Balshumet: Well! I'm at least keeping to my promise to not let this story stay fallow more than 4 weeks. I know that's well below where I wanted to be for this story, but it'll have to do. This chapter took longer than I wanted, without being too long, because of how I wanted to write it. I needed to, er, well you'll see. In any case, you should be getting some answers to your questions in this chapter. Also, Danny will only be called Danny from now on. If that doesn't make sense right now, it will after you read the chapter, so sit tight. Now for the Disclaimer:
I, Balshumet, do not own one solitary piece of Danny Phantom. No matter how much I love it, or wish it was so, it belongs in totem to Butch Hartman, Nick, and Viacom. Please do not sue my broke college ass.
There's one more thing, but it can wait till the bottom. And so without further ado, the story! Cya at the bottom!
If You're Feeling Like Dorothy…
The dark-haired teen lay stark still from his position on the floor, gun pointed directly at his forehead. On the other end of the weapon was someone he was both glad and confused to see. "Jazz?" Danny repeated, still amazed that his sister was on the other end of the gun.
The red haired girl's eyes narrowed, before she hoisted the gun slightly closer to his head. "How do you know my name?"
The shock of surprise, which had previously settled into a soft tingle, was now jumping back to lightning bolt strength as it coursed through his consciousness. How do I know your name? You're my sister Jazz…aren't you? "I…um-"
"We told him!"
Danny's eyes shifted slightly from the gun pointed only inches from his nose to the boy who had spoken up in his defense.
"You did? Why would you tell a stranger, a ghost stranger something so important Nick?" Jasmine didn't bother avoiding his name; she'd heard both of them tell the ghost in front of her their names earlier.
"I didn't think it was a bad idea. He's really nice Jasmine."
"Yeah," Nate started defensively, "he hasn't attacked us or anything!"
That's when Jasmine realized something and swung her full attention back to the ghost in front of her. "That's really interesting, but you know what? Nate and Nick only ever call me 'Jasmine.' Never Jazz. But you know who does call me Jazz?" She stopped to flick the setting on her gun to full power. "Jack Fenton." She smoothly switched targets to the middle of the ghost's chest. "Did he send you here? Did he capture you and send you after us?" She leveled at the being in front of her, voice heavy with accusation.
"Wait what? Why would-"
"Nuh-uh," Nick cut in this time, "he's not even a ghost."
"Yeah, we didn't even sense anything, well except-"
"Yeah but that was-" Nick interrupted back.
"-have you seen Daniel around?" they both asked simultaneously.
Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows, trying to discern the boys' point. She hated when they finished each other's sentences or spoke at the same time. It made her feel like she was missing half of the conversation. "No why would I? The only ghost the scanner picked up was this one." She explained with a wave of her free hand.
"Yeah but the scanner can't tell the difference between ghosts in that mode, just that they are around-" Nate spoke in his most exasperated tone.
"-and," Nick picked up where the other boy had left off, "we can. We totally sensed Daniel around here somewhere-"
-and we figured he'd be trying to bring us back home by now." They both concluded as one.
"Well, I guess I can change the mode to look for a specific ghost signature, but that doesn't explain where he came from." Jasmine focused her attention back to the, now maybe, ghost in front of her.
"I-uh snuck inside. One of my friends dared me."
"Don't bullshit me! I know this," she gestured once again with her free hand, the one with the gun never so much as wiggling away from its position over Danny's heart," is just some disguise. So why don't you stop lying, because the scanner doesn't."
Before Danny could respond, Nate and Nick did it for him. "We already told you. The scanner picked up Daniel. This guy's totally human." They had resorted to speaking at once in frustration.
"Stop talking at the same time, you know I hate that, and if you did sense him, where is he then?" Jasmine huffed and set her left hand against her hip, getting more annoyed by the second with the boys' tenacity.
"Well I don't know-" Nick started only to have Nate complete the sentence for him.
"- but you have the scanner. So put down the stupid gun-"
"-and look for him already." Nick finished the other boy's sentence with a sighed whoosh of air.
"Like I'm going to-"
"Listen, I hate to interrupt, what with the gun pointed at me and everything, but could any of you tell me what you are talking about?"
Three pairs of eyes honed in on Danny's position on the floor.
"I mean ghosts, scanners, insisting I'm like, a ghost or something. Did I fall into crazy land or what?" He asked while levering himself up onto his elbows.
Jasmine narrowed her eyes, and sent a warning shot next to the too human looking ghost. "I said stay still. Next time," she slid the gun down a few inches and snapped it down a notch in power, "I'll just blast off you 'little friend' so I'd suggest staying still."
"Got it! Not even thinking about wiggling." Geez! What has gotten into Jazz? She was never this aggressive. Danny felt the residual heat from the blast next to his skull. And she was never this good of a shot either. Well I'm glad that improved.
"Jasmine come on, let him up." Nate implored, walking over to tug on the arm holding the gun.
"Yeah we're wasting time. If we don't have to leave right this second-"
"Then help us re-stock these boxes." Nick finished for the both of them.
"Re-stock the boxes? You mean you came all the way out here by yourselves to fill up the reserve supplies?" Jasmine was more than a little exasperated at the thought. "You know it's dangerous out here, and you aren't supposed to go anywhere without me or Daniel, especially without telling anyone." She spoke while sliding her eyes off of the humanoid ghost in front of her, keeping it only in her peripheral vision.
Nate looked visibly wilted. "Yeah well it was important. We might be coming back through here soon, and-"
"-If mother and father got here first, they would be sure to confiscate this." A new voice interrupted from the shadows of the ruined living room on the other side of the kitchen entrance. He stepped into the room, a black device held dangling between thumb and index finger. "Is this what you two were searching for?"
"Uh-oh!" Nick and Nate said at the same time already backing from the room.
Danny couldn't believe his eyes. It passed the Guys in White rejects, and Debbie, and the calls to his best friend's houses. It even passed the ominous burnt out mansion he was currently kneeling on the floor of, sister threatening and cajoling him with deadly accurate aim. On the opposite side of the room, sporting his dark hair and blue eyes that were like his, but not, was his doppelganger. No. Nononononononono….this isn't…that can't be…I… Danny grappled mentally, unable to even think coherently at the sight a few feet from him.
"Daniel! When did you get here?" Jasmine lowered the sights on her ecto-weapon a notch; maybe the boys and this stranger were telling the truth.
"Oh about-"
"We told you! He got here like 15 minutes ago or something. But you never listen to-" the two of them started at once.
"Yeah that's great," Jasmine started while eying the strange boy on the floor. "You," she started with a small wave of her gun towards Danny, "you aren't a ghost are you." It wasn't a question, she was nearly completely sure of it now.
Danny was too shell shocked to catch the question. His heart was pounding; his limbs felt like jelly, and if everyone else in the room wasn't referring to the newest member of it, Danny would be sure he was hallucinating from stress or fatigue. He managed to tear his eyes away from the person with the face that was his, but not, and gaped up at Jazz. "I…w-what?" He stuttered out.
