half breed, Vlad, when you had the chance?" Karl asked him calmly.
Danny stopped in mid flight, as did Karl. "Whoa, How did you know about my fights with Plasmius?" Danny asked in a concerned tone.
Karl folded his arms together and shook his head, "Danny, Danny, Danny... The Order knew about Plasmius long before that dummkopf decided to hold the world by the balls." Karl remarked. One year ago, Vlad Masters, AKA Vlad Plasmius, took advantage of the world when a meteor made its way to destroy earth. He gave the world an ultimatum; Crown him the ruler of the world or parish. Vlad failed and it took the work of Danny Phantom to save the world, It worked and Vlad was last seen drift in space never to be seen again.
"We, Or should I say they, monitored your encounters with him. Gauging his power and giving me the information for the day that I would come to end his life once and for all, and planning for the day that you would go rogue." Karl reached into his coat and precede to pull out a pack of cigarettes for a quick smoke break.
"Damn shame though, I wanted to rip that pompous ass into a thousand pieces." Karl said as he took a long drag off his cigarette.
"At least that is something be can both agree on." Danny said calmly.
Karl chuckled, "Trust me Danny, their is a lot that we can agree on. Fight ghosts is just something that we have different tastes in."
"Let me introduce myself properly," Karl said as he let out his hand. "Colonel Karl Dael, Commander of the 6th Battalion "Vulture gruppe". Pleasure to meet you by the way."
"Danny Fenton or Phantom, which ever you want to call me." Danny said nervously as he shook the intimidating Colonel's hand. His handshake was firm, unlike Danny's, and the Colonel looked him in the eye while he did it. "Danny then, Lets keep it informal then. Just call me Karl." Karl said in a friendly tone.
"Uhhh ok..." Danny said before Karl's headset buzzed.
"Karl, Our favorite Paladin has just landed at the mansion. You better get here before he starts his usual rant about you." Claudia said in a motherly tone. Karl finished his smoke and tossed it toward the ground below. "Ja Ja, I'm on my way tell the pig to hold off on the comments before I get there. Over and out." Karl said with an annoyed look on his face.
"Great now the crippled bastard is here to ruin our progress." Karl said, vexed at the news of the Paladin Coalian's arrival. He took lead with Danny close behind, "Who's here Karl?" Danny asked as they closed in on the Mayor's mansion. The mansion was a rather medium sized manor with a coat of purple to make it stand out among the usual white mansions that dotted the upper class section of Amity park. Black BTR-80 Armored personal carries were parked with in the mansions gates and with Black and Camouflage uniformed troops patrolled around the grounds of the manor, brandishing AK-12 and OTs-14 assault rifles that glimmered in the sun light.
As they landed at the gates of the manor, Karl was saluted and asked about Danny. "Don't worry, He's the half ghost son of the scientists we are employing let him pass." Karl said calmly.
"As long as he powers down everything will be A OK, eh?" The Russian guard told him with AK-12 in hand. Karl looked at Danny, "You heard him Dan, power down. We're all friends here." Karl said coldly with a slight smile. Danny changed into his usual human form with blue jeans and white T-Shirt with Black hair, After his return to normal the Guard let him pass with out hesitation.
The two walked side by side toward the manor with the watchful eyes of the heavily armed guards trained primarily on him instead of the Colonel, Some of which greeted with Hello in either German or Russian followed with cheerful smile. The Colonel was popular among the guards from what Danny could tell and Karl seemed to enjoy it himself as well. "So who are you guys? Are you like apart of the army?"
The Colonel shook his head, "Nein, We are the Paramilitary arm of a society older than time itself." Karl replied. "We are the Brimstone Societies Paramilitary wing, The Wolf Brigade. Brimstone began as a resistance to an evil overlord, but soon transformed into an international organisation devoted to protecting the mortal world from the paranormal in it later reincarnation. The Brimstone of the twenty first century is the brain child of Doctor Alexsandr Magnason, The Founder and CEO of the Gigagen Corporation and father of the Order. We came to Amity Park for two reason; 1) To secure the new property of of Gigagen, The Axion Labs and 2) To begin Operation Blue."
