As I said earlier, I hope you like dialog! More stuff will happen less confusingly as the story gets moving. But first, reviews from my betters;
unknown20troper: Thanks very much! To be honest, I didn't think my comparison was all that good, but was the best I could think of.
OddAuthor: Thank you for your review. I do that a lot with last names - I usually call Francis 'Francis Abrahams' for example. It's my way of giving them credit.
P.S.: Is it just me, or does hate scene changes? I can't doublespace and it won't centre my asterixes. :|
Chapter Three: Opportunities
Anti-Cosmo.
Day One – 11:45 US West Coast Time.
His Castle, Anti-Fairy World.
Anti-Cosmo was intrigued, if not surprised.
It was apparent that the humans, for all their stupidity, were on to him. A government agency, calling themselves the Military Extraterrestrial Research Facility, was on a recruitment drive, abducting Mr. Daniel Fenton and Ms. Vicky Delisle for their services, convinced that these two were the key to stopping him.
The half-ghost, Anti-Cosmo understood. The girl…less so.
He continued to float back and forth in his chamber, the large table empty of any other beings. His strike on the humans would go unplanned – a bit of monumental destruction was always fun, if that time they knocked down the Eiffel Tower meant anything.
The door knocked, and two Anti-Fairy sentries invited themselves in.
"Anti-Bernard, what brings you here?" asked Anti-Cosmo.
"We have a prisoner, sah," replied the left sentry, who wore a black beret and had a thin moustache. He spoke with a thick English Regimental accent.
"Really?" mused Anti-Cosmo in an uncaring tone, "How delightful. I've no time for prisoners; throw them to the dungeon…"
"Sah…it's the pink-haired one."
Anti-Cosmo turned, intrigued.
"Marvellous," he grinned, "My counterparts beloved! However did you get her?"
"She came on her own will," replied the second sentry, a helmeted man with a Texan accent replied.
"Did she now, Anti-George?" he mused, "That…presents us an opportunity…"
Agent Danny Fenton.
Day One – 14:50, US Eastern Standard Time.
Manhattan, New York.
"…so something, though we don't know what, is going to destroy all major global cities except San Diego, although we don't know why, in five days time?" asked Danny.
"All we know is the culprit's name is Anti-Cosmo and it'll happen in five days," replied the Director, "The psychic's visions aren't usually this specific anyway, so you should be happy we know anything."
The two were sitting in the Director's office, waiting for an agent the Director had called Saunders to come back with 'the other applicant'. Danny had exchanged his signature T-shirt and jeans for a black suit and tie, similar to the other agents of M.E.R.F.
"Now remember," reminded Danny, "I'm here until we save the world, then I'm gone."
"Yep, got it, kapeesh," nodded the Director, rolling his eyes, "After this blows over, I don't care what you do as long as its not threatening the Government."
"Sir."
Agent Saunders, a short man with a goatee (Danny found it humorous) carried another person into the room, and Danny raised his eyebrows.
It was a girl, perhaps his age or thereabouts, with red hair and a ponytail. She was wearing a green short-sleeved shirt and black jeans, and was still out of it.
"She woke up when Brown and Pearson were changing planes at Memphis," he explained, "They had to use another sedative. Brown says she probably won't be easy to convince."
"Brown says lots of things," shrugged the Director, "Dismissed, Saunders."
The agent left the room, just as the girl began to blink.
"Ms. Delisle, I trust you had a good sleep?" grinned the Director.
The girl shot up in her seat, her pink eyes practically glowing with rage.
Danny thought that sentence over again.
Pink eyes? Did she wear contacts or something?
"Where am I?" she bellowed.
"The Headquarters of the Military Extraterrestrial Research Facility, several feet below Midtown Manhattan, Ms. Delisle," replied the Director, calmly.
"Manhattan! You creeps took me to Manhattan?"
"What's not to do in Manhattan?" shrugged the Director, "The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Natural History Museum…"
"Why am I here?" demanded Vicky, gritting her teeth and making his hands into fists.
"Two reasons," replied the Director, "Number one is that unless you join us there is a high probability that the world will end in a fiery bang."
His grin faded a little.
"The other is about you," he continued, "I'm not gonna beat around the bush – you've been living a lie."
HP and Sanderson.
Fourteen Years Ago – 23:05 US West Coast Time.
Dimmsdale, California.
The rain bucketed down on the roof of the suburban houses as HP and Sanderson made their way down the street in human disguises. Sanderson had conjured an umbrella to keep them dry in the dark streets, and was holding that so that HP could carry the bundle in his arms.
