Well, this is the chapter that you were all waiting for. Of course, I should warn anyone that isn't familiar with Danny Phantom, there is a trigger warning for this chapter. There's some character death, but I'm pretty sure most of the people reading this expect that from Homestuck. However, don't worry.
They get better.
The drive home was uneventful, one of the few saving graces of today. Of course, Karkat knew that wouldn't last when they got inside his house. His dad was one chaotic being within his life and his friends were another, so combining them usually either cancelled things out or raised them to a whole new level of stupid.
Which is why he had to set ground rules.
"Alright, you assholes, you know the deal." Karkat said plainly, guarding his front door. He pointed to Aradia first. "No touching the science experiments and messing with ectoplasm. Just because it might be proof of ghosts does not mean you are allowed to fuck with it likes it's an ill-advised children's toy." She nodded simply, but the grin on her face remained.
He turned to Sollux, who honestly didn't look like he cared enough to pay attention. "You try to keep your sarcastic comments away until the end, along with trying to stream the experiment. It may be funny to watch my dad curse and yell at the portal, but posting it online only hurts us both." Sollux nodded too, though it was less convincing than Aradia's.
Karkat knew they wouldn't likely follow his orders, but it was nice to at least have the formality of addressing them. "Alright. Let's get this freakshow going."
Opening the door, they all walked inside slowly, keeping an ear out for Spades, the general consensus being that should only be concerned is when there isn't noise. Thankfully, they heard the clattering of tools going on in the basement, meaning that it was relatively safe.
Of course, that could change when they actually entered the basement.
"Hey Dad, I brought my friends over! I'd appreciate it if you put anything the ecto-guns away before we get down there." Karkat made sure to shout while at the top of the stairs. Hearing no response, he rolled his eyes and started walking down, his friends following close behind.
"Why does your dad have ecto-guns again? There's no ghosts to shoot at!" Sollux said, exasperated by the thought.
"Government wanted him to make some non-lethal weapons and that was the best he had." Vantas only shrugged, knowing how stupid it sounded. At least it was one of the inventions that worked, weapon or not.
"Still pretty dangerous to have literal laser weapons though." Aradia said sagely, tracing her fingers on the walls as they moved downward. Her hand met cold metal, shying away from it. "Pretty futuristic though. Really sci-fi."
Karkat didn't bother to add to that, taking the last step into the basement lab. He looked forward, watching as his father was inside the 'grand achievement' that he'd spent so much time on these last few years.
The ghost portal. Or, at least, the shell of it.
A steel frame in the shape of an octagon indicated the three-foot dip into the wall, holding it together in a way that appeared ominous. Inside the frame was a bunch of wires, panels, and glowing arcs of light that made up its guts, covering the walls inside inch-by-inch. In the center laid what could be described as a laser/projector blipped on and off, depending on whatever his father appeared to be messing around with at the time.
Karkat couldn't but mentally agree with Aradia's earlier statement. It did look like something out of a science fiction movie.
He shook his head and snapped himself out of the awe he previously felt. It was too bad it wouldn't work.
"Dad!" He shouted again, causing the man in the portal to jump. A loud clang and wrench was dropped on Spades foot, causing him to jump in place and hold it with curses flying out of his mouth at rapid fire. Aradia could be heard laughing behind Karkat, who did his best to ignore it.
"God dammit." Spades seemed to calm down, giving his son a look. "I'll consider that makes us even since I woke you up with an explosion this morning."
The boy snorted, rolling his eyes. "Trust me, we aren't even close to even for that crap." He motioned to his friends. "We're here now. You got something to show us?"
"Ah, right, that!" Spades instantly walked out of the portal, moving towards them. "I got the hazmat suits set up, so you go change. I'll set up some chairs."
The three kids moved to the hazmat suits located near the changing rooms. Grabbing their individual suits, they moved into the rooms and started getting dressed into them as quickly as possible and adjusting when needed.
Getting out, an outside observer would have noted that only one of the suits seemed to be personalized. While Aradia and Sollux wore the more traditional orange, baggy hazmat suits, with the headgear to match, Karkat actually wore something a little bit off in comparison. While made of the same materials, the suit was more form fitting to the wearer, with the gloves and shoes attached to its very fabric. The color was also primarily white, with black accents appearing on the gloves and shoes. An unused hood and goggles dangled off of it as well, colored in similar respects.