The two reached the Door of the mayors manor and entered with out trouble. The interior of the manor was hollow and empty leaving the house vacant for the next mayor, an older one unlike the former Mayor who wasn't even old enough to drive. The home itself belonged to another mayor, Mayor Vlad Masters, but he turned out to be the cause of the phantom planet fiasco that almost destroyed the world and the collective will of the people of Amity Park sold his goods to fund the construction of the Danny Phantom statues that sit in Amity park as well as the capitals of every major nation on earth. A mixture of basic Gigagen Mercenaries and Vulture regulars comb the halls on guard duty, while some stood around a woman of forty with long black hair with streaks of grey clad in a maroon uniform with a peaked cap talking to a man dressed in an all red suit in a wheelchair in the massive den in the middle of the house.
The two turned to face Karl and Danny as they entered the empty room, the man in the chair gave a scowl to the black coated Colonel who returned with a cheery response. "Paladin Alexander Coelian, a pleasure to see you again. How are you sir?" Karl asked in a cheery voice.
"I see your pet is still alive, Paladin Marlin." The man in the Chair remarked.
"Of course I'm alive Paladin, I always live to fight another day." Karl said in a more serious and light hearted tone.
"One of the reasons why we keep you around, eh? Speaking of living, are your men still among the living?" Claudia asked Karl coolly to defuse the on coming tension between Coalian and Dael.
"Two shot out of the sky and another smashed to bits by his vines." Karl said regretfully.
"I'll send a squad out to retrieve and return them to Belka, Luckily the gate in Gatorsburg is now stabilized and under our control. So we can bury them in their home country. They were good men just like yourself." Claudia said to Karl with a heavy heart.
"Thank you Claudia… It would have meant a lot to them to hear you say that, but I'm not a saint." Karl said, Thankful that she would respect the wishes of his men.
Karl and his men request that if they took casualties that the men of Belkan decent were to be buried in their homeland of Belka*. Some members of the order were a little skeptical at first, but Claudia changed the request into an order and with in a few weeks the ZK's managed to stabilize and control the Gatorsburg portal to the parallel world, giving the Order the ability to bury the dead volunteers from Belka*. The Doctor himself was skeptical, but later over looked the use of the portal because of vast amounts of gold, copper, and sliver retrieved from the war torn country of Osean* after the Verusean Continental War*, A massive pool of Volunteers and scientists, and even two arms industries set up with in Belka proved to yield both massive profits without pouring massive amounts of funding into it. Letting the Doctor to press on work with other projects (Read Badland Rock Concert by Grumpydrawer), so letting his employees be buried in their homeland was not an issue for him.
"You welcome Mirthras." Claudia said with a little chuckle, Karl gave a tiny grin and Danny looked to him in the realization of who he was. "Mirthras, Lord of ages, Your the Black hunter…" Danny said fearfully.
For three years, Karl had accumulated a reputation of brutality against ghosts. One of those most infamous being the slaying of Nocturne, The spirit of sleep, and Vortex, the spirit of weather. Rumors spread through the ghost zone about a black coated figure that held power beyond anything even the observes could fathom, the only name given to the figure was the name of a Roman god, Mithra, after his use of sun energy, More specifically that of the Black sun. The name was reviled by all ghosts and some, such as Skulker and Walker have vowed to catch.
Karl turned to him with the same tiny smirk, "Indeed, But I've never heard that name before. Though it is the name of my Battalion. Some just call me Karl, YOU, or in some case human. Mithras is a name I received at another time, but it seems even the names I got in war still haunt me." Karl placed his hand on Danny's shoulder, "Don't worry young one, I see good in you. The others… Well they made the mistake of underestimating me…" Karl said in a cold tone.
"At least you are under some kind of control now then you were then." Coalien said rudely as he wheeled himself toward the empty fireplace and ordered one of his soldiers to pull a loose brick. The fireplace soon rose to reveal an elevator leading toward the basement, "I'm sure we can make use of you once we get this portal operational."
Coalien, Karl, Danny, and Claudia entered the large elevator and descended down toward the basement laboratory that Vlad Master's tinkered with not only machines and gadgets, but also with the lives of ghosts and the Fenton family.
"You see Mr. Fenton," Coelien said in a respectful tone to Danny. "We in the Society have devoted to two objectives. To study the paranormal and to prevent it from destroy the mortal world. Amity Park is know through out my top scribes and scientists as a hot spot for supernatural activity, good, evil, and rarely neutral entities. We have watched you, your family, your foe, and even your friends to gather information to the cause for all of these paranormal incursions into our world. At first we noted that it was simple case of rotten luck, but soon we found another reason for there interloping other than the meddling of Vlad masters." Coelian paused as Claudia added on.