Jasmine rolled her eyes and took the gun off of the teenager below her, thinking it was causing his nervous-like stuttering. "I said you aren't a ghost, and you're not. I guess the twins were telling the truth." She slung the weapon onto the belt loop on her back pocket and sent a hand down towards the now pale looking teen. "Come on, get up. I promise no one is going to shot at you or something." The red-haired girl managed a small smile through her own growing sense of dread. We really shouldn't be here right now.
Danny reached up and grasped the offered appendage with a tremor filled hand, using more of Jazz's strength to get off of the ground than his own. His legs still felt like Jell-o in an earthquake. "I, um, yeah I'm not. I've been saying that for awhile now. Um, who's that?" He asked while pointing over to the raven haired teen leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"Oh yeah, I guess I should actually introduce myself. My name's Jasmine," she explained pointing to herself, "do not call me 'Jazz'. Those two morons over there-"
"Hey!-"
"Are my younger brothers. Nickolas and Nathaniel. If you couldn't tell before, my obnoxious baby brothers are twins."
"We are not obnoxious!" They protested at the same time.
"No, you're just disobedient and reckless." The dark haired boy sniped from across the room. He sent a disconcertingly familiar smile Danny's way. "My name is Daniel, and Jasmine's my older sister. Now I believe it's your turn for introductions." He suggest before raising an eyebrow at Danny's odd stare. "What?"
There was no way he could deny it now. The mannerisms, the speech patterns, hell after taking a good look at him, I can nearly see…Oh God, I refuse to even think it. "I um nothing. It's just my name is Daniel too. Oh, but everyone calls me Danny." The time traveling halfa slid a glance down towards the youngest members of the room, eyes roving as discreetly as possible over their faces. Oh Jesus, they have the same color eyes as…
"That's totally cool. Hey, that means I can say Daniel and get both of your attention at once." Nate blurted out with an excited grin. He'd never met someone his brother's age who had introduced himself before, and he planned on exploiting it for some fun.
"Daniel's a common name. Honestly, I would have preferred if father had just given me his name." Daniel moved from against the door frame of the entrance to the kitchen and walked over to stand in front of the twins. "You two are in serious trouble. How many times have I told you not to wander off? It's incredibly dangerous, and more importantly, mother is worried sick. You're lucky father is too busy working on the systems for the RV to notice you slipping off, but we have maybe an hour before he does, and then we'll all be in trouble, and I am not getting grounded over your hardheaded shortsightedness. We are leaving now, and yes I am the boss of you." Daniel finished the speech by ensnaring both of the twins' wrists in each of his hands and nearly dragging them bodily from the room. He stopped at the juncture between the kitchen and the living room next door before adding, "Jasmine are you coming or not?"
"Yeah, I'm coming, just give me a second. I just want to grab some batteries for the weapons; we are running low back at Camp." She leaned over and looked through the boxes Nick and Nate had been rummaging through just minutes before, before grabbing a few medium size spheres. Jasmine stuffed them in her pockets before turning towards Danny. "Listen sorry about pointing that weird looking gun at you. Just forget about it. In fact, forget you ever met me, it'll be for the best actually." She turned and began for the door, before something nagging at her made her stop at the threshold. "Hey, how did you get in here? I mean is someone going to be looking for you or…" She trailed off as she noticed the pale drawn look on the other teen's face.
"I, uh, well…I don't…" Yeah real smooth Fenton. Get it together! Danny took a deep breath before starting again. "I sorta lied about being dared to come in here. To be honest, I don't really know where I am. I woke up in the forest out there, and came towards the castle because I thought someone might be living here, but I guess I was wrong. Um, could you at least tell me what state I'm in?" Please don't be able to tell I'm lying like you always can. He hurriedly prayed.
Jasmine felt a small shock of worry and surprise go through her system. How in the world did a kid his- She cut off her own mental question, suspicion immediately replacing her natural empathy. To call the story sketchy would be generous, and there was too much depending on her to make a mistake at the moment. "You don't remember how you got here at all? Do you remember the date?" It was possible that the boy in front of her just had short term amnesia from a concussion. Just as well, the tale was far too convenient.
"Yeah it's like April 23rd or something right?" That was the last day he had seen before going back into the future.
Jasmine barely contained her surprise this time at Danny's last sentence. "No. It's May 5th, 2005. You're missing like a week of time. Did you hit your-"
"Jasmine!"
The bright red haired teen turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. "Hold on a second Daniel, I think this kid's in real trouble." She leaned over and grabbed the likely amnesiac boy next to her, and pulled him along with her into the next room with her brothers. "He doesn't know where he is, and he's missing a week of time. I think we should at least drop him off in the nearest town's police station. I brought the Hercules Hover with me, so we can just take him in that." She finished before ruthlessly shoving away the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine that they were taking too long.
Daniel narrowed his eyes as he gave the male stranger a once over. There was something disturbingly familiar about his face, and more importantly, he never trusted anyone. It was too dangerous to take someone they didn't know with them, even an hour out of the way max to get them to civilization. We've been here too long already; we need to get back to Camp. "Listen I don't know if you're lying," he continued on even after his sister and the other teen started to interrupt, "and I don't really care because it doesn't matter. We don't have time to waste taking you even remotely close to the nearest town. You're on your own Danny. Jasmine let's go." He sent his sister a particularly pointed meaningful look before glaring down at his sputtering brothers, still trapped by the wrists, daring them to contradict him.
"Daniel," Jasmine started with her lips pursed, "I'm not leaving him here by himself, in a burnt out house, with no food, no idea where he is, and barely any sense of time. That's absurd." She watched as he younger brother rolled his eyes, and it sent a wave of irritation through her system. He was always acting like he knew better than her, and she was definitely the older out of the two of them.
"What's absurd is your insistence that we take a stranger with us. You know as well as I the dangers of leaving camp and especially of trusting people we don't know. You'd think you'd have learned by now, but maybe I've assigned too steep a learning curve to-"
"Damn it; do not start your high-browed insults on me right now. This kid probably has a concussion and is suffering from short term retrograde amnesia. We-"
"And don't start your pathetic pseudo-psychological babble on me. He's probably just faking it to gain some sympathy. Turn off the empathy meter for five seconds Jasmine a-"
"You are such an asshole Daniel! Why can't we just-"
"Listen you insufferable prat, f-"
"Insufferable pr-! Daniel, I'm in charge here. Don't tell me I'm not, because you know mom and dad will ground you into eternity if you disobey me. I'm telling you, I'm taking Danny and the twins with me in the Hercules Hover, but you are free to get back however you want." Jasmine let go of Danny's wrist long enough to cross her arms and stare her brother down. He was so damn paranoid sometimes, it was unbearable. And he had this smug superior manner about him whenever he argued or thought he was right. Condescending prick, sounds just like dad sometimes, no matter how much he says he doesn't. The ginger teen concluded before walking towards Daniel to extricate her youngest brothers from his grasp.