"I still don't understand why we have to wear these." Vantas complained quietly. "Ectoplasm isn't radioactive. You've tested that over a million times."
"It's the spirit of the thing kid." Spades said, finally moving the final chair for the kids to sit into place. "You can't start the scientific discovery of the century while wearing street clothes. We need to have some dignity."
Not feeling like he had plenty of dignity right now, Karkat shook his head. He heard the snap of a camera, causing him to turn around to see Sollux chuckling. He flipped him off and stuck out his tongue at him.
This only earned him another snap from the phone camera.
"Come on, you guys, let's get crackin'! Ghosts aren't going to wait forever!" Aradia moved forward in her bulky suit excitedly, sounding like a child. Whether she was hoping it would work or hoping it would explode, neither boy could tell as they followed behind.
Sitting in the prepared chairs, Karkat mentally estimated how long this would take. Long speech or short speech?
"Ahem," Spades said, standing between them and the portal. "Long ago..."
Crap, it was the long speech.
"...humans have wondered just where exactly they go when they die." Spades started, sweeping a hand in front of him. "Many of you here have probably wondered what exactly happens to the human soul yourself. Do they go to heaven or hell? Nirvana? Do they reincarnate?
"I'm not going to claim I have the complete answer." He said solemnly, putting a hand to his chest. Karkat forced himself not to laugh at his dad's theatrics. God, he got really hammy when it came to his speeches. He had this one memorized, and it only got hammier from here.
"However!" Spades said suddenly, stomping on the ground. "I may have one part of it here today." He made a grand gesture to the portal behind him, taking step to the side. "This here will be the portal that bring us closer that answer; the one thing that will give us a confirmation that not only is there a human soul, but also that some souls cling to life even more than the living.
"What I'm opening up here today," Slick said finally, moving to the lever on the side of the portal. He smiled. "Is the answer to one facet relating to the afterlife; do ghosts exist?"
He grabbed the lever with both hands, smile turning maniacal. "Hope you're ready to say hello, because they're ready to say hi to you!"
He pulled the lever down in one swift motion.
Various lights in the ghost portal began to brighten, one at a time in a rapid sequence. Green with accents of red littered the inside as various hidden nodes came to life, poking out of the walls slowly. The projector/laser in the back lit up slowly, charging as the tip of the laser opened up. Darts of green electricity moved across the nodes, arcing and moving slowly to the back. As it began to connect together, the end of the laser shot open...
And then the portal went dead silent, the electricity cutting off.
It took a few beats, but in front of the expectant gazes of his young crow, Spades threw the lever up and then down again. Then again. And again, this time with cursing.
"What the fuck?!" He threw down the lever in the on position one final time before moving towards the portal and giving it a swift kick. The clang of metal seemed to throw the three teenagers out of their trance as Karkat immediately moved to go to his dad.
"Hey," He attempted to stop the cursing in its tracks. It was unsuccessful, though, as Spades kept cursing louder. "Look, Dad, it's happened before. Maybe you'll have better luck next time, like always."
"Kid," Spades said lowly, gritting his teeth as an attempt to quell his rage. He kicked at the steel even harder. "At least it exploded when it tried to work, not sputtered out like it was it was at the tail end of a fucking marathon." His voice slipped as, in a fit of rage, punched at the steel in an incoherent haze. "Just one fucking time, dammit!"
He cursed louder and shook his hand, taking deep breaths as he gave a fiery glare to the portal. He then turned away and walked past Karkat. "I'm heading to the bar so I'm not pissed off in front of you. Don't fuck around in the lab too long and make sure to leave the suits back where you found them."
Stomping up the stairs, the three teens flinched as they heard the door slam, echoing within the silent lab. The hum of the remaining power, various beeps, and the footsteps growing more and more distant as time went on was the only thing to interrupt it as they waited to help break the silence.
"Well," Came Sollux's nervous voice, the only one willing to break the silence. "That wasn't exactly the most entertaining freak out I've seen. Pretty dramatic, though."
