Before they knew it, two short hours had passed by leaving Earth's heroes to go greet their mission with a certain air of pomposity and nervousness. "Ye~ah!" Krel cheered, hands up in the air as he danced over the laptop which would function as 'Mission Control' for him, "The cannon is operational!"
"Yeah!" Eli & Toby chorused as they each high-five the king-in-waiting and donned sunglasses for both the cool factor and to watch the flaming
"Target is in range" Aja's voice crackled over the walkie talkie one of the hazmats had set up next to them. The earpiece she had been wearing before now sat tucked inside Dan's ear so that he could communicate with them, in turn.
Aja and Kubritz had then disappeared back into Area 49B's actual mission control that held an amalgamation of other alien technologies that he would've loved to get his hands on. Off to the side stood the unlikeliest of pairs, Dan—garbed in the inverted Le'Zard suit—nervously fiddling with his fingers and Tronos who stood crackling with barely contained apprehension.
"Ready?" Krel asked Dan. A tinge of worry coloured his voice when he noticed who pale the halfa had become—perhaps the previous incident with the other asteroid was playing on his mind? But that one turned out all right, did it not?
"…Yep" Dan swallowed audibly as he pulled up the bright green mask and settled it over the bridge of his nose. It did little to hide the fear flashing in his eyes.
"Ready?" Krel turned then to Tronos who stood at the helm of the cannon, clinging to the two cables that were hooked into the power source. He still wasn't quite sure how his sister had managed to convince him to join their cause (of course, he had been listening in, but still).
"Mnn" Tronos grunted the affirmative.
"Fire when ready, little brother" Instructed Aja.
"Just…don't electrocute me again" Dan threw over his shoulder as he clambered into the barrel, "Please"
"Don't worry about that" Tronos grunted as the cannon was shifted to the right trajectory. "My control is perfect"
"Heh" Dan's voice both echoed out of the barrel and crackled over the earpiece. "Famous last words"
"Target locked" Krel called as the cannon locked into place with a clang. "Firing in three, two—"
"—Pssst!" Toby suddenly hissed and motioned for the Akiridion to bend down so he could whisper in his ear. For a moment Krel worried that the stocky boy was going to throw yet another spanner into the works.
"One, two, three—go!" Toby whispered as he rose the camera hidden in his bag and hit record. Krel puffed up his chest and put on a 'manly' voice that had Vex's lips quirking in amusement despite the dire situation.
"Let's rock this rock! Danny Phantom flies again!" Krel laughed as his finger slammed down onto the bright red flashing button which charged up the cannon, illuminating all in the area. Tronos' electricity flooded the device, adding that extra oompf that was needed to launch the halfa skyward
BOOM!
And then Dan was sent flying, shot from the end of the cannon like a shooting star with a trail of green light blazing across the sky behind him and up towards the incoming asteroid. It was almost beautiful, in a way, if you ignored the fact that a person had just been hefted up into the atmosphere to prevent an apocalyptic event. "Glorious…" Vex sniffled, wiping away a tear and summing up the open-mouthed awe of all who watched the halfa fly.
Even with the Le'Zard suit clinging to him like a second skin, Dan could feel his cheeks blow back like socks caught in the wind. The breath was snatched from his lungs at the sudden lift-off and no sooner had he left the barrel, did his legs shift into his tail with arms strapped to his side, making himself as aerodynamic as humanely possible.
It didn't seem possible, but one moment he was being launched from Earth with thoughts of the Phantom Planet episode swirling around his head and doubt clouding at his mind. He had wanted to pull out so many times in those last two hours—particularly as Tronos the electrothermal creature who had sent him spiralling only weeks before, had appeared at Aja's side to help power the cannon—but he couldn't find it in himself to speak those words. His mouth had gone dry, tongue leaden and palms clammy. He was sure that despite his attempts to hide how nervous he was, that he had failed terribly; he never was a good liar which was rather ironic, all things considered.
