Emergency. Emergency. There is an emergency going on.
Review replies;
TweenisodeOrange: Well, I'm hardly going to forget about them. ;) Thanks for reading!
SOLmaster: Yeah, that calm might not last. :D Yeah, he'll need the practice. ;) Thanks for reviewing!
LightandDarkness Warrior: Well, you're optimistic. :| Thanks for the review!
Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Foreshadowing? Hmm...perhaps. Here's hoping I don't disappoint when he does arrive. Thanks very much!
AutobotOutcast: ...oh yeah I forgot the jetpack. Umm...stilldoesn'tcount. Thanks!
Chapter Two: The Warning
Agent Dorian Fletcher glanced at his watch as he walked through the concourse of Grand Central Station.
"Four hours," he muttered to himself.
"We'd have been here sooner if you hadn't made us take the train," grunted his partner, Agent Jonah Thompson.
"Jonah, do you really wanna have to get through New York traffic?" demanded Fletcher, "Can't be done!"
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a phone. He pressed a red button on the top and put it to his ear.
"Techie!" he said, "Any news from our British friend?"
"Plenty. Do you want the bad news or the horrible news?"
"Lay it on me, techie," sighed Fletcher.
"We've got epicentres on the energy build-ups," replied the techie, "So far we have confirmed activity over the Empire State Building, the Kremlin, the Forbidden Palace and New Parliament House..."
"New Parliament what?"
"In Canberra. It's like the Capitol Building for the Australians."
"Gotcha," nodded Fletcher, "I'm gonna guess that that isn't a coincidence."
"Atkinson's pretty certain it isn't," agreed the techie, "He's trying to send out a warning, get people away from those places; dusting off the old 'gas leak' routine. Anyway, that's the bad news."
"So that isn't the worse news?" asked Fletcher as he and Thompson walked out of the station.
"Not even close," admitted the techie, "We've got no idea where the Warlord is coming out, what he's sending where or even what's going to happen when he arrives. We think he might be using the energy build-up to open portals. We've also stepped up aerial overwatch of Amity Park in case he tries the Fenton Portal..."
"He won't," snapped Fletcher, "That's too obvious."
"...so is New York."
"Good point," grunted Fletcher, "But it seems stupid – I mean, Phantom's right there, to say nothing of the world's most grotesquely overfunded ghost-hunting agency, otherwise known as the Guys in White – yeah, he won't try it, it'd be suicide."
"Whatever you say, Fletcher," replied the techie, uneasily, "You headed to the Chrysler Building?"
"It was the Man in the White Suit's base, so there's gotta be some intel there," nodded Fletcher, "I'll call you when I get there. Fletcher out."
He hung up the phone.
"Nice kid," he muttered, "But sometimes he's way too pessimistic."
Colonel R. Atkinson stood in a massive underground facility underneath a military base in Hereford, somewhere roughly in the middle of England. Around him, his men were busily grabbing every file and box they could carry – the base was being moved.
It was a decision made well in advance. With no sign of ectoplasmic activity in the British Isles, his organisation – the Royal Extraterrestrial Research Enclave – was free to move from its static underground base to a more mobile position.
RERE had been created in the late 1940s as a secret organisation dedicated to protecting the country from extraterrestrial and paranormal threats – or at least, that's what it was on paper. In actuality, it had been founded by Major Lionel Bailey with the support of the newly-created SHIELD for the express purpose of researching a way to stop the Warlord.
Seventy years later, and the only thing they had come up with required relying on a teenager and his weird team of friends.
"Sir, Fletcher's made it to New York."
Atkinson's deputy, Captain Simon Richardson, walked up behind and saluted.
"Then it's time for us to leave," nodded Atkinson, "Come along."
"Sir, are you sure you shouldn't wait?" asked Richardson, "We just finished Project Titan, we should run tests to make sure..."
"There's no time, Captain," said Atkinson, "We shall just have to hope it worked..."
"You're late, Phantom," said Valerie, crossing her arms.
Danny and the Nicktoons had arrived at the city museum to find Valerie (and a couple of nervous looking policemen) holding a cuffed Zwarte Pete on the front steps.
"Wait, you caught him yourself?" asked Danny, sounding impressed.
"I wish," grunted Valerie, "He didn't even fight back."
"There is no point," interrupted Pete, "Wasting energy on you would be as good as signing my own death warrant. Besides, I can easily escape any of your human prisons."
"Death warrant?" quizzed Jimmy.
"Uh-huh," said Danny, rolling his eyes, "So, how'd you slip the eyeballs, Pete?"
"I didn't 'slip' the Observants," replied Pete, "They had already fled when I woke up this morning."
"Fled?" demanded Timmy, "From what?"
"The Warlord is coming," said Pete.
There was a very long silence.
"How long?" asked Jimmy.
"He will be here before the sun sets," replied Pete, "And he will cut through you like a hot knife through butter."
"Yeah, whatever you say," said Danny, raising an eyebrow cockily, "Look, we've done this before, Pete. We've beat Pariah Dark, the Mawgu, the Man in the White Suit and – oh yeah – you. We've got this."
Pete shook his head.
"Arrogance will get you nowhere, Mr. Phantom," he snapped, "The Warlord is a far greater threat than I, or anything you've faced."
He looked Jimmy in the eyes as a paddy wagon pulled up in front of them.
"You, the smart one," he growled, "I'm sure you're familiar with J. Robert Oppenheimer?"
"Yeah," nodded Jimmy, "Why?"
"Because when the Warlord comes through, well..."
He chuckled as the policemen began to walk him to the wagon.
"...I am become death, destroyer of worlds."
He was pushed into the back of the wagon and locked inside. One of the police officers tipped his hat to Danny and climbed in as they drove away.
"Well, he's pretty cheery," grunted Valerie.
"What was he talking about?" asked Spongebob, nervously.
"It's a quote," replied Jimmy, "From one of the inventors of the atomic bomb."
"He is so full of it," snapped Timmy.
"I think he might be serious," argued Jimmy, "I mean, the Man in the White Suit said the same sort of thing, and so did Agent Fletcher..."
"Yeah," nodded Danny, crossing his arms, "One of those guys was evil and the other one is some kind of paranoid secret agent."
He shook his head.
"I mean, what's the worst thing that's ever happened to us?" he demanded, "Every time we get told about some kind of world-ending monster we beat it, and the worst thing that ever happens is some cars get crushed."
"And it's never even our cars," grinned Timmy.
"We don't own any cars," Jimmy pointed out.
"Come on," shrugged Danny, "We'll all head home, get some lunch and wait for him to turn up. You'll see, it'll be easy."
He turned around and started walking down the road, whistling to himself. Timmy and Spongebob looked at each other, shrugged, and followed on.
Jimmy sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.
"This happen to you a lot?" asked Valerie.
"You have no idea."
AN: Poor Jimmy.