Karkat turned to him immediately, glare already set onto his face. "Can't we have one moment where you aren't being sarcastic?" It came out a little harsher than normal, but Vantas couldn't seem to care less right now. When Captor could only summon up a shrug, he sighed and moved to the table containing his dads plans.
"Hey," Aradia attempted to sound comforting, the smile on her face straining as her hands were wringing nervously. "I'm pretty sure he'll cool off within the next couple of hours. Maybe a few drinks'll be good for him!"
"She's got a point, KK." Sollux was heading towards the changing station, attempting to slip out of the hazmat suit. "Like you said, it's happened before. He'll come back, work on it some more, and call us back here with another demonstration. He's pretty consistent."
"Yeah, yeah." Grumbling, red eyes closed as he pinched his nose. "I'm just... worried, I guess."
"Why? Your dad's the most stubborn person I know." Megido leaned against a lone machine, tilting her head curiously. "Hell, you're almost as stubborn as he is, and you're adopted. He fathered you so hard, you got his stubbornness."
"Yeah, but," He trailed off, looking at the schematics. Some of the stuff on there was easy to understand due to listening to his father's rantings for years, but other parts were hard to decipher. "He's been so focused on this that it always hurts to see him act so depressed over it."
Aradia and Sollux looked at each other briefly. Aradia gave the boy a look, but Sollux could only shrug. It was an awkward silence, with Karkat silently looking over the notes sadly and his friends shuffling their feet.
"Why don't you take a look at it?"
Karkat blinked and looked at Sollux with a deadpan expression. "What."
"Don't give me shit dude." Sollux pointed at him to shut him up. "I'm just saying, you want to help fix this, maybe try and check it out yourself. Can't be worse than letting it sit and rot."
Aradia shrugged but nodded along. "He could be right. Besides, maybe you'll find out what's wrong with it. I think your dad will be happy even if you were the one to open it."
"Okay." Vantas held his hands up in front of him. "Think about what you just said. Me, attempting to fix one of my dad's most complex inventions, whose goal is to open up to another dimension, with just random knowledge I've picked up over the years from his ramblings on the subject. Does that sound like a good idea to you?"
Looking at each other, Sollux and Aradia shrugged. Captor took his phone out of his pocket and waved it around sheepishly. "It could make a great picture?"
Karkat sighed, but his eyes couldn't help but wander to the portal. He couldn't lie and say that it wasn't a tempting idea. Well, you can't really fix something that was never going to work in the first place, but it was the thought that counts, right? Even if nothing actually occurred, maybe he could get the thing to at least turn on long enough to explode or have a stable current. It would probably make his dad feel a little better.
Fuck it. Wasn't like he had anything important to do on a Thursday night anyway.
"Fine." Karkat walked toward the portal reluctantly, resigning himself. "But if anything explodes, I'm blaming you idiots."
"Fine by me." Aradia started to move around the lab, checking on anything connected to the portal. "I'll keep an eye out for anything wrong out here. Sollux, check out the computers. Maybe Spades programmed something wrong."
"You got it." Sollux headed for the system installed on a nearby wall, though he stopped briefly. "Hey, KK, turn around."
The red eyed boy complied before a flash of light caused him to blink. Quickly clearing his vision, he saw the other boy waving the phone again.
"To infinity and beyond." Sollux chuckled as he went back to the computers. Karkat snorted too but didn't bother giving a response as we walked into the portal.
He shivered reluctantly as the temperature proceeded to drop. The inside of the portal was freezing, though the hazmat suit kept him warm by trapping his body heat. The lines on the inside of the portal glowed a toxic green, the ectoplasm inside appearing to move on its own.
Subconsciously, Karkat knew it was the ectoplasm was what caused the temperature to drop so much. Despite how it looked warm to the touch, ectoplasm sucked the heat out of anything that came close to it. If Spades was right, any cold spot that seems to form was just a mass of ectoplasmic energy forming into what could become a natural portal to the Ghost Zone. It was honestly the only thing that made his dad's theories almost slightly plausible.
He shut the thought down, focusing on the task at hand.
The portal was pretty well constructed, if Karkat had to say one nice thing about it. It certainly looked like something out of a science fiction novel, but presentation was all it had, unfortunately. Looking around, it matched Spades plans perfectly and looked almost functional. Maybe it was a software issue that killed it.
