Holy snowflakes. This is turning out better than I ever thought it would be. No lie.

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4. Cities and Treasure

"So, I just got off the phone with FDR," Beta told his commanding officer, crossing his arms and having an emotionless expression on his features. "We talked about what was going to happen with the research and the funding and sudden progress we had made overnight in finding that strange wall... thing." He looked flustered for a moment, seemingly trying to find the correct words that would explain what he had talked about over the phone with the president. He felt Alpha's eyes seeming to pierce through his head, reading his every thought if possible. He cocked his head back and forth slightly, wrinkling his brow and sighing. "He gave me the verdict for our money."

Alpha waited, nodding repeatedly. "And?"

Beta's face broke out into a wide grin. "It's a go. We can continue as planned since we found something groundbreaking right in the nick of time!"

The leader sighed with relief and sank into a chair, accepting the cup of coffee his friend gave him. "Oh, my god. We did it. We did something right for once. We can keep going with the experiment in finding the city!"

The GIW had many failures in the past with trying to find something that had to do with ghostly artifacts and ideals and such, and this was one of those few moments where victory had actually grabbed them in the butt. And for once, they had caught it before it slipped right through their fingers. Beta nodded and sat down next to his colleague, leaning back and stretching happily. "This is definitely turning out to be one of our better days on the job," he crowed, glancing over at the clock on the wall. "And hell- it's only 12:30 in the afternoon! We can go have some celebratory lunch!"

Alpha raised an eyebrow. "You know, for one who is usually very quiet on the job with me, you seem to be having quite a bit of excitement coursing through that body of yours right now, Beta. Care to give me the lowdown on what happened from the time night passed to this morning and the talk with FDR?"

"I'm just happy we've actually possibly done something right for once," the other man admitted, taking a cup of coffee on the table and looking inside of it, frowning and setting it down. "We don't just look like a bunch of buffoons trying to prove that ghosts exist. We actually have physical, handwritten evidence that the door to the City of Phantoms is somewhere in the ghost zone!" His face lit up for a moment, his body tensing with excitement before he sat back down and sighed contentedly. "So, do we have any news about the probe we sent out before we went off to bed last night?"

Alpha shook his head and took a drink of coffee, frowning at the taste and tactfully spitting it back into his cup. "Nope. Still nothing. You would have thought that we could have found something by now with all the ghosts running around these days."

Beta shrugged, his usual demeanor returning. "Anyways, once we find this door, there's got to be some sort of key to open it, right?"

"Yep. I don't expect it to be easy to find that in the long run either, my friend. We might have to do a bit of poking and prodding here and there to figure out where this 'key' would be, and..." He sighed. "Listen, let's just think about finding this door right now, okay? We can focus on the nit-picky stuff later."

Beta crossed his arms slightly and stood up from the table, walking towards the door. He turned back to his friend and smiled at his bemused expression. "Don't worry. I won't be out for long. Just need to go and make a quick phone call again, okay?"

"That thing isn't attached to your ear now, is it?" Alpha quipped as Beta shut the door, laughing.

Sam snapped the book shut and stared at Danny's notes, the thunder booming again outside. "This sketch is seriously starting to bug me," she finally burst out, startling Danny and his reading and getting numerous stares in response. "How did you draw it when Ross was talking and you didn't even know about it?!"

The raven haired teen shrugged helplessly. "I told you before, Sam! I don't have any idea!"

"Is there anything in those books about it?" she pressed, peering at the book and taking it from him. She dog-eared a page and began to flip to the back of the book, ignoring Danny's indignant look. "Maybe we'll be able to find a picture in the back of a weird fiery looking tattoo that could help in discovering something significant for your paper. You could put in an image and say that you manage to conjure it out of thin air or something."

Tucker shook his head and sighed for a moment. "Look, Sam. I have been doing some digging with the weird flame emblem that Danny drew, and there are some really familiar looking pictures that go with it." He gestured them over to his laptop and clicked on a picture of a person with the same fiery logo on her shoulder. "See? They say that this could have been an early depiction of what may have been in the lost city- although no one knows what exactly they did in the time the city was even around."

Danny frowned. "That's odd. Are you going to be able to try and find more information about that?"

His best guy friend snorted and closed the window, glancing at Danny. "Dude, I'm not the one who picked it for a topic to do a full blown report on."