"Um, yeah hey…" Danny started before his sister made it across the room to the rest of the group. He waited until the anger buzzed eyes of everyone else in the room locked onto his. "I'm sorry I started this argument, but can't you at least drop me off in walking distance of the nearest town? I mean maybe like 10 miles away, that would be close enough." He watched as his alternate version sneered over at him before rolling his eyes.
"Just where do you think you are exactly? The closest town is nearly 50 miles away, and I'm not sure they have even 1,000 people living there." He steadfastly ignored the tugging his eldest sibling was doing at his wrists to get to the twins. She couldn't break his hold if she wanted to; he was much stronger than she was.
"Oh he doesn't know, because he doesn't know where he is, like I already told you." Jasmine stopped to give an especially big tug. "Let go." She gritted out irritably.
Daniel easily resisted, not bothering to even pull back. "No." He answered her demand by steadfastly resisting her even stronger attempts. "Jasmine we have to leave. We can't stay outside of the shields this long, even with the suppressers on, I…" he stopped suddenly cognizant of the stranger in the room. "The way I got out here is going to get their attention. You know that."
Danny frowned in concern as the incongruous piece of information was taken in, ignoring the debate of sorts going on in front of him. While Vlad did live out in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area's towns were famous for being technological centers of the state, if not the country. He realized with barely contained dismay that the reason for the towns' economical and technological growth was likely the influence of Vlad's companies on the Wisconsin area. "I, uh listen…I just need to get somewhere with internet or something. I'm actually looking for an old family friend." Better just to get this over with now. "I'm sure I could look him up, but uh, not until I get into a town. So are you sure you couldn't just-"
"Who are you looking for?" Daniel carefully shouldered his sister behind him loosening his grip on the twin's wrists, his near innate sixth sense for danger kicking in.
"Oh well, his name is," Here it goes, "Vlad Masters. The last plac-" Danny watched as the two younger boys were shuffled behind their older siblings, Jazz taking the ecto-weapon back out, and Da- , the person who wasn't him, shifting into a fighting stance.
"How exactly do you know-"
"Stupid question Jasmine," Daniel said interrupting already knowing where she was going with that sentence, "better one, when did you send the signal out to the GSU? Don't lie or make me beat it out of you, I don't have time for that." He sent a polar chill level icy glare towards their enemy, already berating himself for not getting his family out of there sooner.
Jasmine ignored her younger sibling's rude curt mannerism. He was always like that when he was worried, scared, or angry, and he was likely all three at the moment. She was too busy trying not to beat herself up over mistaking this obvious danger for a defenseless kid. "We don't have time for that either Daniel, let's just get into the Hover and haul ass. If we hurry we can still get out of here before anyone from the GSU gets remotely close. The nearest base is in Amity, and even if they take jets out to get to us, they'll take 90 minutes or something. If I use the cloak-" Jasmine stopped her sentence when she heard a high pitched ominous sound coming from outside. The choppy whirl of something coming through the air towards their current position cut through the sudden silence of the room. In an instant, she knew they were in serious trouble. The only reason there'd be aircraft this far out… She started to think before shoving it away before focusing her mind onto the situation at hand.
At the same time, the twins jumped behind their older siblings, before trading a covert glance.
Wordlessly, Nick lifted a hand towards Daniel's back pocket, reaching for the device he'd dangled in front of them when he first arrived. It was the reason he and his brother had come all this way. He looked down at the wrist reaching for the pocket, and suppressed a frown at the silver bracelet wrapped tightly around it. If he was lucky in a few seconds it wouldn't matter.
Just then, Nate jumped to the side at the sound of a sonic boom overhead. He was nowhere near startled, but he needed his older brother distracted.
Nick took a deep breath at the same instant Nate jumped, and plucked up the device the moment Daniel was distracted. The amethyst eyed boy shoved it into his pocket before his older brother could notice and slunk over towards his twin.
Another boom sounded from above them, and this time no one had to fake shock. It didn't sound like the rumbling boom of a jet flying over head. It was more like something slamming into the earth.
"Come on, they're dropping off soldiers! We have to get out of here. Jasmine, take the twins around the back, and don't let that GSU flunky out of your sight. I'm going to go talk to the welcome party." Daniel strode away to the exit to the room, back towards the original entrance to the mansion.
Jasmine watched him go with a growing pit of apprehension swirling in her stomach. By the sounds of it, there was a practical army swarming outside waiting for them. If they didn't get out of there right now they could be captured! But… There was just something about the raven haired teen in front of her. She couldn't place a finger on it, and she didn't have time to contemplate it at the moment, but the young man in front of her reminded her of something or someone. She narrowed her eyes in thought as her youngest brothers backed into the back of her legs. She didn't trust him; she shouldn't trust him, but the desperate naked fear in his eyes, contrasted greatly with the feeling of betrayal in her center. When she heard the opening explosions of battle, she made her decision. Danny was coming with her, after they searched him for bugs or tracers of course. The scarlet haired teen made a vague gesture with the hand holding the gun. "You, you're coming with us. I honestly don't know what's gotten into me, but I don't think you brought them here. It was probably one of the twins when they…came out here." She stated carefully avoiding specific details. She didn't know whose side the blue-eyed teen in front of her was on, but she didn't want to give out any more information than necessary.
Danny was starting to panic. In between the gun pointed directly at his heart, again, the sounds of battle raging not 100 feet away from them outside of the castle, and the currently disappeared version of himself who went out to fight it, he felt like his world was breaking. He barely registered his sister moving the ecto-weapon pointed at him to gesture, but he did hear the command for him to come with the rest of the group. He silently thanked whatever god had decided to give him just the slightest bit of luck convincing his sister he wasn't a threat, before slowly walking towards her.
Jasmine quickly snapped the ecto-weapon up to full power, in intimidation, when she saw the obsidian haired teen walk towards her. "Nuh-uh. You are going to stay over there. I'm going to point this gun at your back while you walk forward, and direct you from behind. If you so much as sneeze threateningly, I'll blast a hole in your skull. Got it?" She finished her declaration by staring the boy across from her directly in the eyes. She couldn't suppress a shudder at the deep hurt reflected back at her through his gaze. What she was more concerned about though was the resonating pain that flowed through her own system. Just who is this kid? She pondered before an especially loud explosion from outside made her jump. Time to go! The eldest teen in the room snapped the weapon down a few notches in power and made a motion towards one of the exits to the room. "You first."
Danny shoved away the growing hole in his chest made by the cold and rough treatment his sister was giving him. If he ever needed a familiar face to trust him, it was now, but at the moment, the only person he knew either hated his guts or didn't trust him farther than her gun sights. Neither option was really soothing to Danny's mind. He glumly turned towards the doorway Jazz had indicated with her weapon. He started off slowly, partially because he was sulking and partially because he didn't want to give her an excuse to shot at him.