Wait.
Karkat couldn't help but notice something in the back that looked a little out of place. A loose panel, probably, but it was worth a shot to check it out. He leaned forward, making sure to walk in slowly as he determined just what he was seeing. It kind of looked like a button...
Unfortunately, he was snapped out of his musing when he tripped over the wrench his father left behind in the portal.
Landing awkwardly, Karkat couldn't help but curse profusely as he hit the metal floor. He grabbed the offending piece of metal and chucked it out of there as soon as possible. He grumbled as he slowly got up, feeling for a foothold.
"Everything okay in there?" Aradia shouted back, laughing at the cursing she got back as a response. "I'll take that as a yes."
"God dammit," Karkat muttered to himself. He kept feeling up the wall to grab a hold, shifting to his knees all the while. "I swear, this lab is going to be the death-"
CLICK.
Karkat head swerved up towards his hand, noticing the button too late. The click was quickly accompanied by the doors of the portal suddenly shutting with a loud bang.
"The fuck?!" Karkat got to his feet and ran to the doors. As soon as he could reach them, he started to bang on them with fervor, yelling. "Guys, open the fucking door! This isn't funny!"
Sollux stopped what he was doing, eyes widening. "I didn't do that." He said, hands twitching over the keyboard.
"I didn't either." Aradia said, bewildered. She shouted loud enough so Karkat could hear. "We didn't do anything to close 'em, Karkat. Did you hit something while you were in there?"
"I don't know. I think I pushed a button or something." Vantas sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, maybe this was a bad idea. Just open the door and we'll-"
CRACK
He stopped. Red eyes opening, he remained as still as he possibly could. He tried to hear the sound again, ears straining. Slowly, he turned his head behind him, trying to discern its location.
At the back of the portal, he could see some of the lights of the portal turn on. The projector had a dull glow to it, though it hadn't fully turned on. Some nodes had snuck out of the walls while he hadn't been looking.
CRACK
Then an arc of green electricity passed through a couple of nodes.
"Guys, open the door." Karkat said loudly, but calmly. He watched as the green lightning crackled again, moving over more nodes this time. "The portals turning on, please open the door."
"What?!" Aradia jumped towards the doors, hitting them. She looked at Sollux, who looked as panicked as she felt. "Find something on the computer, I'll mess with the machines."
"Got it." His voice felt shaky. Why was it shaky? Come on, it was going to be fine Sollux, just find a way to cancel the program. Simple.
God, he really hoped it was that simple.
Hands flying across the keys, he kept the mantra up, even as his hands shook all to hell.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Karkat attempted to press himself flat to the wall as an arc of electricity almost grazed him. "It's getting closer!"
"It'll be fine, KK, just wait a second." Sollux wasn't so sure if he believed that as he tried to find a code related to the portal and on/off sequence and was finding absolutely nothing. Where the hell was that file?!
"Okay, okay, okay." Aradia attempted to find something among the generators turning on the portal that would shut it off. "Just hang on!"
"Easy for you to say!" Karkat felt the static in the air as he attempted to stay out of what was becoming a storm of pure, green lightning at the back of the portal. The projector was slowly lighting up more and more, much to his immediate horror. "Please, please, please, just open the door!"
He turned around and started to bang on the metal once more, becoming desperate. He couldn't help but plead under his breathe, muttering curses, prayers, and anything else he could think of.
"No, no, no, nonononono..." Aradia couldn't find any way to turn it off manually and was beginning to panic. She ran to the doors and futilely tried to pull them apart, still talking under her breath, nononononononNO.
Karkat could feel tears on his face. They were falling down, he couldn't stop it, he was scared, just let him out.
CRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACK
The electricity was reaching its fever pitch, he could hear it. Turning he couldn't help but see the projector, in the middle of it all, had started to light up. For a second, he stopped banging on the walls as something began to swirl within it, the ecto-energy swirling out from the walls and moved towards it.
He still watched it, the yells of his friends on the other side, dazed as the glow began to grow until there was a great big flash-
Spades walked sullenly down the street; hands deep into his pockets. He was over halfway to the bar right now, but his need for a drink was starting to wane as he watched the sun set in the distance. Maybe long walks were a good way to calm down after all.
