Gravity Rocks - Ectober Day 4: Urban Legends
"You guys ready?" Danny called out to the passengers in his jeep.
"Yep!" Sam answered from the back seat, her finger set to press play on her iPod connected to the car.
Tucker was in the front passenger spot, serving as navigator. "You bet!"
"Good. Aliens here we come!" Revving the jeep up, he began to dance in his seat to Sam's tunes pouring out of the speakers and backed out of the Fenton Works' driveway, heading west.
All through the summer and the first quarter of their senior year of high school, the trio had gotten the idea to do a last big hurrah before they graduated in the form of a road trip by themselves. All they had needed was a long weekend off and a purpose for going, which Danny found one day in the form of a story going around.
The three of them had been eating lunch at the Nasty Burger when Danny got up to refill his soda. When he sat back down, he was excitedly bouncing up and down about how he had overheard someone talking about some UFO sightings in the Pacific northwest. He checked on his phone and apparently, one of the sightings had been photographed, albeit on a low-res camera phone as a spur-of-the-moment reaction.
But that got Danny thinking: the three of them could totally get a better picture. Outside of all things related to ghost hunting, he was a huge believer in aliens - after all, there was no way Earth could be the only inhabited world in the universe. It just seemed so improbable. But he especially had a desire to find proof of aliens and UFOs visiting Earth. Plus, it provided an excellent opportunity for their road trip, which, at the very least, could be an epic camping trip.
So with a couple of carefully well-crafted cover-up stories for their parents and the jeep loaded with various supplies and Danny's telescope, they headed to central Oregon, which was where some of the sightings had been reported to be. Sam had a relative in the area who had agreed to let them use his barn as a place to set up their equipment for their stakeout.
When they got to the barn, they were pleasantly surprised to find that it had a loft that had all of the basic amenities. Apparently, Sam's relative's nephew came up to help him on the farm every summer, so he had fancied up the space years ago.
The barn itself was situated along the edge of a vast field, which provided an incredibly wide-open view of the night sky - perfect for alien hunting (and stargazing, much to Danny's joy). Right outside the barn doors was a massive stack of hay bales. The trio decided to set up their telescope and cameras on it, since it provided an even better vantage point over the field's surrounding forests.
The first night of alien spotting was rather uneventful, although Danny had fun taking more than "just a peek" at Saturn and Jupiter without the usual light pollution of Amity Park.
The next day yielded similar results, but the three still had high hopes going into the second night for a sighting.
Danny was at the edge of the hay bale stack, staring up eagerly into the Milky Way. "Come on, aliens," he whispered to himself. "I know you're out there. No way we're alone."
At some point, Tucker nudged him, handing him a warm cup of cider. It felt good in his hands, especially against the chilly fall temperatures. But it did nothing to reverse that gnawing feeling growing in his stomach.
"See anything yet, dude?" Tucker prodded gently.
"No..." he admitted, glumly staring at the stars. "Am I just being ridic- Whoa! GUYS LOOK!"
Tucker and Sam, who had been keeping lookout in the opposite direction, whipped their heads up to where Danny was pointing.
Hanging relatively low in the sky just off of the edge of the forest was a dark orb-like shadow that blotted out the stars behind it as it moved slowly forward in the sky. Its entire bottom base glowed a brilliant spooky purple, which pulsed rhythmically with every passing second.
"Holy smokes! That must be it!" Danny began scrambling for one of the cameras and clicked away.
Tucker seemed more doubtful, and a little unnerved. "Are you sure? It could be a helicopter."
Danny barely gave him a second-long incredulous look. "Aside from the fact that it has a non-flashing purple light, do you hear a helicopter?"
"No..." Tucker scuffed his sneaker at the hay.
"Good. Man oh man, this is so cool! It fits the other descriptions perfectly! We got our UFO, guys!" Danny nearly squealed with excitement as he switched over to looking in his telescope at it.
Sam quickly took his place at the camera. "Danny, this is awesome and all, but didn't you want proof of the aliens themselves?"
"Right! Uh...here! Give me that!" he said as he took the camera off the tripod, then transformed into Phantom. "I'll just take a quick peek inside! It looks low enough to reach easily. I know I've flown higher than that."
"Wait, what?" she asked, alarmed. "Danny, that's extremely dangerous! That thing's huge, and we have no idea what's in there! There's probably nothing even remotely close to it on Earth!"
Danny quickly fished into his backpack nearby for walkie-talkies, handing one to Sam. "Which is all the more reason to get a picture. Besides, I'll be invisible!" He jumped into the air so he was floating above them. "Okay, we're good, yes? I'll be right back."
Without a chance to let his friends respond, Danny turned invisible and flew towards the UFO.
Up close, the machine was unbelievably massive and astronomically magnificent. Danny quickly snapped a few pictures of the black metallic surface, then spoke into his walkie-talkie, "You guys aren't gonna believe these pics. This thing is larger than a football field from above!"
Sam's fuzzy voice came back. "Just b-zzz-areful-zzz."
Danny rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. "Thanks, mom. I'm muting you guys now and going in." He twisted the volume dial until it reached zero.
"Alright, Danny. Alien time." He breathed to steady himself and got the camera ready.
He floated down to the spacecraft's shell and cautiously laid down, senses on high alert for any triggered alarms. Fortunately none came, which gave him the clearance to swing his invisible torso forward inside.
Danny barely had time to register anything he saw in the hull, though. The chemicals in the air differed highly from those in Earth's atmosphere, and he unintentionally fell through into the ship and turned visible as he choked and coughed on the toxins.
The room was circular and had advanced high-tech control panels lining every wall, including a bank of screens that provided footage from the outside. Danny even got his wish of seeing the aliens, which were indescribable masses of levitating squishy rocks with terrifyingly bizarre faces.
Unfortunately the first and last thing he saw the aliens do was direct a futuristic pointed weapon towards his face and press a button that zapped him dead.
Oh, you know Danny would believe in aliens. No legend greater than aliens.
(Again, sorry it's a day late! Also, how many allusions that I stuffed in this did you find? Kudos if you did!)