Chapter 8: Crystals On The Horizon
The DeLorean traveled through the corridor of time. The confusion of the situation was but another layer of irritation left on Dan's mind. After rejoining the Ghostbusters he had to deal with the increasing absurdity of the job. Now he was driving a car manufactured by a car designing legend that was busted trying to buy and resell cocaine, converted into a time machine by a scientist that made Hans Zarkov look sane, with the daughter of a magical girl he met 5 years ago who she herself wasn't old enough to drive a car sitting in the back cargo area of the car, all while wearing specialized nuclear-fueled equipment to capture dead people, in a special magical corridor that allowed another means through the passage of time. This - in Dan's mind - was the pinnacle of insanity.
"I can't believe what I'm doing," the man was dead-set on expressing his frustrations, "I seriously can't believe what I'm doing right now. You all realize I can never, ever explain what I'm doing to anyone else ever because of how absolutely asinine this is without anyone looking at me like I need thorazine? This is beyond belief." Rini was in the back listening to the situation going on. She knew the man was upset about what was going on, "My dad said he's really sorry about having to do things this way, but it was im… impossible? No, that's the word…" Doc interjected, "I think you mean 'Imperative' young lady." "Look," Dan tried to keep his cool as he was talking, but he was clearly losing his composure, "I don't doubt you need help, but me being suddenly abducted like this is making me sick to my stomach."
Doc clearly saw what was happening and it looked like Dan was more preoccupied with his frustrations rather than the task that was still in need of explanation. He attempted to get the dialog rolling, turning in his seat to look at the girl, "You need to forgive my friend here. It sounds like he's been through a difficult journey already, but I need to understand: What is the nature of our deployment? Why are you summoning us?" Doc seemed to have been taking to this in a much better stride than his Ghostbuster colleague. Rini began explaining, "I heard about you, Dr. Brown. I know you are a responsible man and don't wanna know the future, but it has a lot to do with that. It was time to stop several horrible accidents from taking place and only Dan and the other Ghostbusters can stop them."
Dan looked in the rear view mirror at the young girl and saw the look in her eyes. He was starting to feel guilty for the way he was acting, but his lack of sleep and him worrying about Marty, Jennifer, and Eduardo was weighing hard on him as it was. He composed himself as he placed himself in the conversation, "What's the issue? What is the thing we need to do?" "It has to do with Mars Knight."
Doc was clearly lost, "Mars Knight? Sailor Pluto? Why are all of these people named after planets? Is it a Roman thing?"
Dan looked into the mirror again back at Rini, "You wanna tell him, or should I?"
Time passes. The car is still traveling down the time corridor as Rini and Dan explain the origins of the Moon Kingdom, the Sailor Scouts, and the Ghostbusters' encounter with the Scouts in Tokyo. Dan explains what he knew of the Solar Knights and the fight with Jedite, then Rini's experiences with the Sailor Scouts up to a point. When all was said and done, Doc was… "That's… quite the story?" He wasn't sure how to handle the contradictory nature of the stories to what he understood of physics; he didn't even know how to handle the Ghostbusters' claims that ghosts exist. Then again, there was the Conversation of Energy argument for one's soul, so, "I'm not entirely sure what to say to this. It reminds me of that time someone dropped a beaker of Protriptyline Hydrochloride in the lab and it aerosolized. I never thought I could taste color."
"Egon had that happen with mushroom spores he was collecting," Dan mused, "He forgot to tighten the lid on the petri dish."
"There was a horrible accident," Rini continued, "The Earth was frozen for nearly a century until my mother woke everyone up. It wasn't going to happen until later in your time, but it was going to be horrible." "This thing that's gonna happen; this freezing of Earth," Dan asked, "is it anything we can stop?" "I…" Rini stopped. She looked unsure if she should tell the man in the driver seat of the time machine. Dan looked back in the mirror again to see the girl conflicted. It wasn't that she knew the answer, but she wasn't sure if Dan was going to be angry for saying she didn't know it, "My father said you would need to ask him. I just know it happened; they never told me why or how." "I get the feeling the answer's 'yes'," the man stated, "but not for the reason I think."
The corridor came to a field of red inside the void. Before them was another door similar to the one they used to get into the corridor. The car came to a stop as they looked at the doors ahead of them. Rini reached out from behind the time circuit switch and pointed to the doors, "There it is! The door to the future!" "I got a question for ya," Dan asked, turning in his seat to look at the girl, "Why couldn't we have just used the DeLorean's time circuits for this?" Doc decided to answer that one, "The sheer energy in this place is the very thing holding space-time at balance. If we used the breaching energy of the DeLorean in this place, the energy backlash could destabilize the temporal cohesion of the universe - maybe multiple universes - and cause all of time and space to collapse into a singularity."