Well, that was what everyone at those stupid therapy groups said.
His hands clenched into fists. He reminded himself to go back to those at some point. It had been a while.
Spades knew he was a temperamental man. He did his best to keep it under control when around his son, but Karkat still had picked it up anyway. He was so much like his old man.
If only his old man was someone to look up to.
Slick growled at the intruding thought. Why the hell didn't it work this time?! He'd gone against every instinct and actually lowered the power output so that it wouldn't explode in front of the kids again. He'd checked over the math three different times, made sure all the parts were up to date, he even triple checked the fuel gages.
And he still made a fool of himself in front of his son. Fantastic work Spades. You've done it again.
Maybe you'll have better luck next time, like always.
He frowned deeply. Like always.
The need for a drink was slowly coming back.
He would have continued to stomp towards the closest bar, but noticed the streetlights were beginning to flicker. He narrowed his eyes at them, watching as the previously consistent glow was starting to fail.
"Hey, Slick!" He jumped at the sound of a distant neighbor, Fred or something, yelling at him. Looking over, the idiot was scratching his head and looking on inside his house. "You aren't running an experiment something now, right? My powers all messed up."
"No, not right now." He checked his phone to make sure the kids hadn't sent anything. The lack of notifications did little to settle his nerves as he tried to remember if he turned off the power to the portal. "I've been walking for a while now. Kids haven't sent me anything."
Fred (or was it Frank?) grumbled something about the power company as Spades decided to turn around and started to speed walk back home. It was probably nothing, but he'd feel so much better if he could check things out first.
Spades couldn't help but feel like he really needed to check it out.
Aradia wasn't sure how long the screaming had gone on.
A few minutes? Seconds? Hours? Honestly, she had no idea.
And judging from the panicked breathing coming from Sollux in the back, he probably didn't know either.
"Do you," She heard him take in breath, his voice shaky. "Do you hear anything in there?"
He's probably crying, she thought to herself. She didn't want to check.
"Open it." Aradia said calmly, tone betraying her nerves.
"What?" Sollux's hands, which had been hovering over the keyboard since the lightshow happened. "I mean," He stopped, and his mind drew a blank as he couldn't find an excuse.
He didn't want to see what was in there. KK was dead. He didn't want to see the body. He didn't want to see it, he didn't want to see it, he didn't want to.
"Open it." The girl was still looking at the portal, everything about her was tense. She didn't turn around at all while she continued. "He's still in there. He might be alive, but really, really hurt. So. Open. It."
Captor felt his hands move down to the keyboard on their own. He wasn't sure he believed that, but he complied anyway in the small chance that it might be true.
He finally found that stupid file (fat lot of good it did) and opened up the damn door. He reflexively closed his eyes tight, mentally blocking anything unpleasant out.
Aradia kept her eyes open and forward, seeing the open portal for the very first time.
For a moment, she forgot everything to watch the swirling green mass move in slow circles, hypnotizing her. She could see shapes within it, distant, like they were miles away. Just spherical and strange, hidden behind the now thin curtain. She could probably just put her hand in there and it watch it puncture it, like it was nothing.
Then a foot stepped out of the portal, waking her up.
She moved back, putting her hands in front of her as she watched something slowly move out of the portal, a hand moving out to grip the outside. Something (a person?) moved out of, lumbering as if it had a large weight put on its shoulders. It (he) had messy white hair on the top of its head, a gloved hand rubbing it like he had a headache.
Then it groaned it Karkat's voice as it tumbled down on its hands and knees.
Sollux, who had opened up his eyes at this point, moved forward frantically. "KK?!" He moved to the boy's side, barely noticing the difference in looks. "Dude, the fuck happened in there?!"
"I think a truck hit me. Didn't leave even leave any contact information too." A weak chuckle came from him. It devolved into a coughing, earning yet another groan from him. "Fuck, that hurts. Should probably stop talking."
Aradia lowered her arms, taking a step forward. It felt like the final pin dropped as she looked over the hazmat suit he was wearing, now inverted in color. "Karkat?"
"Who the fuck would it be?" Karkat (oh god, it was Karkat) looked up at her, confused. Well, as far as she could tell, he looked confused.
