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lexosaurus · 4 years ago

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Tutoring Phantom Ch 1

Characters: Danny, Dash, Kwan Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship Word Count: 4036 Summary: It was funny. A year ago Dash was all but praying for Fenton to shut up, but now he would do anything to hear him speak.

This is my very belated gift for @kinglazrus! It has ended up becoming a twoshot. Here’s chapter one!

Read on: [ao3] [ffn]

---

The revelation shook Amity Park to its core.

Fenton? Really? That Fenton?

The scrawny one?

The kid of those nut-job parents?

The one that got picked on?

I heard he’s a loner. Super quiet.

It was always the quiet ones…

Isn’t he failing school? Maybe that’s why. Maybe it’s because he’s a ghost. Aren’t ghosts less intelligent than humans?

Teresa told me he ditches class all the time. Probably because of his Obsession.

That’s so creepy.

Fenton was...Phantom. Danny was Phantom. It was simply indisputable. Of course some conspiracy theorists were probably screaming about photoshop and CGI, but when Dash saw the transformation happen on television, there was no other way he could make sense of it.

Fenton was Phantom.

The Guys in White had figured it out, evidently. According to their spokesperson, they had been analyzing Phantom’s ectoplasm samples left from a ghost fight when they found human DNA infused into the ectoplasm. Scans showed that it belonged to Danny Fenton.

When the GiW collected more samples from various ghost fights, all the results were the same.

Fenton was Phantom.

So they developed a gun. And when Phantom was distracted with a ghost fight they denied planting (but they must have, there was no possible way they could have captured him otherwise), they hit him with it.

And he transformed right there in front of everyone.

Fenton was Phantom.

And Dash had spent years ruining his life.

Dash collapsed on his couch, his glassy eyes fixated on the still image of Fenton’s horrified face. His hair was wild, his eyes even more so. In the background, he was surrounded by men in white suits, all armed to the teeth with guns. Above him, helicopters soared.

Fenton was trapped.

There was no way out of it.

Dash had spent the better part of his life bullying the boy who would become his hero, and now he would never be able to apologize.

---

Well, maybe Dash spoke too soon.

By some miracle, Fenton was released from the government’s clutches.

Eventually.

Dash didn’t understand the science behind it, but apparently Fenton wasn’t dead. He was...almost dead? But not quite. He was just alive enough to have a pulse, just alive enough to have a heartbeat, just alive enough to be considered human in the eyes of the law.

Dash didn’t want to acknowledge just how relieved he was at this revelation. And if he were a good person, his relief would have come from the part where that meant his classmate was actually alive.

But he wasn’t a good person. What good person spends their downtime picking on the weak kids at school? What good person takes out their aggression on those who don’t fight back?

Dash wasn’t kind, he wasn’t nice, he wasn’t selfless. And that’s why he was relieved.

Because all of his relief came from the fact that if Fenton was alive, then Dash didn’t have to live with the guilt that he’d tormented a dead person. He didn’t have to lie awake at night wondering if he was the one to push Fenton past his breaking point, if he were responsible for Fenton’s death.

Because Fenton wasn’t dead. So what if he was almost dead? So what if he probably did die—if only for a moment—before his body was kickstarted back to life? Fenton wasn’t dead, so Dash didn’t have to think about it.

Dash could get away with it all scot free.

Just like always.

---

Fenton was allowed to come to school.

If Dash were honest, he was surprised by this. He didn’t think the PTA would have caved to the students, who had demanded that Fenton be allowed to return to school. But apparently they relented.

Under certain conditions.

Conditions which the government was more than happy to collaborate with.

It was Fenton’s first day back, and yet he didn’t look all there. He was pale, sickly, his hair too long and voice nonexistent.

But his eyes, those scared Dash the most.

His eyes were dead.

It was as if someone had taken all the light that was Danny and replaced it with a puppet. There was nothing in there. Nothing inside of his skin. It was...dead.

What did they do to him?

The teachers didn’t try to make him engage with their lessons. They only looked at Danny with pity in their eyes when they would walk by. And Danny wouldn’t acknowledge them because he was just empty.

Dash wanted to approach him. Talk to him. He had a whole speech prepared, and he knew Kwan did too. But the speech had all but died on his lips when he saw Fenton that morning. He knew—he knew—that nothing was going to get through to him.

Fenton was Phantom, but Fenton wasn’t even there.

And in his place was nothing but bones wrapped in skin held together by metal contraptions on his wrists, ankles, and neck.

Dash shivered. The one on his neck was blinking. It was a warning, Dash realized. A warning that Danny was dangerous. He was inhuman. He was Phantom.