The teen's jaw dropped open, but no witty come back came out of his mouth. He couldn't think of one. He had nothing to offer to the two people who sat at the table with him as he took back the book and put his head in his hand, continuing to read the page. Danny didn't pick the topic- his friends managed to somehow pick it for him. And he had blatantly agreed to the subject material that he was now reading about. He pursed his lips, his hand unconsciously moving to his pencil. Sam watched the fingers wrap around the pencil warily, her own hand on the table. "Danny," she spoke softly.

BRING!

The bell rang in the library, and the boy jumped in surprise, dropping the pencil in the process. Sam breathed a sigh of relief, picking up her books and stuffing them into her bag. Tucker shut his laptop and put it in his book bag, watching Danny utter a swear under his breath and pick up his papers and books. It bothered him that his best friend didn't have any idea what he was even drawing, much less that he was actually doing such a task. The technology fanatic pondered this as he waited for Danny- if he hadn't actually remembered drawing the emblem, then could it have been possible that a ghost might have possessed him when he didn't realize it?

"Tucker! Let's go!"

He jolted out of his daydream and fought to catch up with his two best friends on the way to his next class.

"And so..." The professor turned to the board and drew a line through the word phantom on the board. "There is actually no evidence, or none that I know of right now, that proves the theory of there being a city of phantoms. Even though the renowned Guys In White are currently searching for any signs of life that could prove this theory to be true..."

The bell rang, and immediately, murmuring erupted in the room as the students gathered their things and began to place them in their bags. Dr. Jones glanced back at the class and took off his glasses. "Read chapter 7 for tonight about the founders of the city and be prepared for a class discussion tomorrow!" he called over the din, appearing to pack up his things as well. "It will last for the whole period, and you will be graded on it!"

A collective groan arose as the kids shuffled out of the room, talking to each other about their finals and other projects that were going to take hours to complete.

The man shook his head and wiped his brow, smiling at his friend in the doorway and gesturing him inside. "Marcus. You don't have to knock on the door, you know."

Marcus Brody shrugged his shoulders and shut the door, chuckling to himself slightly. He had aged since Indy had last saw him a couple of months ago- in fact, he had aged with his adventure of finding the Holy Grail. But that didn't slow him down at the moment. "You never know these days, Indy. With the Nazis completely bent on ruling the world and purging the Jews and the government funding the Guys In White to find a long lost city, you can never be too careful as to who will knock on the door."

Indiana's hand unconsciously moved to his wrist, where a scimitar had sliced into the flesh no more than forty-eight hours ago. He winced at the memory and pulled off a grin, reaching into a drawer in his desk. He took out a sheet of cloth and unwrapped it on the desk, gesturing to Marcus to come over and glance at it. "Remember my off-time that I used to go to Egypt? Well, I didn't just go there for a vacation, Marcus."

The curator of the museum picked up one of the necklaces gently, eyeing it with awe and amazement. "My god, Indy. You really did it, didn't you? You managed to get some of her jewels."

"Not all of them," Indy admitted, rubbing his head. "I left some there just in case the government felt a need to prod into a grave of a famed Egyptian queen lived. I would have snagged them all, but... I had company."

Nothing more was needed to be said. There was silence for a couple of moments as Indy packed away the jewels back into their covering. Marcus cleared his throat a few seconds later. "Indy, there's another group of people that want your help in discovering something quite priceless."

The archaeologist gave his friend a curious glance before beginning to finish packing up his papers and lecture notes. "Priceless? Marcus, nothing in this world right now is more priceless than life itself. And you and I both know that from experience."

"Indeed," he replied quietly, his hand on the table and looking down at the desk slightly. "Indy..." He looked slightly confused for a moment, as if wondering whether or not he should tell the man what was on his mind. "The ones who want to see you next are the Guys In White. They're looking for someone to find a key. A key to some sort of door that has yet to be found."

Indiana frowned, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Marcus. "Why the hell would they ask me about finding a key to a door that might not even exist? And why me? Why not some other supernatural specialist who knows everything about ghosts and that other fun stuff they study?"

The museum curator sighed. "They think this key might hold great value for the future of the Untied States. And as I once recall- you remember telling me about your little expedition to Pankot Palace- you sometimes are in search for fortune and glory."

Fortune and glory- the words he once himself spoke stung like a needle in his backside as Indy paused before speaking again. He sighed and shook his head. "I know what I said, Marcus. But that was before I ran off and saved the cradle of civilization from being destroyed in India."

"You can still do it for the fortune, Indiana," Marcus told him gently. "But perhaps you can give the glory to someone else."

A long silence hung in the air after this comment, and the professor at Princeton pondered this advice carefully.

Stopping point! Another long chapter- wow. I spoiled you guys a little. Hope you enjoyed this, and feel free to review!