"Come on, move your ass! We have to get out-" Jasmine was cut off by a several loud crashes echoing throughout the house before Daniel landed just a few scant feet in front of her, having been thrown through a wall.
"What the baklava are you all still doing here? Didn't I tell you to high-tail it like five minutes ago?" Daniel shook off some of the dust from his clothing, now subtly glowing and color reversed from the last time he was in the room.
"Sorry, we were just leaving!" Jasmine spat out hastily before pushing her younger siblings along in front of her before noticing Danny standing still. "Get going! Do you want to die?" She was nearly out of patience at this point. What was this kid's deal?
Danny was shocked into stillness by the sight of Daniel flying into the room. He had obviously transformed, but he looked nothing like either he or Vlad. Other than the clothing he was wearing swapping colors, and the ghostly aura obviously surrounding his person, he looked nearly exactly the same. Well not exactly, his eyes are the same color red as Vlad's, but why is his hair still black? Danny contemplated before realizing he was still standing at the edge of the room when they had a fight to escape. "Oh right, let's get out of here." He replied to Jazz absently dismissing the mystery that was his alternate self in favor of escaping the building. He followed his sister's explicit and sometimes explicative filled instructions to the back of the mansion facing towards the southern side of the former Dairy King abode. It didn't take long for him to identify the mode of transportation they were taking. What in the-"hell is that thing?" he asked voicing the tail end of his thoughts.
The Hercules Hover looked like a giant beetle made of bright white metal and silvery chrome and dark gray steel. It even had something that looked like pincers on the front.
"Do you like it? It's a scaled up model of a Hercules Beetle, complete with energy scattering ecto-skeleton and strength built up to the car equivalent in size." Nick gushed from behind Danny.
"Oook, that was the nerdiest thing I've ever heard come out of a kid your age's mouth." The time traveling teen responded.
"Psh, the ecto-skeleton isn't nearly as cool as the heat seeking weapons or the hydraulic system that runs it." Nate stated with a huff before continuing, "and it especially isn't as cool as multi-person motion compensating targeting system, complete with multi-scopes and several scanning modes for optimum dam-" He's technological speech was cut short when a loud explosion sounded from the front of castle.
"Nevermind that the both of you, just get inside." Jasmine walked from behind the teen she was basically holding hostage to open the side of the vehicle. With a whoosh and a small puff of steam, the side of the craft opened up to reveal the insides before she climbed inside. The elder teen calculated the odds of the battle raging out front from the sounds echoing back towards them. Not good, sounds like Daniel's having trouble keeping them all occupied. We need to get airborne before they manage to get past him and back here. She watched as her brothers climbed in first, and was just about to motion to Danny to get in next when a swirling mist of red gathered in the cabin.
"Alright, let's get out of here. I've got a duplicate keeping them busy out front, so if we leave south-west of here we'll be able to escape with cover for the first hundred miles or so." The ghost powered teen began pressing buttons to start up the machine before he noticed Danny standing a few feet from the vehicle. With a start and a set of narrowed eyes, he turned to face his older sister preparing to pilot them out of there next to him in the cockpit. "What in Hades is that waste of carbon atoms doing out here? You should've-"
"He's coming with us." Jasmine stated calmly, already nearly done with the start up sequence for the Hercules Hover. She wasn't about to fight with him about this when they were in so much danger. He'd better just get over it, because Danny is coming with us.
"No hold on, could I ask you something?" He didn't wait for her to answer, instead plowing right into answering his own question. "Did you leave the rest of your frontal lobe in Camp, because you know, I was just wondering if I could attribute your sudden loss of IQ points on something other than your blasted empathy."
"Shut up Daniel. Fly home if you don't want to look at him on the trip, but he's coming." At this point Jasmine was so upset, she didn't care what Danny overheard. She wasn't arguing with her bull-headed younger brother about it anymore.
Before Daniel could retort a resounding boom echoed from the front of the grounds. A bright collection of red rushed into the cabin and towards him before absorbed into his being. His eyes flashed a darker red for an instant, before he gasped and reached from the controls. "We have got to get out of here. You're not going to-" Another large explosion cut off the rest of his sentence, and the oddly shaped craft shook on the ground as the remnants of the building behind them imploded.
The blast threw Danny against the still open side of the Hover knocking him nearly senseless. He groaned when he felt the vehicle he was leaning against move away and barely caught himself before he hit the ground. The sight that greeted him when the battered teen pried his eyes open was not a comforting one.
The mansion had caved in on itself, and plowing through the rubble were the troops of the GSU armed with various weapons and flanked and backed up by an assortment of assault vehicles including a few tanks. They fired a few shots, purposely aimed poorly, just to watch their cornered quarry dance.
Danny jumped to his feet to avoid the first of the ecto-weapon's blasts. He managed to dodge the first several attacks, before realizing they were just playing with him. I'm dead. He thought before settling into a shaky fighting stance. Danny was more than outnumbered; he was out gunned, and had no way to escape. Just as he was about to transform and face the inevitable, a strong dark green blast carved a path in between the advancing troops and his person.
In the hovercraft above the ensuing battle Jasmine had just strapped herself into the pilot seat, after making sure the twins were buckled first. They'd had more than one experience when the cabin suddenly and explosively opening, so they all strapped in now-a-days. She was just about to demand Daniel go down and pick up the other teen, when he had suddenly jumped from the craft, phasing through the ecto-skeleton. She wasn't sure what was going through his mind anymore. One minute her younger brother was insisting they leave the other boy to his fate, and the next he was jumping back into the fray, willing to protect him. If for five seconds you could make sense…
Truthfully, it was watching the other boy get fired upon, even if purposefully inaccurately, that had finally convinced Daniel to help. No way would they fire on one of their own like that. Their weapons are too dangerous. So, with barely a word to his sister back in the Hercules Hover, he'd jumped out of the craft and dived back towards the troops below. A carefully aimed blast cut the troops off from his target. The currently in ghost form youth maneuvered to a stop just in front of the designer clad kid in trouble. "Looks like you could use some help." He said with the most apologetic voice he could muster under the circumstances.
"Could I ever. Do you think you could fly us out of here or something? I'd like to avoid ending up like the castle behind us." Danny lifted up a hand towards the floating teen above him just as the fires from the ecto-attack died down. He felt his stomach drop as he was pulled into the air, and zipped towards the beetle shaped hovercraft. A few seconds later, he was dropped unceremoniously onto the cabin floor.
"Alright now let's get out of here!" Daniel settled into the co-pilot seat next to his older sister and pointed towards the south-west. He began starting up some of the defense systems; there was no way they were getting out of there without a fight anymore.
"No problem." Jasmine quickly agreed, before 'punching it'. The hybrid bug-plane shot forward like a race horse out of the gate, zooming away from the quickly receding sounds of battle below. Just as they passed the edge of the forest surrounding the destroyed castle, the tanks behind them opened fire. With a few moves that looked like it came from an action movie, she quickly maneuvered them around the deadly weapon's fire with ease.