"You can't really blame me for being confused, you look a little…" She trailed off, cutting herself off with a shrill giggle. She didn't know why she was laughing. This was definitely not the time to laugh. "A little different."
"I don't feel different." Karkat attempted to get up, but quickly stumbled. "Ok, I'm not feeling that hot right now, but we'll just go to the hospital or something."
"Yeah, you definitely don't feel too hot either." Sollux seemingly was getting over the relief as he finally got a good look over his friend. He felt freezing, if he was being honest. "You kind of went full albino, dude."
"What are you talking about?!" He gave a look to his friend, who flinched at the gaze. "Look, I made it out fine. My suit must have…" He didn't finish his sentence as he finally looked down at his gloved hand finally. "My suits colored wrong."
Karkat looked at the whiteness of the glove and trailed down it to the black sleeves. That was wrong, right? He felt that was wrong.
"…Take me to the mirror." Karkat attempted to get up before they answered, again only stumbling. His friends moved quickly to grab him, putting him back on his feet. His eyes looked towards his boots, noticing that they were also white.
Yeah, that was wrong. Why the hell was the color wrong.
"Uh," There was hesitation as Aradia and Sollux looked at each other over the hunched form of their friend. Eventually, Captor nudged Karkat's shoulder carefully. "We made it."
Karkat immediately moved to the sink, getting sick of being supported up. He gripped the sides of the sink, eventually standing on his own two feet. He took a deep breath, looking at himself carefully in the mirror.
He blinked.
"That's not me." Karkat said calmly, the reflection scowling much like he was doing right now. "I mean come on, just look at it!"
The reflection mocked him as it mirrored his gesture, even following his movements to grab his hair. "I mean, I have slight albinism, but I've never had white hair. I'd look like an anime protagonist!"
A laugh escaped him, and he felt an uneven smile flit onto his face. The reflection did the same, funnily enough. I almost caused him to let out another laugh.
"And look at that skin!" Karkat knew for sure that he didn't look that tan before. He'd tried to see what would happen if he was under the sun for long enough and ended up sun burnt for a week. Albeit, he noticed that he had a green glow, so maybe it was a trick of the eyes.
He finally caught eyes with the reflection, stopping his tirade in his tracks. Tilting his head, he kept eye contact with it, looking deep within it.
The eyes were red. The color wasn't unusual, sure, but that was all there is. No pupils, just a pure red void where his eyes should be.
Karkat gulped. "Is this some kind weird joke?" He moved back, the shakiness in his legs having gone. He ran his hand through his hair again. "I mean, props to you guys for getting my dad involved, but this is kind of in bad taste." He laughed, coming out hysterically.
"Dude, you're floating." Sollux interrupted him before he could continue with his rant.
"What?!" Karkat looked down to find that his legs weren't on the ground anymore, hovering inches off the ground. He yelped, floating higher like he had jumped. "How?! Humans can't float! Why- the fuck- just what the hell?" He looked at his friends, noting that they looked a little scared. He caught sight of the portal in the, working.
He stared at the portal with careful consideration. Narrowing his eyes, he looked down at his hands and opened them. He closed them again, watching the fabric flex around it.
Then he laughed.
"Oh, I fucking get it now. I'm dreaming!" He kept laughing as he slowly moved downward, feet eventually reaching the floor. He nearly doubled over, hands held to his gut. "I mean, the ghost portal is working, you guys look like you're actually scared, and I'm dead."
"Hey!" Aradia said, backing up a bit as Vantas turned his pupil-less eyes towards her. "This isn't anything close to a dream! We just say you enter the portal and get locked in!"
Her response was another belly laugh. "Right, like I'd ever go into that death trap." Looking himself over, Karkat grinned. "This is a pretty good nightmare. I mean, of course I'd die wearing this fucking thing."
"You're not dead." Sollux said weakly, wincing at the extra laughter that was incited.
"You know what," Karkat wiped at one his eyes and grinned. "You're right. I'm not. I'll just make myself alive again." He closed his eyes and frowned in deep concentration.
"That's not what he meant-" Aradia started but was cut off when a bright flash of light caused her to flinch. She blinked to get her eyes back to normal, keeping her eyes focused on Karkat.