The next moment he found himself bursting through the mesosphere just in time to latch onto the incoming asteroid with a squeak. "Right in the gum balls!" Dan wheezed in pain when an outcropping of rock caught him in the crotch and took him by surprise.
"Daniel?" Krel's voice crackled in his air, "Are you okay? Do you have the asteroid?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm all right, I've got it" Dan grunted as he clambered further up the falling rock and situated himself in the middle of the rock where he made sure to get a good hand-hold on it. Normally, he would've tried to haul or blast the offending item out of the way to protect whomever it was, but as anyone high school student could tell you, things in motion tended to stay in motion. And besides, with the pull of the stratosphere yanking them downwards, it would be a hard-fought fight to get out. At this point, he was better off just riding the think straight through the planet as they had planned.
The ride back to Earth was no less pleasant that it had been on the way up and Dan had to wonder if this is what being an astronaut was like. A shooting star would likely be more accurate. The nearer the halfa and the asteroid came to the ground, the more he could hear the screams of the townspeople as they awaited their inevitable deaths at the hands of a fiery burning rock. The albino sunk ectoplasmic fingers into the rock at his feet, tail flapping in the breeze behind him and grit his teeth as he endured the strain put upon him by all those g's pushing down on him. For someone normally so weightless, the sudden pressure felt horrible, as if Cujo had decided to grow to the size of a house and then sit on his chest. All that weight and still more came.
Faintly, he acknowledged the sounds of his friends in his ear but as he broke through the bottom layer of the troposphere, the intangibility took hold and he did his best to hold onto it. Pained cries and grunts fell from his lips, ones that became swallowed up by the townspeople and he did his best to ignore the sweat that threatened to dislodge him and destroy everything. Part of him couldn't help but think what would happen if he let certain parts of Area 49B burn, but that was quickly overshadowed by the what few breaths he had been able to suck in as the albino & the asteroid fell face-first through the planet.
And then he was suddenly shrouded in silence as the two of them slipped through a tree, the road and into the planet itself leaving nary a speck behind to show where they had gone. Dan silently listed off each of the layers as he fell through the planet. Crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, inner core and then back again as he came out the other side. It wasn't until he had to push the asteroid through the planet's boiling hot core that he curse himself again; because for all his supposed smarts he had forgotten about what his proclivity for ice had done to his anatomy—and in turn, which weaknesses struck him hard. EG, fire, lightning, heat. He clung to his intangibility with the same determination that Tucker clung to his PDAs even as he felt his fingers begin to slip, even as sweat blinded his eyes and it hurt to even think.
He may not have been a hero anymore, may not have been the Danny Phantom, but he wasn't about to let all these people die just because of one little mistake. He knew he had enough of his human half to make it all the way through and really, how much worse was escorting a little asteroid through a planet in comparison to taking on Pariah Dark? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero. If he could do that, he could do this.
It felt like the whole world had held their breath as the asteroid had approached, their noble hero riding upon it like it was a steed of legend. Panicked and hysterical screams had flooded the western seaboard with every inch that it crept closer until all watching thought they were done for. And then suddenly, it was gone. No burning rock, no broken towns, not even a flower was out of place which left many to wonder if that streak of green light they had seen was some sort of anomaly or perhaps they had all been dreaming? But for those in the know, those who tracked the movements of the asteroid and the halfa upon it with hypervigilance, it felt like an eternity before the pair were spotted coming out the other side and a tired affirmative from the all mighty halfa sounded the call.
"Yeah-heh-heh-heh!" Toby cheered as he Eli emerged from where they had hidden behind a stack of crates as the asteroid had crept closer. Soon everybody joined in and those terrible screams which had filled the area were replaced with just as hysterical laughter and smiles.
"We did it! We did it!"
"Woohoo!"
"YES!"
"Ugh!" Tronos groaned as he collapsed to the ground with a heavy think, all of the electricity he had put out, dissipating like smoke in the wind.