"The Sorcery Corps has found that Amity Park contains large amounts of Supernatural energy that draws ghosts here." Claudia explained as she give's Karl an annoyed look as he tries to light a cigarette in the elevator.
"What?" Karl asked defensively. Claudia chuckles and takes the cigarette out of his hand, placing it behind her ear.
"Now where was I? Ah, yes. Amity Park is a feeding ground for spirits that strengthens their power, a sigh that their are doors to another world with in this city. Amity Park is the entrance door to the Zone!" Claudia said with excitement.
"You mean the Ghost Zone, right?" Danny asked as the woman's face lit up with excitement over the discovery.
"Ja, but that is our term for the Ghost Zone." Karl remarked as the elevator. "Sounds a little more badass, eh?" He chuckled.
"As Madam Marlin was saying," Coelian said with an annoyed tone. "Amity park holds both man made and natural portals to the Zone. We were hoping that our cooperation with your family would lead to us using their portal, But it seems that it was destroyed and a majority of the natural gates either destroyed or closed following the exodus after the return of King Pariah Dark. We have found ourselves in a dead end in achieving phase two of Operation Blue, until the Doctor gained a majority of Vladco and discovered the shipping manifests for several parts related to a project called "Dark Heart". Our scribes and field agents made their way to three of the locations where these parts were ship to. To our misfortune, two of the sights were destroyed, but one still remained."
The group exited the elevator to the sounds of progress, Drilling, wielding, and the usual barking of orders in a mix of Russian and German. Two figures, one large man in a orange jump suit and a woman in a blue jump suit, were calling out orders to the workers who were rushing to finish the large ring that went around the entrance to the portal. "Come on Ivan! Fritz is beating you!" Jack Fenton shouted to the Russian works so they would keep up with the German ones. "That's it men, change the ecto-filter or else it will go up like the rest!" Maddie Fenton told them in both German and Russian.
The Fenton's turned and, to the surprise of Karl and Claudia, Coelian was in ecstasy when he approached them. "Ah Madison Fenton, How is everything coming along on the portal?" Coelian asked in a optimistic voice completely out of character from his usual inpatient self.
"Wonderful sir, The portal is almost finished for Operation Blue." Maddie Fenton reported as she brought him a clip board with charts and status reports. "There was a small problem when restoring the system to working order, but it turned out to be a rather rewarding find."
"What might that be Mrs. Fenton?" Coelian inquired with a favorable gaze toward the beautiful brunette until Jack began to speak. "Turns out Vladdy…" Jack Fenton interjected with stumbled words, Trying not to remember his old friend Vlad before he was Plasmius. "I mean Plasmius, installed a built in GPS into his portal with various locations with in the Ghost Zone. Most note worthy being the location of the "Skeleton Key" and something called "The Keep"." Jack explained with a low and serious tone.
"Is it the Keep of Pariah?" Coelian asked with high hopes.
"We are not sure." Maddie Fenton replied. "The description is vague at best, but we can only hope for the best."
Coelian gave a long sigh and rolled his eyes, "Then we will have to send a recon team. Activate the portal and leave, This is Gigagen territory." He said bluntly with an icy tone. Jack and Maddie openned their mouths to protest, but decided to keep their thoughts to themselves as the black grips and barrels of the Guard's Kalashnikov rifles shined in the florescent light of the lab. "Your payment will be transphered to your bank account with in an hours time. If you work is worth noting, you can have your pick of anything the Axiom labs has to offer in the Anti-Ecto department. We have no use for them and neither does Gigagen." Coelian said rudely as the Fenton's grudgingly began to activate the port.
"Guards, bring out the test subject. I refuse to let anyone go though that portal unless we have confirmation that it is safe." Coelian called over his ear piece to the upper floor.
"Test subject? Why do you need a test subject to go through a ghost portal? I've done it before more than once." Danny asked the man in the wheel chair. Coelian scoffed, "What would a boy know about the ghost zone?"
"He's the Halfa, the one that save our planet a year ago." Karl replied, taking up for Danny.