Dan looked at Doc and suddenly looked like he was exhausted. He rolled his eyes, "Scientists. Jesus…" "Actually," Rini corrected, "it was the fastest way to get you from northern California to Tokyo without you trying to find a way there. Remember: Time and space" Doc looked at the girl for a moment before turning back to the front windshield. He felt foolish because he assumed a more technical explanation. The car started rolling again and as it approached the door, the doors opened sending out a brilliant light. The DeLorean passed through the archway. They found themselves on a cliff on a overlook. The DeLorean came to a stop with Dan and Doc soon after stepping out. They walked to the edge of the cliff and saw a great sight on the horizon.
They saw the city of Crystal Tokyo below, the Crystal Palace at the heart of the city.
Down below was a ruin. The city seemed to have been left in shambles. Dan whistled in amazement as he took off his Blackhawks hat and ran his fingers through his hair, "Reminds me of Cabrini Green. I've played Fallout and I've always imagined this is what the Boneyard actually looked like, minus the crystals." "After the battle with the Negamoon Family, my parents have been trying to rebuild the city since," the young pink-haired girl stated as she joined them, "Everyone is so sad. They've lost loved ones; a lot of those here couldn't handle that it was over a thousand years since they slept. Not everyone woke up; not everyone stayed awake."
Doc looked at the destruction below. It was weighing hard on his mind, "Great Scott, this is absolutely abhorrent!"
"Wait," Dan said, "I was told everything was fixed after that fight with the Wiseman and the Doom Phantom." "Time's been damaged," the girl said, "When things started to go wrong in the past again, this is what happened." Dan heard that and felt the disparity in the young girl's voice. He remembered what Lita had told him about the future in her letters to him until he stopped getting them. It had been well over a year for him since he had heard from her. All she told him was that she had to go to Futaba for something and that was all he got from there. He sent letters to her and they were returned as undeliverable. He was so worried about her…
"The Sailor Guardians have been watching over the castle since trying to find a fix to time," the girl stated, "we've all been so tired over the bad things that have happened." "Sailor Guardians?" Dan looked back, "Who're they?" "You know them. They're Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, and…"
"Sailor Jupiter?" Dan interjected. Rini nodded, a small smile returning to her face. Dan was feeling like this was an ulterior motive, and it was one he was fully on board with. Doc wasn't quite understanding what was happening, but Dan didn't give any of them time to think about it when he exclaimed, "Come on! Let's get to the palace!" Dan turned and ran back to the car. Rini giggled a bit as he watched him get in quickly. Doc looked to the girl as the both of them walked to the DeLorean at a more leisurely pace with Doc asking, "What is it with him and this Sailor Jupiter?"
Rini giggled again as she said it, "Sailor Jupiter and Jupiter Knight were in love. Dan is Jupiter Knight." With that she picked up pace to the car, once again crawling into the back behind the center console. Doc shook his head, "Now I know how Marty feels when I start talking above his vocabulary. If I were any more lost, I'd need a map to my head." Once everyone was inside Dan started the car and activated the hover controls. They flew off the ledge they were on and flew directly for the Palace.
After a few moments the same traffic control communication system that was built into the DeLorean came back to life as a male voice came over it, "Attention unidentified craft: This is the Crystal Palace. You are locked into our defensive tracking system. State your business. Refusal to do so will result in destruction." Dan and Doc looked at each other as Doc stated, "At least they give you a chance; if you walk through Hill Valley of the 1880's in the wrong clothes you can be hanged. Marty found that out the hard way." Dan picked up the microphone from before when he visited 2015 and responded, "Crystal Palace, this is the DeLorean you're tracking. We had been summoned. This is Dan Shannon of the Ghostbusters, circa the year 2000. I'm accompanied by one Dr. Emmett Brown. We have your princess with us. She is safe and we have no intention to do harm." There was no response at first. They stayed silent on the other side of the radio for some time. Dan was starting to not like it, "Maybe we should get out of here."
There was a burst of static, "You have permission to enter our airspace. Please relinquish control of your vehicle as we guide you in. Welcome Mr. Shannon; Dr. Brown. We have been expecting you." The DeLorean started to pilot itself again as the vehicle was taken over by remote control. Dan pulled his hands away from the wheel again and took his feet off the pedals. The vehicle's gear shifter actually moved and managed to downshift on its own as they began their descent. Dan shook his head, "I hate that. Ecto-1 has been possessed several times since it became the company vehicle. Every time they do that to this car, I keep thinking it's possessed."