The sounds of the blasts and the explosions of bright green grew softer and farther apart. Despite its nearly comical appearance the hovercraft was capable of moving well over 300 miles an hour.
Jasmine relaxed her grip slightly on the steering wheel of the flying beetle. The sounds of exploding ecto-weapon shells were miles behind them, far enough in the distance that she could calm down some.
Daniel narrowed his eyes and checked a few more scanning settings on the Hercules. There's just no way it's that easy. On the final channel he flipped to, he was rewarded with two flashing blips speeding towards their position. I hate it when I'm right. "Don't let up Jasmine, we've got two boogies coming in hot." With that, he flipped over the display onto the holographic read out floating in front of the windows in the beetle head shaped cockpit of the Hover.
"What are they?" The crimson locked teen asked punching a few buttons on the control console to narrow down the search area to just the planes coming towards their position.
"At this speed? I'd say fighter jets." Daniel unbuckled himself and jumped towards the midsection of the craft. He'd likely need to intercept them himself; the Hover didn't have the maneuverability to out-fly a couple of government issued jets.
"Oh great, because you know that's just what we need, jets crawling up our six." Jasmine huffed and started overriding the maximum velocity conditions on the craft, wanting to squeeze out all of the extra speed she could from the machine. She frowned when the jets over took the Hover's position and banked back around obviously wanting an easy shot at the sides of the machine. "Daniel…"
"Yeah I'm on it." He said before transforming and phasing out of the middle of the craft. He settled onto the nose of the Hover before creating a strong pink shield around the outside of the craft to block the incoming gun fire.
The planes strafed the outside of their target, firing large caliber rounds that were easily absorbed by half-ghost creating the ecto-shield. Even though their bullets were coated in ecto-uranium, like all of their equipment, and so especially effective against ghosts, hybrids were much more powerful than average, leaving the majority of their weapons ineffective. "Home base this is Flyer K, requesting approval to use heavy artillery." The squadron leader sent back to their base in Amity. She spotted the rest of their group coming in from behind, slowed down by helping move supplies and ground troops back into the large air carrier. Should be here soon.
"Flyer K, this is home base, permission granted. Blast those mutant bastards out of the sky."
The squadron leader smirked into her O2 mask before replying, "Roger that home base. Let's see those freaks avoid these." She flipped up the missile firing part of her weapons system with a nearly soundless click. The weapon's display changed from the small caliber rounds and weapons to the serious ecto-energy seeking energy and ecto-signature specific missiles and attacks. She picked out a pair of her favorite missiles, the afterlife ender, and prepared to fire them while flagging her flying partner to do the same. Simultaneously, they sent off two pairs of missiles meant for the speeding bug-like craft now a few hundred yards in front of them.
"Daniel, we've got missiles baring down on us. You think your shield will hold?" Jasmine began steering the Hover in an erratic pattern trying to throw off the systems of the missiles.
The half-ghost teen sitting on the nose of the Hover narrowed his eyes as the missiles sped towards their position. "That's a negative ghost rider. I'm going to have to make a copy to take care of it; I can't drop the shield around the Hover, it would be too dangerous." Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated. It was a drain on his powers to make a duplicate while holding the shield, after already having fought off the GSU troops earlier, but he didn't have a choice at the moment. He grimaced when he felt his core ache in the distinctive way that signaled him running out of power. Not yet… With a deep breath, he forced the copy into existence and sent it outside of the shield to take care of the missiles.
The shield around the Hover flickered to bright green for a few seconds before changing back to a much softer nearly pastel colored pink as opposed to the deep nearly cherry pink from before.
"Hey, are you-" Jasmine started only to be cut off by her younger brother.
"I'm fine; we just need to end this fight quickly. If not, we'll be in trouble." He responded through grit teeth, pushing more energy into the cracking failing shield. It solidified under his efforts and he opened his eyes to watch the copy take off to intercept the missiles.
Danny was racked with indecision. Now would be a great time to transform and help out before they were all blasted into bloody chunks. On the other hand, he didn't want to reveal he had ghost powers, in his recent experiences no time was a good time to reveal that, and with them already so suspicious they were contemplating leaving him to the GSU, he didn't want to give them any excuse to do so. Plus I'm pretty sure just showing up with ghost powers when they think I'm a regular kid will get me at least tied down to a chair with a gun pointed at me. He mentally griped, feeling like a fish out of water sitting in the cabin instead of acting heroic.
The duplicate carefully flew between the first pair of missiles redirecting them back onto its tail instead of the Hover. It dodged around the second pair, making sure they were tailing as well before heading back towards the re-grouping squadron of fighter jets.
They were back in formation, all six of them, ready to deliver some punishing blows to the ghost hybrid boldly flying directly into their group. The leader radioed the rest of them to ready their large caliber bullets, wanting to rip the ghost in front of them into bloody chunks. To their surprise, the ghost didn't even slow when they began pelting it with projectiles; it only created a shield, and continued flying right at them.
It sped towards the rightmost section of the formation, missiles still tailing and quickly closing the gap. The duplicate solidified the shield to full power, and poured on the speed. It zeroed in on the nose of the plane on the very right of the squadron, moving too fast for the pilot to avoid the collision course. The still shielded clone appeared out of the opposite side of the gutted split in half wreckage, just as the first of the missiles slammed into the debris.
Fire billowed out in all directions, causing the remaining planes to try and dodge around the raining fire filled destruction all around them. A large chunk of twisted and melting melted rammed into the wing of one of the fleeing planes, the one closest to the plane hit by the combination of the duplicate and the exploding missiles. It spun out of control, then caught fire, its engines exploding before the pilot could eject. The remaining four planes split off into groups of two, each flanking a side of the dying inferno in the sky.
Suddenly, out of the center of the blast, the duplicate appeared, with two of the missiles still hot on its trail. The energy clone shot diagonally away from the last of the falling wrecked plane, nearly straight down. It charged a pinkish blast in its hands, preparing to fire. Right when the attack was basketball sized, the duplicate flipped in mid-air, changing its orientation from head down to head up. It fired the blast just as it shot up and the missiles rapidly drew nearer. It transformed right after changing direction and using the momentum from its formerly powered flight to carry it away from the certain denotation of the ecto-energy seeking missiles.
Just as with Danny, the missiles followed past the energy clone in human form and straight into the light pink colored ecto-energy attack, igniting on contact. The blast rippled the air around it, creating distinctive concentric rings in the clouds around the area in the sky.
It flipped a few times head over heel, before regaining control over its flight after transforming back into ghost form. The duplicate used its position under the group of planes closest to it to its advantage, surging upwards into the wing of the closest plane. The wing rapidly sheared off, shredding under the combined assault of the stresses of flight and the energy clone plowing into it. It grasped the stub of the broken wing and twirled the plane, flinging it into the machine's closest neighbor.