The students avoided him. Even the ones who had advocated for his safe return. Dash didn’t blame them, either. No one could have predicted that this would be coming back to their class.

Even so, Manson and Foley stuck by him. Dash watched them guide him to each class, carrying his books and trying their best to include him in the conversation. Sometimes he would even lock eyes with them, sometimes his lips would twitch upward and his eyes would brighten as if he were following along with Manson and Foley’s antics.

Those moments were rare though. Fleeting.

Because in the end, the modicum of emotion would always vaporize from Fenton’s face and they’d be left with the blank, faraway glazed expression that he always seemed to wear now. The duo would be left talking between themselves, and Dash was left looking at them from the sidelines waiting for Fenton to open his mouth and just respond.

Gone were the days of the snarky comments and muttered undertones. Gone were Fenton’s stupid comments that Dash spent years beating him up over.

It was funny. A year ago Dash was all but praying for Fenton to shut up, but now he would do anything to hear him speak.

No one knew what happened to Fenton during his stay with the government. No one knew what they did to him. Because, as far as Dash knew, Fenton hadn’t said a word since he returned home. Dash wasn’t sure if it was because Danny couldn’t respond, or if he just wouldn’t.

He didn’t know which one was worse.

---

It had been one month since Fenton returned to school. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that he wasn’t doing well.

He drifted from class to class like he was in a dream, often not even bothering to put his notebook on his desk as he sat in each class staring at the wall with the same dead expression.

Fenton didn’t take his tests or quizzes with the class anymore. He was in the same math class as Dash and only lasted one exam before Mr. Falluca started proctoring his exams separately. Rumor had it they were trying to get him extra help, but the PTA didn’t want him integrated with Casper High’s most vulnerable students.

Dash thought that was a load of crap, personally. Dash had a few teammates who got extra help from the school’s learning center and they could handle themselves just fine.

Regardless, at this rate, Fenton was going to fail out of school.

Which was why it was of no surprise to Dash when he and Kwan were called down to Mr. Lancer’s office one day with a request to tutor Fenton.

“I know this is a lot of responsibility, and I know you haven’t always seen ways with Mr. Fenton in the past,” Mr. Lancer said, his fingers steepled in front of his chin. “But I can’t ask just anyone to do this. You two are leaders in your class, and you have some high marks to boot. Mr. Lee, you have consistently scored in the top ten percent of the class in your English and history courses, and Mr. Baxter, this past year you’ve done remarkably well in your math course.”

Dash had been regarded as many different things. Athletic, social, hotheaded, cocky, brave—but never smart. He was always known as the high school jock stereotype, he never did well in school.

But Mr. Lancer always knew he was more than just a stereotype, and when he called Dash and his parents after school one day with the recommendation that Dash get tested for ADD, suddenly everything clicked.

It was amazing how a small pill each morning could turn Dash from a C student to a rising A student in the matter of a few months.

“And because I know how much I’m asking of you two, I have spoken to your teachers and they are willing to give you extra credit on your final exams as compensation.”

Dash cleared his throat. “Mr, Lancer,” he started, his voice scratchy. “With all due respect, why have us tutor him? Why not have the teachers do it?”

“I have been working with Mr. Fenton, and I’ll continue to through the school year. But he needs that peer to peer connection, he needs the support of those around him. I’m sure you’ve noticed the shift in your class, the growing uneasiness of those around you?”

Dash nodded. He would have had to have been blind to not see how everyone seemed to skirt around Fenton in the hallways, how nobody except Manson and Foley said so much as a “hello” to him.

“I understand,” said Dash.

“The...ghost inhibitor thing isn’t helping, either,” Kwan added. “I’ve never seen that kind of technology used on any ghost. And you have to admit, Danny’s been acting really strange lately. Like he’s not even here. Mr. Lancer, if you don’t mind me asking, is it...are they…?”

The unsaid question hung in the air, and Mr. Lancer’s eyes darkened. “There’s only so much I’m allowed to say on this matter. But I would say your suspicions about the devices are likely to be true. Although, it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly how much they’re affecting Mr. Fenton. He’s been through a lot.”

Dash felt lightheaded. So the rumors about the devices were true. At least, somewhat true.

If there was one thing both Fenton and Phantom were, it was resilient. Sure, the Guys in White could knock him down, but to change him this much? To give him so much baggage he couldn’t even speak?

It screamed foul play.

“That’s terrible,” Kwan said. “It’s sick knowing that they’d do that to him.”

