Okay, thanks to my reviewer. This one is a little shorter, coming in at 900 words. There are only 3 more chapter left. So, I guess we're almost there. :) Enjoy!
-Obi
Chapter 18
Danny climbed into the Speeder, followed by Sam and Tucker, and flew off.
"So, do you think it worked?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, I think so. I mean, we still remember everything, don't we?" Danny asked.
"Well sure, but who says the ripple effect has gotten to us yet? Maybe the world is still unchanged.
"But maybe it's not. We really don't know," Sam chimed in. She looked up at the Ghost Zone, and added, "Until now." In front of all of them was what looked like a dark wave. It rippled back and forth, ebbing closer to them.
"What is it?" Tucker asked.
"Thet's your ripple," Danny answered. And that's exactly what it was. It was time itself, going over the world and changing it to what was now the new present. A new world, where something was going to be different. "I'm going for it," Danny said.
"What?" came the question from Sam.
"I'm going to blast right into it. We'll know on the other side if Clockwork fixed everything or not." They all buckled their seatbelts and braced for Danny to hit the gas. Danny stepped on it, and they went flying towards it. As they approached it looked almost like a wall, blocking their path. Danny put a little more pressure on the pedal, and they zoomed closer and closer. He put on one final burst of speed, and they went into it.
It was like something they'd never felt before. A feeling of nothingness almost. They dirfted through the dark wave, trying to get out of it. Danny pushed the engines, but got nothing. They wandered through it, as it washed over them, trying to erase their memories of the soon to be alternate future. Finally, it moved on. They were launched back into reality, spinning like crazy.
"Augh, my brain hurts," Danny said.
"Mine too," Tucker agreed.
"Same here," Sam chimed in.
"And, I remember! I remember it all. Daniel, the fire, the whole fight, Clockwork doing what he did. I can still remember it! But it feels weird. Like a memory, like something that doesn't belong," Danny said.
"Well, now we know what Clockwork meant. But this is great news! We can stop this. There is hope!" Tucker exclaimed.
"What do you mean 'we'?" Sam asked him.
"What do you mean?" Tucker replied.
"Danny and I, plus David, are the ones who are there when it happens. You're off at the Senate," Sam answered.
"Oh, yeah. Hey, that's right isn' it? I'm going to go to the Senate. I'm going to lead this town to greatness," Tucker said with a smile.
"Yeah. And I'm going to be an astronaut," Danny said.
"Yeah, well I just find it a little hard to believe that I'm not going to be goth in the future," Sam chimed in.
"Hey, I just thought of something," Danny said.
"What?" Sam asked.
"I wonder if those books are still at the Ghost Zone Library. And what happened to the shack?" Danny pondered. He whipped around and started off towards the library.
"You know, we don't have to do this," Tucker said.
"Yeah, I know, but it's interesting."
They pulled up to the large building and went inside. They looked around the room. Everything looked the same. No big difference. Then they spotted the books on the table. They were still there, opened up, just as they had been left. The trio walked over curiously to the table and looked at them. Danny picked up the book about the Fire King and looked at the cover. There was nothing there. It was completly blank. He flipped through the pages, and there was nothing.
"Hey guys, check this out," Danny said as he showed them the completly blank book.
"Yeah, well you look at this," Tucker said. He handed him the book about the Ghost King. Danny flipped through the pages to the section titled 'Allies and Minions' and then continued to flip past the parts about the Fright Knight and Skeleton Army. He got to the section where the Fire King had been mentioned previously, and it wasn't there. It went on to talk about the Ring of Rage, with no sign of Daniel.
"So, if the Fire King has been erased from history, what heppened to his shack?" Danny asked.
"Come on, let's go find out," Sam replied as she started walking towards the door. Danny and Tucker followed, and they all flew off to the little shack. They pulled up to it, looking at it cautiously. They got out and went in. They looked around, trying to find any sign of Daniel, but there was none. It was completly bare. Every picture, every newspaper clipping, every sign of life, was gone. The floor, which had been torn up by the fight, was completely intact. It looked as if no one had been there for thousands of years, because really no one had been there for many, many years. Everything was caked in dirt.
"So, everythings changed. No sign that the Fire King ever existed," Sam commented.
"Yeah, so I guess this means the future is changed," Tucker chimed in.
"So now, we don't know for sure what the future holds," Danny added.
"Only one way to find out then. We just gotta live and see where things take us," Sam finished as the three walked out of the building to get into the speeder and go home.