The combined flaming twisted metal ball, that at one time had been two planes, plummeted towards the earth's surface, leaving sky choking smoke filled hole in the ground.
The energy clone stopped to admire its handiwork before looking around for the two remaining pilots. It suppressed a gasp as it located the planes flanking either side of it, guns primed and ready to riddle it with bullets. Unexpectedly, a nearly manic looking grin broke out across its face. "You're never going to get a clearer shot." It said while rapidly switching its eyes from the plane to its left to its right and back again. It held out its arms wide, leaving its torso very open.
"Die ghost scum." The squadron leader spoke hitting the button for her machine gun.
The other pilot followed suit, and before long, there was a stream of bullets shooting towards the clone. He gasped when the hail of bullets disappeared into a cloud of red smoke. Just where did-He thought before an equally large cloud of red haze gathered around the outside of his cockpit.
"Here I am." The cloud drawled while gathering into a humanoid shape. The duplicate sent an energy clothed fist through the reinforced glass of the cockpit window, before grasping the pilot inside the jet and flinging him out through the glass and back towards the rear of the jet, where he quickly caught fire before falling out of sight. It pressed down on the controls for the plane; rocketing the jet towards its compatriot at full speed.
Oh shit. She thought before slamming down on the button for the eject. She shot up and away from her plane just as the other jet barreled into hers. The flames from the resulting explosion ripped her parachute like tissue paper, and she fell back through the licking burning inferno of her jet, disappearing from sight.
The energy clone sighed into the smoky sky darkened by its destructive attacks before dissolving back into red energy.
Daniel sighed tiredly from the front seat next to Jasmine. He'd dropped the shield and phased back into the co-pilot's seat seconds after his energy clone dissipated back into pure spectral energy. Well I'm powers are baked for the next few hours. "Well Danny, there's a few things you need to know, since you are stuck with us for awhile. We aren't exactly a normal family. Those guys shooting at us back there? They're called the GSU, and they want to mount my family's head on a pike like a medieval decoration. Also, we can't tell you where we are going, because frankly I don't trust you, and every second outside of the homemade safe zone is risking our very lives. They want us dead because, we're part ghost, which, by the by, is why I can fly and bat missiles out of the air if you were wondering." He turned around; wanting to see the shock filled gapping expression he was sure the other teen was making. When he was met with a blank stare, Daniel couldn't help but raise an inquisitive brow.
"What?" Danny started upon seeing the look on the other boy's face. "I don't know what state I'm in, I'm missing a week of time from my life, the government was just trying to kill me, I'm being held hostage flying to God knows where, and you think the fact you have superpowers is the most concerning thing to me right now?"
"Good point." Daniel settled deeper into the seat before starting the monologue back up, "In any case, once we are sure you aren't working for the guys who are trying to kill us, which I still not all the convinced of, we'll fly you to the nearest city and drop you off. The last thing we need is another mouth to feed anyway."
"How in the world did they find us?" Jasmine grumbled, changing subjects, finally setting the Hercules Hover into auto-pilot mode. If would be a few hours more until they got back to Camp, even flying at maximum velocity, and there was no way she was holding the steering wheel the whole rest of the way.
Daniel visibly sagged into the co-pilot seat, more tired than ever now that they were no longer in danger. "It might have been me. I mean I was only in ghost form for a few seconds to teleport, but I had to take the bracelet off to do it, and they can track me with it off. Speaking of, hand back my bracelet you little louts."
Nick and Nate shared a look before facing back around to look at their older brother. "Uh what do you mean?" They asked at once.
"Oh please, as if you being nervous wasn't obvious, the device you were trying to pilfer is right here." He stopped to dangle the completely black chain over his shoulder where his brothers could see it. "What you currently have, in your pocket Nick, is my bracelet. If you notice, it's black and silver. Good try, but you need to take some more dots in stealth and street smarts." Daniel chuckled before shoving the device back into his front pants pocket. "Now hand it over thing one and two."
The two of them grimaced before tossing the bracelet over the top of the co-pilot chair. "You're no fun Daniel." They decided at the same time, before settling back into their chairs on the opposite side from Danny.
"Well I don't think so." Jasmine decided, picking up the conversation where Daniel had left off before talking about the bracelet. "I mean if they picked you up that quickly, how do you know it wasn't the twins they found first? I mean they flew out there, so their signal was stronger for much longer. Hey! That reminds me, how exactly did you two fly out there? Neither of you have access to enough energy to transform, so how did you-…" Jasmine trailed off and fiddled with the cloaking device on the Hercules some more, changing it in response to the different type of radar their pursuers were using.
"Does it matter really? I mean we all got out ok so-"
"Sure if you think destroying a supply cache and nearly being blasted out of the sky is ok. Oh, and father's going to turn me inside out for this mess. You two are dead meat anyway, I'll just tell one of the parental units to clamp your suppressant levels tighter." Daniel resisted the urge to smirk, knowing threatening to have the restraints increased would get them to talk. To his surprise neither of them offered up any further information, so with a shrug he dismissed the conversation onto the list of things to worry about once they got back to Camp. He glanced down at his own bare wrist and frowned. Even though he barely had any spectral energy at the moment, and what energy he had, he was consciously suppressing, the ghost powered teen knew he had to place the bracelet back on eventually. With a purely internal groan, Daniel wrapped the bracelet back around his form and snapped it in place with a click. A few seconds later, he felt it come fully online, and the rest of his powers slip out of his grasp. He leaned his head against the back of the seat, enjoying the sudden silence in the cabin.
"So whose idea was this…weird beetle thing?" Danny asked breaking what had been a comfortable lull in conversation. He had to admit, it was cooler than he first thought, what with the laser defense system and the outer shielding that could absorb missile damage through some sciencey energy thing, the twins had over-enthusiastically explained, but it still looked like a giant bug.
"It was mine." The twins answered at the same time.
"Nuh-uh! I thought of it first!" Nate protested.
"No way, you didn't even like entomology until I started studying it! You're just a bandwagoner." Nick objected back.
"Ento-what?" Danny tried to break up the ensuing argument.
"If you two recall, neither of you started studying entomology until after Jasmine said you could use it to identify the age of corpses, which, by the way, was after she suggested using an insect or arachnid as a model to make a tank-like flying vehicle. So she thought of it." Daniel stopped and looked over at the interestingly similar looking to him teen opposite Nick. "Ignore them, they always fight like this." He supplied. "So what's your last name? You never did say." Daniel leaned back into his seat, resisting the urge to sleep after the dog-fight with the jets earlier. He needed to stay alert, more of them could be back at any time.
"Oh er…Moley." I'm back to this again already?
"Moley huh? That's an awful alias. If you are going to lie to me about your last name you could at least pick something good, like Phoenix."
"Or Gryphon." Nate added from his position opposite Danny.
"No wait! My name is now Nickolas Cthulhu."
Daniel chuckled from the front of the cabin. "Fantastic, where's your tentacles elder god?"