"Tronos!" Aja cried as she raced over to those gathered on the podium. "You did it! You did it, Tronos! Thank you"
"…They—they betrayed me" Tronos rasped, turning to the queen-in-waiting as much as he could. Aja wasn't sure if he was talking about her parents or the scientists. "They will…betray you too…your Highness"
"Hey—he's in pain!" Aja called out to the colonel who strolled up the path like a predator on the prowl. "We have to do something!"
"Step aside" Kubritz ordered, all business. "Arm your neurometers"
"What?"
"Nn!" Tronos grunted as he wobbily rose to his feet and snarled down at the colonel & her two armed guards. Lightning charged across his body and in a last-ditch attempt, he flew for the closest streetlamp much to Kubritz's chagrin.
"He's getting away!" Kubrtiz snarled, banging her fists against the asphalt before she returned to her feet. His health was clearly not in her best interests, Aja, on the other hand, spared a secretive and relieved smile at the sight.
"Little brother!" Aja then turned to Krel, pulling him in for a hug that he happily returned as Toby & Eli clambered up onto Vex's (long-suffering) shoulders. "That was amazing! I never doubted you for a secton!"
"It might sound counterintuitive" Costas interjected with a hesitant smile, "But we offer a pretty swell internship programme here. Unpaid, of course"
"Maybe one day" Krel chuckled in kind as he pulled back from the hug. "I couldn't have done it without my sister and my team"
"And that ghost boy"
"Him too"
"Will he be all right?"
"Danny?" Toby piped up, gesturing wildly much to Vex's annoyance. "He's a superhero! He'll be fine!"
"Okay, if you're sure"
"Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh—!"
"—It's been such a pleasure working with you" Kubritz interjected with a purr, now back on her feet with the cannon at her back. "We couldn't bare for you to leave just yet!"
"What's going on?" Costas turned to the colonel in confusion, brows furrowed beneath the brim of his hat. "I thought we had a deal with them, Colonel?"
"It wasn't a deal! It was a trap!"
"Dude! Are you getting this?" Toby nudged Eli who held the not-so-hidden camera and aimed towards the 'scene'. "A plot twist in the last reel!"
"Not a very good one because I saw it coming a light-kelton away" Krel smirked, sparing a glance over his shoulder at the camera before he held up a large orange orb, the detonator to the matching grenades which sat tucked into the cannon, corners of the warehouse where they had been working and the station where the stolen samples taken from the high school raid were hidden.
"No!" Kubritz gasped in horror.
"Eli" Krel spared another smirked over his shoulder at the camera. "DJ Kleb is here to party~!"
"Hit the deck!" Aja cried, pulling her brother to the ground just in time as Vex hauled the two humans from his shoulders and crouched over them, blocking them from the aftershock of those blasts.
BEEP BEEP! BOOM!
"Whoa!" Toby gasped as he peered from out beneath Vex's armpit, Eli on his other side. "Nice one, DJ Kleb!"
"Oh!" Kubritz gasped, this time in surprise as Tronos returned with a crackle and leered so close that you could smell her hair burning.
"First you betray me" Tronos rasped as he prowled forward and pushed her back, "Then you betray them. A deal must mean something very different here on Earth"
"Oh my gosh!" Toby sang in glee, "A double-cross on top of a double-cross? Eli! This is exactly what out script needs!"
"You're nor getting away this time!" Kubritz snarled as she rosed to her feet, snatched up a nearby neurometer and fired ruthlessly on the aliens still gathered there. Thankfully, three ionic shields burst to life just in time (even as Toby & Eli hung back & continued to film the whole thing) and Tronos slammed down at their backs, effectively dispatching the hazmats which had been circling the group.
"We should get out of here!" Aja cried as she was forced back a step or two. "It's too dangerous!"
"Varvatos called for a ride" Vex replied as he spun on his heel and switched out his shield for a firearm, which he used to blast a whole in the surrounding wall. "Glorious!"
"Whoa-hoo-hoo-hoo!" Steve cheered as he rode through the dust cloud that resulted from the blast. The blonde lowered his voice in an odd impersonation as his moped skidded to a stop. "Come with me if you want to live"
"Tell me you got that!" Toby shook Eli's shoulder.
