Chapter 20... This is crazy. I can't believe this lasted this long. Not counting the months I didn't post...
Things are about to go down.
Chapter 20: A Few More Days
Yesterday...
Yoltrun wasn't excited for this meeting. Tyzax was dangerous, and when weak from using his beast form, Yoltrun knew he was dead if push came to shove.
He knocked on the boss's door and waited for a response.
The few minutes he waited felt like hours. He knew he was fired... or worse. He quickly thought of ways to explain this to Tyzax. None of the ideas sounded right.
The door opened. A quivering intern left the office. A signal his boss was in a bad mood.
When Tyzax saw Yoltrun was the one who needed to talk, his eyes went from an average glow to a glow almost too bright to look at. The boss knew his anger was showing, but also knew that lava ghosts like him were physically unable to stop it. It scared everyone, but also scared everyone into doing their work right. And Tyzax knew Yoltrun's plan didn't go well.
Yoltrun entered and sat down at the desk. Tyzax stood behind him.
"Yoltrun, explain what you are doing here, when you should be in the human world." Tyzax walked to the window and took a look out, preparing himself for the answer.
Yoltrun managed to keep himself together. "We were attacked. An army came in as we were about to enter the portal, and it closed before we could get through. We had to chase away the rest of the army. They were ant ghosts."
A deep growl raised in Tyzax's throat. The edges of his coat caught ablaze.
"Uh, sir?"
Tyzax breathed fire in the air as he roared. He punched the window and shattered it to pieces. A magnificent feat, considering the fact the glass was literally stronger than steel.
"Get out."
Yoltrun left without question. He was relieved that the punch was aimed at the window. Besides not being dead, it meant that he wasn't going to be fired. He knew something else was behind the attack and Tyzax knew what that something was. Yoltrun was smart enough not to go actively investigating it in fear of being killed.
That didn't leave him any less curious, though.
Current time...
The ant general took out her binoculars. The fog had finally cleared. She looked into the distance, and the sight had confirmed it. They found land. She didn't have the entire army with her, but she had a sizable swarm.
"Pick up the pace! We're a couple miles from land, we'll rest when we get there!" She picked up the pace, leading her exhausted force to land. They'd been travelling for countless hours, and would soon be able to rest.
Avalanche and Iceclaw led the kids into the castle. They walked past the outer wall, then into the castle itself. Hundreds of guards were surrounding it. They walked through the main hall. The hall was lined with doors, each with two guards beside them. At the end of the hall was a large double-door. They were led through the doors.
The room they entered looked like it came out of a movie. It was dark, but lit by computer screens. There were six rows of desks with computers on them, split in half by the central path, and almost every computer had a yeti in black uniforms. The front wall had four giant screens on them, showing some important orders. The path leading straight to the front wall was glowing bright blue.
They went past the rows and turned left, leading to a staircase that went up to an office that overlooked the room. A large yeti in navy blue, with one arm made of ice clear enough to see the bones, was looking out the windows into the room. He turned around, and was clearly surprised to see the trio, especially Heather.
"It's true. The daughter of Danny Phantom really is here! Welcome to the Artifact Command Center. This army of mine is called the Artifact Collection Team, or ACT for short. We collect ghostly artifacts and store them here, so no ghosts can use them for evil. We've noticed some... Issues. I hope you can help us with them. They're pretty bad."
"What kind of issues?" Heather asked.
"It's a bit hard to describe. Follow me." Frostbite led the kids down from the office and out of the command center. They went into an elevator next to the large command center doors and rode two floors up.
This floor looked identical to the ground floor, but without front gates. There were many small doors lining the walls of the hall, and next to the elevator, large doors identical to the command center doors.
"welcome to the Master Room, where the most powerful and dangerous of all ghostly artifacts are kept," said Frostbite as he opened the large doors. The group entered into a large room with the walls lined with the most threatening yeti ghosts in the whole army. In each corner, right near the ceiling, there were small balconies walled off with only a small opening with bright purple gun barrels sticking out.
The walls were painted in a mildly dark aquamarine. The floor was a standard light grey tile. There were some paths marked with tiles in the same aquamarine color as the walls. The room was not bright, but not too dark either.
On the grey tile, there were rows of safes. They were numbered, with signs on the ends pointing to categories. It looked almost like a library. In the center of the room, where the widest path led straight from the door, was a large metal safe standing on a short pedestal with steps leading to the door. It was as large as Heather's bedroom. The door had ten different combination locks on it.
Frostbite opened the large safe. Inside, there were three artifacts on stands, like they were being displayed at a museum. In the center, a fancy-looking scroll. To the left, a beautiful green gem. On the right, A bright green ring with a skull decoration and a floating crown burning in neon flames.
Frostbite opened the center display case and took out the scroll, unscrolling it to reveal nothing but the color green.
"This is the Infi-Map. A map that can take you anywhere on Earth, even through time. The indirect cause of the Disasteroid incident. Powerful tool, powerful weapon... except when it shows nothing but green." The yeti let the kids get a good look at it. "It used to show a map of the ghost zone around your location. You could tell it to go somewhere and it would take you there. Not anymore. The problem goes beyond this, though." He took the map from the kids and put it back in it's case.
"If this is about the world falling apart, we would like to know more," Ray stated.
"So, you know about it too? Our scientists found out about it a couple years ago. We spent those years doing our own research too. We did all we could with what we have, but there was nothing that could tamper with the fabrics of the universe. The only object with that power was blasted into dust decades ago. But, this is where this gem comes in." On the pedestal where the green octagon-shaped gem sat, there was a hidden drawer that Frostbite opened. It was filled with files. Frostbite took out a picture of a gauntlet and three gems.
"This is the Reality Gauntlet. It had the power to form the universe to its will. It was destroyed. It was the only known object that had the power we need to fix this universe... Until we discovered this gem. This is a gem of form. It can change anything into anything, but it is weak and hard to control as-is."
Heather took a closer look at the gem. "So, this has something to do with the Reality Gauntlet?"
Frostbite nodded. "The Reality Gauntlet in this picture takes four gems: Life, Form, Fantasy, and Power. But this gem here is not in this picture."
Alex made the connection. "So you're saying there's another Reality Gauntlet out there, and finding it is the only way to save the world?"
Heather smiled. "Gloves always come in pairs."
Frostbite put the picture away. "If you don't find it, we may be doomed. My team has been searching the whole ghost zone for the six years since we've found this gem and got no leads. Time is running out, though. We need to find this gauntlet."
I hope you enjoyed! Things are heating up. The world is falling apart. The kids had their lucky break. I am having fun with this plot. The Master Room is painted in color #04977E in computer terms.