"Foolish mortal! If I were to reveal my true form, it would splatter your consciousness among the cosmos." Nick responded with exceptional bravado.
At that, the whole group, excluding Danny, broke out into a fit of giggles. "Um…who?" I hate sounding stupider than 10 year olds. He thought cursing his serious lack of book knowledge.
"You know, Call of Cthulhu." Daniel supplied helpfully turning to face the group's clueless member from the front seat. Upon seeing a blank state met his information he clarified further. "H.P Lovecraft, the…author. Do you even read man?"
"I read! I mean, not much outside of school assignments, usually just comic books." Danny ended the sentence mostly in a mumble, realizing he didn't read on the regular because of all of the ghost fighting, and certainly nothing classical in nature.
"Oh. Well, um, I a little bit of a literature lover-"
"And by that he means he'd marry a library if it were legal." Jasmine interrupted.
"Would not! Though I might've married one of the Bronte sisters if it were possible."
"I can't believe you like the romantic drivel." Nate and Nick complained at once.
"If you ask me, I much prefer Hemingway." Nickolas added.
"Or Tim O'Brien, can't beat war stories." Nate countered.
"Yeah and Tim O' Brien and Hemingway are fantastic marriage material." Daniel's tone managed to carry both sarcasm and mirth. He listened to his younger brothers' sputter from the back of the Hover, a victorious smile firmly planted on his face.
"Uh so, what are you guys' last names?" The conversation was veering into serious nerd-level territory, and unless Danny wanted more of his lack of book knowledge revealed, he needed to change the subject.
Jasmine scoffed and turned around towards the edge of her seat to look back at Danny. "How about we'll tell you if you tell us your real one?"
"Um…I did already?" Even to Danny's ears it sounded unsure and meek. Yeah great way to convince them you're telling the truth. He crossed his arms and sent a light glare towards his sister who wasn't. There was no way he was telling anyone anything about his actual life until he knew more about the crazy world he found himself in.
"Yeah right. No wait didn't we tell you? Our last name is Moley too. Just what are the odds?" Daniel mocked while he unbuckled himself and headed for the back of the Hover.
"Daniel, quit being so sarcastic!" Jasmine frowned at him from his position standing near the weapon's case in the back. She watched him fiddle with a couple weapons, carefully, unconsciously, she realized, eying the other male teen. He's nervous. She didn't blame him honestly. This kid shows up out of nowhere, and knows our dad's name, and then the GSU shows up, but he can't remember anything for a week, and won't tell us anything about him. Yeah, I'm nervous too Daniel. She remembered before honing in on one of Danny's admissions. "How do you know Vlad Masters anyway?" And he was going to explain that one, even if he wouldn't tell them anything else.
"Like I said, he's an old family friend." Between the other boy fiddling with the weapons in the back and his sister needling him for answers in the front, Danny was beginning to feel like a caged animal.
"Listen, if you're going to lie to us about your last name, you could at least be honest about that. Not many people would call him a family friend anymore. In fact, the list of people includes our mom, and Jack Fenton, and well he depends on the mood and the level of crazy."
Danny was about to say something about calling his dad crazy, when he remembered he knew nothing about anything going on at the moment. So instead, he settled for a slightly stronger glare and a stonewalled face.
Jasmine rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. "Ok, don't tell us, but until you do, we aren't letting you out of Camp when we arrive." She sighed shakily, hoping they weren't bringing a Trojan horse back into their version of "Troy". There was really nothing for it though. They couldn't let him go, he was too dangerous, knew too much already, but…Bringing him with us has its own set of risks. I mean, we already had him scanned a million different ways for bugs or transmitters, but that doesn't mean he can't contact them some other way, and Camp is the only safe place left. Still, something stronger than her fear was pulling at her to let him stay, and it was something she couldn't explain. The crimson haired girl glanced at the map tracking their position. Only an hour and a half left. They were close, and she was determined to get some info out of him before then. "Danny," she sighed out before standing from her seat at the front of the Hover to walk back towards him.
Danny had receded back into himself, wanting to think over some of the reams of information he'd learned over the past 36 hours or so. It doesn't make any sense. That was the only conclusion he'd been able to reach over the last few minutes, and it seemed to encompass everything about his last day and a half. Amity Park didn't make any sense. The GSU didn't make any sense. Vlad's burnt out mansion didn't make any sense. The kit and caboodle of the giant flying bug he was inside didn't make any sense. If he was honest with himself, nothing had made sense since he had taken Clockwork's Medallion and wished the bonds of time away. And what was with Jazz calling dad crazy? Or saying he had sent me after them? Admittedly, she thought I was a ghost at the time, but that doesn't actually make it make…any more sense. Danny resisted the urge to massage the headache forming behind his eyes away. All the thinking in the world wasn't going to make this any better. I have to ask the only person with answers, which means I need to avoid being thrown off this tub by its other worried passengers. He decided, before suddenly turning to face his sister who wasn't. "What's Camp?" The ghost powered teen asked, face a picture of calm attentiveness.
Jasmine was taken aback by the tenor of the question. She had been expecting him to ask where they were going, or perhaps how they knew Vlad Masters, but instead…She tilted her head as she processed through the way to answer the question. She almost jumped when Daniel answered for her.
"Camp is a safe haven, and no we aren't telling you where it is exactly. It's the one place on the planet where we can't be found by the GSU, though of course I'm not going to tell you why either. That should answer any and all questions you have about the place, at least any we are willing to answer." Daniel leaned against the rounded wall closest to the guns' rack and eyed Danny suspiciously.
Danny groaned and let his head rest against the back of his seat. It was tired of dealing with people so unwilling to answer anything, but at this point he could understand some of their behavior. More annoyingly, he was getting a karmic taste of his own uncooperative medicine. "If I tell you how I know Vlad, will you at least tell me your last names?" Danny offered. It wasn't as if he needed them to tell him, he knew the answer already. It was completely obvious. On the other hand, he needed them to trust him, and confiding in him was a good way to get that to happen.
Jasmine frowned from her seat next to their tag-a-long. It seemed like a genuine offer, and a reasonable trade. Chances were if Vlad was really an old family friend like the teenager next to her claimed, then telling him their last names wouldn't do any damage. And since he had offered his information first, there was really nothing to lose. If he's lying, I'll know about it before we tell him anything. With that thought, she locked eyes with her brother at the back of the Hover. For a second she thought he wouldn't agree, but she plunged ahead when she saw him shrug his shoulders. "Alright, so how do you know him?" Jasmine questioned again, a little more gently than the first time.
"I know I already said he's an old family friend, um, but I didn't say who knows him. It's my mom actually. She knew him in college." I hope this works. "My mom's name is Harriet Chin, she used to be friends with Vlad Masters, and I think she was the roommate of a woman called Maddie, er, she was never really clear on her last name. I guess she thought it was obvious or something." Danny muttered through the last of the sentence and closed his eyes. He really didn't want to deal with the fallout if they didn't believe him this time.