"The half-breed reject? Bah! He mean's nothing to me or to the operation. You two, get him out of hear!" Coalian said with an arrogant scowl. The two guards grabbed Danny by the arms and took him to the elevator where they were met by two Black uniformed troops from Karl's outfit, Vulture group, with a white aired girl with green eyes dressed in a jump suit with a big DP emblem on her chest.
"Dani?" Danny asked as the guards took him into the elevator.
"Wonderful! Now we have a nice lab rat!" Coelian said with sadistic cheer in his voice. The cheer became louder and louder once the portal sparked to life and a large, green, swirling, vortex appeared at the gates of the portal. Maddie and Jack began system checks and tests. "Everything is normal and running at 100% across the board!" Jack said confidently as the two guards brought the little ghost girl in front of the trio as they stood in awe of the portals hypnotic swirls. Jack and Maddie looked at Coelian as he eyed the ghost girl like a hungry wolf looming over it's prey.
"Alexander," Maddie asked Coelian by first name, the only way to break him from his trance. "What is that ghost doing here? Why is she in iron chains?"
Coelian turned his head toward Maddie, still retaining the eyes of a wolf, staring at her with a sadistic grin, "No reason, we are just going to… Return her home. Isn't that right little ghost girl?"
"Help! Help me! Danny!" Dani screamed as the shackles cut into her skin.
"She's a little troubled…" Coelian said nonchalantly, waving his limp wrist into the air and bring his hands together into a pyramid. "But we take good care of our subjects. Now away with you, your of no use to us until we call upon you again. Their is a BTR waiting to take you to the lab." Coelian said as he shooed the Fenton's away. Jack grumbled and muttered to himself, but Maddie nodded and walked out of the lab with Jack.
"Paladin, wouldn't it make more sense to use a human subject?" Claudia inquired, just as the men reached down tho pick up the girl.
"Hmmm, your right." Coelian grunted. "Any volunteers?" He called out into the lab to the staff, no one answered.
"Well Madam, since your full of such good idea. Why not you?" Coelian suggested.
Claudia gave him a scowl, but nodded. Someone had to do it, After all it took Claudia a lot to convince the higher ups to allow her return to the Order. Can't hold on to luck for your whole life, especially in Brimstone.
"Now what do we do with her?" Coelian said, his sadistic grin returning to his face. "Hmmm, I wonder. Karl!" He called to Karl.
"Ja?" Karl asked in german.
"Take this one somewhere far and dispose of her, I'm getting wiry of these half-breed abominations of Vladimir Master's." Coelian said coldly as he turned toward the portal and gazed into it's beauty.
Karl looked down at the ghost girl with sympathetic eyes, but the rest of his face and body remained emotionless. "Ja, I'll take car of her…."
The two Vulture troops dragged Dani down a long hallway toward the storage half of the underground lab with Karl leading them with his Sliver plated Mauser pistol in hand.
"Let go of me! Let me go!" She shouted as she struggled to escape her Iron Chains as they burned into her skin, preventing her from using her powers.
"Shut up suka!" The Russian yelled as he and his friend dragged her down the hallway.
"This little shit is about to piss me off…" The other remarked as he placed his hand on his pistol holster.
"If you even breath the wrong way on her I'll make sure you suffer the same fate." Karl interjected in a cold monotone voice.
"But Comrade Colonel!" The russian protested.
"Do I have to repeat myself?" Karl said as he stopped in place and cocked the hammer of his pistol, It's clicking echoing throughout the hallway. The Russian backed down and the trio continued on until they reached the end of the hall and entered a small room where Vlad Masters kept the Ecto-Filters for his Ghost portal.
The two soliders threw the bond ghost girl on the floor in front of Colonel Dael and took out there rifles in anticipation of execute the young Halfa. As the soliders loaded their weapons, Karl stood like a statue staring into the terror stricken eyes of the little halfa. He green eyes sparkling with tears as she plead to the men to spare her life. Something inside of Karl began to speak to him...
"Stop... What your doing is wrong." A faint voice whispered to him as the barrels of his men's AK's broke his peripheral.
"Leave her to me," He said in the same unbroken monotone. "I want the honor of ending her..."
The two men looked at each other with disappointed looks and shrugged as they holstered their weapons and stepped out of the room. Their it was just Dani and Karl...