“Indeed. Which is why I’m asking you both to step up as leaders of your class and help your fellow peer through this difficult time. If we can help Mr. Fenton become more integrated with his classmates, we may have a case to allow him to remove the inhibitors and get him real help.”

Dash could feel Kwan’s eyes on him, and he knew why. Dash and Fenton had history, and that made this complicated. There was so much unfinished business between the two.

Was Dash ready to take this step? Was he really ready to be the selfless, altruistic hero like Phantom instead of the bully he had always been?

“Again, I know the school is asking so much of you both, and I am willing to personally help if need be. If, for whatever reason, you feel as though you can’t do it, there will be no judgement from me or any of your other teachers. This is entirely up to you.”

If Dash said no, Kwan would follow. If Dash wasn’t ready, Kwan wouldn’t force him into that position. It was exactly why Dash and Kwan were such good friends: Dash got his way, and he always knew Kwan would have his back.

But that wasn’t healthy. And it didn’t lead to good outcomes in the long term.

Now was the time for Dash to take that step.

He needed to be the leader instead of the coward he always was.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

---

If Fenton was confused as to why his two former childhood bullies were now his after school homework buddies all of the sudden, he didn’t say it.

In fact, he didn’t say anything at all.

But Dash knew this would happen going into it. He knew it would be difficult to tell if Fenton’s head was in the clouds or if he was truly in the present. And he knew Fenton would just go along with whatever they threw at him anyway.

Because he was Fenton. He could never let Dash have the last metaphorical word, even if he was being suppressed by the physical manifestation of the United States government on his wrist, ankles, and neck.

He was annoying like that.

“See, this is what goes into the equation. F of x has its own definition, and g of x has its own definition. So in this problem we’re just replacing f of x and g of x with what’s written here. You see?” Dash asked, circling the functions and drawing arrows with his multicolored pens.

Fenton just stared down at his paper.

“Here, we can do it together,” Dash said. He took Fenton’s paper and wrote out the equation, going through the problem step by step with his neatest handwriting. Following Kwan’s lead from earlier, he talked through every minute detail about the equation, pausing in between lines to allow the information to sink in, and to give Fenton the opportunity to interrupt if he was lost.

Even though it was obvious that Fenton wasn’t going to interrupt.

And he didn’t. He sat there, staring dully at the paper like he was watching cement dry. And at the end, once Dash put his pencil down, Fenton just ran his finger across the problem, his brow furrowed like he couldn’t figure out how Dash’s writing had ended up on his paper.

And maybe he truly couldn’t figure it out. Maybe he didn’t understand what was happening. Maybe he had no idea that Dash was tutoring him.

Dash wasn’t a mind reader. He didn’t know what was going on in Fenton’s head.

“That makes sense, Dash!” Kwan supplied from across them, his voice bright and cheery.

Even though they were technically just tutoring Fenton, framing the group as a small, informal study group seemed more appropriate in Dash’s eyes.

“I think I understand this a little better now. What do you think, Danny?”

Fenton blinked slowly, his head raising to face Kwan.

“Do you think you get the first problem?” Dash asked.

Fenton’s gaze flickered over to Dash, and the confused expression on his face deepened. He cocked his head slightly, as if he was just seeing Dash for the first time.

A beat of silence stretched around the table, and Dash held his breath, waiting for something to happen. But after a moment too long, Fenton just turned his attention back to the paper, staring at it motionless.

Dash couldn’t help but send a quick ‘help’ glance over at Kwan. He had never tutored anyone in his life, much less a teen who was seemingly incapable of responding.

Maybe...maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he was wrong to think he could do this.

But fortunately, before he could get too deep in his own insecurities, Kwan came to the rescue. “Dash, can we do one more together before trying a problem on our own? Number two looks a little different than number one, and I don’t really understand how to set up the equation!”

Dash sent a mental thank you Kwan’s way before plucking a purple pen off the table. “Sure!” He turned to Danny’s paper. “Okay, this is f of x. Looking at the equation, we know that it goes here. And this—” He swapped to a green pen “—is g of x. Where do you think this one goes?”

He sat patiently, as if he were waiting for Fenton to respond.

But Dash knew that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He was wasting his time with this pause, even if he was only doing it to be polite.

Truth be told, he didn’t even think Fenton was listening to him. Fenton probably was incapable of that. Hell, he probably didn’t even remember where he was or how he got here.

But, just as Dash was about to go ahead and answer his own question for Fenton, the small teen shifted beside him. Dash’s eyes snapped onto Fenton, watching as the boy lifted his arm off his lap and pointed to the paper.

Dash’s eyes trailed down to the worksheet, down to Fenton’s hand, and froze.