"Harriet Chin? She was my mother's roommate in college, except…" Jasmine narrowed her eyes at the boy next to her, looking him over. "You don't look much like her. I mean mom said she was Asian, and to be honest, you look whiter than snow."
"Yeah well, she's my step-mother." I've developed a lot of step-parents on this little trip. Danny mused before continuing, "And she's dead." And a whole bunch of dead ones too. What? This is like the third parent I've killed off, as long as I don't count the imaginary biological mom I killed to get related to Ms. Chin. Danny opened his eyes and stared as imploringly as he could manage at the girl sitting next to him. If he could communicate a single thought with his eyes alone, it'd be "please believe me."
Jasmine was about to comment on how convenient it was for his step-mom to be dead as a door nail, when the look on his face froze her lips mid-word. There was enough raw pain on the other side of his stare to give her pause. At the very least, he was really hurt about something, and as far as she could tell, it wasn't out of the question for it to be about his "dead" step-mom. She passed an unsure look to her brother behind Danny, wanting his unspoken second opinion about it. Even if she'd never admit it out loud, he had an almost prenatal sixth sense about people and their trustworthiness, and she trusted him to decide whether someone was safe to trust or not. Honestly, the only one better at it is dad.
Daniel couldn't see the pained desperate look on their "house guest's" face, but the emotions were coming off him in waves. The dark-haired teen wasn't a trusting person by nature, at least not anymore, but his most basic instincts were screaming at him to have faith with a person he'd never laid eyes on before in his life. Even if he didn't trust him with everything, his gut instinct had been demanding he let him in since he'd seen him back at the cache in Wisconsin, and it was driving him nuts. There was nothing about the other boy that lent itself to greater trust, and if he was honest with himself, there was every reason to not believe him. Everything from the story of his arrival at the cache, to his step-mom tale just a few seconds ago ranged from flimsy to absurd, yet here he was, fighting with logic against every base impulse. What is it about you that drives my trust so deeply? Daniel pondered before catching his sister's eye on the other side of the teen they were practically interrogating. He saw the light of uncertainty reflected in her eyes, before deciding to give into the irrational, but strong, impulse to trust the boy in front of him implicitly. "Ok. So you're step-mom is, forgive me, was Harriet Chin, who was a good friend of my mother, and at the very least an acquaintance of my father." He quirked his mouth into a semi-balance of a worried thin line before continuing past his reticence, "If you haven't guessed by now, my last name is 'Masters', and so is everyone else aboard this flying bug. That is except you."
Danny had been excepting him to confirm his- what was it at this point? Worse nightmare or saving grace?- but the effect was greater than he'd thought. Instead of the vague tingle of surprise and the uneasy sensation of wrong, wrong, wrong, he'd expected, he was awash in an intense jolt of near painful vertigo. It was like the whole world had decided to turn upside-down but, regretfully, forgotten to inform him about it or even warn him in advance. Even if he could go through the mental gymnastics necessary to logic away his sister's presence, the boy behind him turned the best of his rationalizations about how "not different" this world from his own into laser hole ridden tissue paper whose ashes had been rocketed into space. And it wasn't as if he hadn't known any of this before he heard it out loud, but there was a difference between just thinking about it, and having someone basically tell you the family you know and love doesn't exist. Danny managed to avoid the thought of curling up into a ball and just giving in for a few hours until he could summon up some more emotional energy. It wouldn't really help in this situation, and if anything, he needed to be fully alert from now on. There was no way to know how much this…reality differed from his own. Hell there's no way of knowing whether Vlad will even be happy, or even ok seeing me. If he isn't, it'll just be a matter of time before the GSU find me, and then it's bye bye Danny. He took a deep shuddering breath and settled his dismay and discomfort to the back of his mind.
"Hey guys, I think we are getting close. Well the map is beeping more, so I think that means we're getting close." Nate offered from his stolen seat in the pilot side of the cockpit.
"Yeah we'd know for sure if you guys ever let us touch anything up here, like ever." Nick added before leaning over his twin's shoulder to stare at the flashing map more intently.
Jasmine looked over at the shell-shocked teen in front of her a moment longer before heading back to the front of the Hover. There were a multitude of things to attribute his reaction to. Everything from relief of deep worry and stress to a high level of shock about the content of the revelation was up for grabs emotionally. So instead of questioning the raven-haired teen who looked so much like her brother, but not, it scared her, she decided to take a look at the radar. Sure enough, the twins were right. They were only a few minutes away from the Rockies, and from there it'd only be a five or six minute flight to the outer reaches of Camp. She melded into the pilot seat with a sigh, before buckling herself in. "Alright everyone, strap back into a seat, we're pretty close now. It'll be just a few minutes longer before we reach the mountains, and then after that, Danny," she added just to make it known she was mentioning this just for him, "we'll be back in Camp airspace."
"So if you have any GSU transmitters, don't expect them to work or anything." Daniel suggested brushing past Danny to get back to the co-pilot seat at the front of the Hover.
"Yeah never dream of communicating with the people who were shooting at me a few hours ago." He sniped back with a roll of his eyes. God is this guy paranoid. He mentally added before continuing, "And good thing we're about to land too, 'cause I was about to ask 'are we there yet?' and God knows how annoying that question is." Danny joked before clicking his seat belt back into place. He watched as the older siblings cajoled the twins into complying with the barest of safety measures, before returning to their own seats at the front of the cabin. If there was ever a time he'd wished for a window seat, this was it. Other than knowing they were probably going south-west, because Daniel had mentioned it earlier, and being relatively sure they were in the Rockies, because what other mountains were there to the west, he was lost as a lab rat in a maze. Just as he felt the flying bug dip down out of the sky, a cool tingle raced up his spine. "What wa-" He heard the older siblings from the front of the cabin let out a whoosh of air.
"Well Danny, welcome to Camp airspace. We'll be setting down in about five minutes, and you better bet our parents are going to have a lot to talk about with you. So you better have more answers for them than you did for us." Jasmine warned before pressing forward on the controls for the Hercules Hover.
Yeah, I hope so too.
…then you might have stepped into your personal Oz.
Balshumet: Well that's the chapter I've agonized over for the last couple weeks. I like the way it came out, and think the next chapter should be even more fun, on a world building point of view. It should answer all but the last of the, er, initial questions my reviewers have asked me, though I can't promise that it won't make more of them up. I seem to be good at that. One more thing, I can't promise the next chapter for Beloved will be up by tomorrow like I said last week. It's a possibility, a serious one, but still just a possibility nonetheless. I also plan on dropping some serious nerdiness into this story from now on in the form of dorktastic pop references and stuff. So if you see something you play, or a favorite of yours, be sure to tell me about it by dropping me a line. Oh! And cookies for the people who get every reference in this chapter. Some of them are more subtle than others. Have a great weekend my readers, and as always my lovelies R&R.