The DeLorean broke the fog bank surrounding the Palace and started to land in the courtyard of the grounds. The vehicle touched down after the wheels tilted back to their road use mode. The doors opened with both men and Rini stepping out. After the cursory look around the fog Dan didn't see anyone. It didn't bode well, "Okay, where's the welcome wagon?" After a few moments they started to hear a sound. It sounded like the sound of marching feet, "The hell?"
The sound became more prominent and it was approaching. Dan backpedaled and spoke to Doc, "Stay behind the DeLorean." Dan pulled the particle thrower from the pack and started it up. He felt hostility. If this was the Palace Darien and Serena were going to have… "Something feels off…"
The marching feet stopped…
"Oh, something is definitely wrong here."
"Remember your orders, men!" a voice called out.
Dan raised his thrower, "Oh, shit, that doesn't sound welcoming!"
"ATTACK!" the roar of a dozen men rang from the fog and approached at a heightened speed. Dan saw the first of the attackers; men in white armor carrying golden rapures. The first of them took a swing at Dan making him block the sword with his thrower. The soldier trying to attack him was then hit with a proton stream throwing him back. Another soldier came from behind him and swiped his sword at the cable connecting the particle thrower to the pack. The cable was severed causing Dan to look at the cable end of the gun to see the result before looking up and having his face meet the fist of his attacker.
Dan once again flew into the front grill of the DeLorean, but this time the force was so strong his body slid over the hood, up the windshield, and onto the roof of the car, knocking the open gullwing doors closed. In the middle of the movement of his body from one part of the car to the next, he lost his hat. Doc had since grabbed Rini and dragged her behind the DeLorean toward the rear coolant vents to protect her. The soldiers ignored the old man and the pink-haired girl as they started to surround the vehicle. The Commander of the soldiers started to call out, "How dare you land in the courtyard! You shall be interned in the dungeon for your trespassing!"
Dan groaned as he unbuckled himself from his broken pack and sat up, very unhappy.
Several swords and spears became pointed at him.
"That does it; now I'm pissed!" he growled.
Dan threw out his hands and all of the men's weapons left their hands and flew into the fog away from him. Disarmed, the men started to stand back as Dan stood atop of the DeLorean and looked down at all of them, "You wanna play games? Okay, I got a game for ya. It's called 'I win'. Object of the game," he reached under his shirts and pulled out a chain with a charm on it. Rini watched as Dan did this in amazement. Doc on the other hand looked on in confusion as Dan spoke the phrase, "Jupiter… Knight… SUPREMACY!"
A ring of green light formed around his feet as a solid wall of green electrical energy formed around him, pulsing from around his feet. The energy wave blew Dan's Blackhawks hat into an updraft sending it skyward. When the energy cleared, a new form stood on the time machine. It wore green armor with magenta trim, a green long coat over the armor with the symbol of Jupiter embroidered in magenta on the right shoulder with a sword sheath in the center of the back. This man grabbed the hat out of the air and placed it on his head with the bill pointed forward. He spoke, "Object of the game: I win." He raised his head…
His eyes were sparking.
The soldiers stepped back as Jupiter Knight walked slowly off the top of the car and onto the marble and crystal path. Doc had his jaw wide open as the Knight stood before his attackers and sneered. A soldier stuttered, "I-It's Jupiter Knight!" "Impossible!" the Commander screamed, "Jupiter Knight is dead!" he pointed at the man in green armor, "This man is an imposter! He kidnapped Small Lady!"
Jupiter Knight's eyes went wide in surprise, "Excuse me?"
"Use your hand-to-hand, men!" They stood in a circle and stood in stance ready to attack. The Knight was rather perturbed, resorting to talking with his hands, "Do I really have to do this with you clowns?" One soldier struck out and attempted to strike him. Spinning on heel Jupiter Knight decked the man in one swipe. Multiple men started to attack him causing a flurry of punches and kicks to be thrown. Punch to one enemy; another to a second; drop kick; roundhouse punch; leg sweep; flying kick; punch to the solar plexus; Jupiter Knight moved so fast the soldiers couldn't keep up. One by one the men hit the ground leaving only the Knight and the Commander.
The Commander looked around him and saw his men down with painful blows rendered to them. He stood tall and spoke with conviction, "I have sworn my allegiance to this Kingdom and will defend it to the last. I am not afraid of you!" Jupiter Knight took a step forward making the Commander stand back a step. Jupiter Knight growled, "I can change that."