"Wha...Wha... What are you going to do to me?" Dani asked hesitantly as her fear surface.
Karl only glared at her and pointed his pistol at her with no sigh of emotion on his face. The heavy framed pistol became heavy in his hand as he aimed for the ghost girls head and hesitantly squeezed the trigger. The green orbs that were the girls eyes began to water and fill with tears until she threw herself to his boots, begging for him to spare her.
"PLEASE! PLLLLEAASES!" She screamed and sobbed at his feet.
The sound of a gunshot thundered through the room, deafening Karl himself as he stood over Dani with his smoking gun...
"You... Your..." Dani said as she looked at her broken shackles and chain on her legs. Karl shot the hand cuffs as well and the two stood face to face.
"Go." Karl said in the same cold monotone, "What are you waiting for?"
Dani could see the good in his eyes and gave a small thankful grin.
"I won't forget this Mithras." She said in a sweet grateful tone, Karl was surprised at the name she called him.
"Karl... Call me Karl... I'm sick of this title you ghost have given me. Till we meet again, Dani." Karl said waving off to her as she passed through the roof and out into the world above.
Karl and the guards exited the storage room with out a word spoken until they approached the main lab were the sight of Claudia cautiously edging toward the portal to the Zone.
"We're waiting Ma Chérie!" Coelian shouted in partisan french with a fake accent. Claudia began to grind her teeth as she tried to keep her words, as well as her will to strike him down, to herself. She stuck her hand our toward the portal, her hand shaking in fear of what would happen if the portal wasn't completely stable. Claudia took a deep breath and stepped into the portal.
"I hope she's alright." Karl said, worried for the safety of his partner and mentor Claudia.
Claudia brought Karl to Brimstone in hopes helping him control his powers, But soon it formed into an almost Brother and Sister like relationship, just like he had with her Daughter Thorn. She cared for Karl and tried her best to guide him in the right direction in the Order. Karl suspected that it was her motherly instants taking over and wanting to make up for missing out on eleven years of not raising her daughter. It annoyed him, but he learned to cope with it. Karl owed Claudia for getting him in the Order, even becoming her right hand like Beau was before he was killed during the Asylum raid by 5th Battalion Rogue's.* Coelian still argues to this day that Claudia is nothing but a traitor to the Order, the company, and the Doctor. One of the reasons why he wasn't killed after his recovery was because of the Axion Lab's purchase, a Purchase that was only done because of the promise of cloning machines.
Only the Doctor knows why this interested him at all...
For four years since they met in that Virginian antique store#, Karl has fought with her with out question. He thought of it as repaying her and her daughter for their generosity toward him, God knows he doesn't deserve it especially since the three years of Terror he caused in the service of the order. He cared for Claudia and treated her like she was family, He couldn't lose another...
"The Portal is clear. Is my transmission clear?" Claudia called over the radio.
"You are clear, what is your position?" Karl asked into his ear piece.
"Near a massive red castle, Looks like it's seen better days Carolus." Claudia said in awe.
"Pariah's Keep…" Coelian said in ecstasy, "Ready the exploration team and muster the Battalion! I want that Castle flying the Brimstone banner by sun set!" Coelian barked like a mad man.
Dani peered through the celling and watched as the intimidating shock troops lined up in formation, brisling with heavy weapons and supplies with hover dollies carrying more gear. Scientists dressed in long white coats with gas masks stood behind the black armored and uniformed troops of Vulture grippe, as well as the maroon clad ZK's witches who's magic aura's caused Dani to shiver nervously. The massive column of men and machines marched into the portal, but the man in the wheel chair and Karl stood outside of the portal.
"Be careful Karl, the zone is a dangerous place for a man such as yourself." Coelian warned him sarcastically.
Karl rolled his eyes and gave a tired sigh, "You underestimate me. What are you looking for at this fucking castle?"
"Relics that should be in the hands of responsible men such as myself, so that figures like Plasmius and rejects such as yourself don't get a hold of them." Coelian said contemptuously.
"The last thing we need is someone like you going rogue with relics of great power…"
Karl snorted and walked through the portal. Dani recognized what the red suited prick was hinting about...
"No… I have to warn him…" Dani said as she rushed through the portal into the Zone...
Alexander Coelian gave a wicked smile as his two rivals marched into a world of hell… The Zone.