Castle in the Wind
Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Ellie looked on at the structure before them.
It was a castle made of ice. It's sharp smooth surfaces were finished to a gorgeous polish sprinkling light in every direction. The actual shape of the overall structure was pleasing, rolling and flowing somehow blending with the harsh jagged edges of the ice. The ground around the structure was a thick solid glacier, the top where they were standing was smooth and slick. It was an impressively large and sturdy structure if a little rough around the edges.
Despite all of this there was one question that dominated everyone's mind.
"Why is it floating?" Ellie asks.
The ginormous structure plus ice foundation bobbed in the open air tethered to the ground by fifty or so ropes like a giant Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.
Danny shifted uncomfortably a foot in the air. "Apparently if you lace chunks of ice with enough ectoplasm it counters out gravity. So when I started putting the ectoplasm-based lights in the walls and set up the wiring for everything, the whole thing lifted off the ground." He answered. "I was scrambling all night trying to keep it from falling sideways and breaking. When I finally fixed it, by messing around and creating the lawn around it, I realized the wind had taken it two towns over. I had to turn it intangible to combat the wind and push it back here."
"Danny, why didn't you call us?"
"You were all asleep and I could do it," Danny said defensively.
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Well, we're going to need some kind of machine to help keep it in one place. You can't have a party in a floating castle and keep it tethered to the ground, it's criminal."
"Definitely" Tucker agreed. "and I can totally hook up a computer and write up a program so it kicks in instantly in order to keep it in one place," Tucker added, tone giddy at the challenge, his mind already going on the ways to make it happen.
"Let's take this one step at a time," Sam interjected spotting the climbing stress on Danny. "For now we have more important things to worry about." Sam turned to Danny. "I got a couple of different performers for the party. But they all refuse to perform for the whole day. I'm thinking that we could hire a few and have them perform in shifts."
Danny nodded biting his lip in thought. "That would work. But that means we have to pay more people."
"And they're demanding extra, seeing as it is the holidays and this is super last minute."
Danny groaned. "See if you can negotiate with them. Maybe offer them some holiday ghost food or something?" Danny crossed his arms with a pout. "Sometimes I really wish ghosts had currency."
Sam patted his arm. "I'll figure something out. But really, great job on the castle. It looks better each time we come by."
"Absolutely, little brother." Jazz says. "It is a true work of art. And if we do manage to keep it in the sky then our location problems will be fixed at least."
"Except we still have to worry about traffic no matter where we put it." Sam pointed out. Ever the devil's advocate. "Everyone in town is on high alert for any kind of ghost activity."
"Speaking of." Tucker said toning out the conversation and his inner musing to turn to Danny. "Did the ghost shield fix the problem?"
Danny nodded. "Yeah, the second I put it up my ecto-signature was blocked. Haven't had any ghost hunters show up since."
Tucker nodded. "Good, cause this is one of the last spots we could find big enough and secluded enough for building this thing."
"In other news, I think I've figured out how to fix the temperature problem."
"Really how?"
"Frostbite gave me some books to read through to help with the ice structure. One of them was the different kinds of things you can make when you mix ice with ectoplasm. One of them is being able to make a kind of ice generator. It should be able to act like a freezer for the surrounding energy. And if I get someone with a fire core to help out, I might be able to do make one that heats the surrounding area as well. None of the people in the Far Frozen can use both ectoplasm and ice so they can't teach me but if I master it, I think I could put a freezer orb on one side and a fire orb on the other and people can just hang around in whatever temperature is most comfortable for them."
"I like it. Better than buying a bunch of heaters and air conditioners." Tucker approved. "You could work them into the landscape a lot better. Make them into light posts to guide the path or something."
"Question." Ellie entered derailing their conversation. "If we do get the castle up in the sky over Amity Park, how are we going to disguise it? A giant ice castle in the sky is going to draw attention especially with how paranoid the humans are lately."
"We could hide it in a cloud," Tucker said imminently.
"And how would we make a cloud Tucker?" Danny asked expectedly. "Giant smoke machines?"
"Maybe you could make the bottom of the castle look like a cloud and I don't know, maybe program the ghost shield to look cloudish?" Ellie suggested.
"We will brainstorm a bit. We still have a bit of time to figure things out." Tucker said confidently.
Danny grumbled. "Fine. If you two want a floating ice castle in the sky so much, it can be your project."
"THAT'S IT!" Jazz suddenly exclaimed loudly drawing all attention to her. She now wore her own version of the 'Fenton family insane eureka face'. "The problem isn't with the location of the castle it's the travel from Fentonworks and here. We just have to build a new portal on the castle grounds, that way there will be no commuting at all."
There was a beat of silence. "Jazz are you trying to make my afterlife harder?" Danny whined. "Tucker and Ellie already want the castle in the sky. Now you want to add an interdimensional portal?"
"Danny's right, we should focus on the elements actually needed to host the party not get caught up on dramatic flares."
"Sam, we've got all of the other stuff figured out. We literally just have to decorate, were done until we have to pick up the food. We still have two weeks before Christmas day. We can get everything built in one week and have the bugs worked out by then. Not to mention Danny literally hung the blueprints for the portal up in his room." Jazz adds. "It might be a good stress reliever to have us Fenton siblings tinkering on a project again."
Danny shifted. It had been forever since the two had built something together. They used to do it all the time when they were younger. And to be able to build another portal. The thing that half killed him and gave him his powers. How many times had he stared at the framed blueprints on his wall trying to better understand his origins? But "How are we going to get the parts in order to build a brand new portal Jazz?"
"Mom and Dad still have all of the 'scrapped' parts from when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with the first portal. We could probably build like three portals from all the spare parts they hoard away in the back room."
"True." Danny spoke contemplating. Teetering on the edge. "I might even be able to modify it so the portal draws on the currents of the Infinite Realms once it opens, instead of zapping all of our ecto-supplies for the lights in the castle."
"OKAY!" Sam exclaimed loudly. "One step at a time. We are here to decorate and make finishing touches for the venue. Then you can all brainstorm and start your project. But right now we need to do this first. You guys have to grab the decorations from my house, without my family knowing. Danny, you're with me. We are going to try to decorate as much as we can with your ice before adding my parent's stuff to it."
The next day and a half Tucker took over the decorating with the Manson decorations and Sam spent the entire time touring around the castle with Danny pestering him about each and every nook and cranny in order to make it perfect.
-)(-
These kids are getting out of control. They are already stressed and now their just adding more.
Ah well, have floating castle; will fly.
I do not own 'Danny Phantom'