The 'corporate takeover' of Fairy World had failed once again, and with the completion of the next Thirty Year Plan still thirteen years away, HP needed insurance policy – an opportunity to fall back on if things went wrong with the slowly forming alliance with the Anti-Fairies.
So he had this.
A fairy baby an agent of his had taken from a Fairy World orphanage. Fact is, everyone was confused by its existence – there had not been a fairy baby since the birth of Cosmo Julius Cosma fifty-thousand years earlier, and yet here this one was.
Illegal, uncared for and now, thanks to Jorgen Von Strangle, stricken from the records. No one would ever know it existed, and it would not have lasted long.
The fairy council had ordered it liquidated. For once – and it amused HP greatly – the Pixies had the moral high ground in taking it in. Not that it would be with them for long.
The small, ball shaped baby was dying already – nearly fifty percent of its magic power drained by the council. Its body would expire within an hour. HP wanted this baby to survive for a very special reason.
A fairy baby, for the first ten hours of its life, creates an aura around it. This aura of magic is its natural defence against Dark Magic. Dark Magic was unlike anything a typical magical creature – fairy, pixie or anti-fairy – could typically conjure. It required a very special kind of evil, what one would call 'chaotic evil'; a desire to destroy and alarm for fun.
Even HP found the prospect of such magic disturbing, but the Anti-Fairy leader, Anti-Cosmo, was enticed by the idea of chaos, in fact almost obsessed. So HP had come up with a plan for two items in which to stop him – this baby, and something he had placed in the bank on Baker Terrace.
HP arrived at his destination – a normal house. Three men stood out the front.
"HP," nodded the Director of M.E.R.F., "Glad you could make it."
"Charming," replied HP, monotonously, "Do you have the girl?"
"Yep," said a tall, bearded man wearing a black military officer's uniform, "We do this quickly, the Delisle's will never know their newborn was ever gone."
"Yes, that's charming, General, but can we do this quickly?" the final, white-haired young man snapped.
"Of course," agreed the Director, "General Fisher, if you will?"
The General nodded, and held the human baby forward.
The newborn girl giggled, and pressed her tiny hand on the fairy.
The fairy baby dissolved into an aura, which soon surrounded the newborn. She giggled some more, and her eyes turned from hazel to pink.
"Well," nodded Fisher, "I'm more of a ghost expert, but I'd say that the merge was successful."
"Pretty good observation, of a GiW guy," nodded the Director.
"I'll take her back home," suggested the younger man.
"Of course, Mister…" HP began.
"Masters. Vlad Masters."
"Yes," nodded HP.
He and Sanderson walked away without another word. HP continued to ponder. The girl would grow up in a human environment living a human life in a human body, and with luck, she'd never know of the world she had been born into.
If Anti-Cosmo betrayed him, or if that alliance became unprofitable…
HP shook these thoughts away and poofed home.
Agent Danny Fenton and Vicky Delisle.
Day One – 14:55, US Eastern Standard Time.
Manhattan, New York.
"…and that's the story," finished the Director, "Since then, we believe HP's lost any doubts about Anti-Cosmo."
"So…I'm a fairy?" asked Vicky, in quiet incomprehension.
"Half," replied the Director, "Maybe even less."
"Welcome to my world," said Danny, under his breath.
"You never told me this?" growled Vicky.
"Never needed to," shrugged the Director, "Put it this way – if HP tried to betray us and attempted to use you, we'd have been required to…"
He glanced at his holster.
"You know what I mean," he sighed, "Anyway, General Fisher died last year and Mr. Masters has severed his ties with us…"
"Good," snapped Danny.
"…so between him and us, four human beings know of your status."
"…and you think that'll make me help you," sneered Vicky, "Forget it!"
"You have a criminal record, Ms. Delisle," said the Director, bluntly, "The Dimmsdale School Newspaper intends to publish evidence of your treatment of children under your care."
He grinned.
"I can make it disappear…Agent Delisle."
He held out his hand.
Vicky stared at it for a moment.
"Dang, you're good," she sighed, taking it.
Anti-Cosmo and Wanda.
Day One – 11:55 US West Coast Time.
Anti-Cosmo's Castle, Anti-Fairy World.
"What you're saying is technically treason, Wanda," stated Anti-Cosmo, crossing his arms as he sat back in his chair, "Have you thought it over?"
"I'm sick of them," Wanda sighed, "Cosmo, Jorgen, Timmy…I'm sick of them all."
Anti-Cosmo grinned.
"Don't worry, Madame," he grinned, somewhat slyly, "You've come to the right place…"