Who somehow looked normal again?
Karkat stretched his arms out in front of him, turning them over and inspecting them. "Looks like the right colors again. Maybe I'll ask dad to make another suit. It'd make for a cool Halloween costume, right?" He laughed, walking towards the portal and nudging Sollux on the way. "I'll find some hair dye too. Maybe get some contacts? I don't know."
The other two looked at each other in confusion, mouths opening and closing. Aradia motioned to Karkat, who was looking at the portal with a critical eye. Sollux could only shrug, knowing as much about what was going as she did. Honestly, as far as they were concerned, this couldn't get any stranger.
Though, hearing the basement door open and the familiar stomping of Spades Slick did indicate that it could get worse.
"Kids?" Spades asked, slowly moving downward with careful steps. "The power was flickering down the street and I figured that maybe I left something on. Did an experiment explode while I was gone?"
As the two teens immediately locked up in fear, Karkat shouted back upstairs with little prompting. "Kind of. The portal finally turned on."
"Shit!" Spades footsteps quickened until he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, out of breath. "You got the fires put out, right? I really don't want to make another insurance... claim."
Slick would've continued with more panicked rambling, but he caught sight of his son standing in front of the ghost portal. Which was on. And working. Which was not something that happened before.
"... Someone please explain how the fuck the portal is on. Now." The man walked to where his son was standing, scratching his head. No one in the room was sure what he was looking for, especially him. He honestly looked and felt a little more bewildered than surprised, making a small stop at the computers to check the power output of the portal.
Karkat shrugged, noncommittal. "When you left, we figured we might as well dick around with the portal, see if there was anything wrong ourselves. I think a switch must've not hit right and we must've helped move it over. Portal turned on just like that."
"Just like that, huh?" Spades looked at the portal for nearly ten seconds, before looking at Karkat. His son looked right back at him with a passive look on his face, getting into an unofficial staring contest.
Then Spades laughed uproariously and grabbed his sun into a tight hug, swinging him around. Karkat froze, but joined in just as quickly, laughing almost as much.
Aradia and Sollux were just very confused.
"Holy shit!" Slick put down his son, taking off his hat and scratching his head, a rare smile on his face. "Just- holy shit! I don't what you kids did, but you actually got it to work." He let out another laugh and moved towards the portal, looking deep within it. Green swirls and distant shapes were catalogued into his mind, studying it. "An actual, working portal! A dream come fucking true."
"You're goddamn right!" The red-eyed boy laughed along with him at a joke only he got. "You planning to celebrate, or do I start calling people myself?"
"Shit, right, I'll have to call up the old gang!" Spades jumped to a panel and pressed a button, closing the ghost portal. Aradia felt the pit in her stomach grow at how easily he did it. "Looks like everything is going good down here. I'm going to make some calls, you three do whatever you want. I'll make sure to put you in the official reports so you three get credit." He kept laughing as he ran up the stairs, footsteps fading as he went. Karkat was still giggling to himself, barely noticing his father go.
"Dude." Sollux started gravely. "We need to tell him what happened."
"About what, man? Like I said, this is clearly a dream." Karkat didn't bother to listen to further protests as he moved behind his friends. "Look, I'm gonna go to sleep. You guys have fun or something, I'll see you after I wake up."
"But this isn't-" Aradia was cut off when Karkat squeezed her shoulder, noticing his tense expression.
"It's just a dream, Aradia. Try and wake up." The teen looked straight ahead, not looking into her eyes. The smile was plastered on and didn't look close to budging, despite the inherent falseness of it. She went silent, sending a look to Sollux to do the same, which he did reluctantly.
Karkat led them out of the house despite their initial protests, eyes straight ahead and barely registering anything. His goodbyes were stiff, and his movements stilted when he later took off the suit later, though he subconsciously checked himself out in the mirror later. Nothing of note as far as he could tell.
The smile on his face failed to leave before he went to bed that night, when he forced himself not to think. Closing his eyes, he promised himself to talk to Aradia and Sollux about this tomorrow. They'd laugh their asses off.
Below him, in the basement lab, as his mind drifted into a dreamless sleep, the portal hummed softly.
Like I said he got better. Mostly.
See you next chapter!