"I did" Eli replied, growing slightly annoyed at Toby's incessant nudgings.
"Steve?" Aja turned next, leaving Tronos & Krel to defend. "What're you doing here?"
"Heh, y'know, just gettin' my superhero on, saving the day—" Steve smirked.
"—Hehe, that role's been filled, boy wonder" Toby snorted as the queen-in-waiting's attention was taken by the electrothermal bounty hunter who fell victim to the neurometers once more.
"We should hurry!" Vex called, shooing Aja back towards the hole in the wall where the familiar taco truck quickly emerged not long after.
"Sorry, we're a lil' late" Stuart apologised, a knowing smirk playing on his lips as Zadra jumped form the passenger seat and move to help get everyone inside. "Had to pick up some ice on the way"
"Yes! Craft services!" Toby cheered as he and Eli filed into the taco truck only to find a rather ashen and smokey Dan in the back of the truck which had been iced over like a walk-in fridge. "Brr! Oh Hey, Danny's here! You were awesome!"
"Dan?" Eli poked at the floppy halfa on the truck bed. "You okay?"
"Eh~" A wobbly thumbs up rose into the air, before dropping back onto his chest.
"Hehe~!" Krel chuckled as he stuck out his tongue towards Kubritz from the safety of the taco truck just as Aja hopped onto the back of Steve's moped and all of them were racing back out of Area 49B.
Daddy, I want a butterfly. Not because I'll love it, that's just a lie.
It's cold and dark. Too dark, no wait—! There is a light! One light! The only light that shines is a beam of ectoplasm headed straight for him and painted in violet light. He knows that light, knows it well, fears it, hates it, loathes it. Why is it here? Why is he so angry?
Daddy, I want a butterfly so I can lock it in a cage and see it try.
Green, it was so green, not like his green—a different green, a wrong green. And it hurt too. Like he had been rolling around in blood blossoms. Why would he do that? That was a bad idea, he should leave but something was keeping him there, like a tether. What was tethering him to that place?
Daddy, I want a butterfly so I can capture it and see it die.
Hot. It was too hot; he felt like he was burning from the inside out and…was that barbecue on the wind? His heart hurt like someone had taken a fire poker straight through the middle. He couldn't breathe…Breathe, breathe! Breathe! BREATHE! BREATHE!
Daddy, I want a butterfly so I can let it writhe and let it cry.
I haven't changed! There's nothing wrong with me! Mommy, why are you looking at me like that? Daddy? Why do you have a gun? Mommy? Daddy? MOMMY! DADDY! NOTHING'S CHANGED! I'M STILL HUMAN! I'M STILL ME! DON'T SHOOT ME! DON'T KILL ME! JAZZ! TELL THEM!
Daddy, I want a butterfly so I see it suffer and never let it fly.
A million and one eyes were lain upon him, they stared at him, they leered at him, sneered at him. They called him loser, fake, monster, ghost, freak—they didn't want him to be a hero—he was a scapegoat. They threw things at him, tied him down and sliced him open.
Daddy, I want a butterfly so it can have a perfect death in its own blood. Let it fry.
He was drowning in white, it was all around him, it suffocated him. He hated that colour. So crisp, so neat, so clinical. The colour of purity, the colour of death. White. Bad, wrong, help me. Won't someone help me? HELP ME!
Okay, son
Dan shot up from the couch, drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf as his hands clenched tight to his shirt, over his rapidly beating heart and core. Memories from the phantom planet episode years before, rattled around in his brain, haunting him—taunting him—and Vlad's overbearing presence that had even wormed its way into Arcadia. He hugged his legs to his chest, breath rattling behind bruised ribs and buried his head in his knees with tears weeping from the corners of his eyes. He felt more than saw the other presence in the room and the soft hands that engulfed him in a hug with hands rested on his shoulders; shoulders that shook with the force of his quiet tears and tears that stained their shirt.