"Enough!" a booming voice called in the fog. As it did at the Door to Time and Space the fog began to clear. In the clearing on the marble path stood a man and a woman, the man in a white tuxedo, cape, and mask, and the woman in a white dress gown that had a set butterfly wing-like frills in the back with her blonde hair up in buns with long blonde strands trailing down. In the center of her forehead was a crescent moon symbol. The soldiers began to pick themselves up around Jupiter Knight as the two walked forward with the man speaking first, "I'm sorry about the soldiers, old friend; we had to make sure you were the real Jupiter Knight. You passed your test."
After a moment of looking at the two of them Jupiter Knight started to put it together, him shaking his head to rattle his brains loose to talk, "Darien? Serena?" They both nodded as smiles graced their faces. Jupiter Knight began walking up to them to properly greet them, showing the only bit of happiness in the whole endeavor, "Guys!"
One of the soldiers had retrieved their staff and hit the Knight in the back of the legs, shouting, "How dare you address King Darien and Neo-Queen Serenity in such a way?" The Knight fell to his knees as the soldier continued to shout, "You will address them as 'Your Royal Highness!'" Before he knew it Jupiter Knight got back to his feet in a flash and had now grabbed the soldier by the front of his armor. He held him up and growled at him, "You touch me again, I swear to God…!"
"Sir Daniel." a soft female voice rang. Neo-Queen Serenity walked beside him as she asked the Knight in a gentle voice, "Please release him. He doesn't know our history." The Knight looked into the Queen's blue eyes and started to feel a sense of calm come over him. It really was Serena. He nodded and complied, putting the soldier down. She addressed her soldiers in the same calm voice, "These two men are guests of this kingdom. You shall respect them as you do all that reside here. Please, back to your posts." All of the soldiers clinched their fists before crossing their chests in salute, soon after walking away into the castle to resume their normal duty.
Doc and Rini came out from behind the DeLorean with Rini running to her parents. Doc lumbered his way up to Jupiter Knight and started looking him over, confused at the state of the person before him. He looked the Knight in the face and squinted, "Dan? Is that really you?" The Knight removed his hat and fluffed his hair a bit, "Yeah, it's still me. I wouldn't normally want to transform - let alone in front of people - but it was kind of an emergency." Rini came up to her father, "I got them here just like you asked." "You did very well," King Darien said as he looked at the Knight and Scientist before him, "I'm sorry to have done this in this way, but the changes in history are ever growing. Come this way." The man in the cape turned and started to walk with Rini close behind him.
Jupiter Knight, Doc, and Neo-Queen Serenity trailed behind as the three of them started to walk. The Knight asked, "What is all this?" "We've reached a great turning point in history," she said as she walked alongside him, "There has been a fracturing in time and it has to do with the Knights. We have a Knight missing." "Yeah, we were told it had to do with Mars Knight. I haven't found any of them yet."
"Only two more outside of you have been discovered."
"What?" Jupiter Knight stopped walking Doc and the Queen also stopped as he asked, "You know who they are already?" The Queen nodded, "There was a prophecy that was meant to be fulfilled, but all of the Knights that were meant to be never came. It took time, but we came to realize what the words meant:"
In a time of strife, in a time of war
Four men shall enter a door
The first one alone, then three more
They shall hold the essence of the corps
A symbol of red and white
It will guide them to the fight
It shall have drawn them in
Drawn them at its very sight
With unusual talents and unusual tools
These men will enforce their kingdoms' rules
To protect their maidens and their kind
Trust in each other they must find
When evil encroaches they will wield their might
Together they return each a Solar Knight
Jupiter Knight heard this and was unsure of the meaning. He was confused, "First one alone, then three more? A symbol of red and white?" He started to put it together, "Hold on, are you telling me…" "That the Knights started their return to the world as Ghostbusters. A more substantial threat was looming and the cosmos decided that Ghostbusting was the means to train you for the new threat." Now the Knight was at his limit, "Are you telling me Roland, Eduardo, and Garrett are the Knights?!"
The Queen tilted her head to the side as she said in an inquisitive tone, "Garrett?"
"You know, Garrett Miller." She held the look making the Knight go further, "Garrett Miller? You know the new team, right?" "Well, yes, but…" "Wheelchair bound; plays basketball; does dangerous stunts for adrenaline; a complete Venkman-like personality?" The look of puzzlement became deeper as she shook her head. The Knight didn't like that response. Not by a longshot, "Oh, that's not good."
Doc was soaking it all in. Never in his life of science did he ever imagine he would be thrown into a completely baffling situation like this. To him, just a few hours ago he was seeing Marty again after his 10 year exile in the old west and meeting this Ghostbuster that came in a rebuilt DeLorean. In less than 5 hours he's had his time train stolen, his friend and his girlfriend kidnapped with another Ghostbuster, walked in an in-between world, traveled a literal time corridor, witness the Ghostbuster with him turn into a soldier instantaneously, and were now walking through a crystal castle's courtyard. If this didn't settle the fact that the damn time machine was trouble, he didn't know what would at this point.
Although he wasn't a part of this inside baseball situation, Doc did still have deduction skills. He added what came to his mind, "She said there were only two outside of you found. The prophecy said, 'The first one alone, then three more.' By basic logic, you were the first. If she doesn't know this Garrett you refer to, what does that mean?"
"How can she know the other two without…" Jupiter Knight was becoming flustered, confused by the whole thing. King Darien had walked back and explained, "It's clear the timelines are starting to commingle. The fact you're a Ghostbuster at all took precision ripple guiding."
"You mean," Doc was now in his wheelhouse, "time has been altered to have Dan as a Ghostbuster?" The King nodded. Jupiter Knight was still lost, "What do you mean by that?" Doc elaborated, "For every event that's altered in time, a ripple effect is formed. The further back you go to alter time, the more drastic the changes in the future. In some theories, when performing multiple alterations in a short span of time multiple timelines could exist at any given temporal plane. Like streamers in a windsock, when the wind dies down, the streamers become uniform; when the ripples settle, the timelines will become one."
"So, what you're saying is," the Knight confirmed, "even though I know the current timeline, theirs is still in flux because they're so far away from the event?"
"Precisely!"
"Okay, stop!" The Knight was now starting to gather his thoughts, pointing to the King, "You just said 'the fact you're a Ghostbuster at all' tells me you somehow…" The King and the Queen started to look guilty of something. They were looking away from him. He narrowed his eyes at them, "What did you do?" Doc was sensing the hostility starting to build. He got between them and tried to calm everyone down, "Now hold on, everyone. Let's not get ahead of ourselves!" He pulled the Knight to the side and started to speak softly to him, "If these people are your friends, you have to believe they did what they did in the best interests of everyone, right?"
"I don't like being manipulated!" the man shouted, "When I met them, Egon - my boss - saw there was something going on with me, but instead of telling me, he said nothing! When shit was getting worse, what did he do? Antagonize me! Why? For readings. Readings! He made me think I was gonna have no job when I came back from Tokyo. My girlfriend at the time already had me thrown out of my apartment. I would have had nowhere else to go. Did he think about that? Absolutely NOT!"
Jupiter Knight felt a hand take his. He turned to find Neo-Queen Serenity gripping his hand. She spoke again, just as softly as before, "Guardian Jupiter told us what happened. That's not what we wished to do, but we knew once we told you you would be upset. It wasn't to harm you. It was because…" the Knight turned away from her, but he was still listening. The Queen hesitated with what she said knowing it was difficult, but she finally got it out, "...We needed your help."
That voice. He remembered from the tower when Sailor Moon was scared for Dan's life. It was a voice that was frightened and unsure, but also relieved. Jupiter Knight turned to her and saw her eyes glassed over. He understood why she did it and he knew she wouldn't do such a thing unless it was out of desperation. It was absolutely that. Once again, the Knight calmed down, "I'm sorry, Serena. I'm just…" "I know you've had a hard time, my friend," she said, with sympathy in her voice, "but you were needed as badly as Mars Knight, and we had no one better to summon him."
King Darien was sensing the tension. He began, "It will all be explained. Inside." The King turned on heel and began walking the path forward again. Rini got beside her father and grabbed his hand to walk with him. The Queen got between the two men and spoke, "Please, let us go." She began walking, the train of her gown behind her as she walked the path. After a moment of standing back Jupiter Knight and Doc looked at each other. The Knight looked as though he was still disturbed by what he heard and why he was even here. Doc didn't know the man very long but he was starting to sense a level of resentment for feeling like a chess piece.
Then again he saw the look on the King and Queen's faces. It almost felt like when he kept Marty's fate of hitting the Rolls Royce from him, worried about whether it would have made things worse by telling Marty. It was difficult for them and he knew it. He placed a friendly hand on the Knight's shoulder, "Come on. We shouldn't keep royalty waiting." The Knight nodded and started down the path to the inside of the castle, the scientist in tow.