Fenton was pointing to the correct part of the equation.

He had been listening to Dash. He, somehow, was able to understand Dash.

Dash looked over to Kwan, who too was resembling a fish with his open mouth stare at the duo. His eyes met Dash’s, and a smile overtook his expression. He shot Dash a thumbs up, a clear encouragement to continue on.

“Yeah,” Dash breathed, turning his attention back to Fenton. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Fenton’s hand dropped back to his lap.

“Good, now let’s solve this together.”

---

As the days turned to weeks, slowly tutoring Fenton got a little easier. Though it was still impossible for Dash and Kwan to know just how much Fenton was absorbing with their sessions, they were starting to be able to decipher small behavioral quirks in Fenton’s body language to help guide them through the haze.

An eyebrow twitch here, a tiny jerk of his pupils there. His movements were small, but telling. And when he was truly spaced out, when their questions would yield not even the faintest twitch from him, a gentle tap on his arm seemed to pull him back to reality.

Tutoring Fenton could be difficult—some days it felt like nothing they said was committing to his fleeting memory—but it wasn’t impossible. Because under that dense fog clouding his mind was still the annoying, snarky teen they had grown up with.

And some days, they could still see glimpses of that snarky teen in him.

“Yeah so the coach is having us an extra gym routine tomorrow,” Dash said, closing his notebook and leaning back in his chair. “So I’ll probably be a half hour late picking you up. Sound good?”

Fenton didn’t respond.

Not that Dash was expecting him to.

“I hear we’re gonna have a wall-sit contest,” Kwan said. “Dale crushed us all last time, but I’ll have my revenge this time around!”

Fenton’s eyes flickered up to Dash. He tapped his thigh, the corner of his lips twitching up.

“What?”

Fenton paused, seemingly mulling something over, before loosely pointing to Dash’s legs with a subtle smirk.

Dash sat up, realization dawning on him. “Are you…are you calling my legs weak?”

Judging by the ghost of an impish grin on Fenton’s features, Dash was right.

“Really? You too?”

Fenton grinned and tapped his legs again.

“Oh, like you’re one to talk!” Dash crossed his arms. “I could kick your scrawny ass to next year if I wanted to!”

Fenton raised his brows ever so slightly.

“What, you think just because you’re Phantom that means you’re stronger than me?” Dash jammed his thumb to his chest. “Don’t forget who your gym buddy was Freshman year! Once those inhibitors come off, it’s you and me at the gym! I’d like to see you try to keep up with me, Fenton!”

Dash heard a snort from the other side of the table. His head whipped around to see Kwan with his hands cupping his mouth.

“What are you laughing at?”

With that, Kwan bursted out laughing and leaned back in his chair. “Dude!” He exclaimed, seemingly catching a breath. “You really think you can bench more than Phantom? Oh my god—I can’t breathe—that’s the funniest fucking thing!”

“Hey, have my back here!” Dash snapped. He glanced over to Danny, whose face had broken out into a full grin. “Yeah, laugh it up why don’t you!”

Danny just tapped his legs as a response.

Kwan roared in laughter and all but fell off of his chair.

“Oh, shut up!”

---

“We want in,” a voice said from above him.

Dash stuffed his notebook into his backpack, not even bothering to glance up at the speaker. “What are you talking about?”

“We know you’ve been doing homework with Danny after school, and we want to join.”

Dash sighed and threw his bag over his shoulder. He stood, facing Manson in all her glory. Though her outfit didn’t scream quite as goth as it had when they were Freshmen, she still had the same self-righteous stance that had always irritated Dash.

“Okay?” Dash responded. “And who is ‘we’?”

“Tucker and I. You know, Danny’s best friends? Have been since elementary school? The two people who have actually been there for him this whole time? Ring a bell?”

Dash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m leaving. Study with him on your own time.”

He turned to walk away, but she grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “Wait. Sorry, just—” She paused, dropping her arm back to her side, and Dash watched as a myriad of emotions flickered through her expression. Her gaze dropped to the floor, and cracks of insecurity seeped through her features. “Sorry. Let me start over.”

He straightened back up. “I’m listening.”

She took a deep breath. When she started, her voice was quiet but steady. “I get why Lancer asked you and Kwan to work with him. I do, I get it. But Tucker and I are his best friends. And you know how he is right now. Those devices are...they’re messing with his head. I know they are.” Her gaze flickered up at Dash, and she looked scared. “It hurts seeing him like this, you know?”

“Yeah, I know,” Dash said. “But I don’t see what this has to do with our study sessions.”

“He just seems happier now since he started. He seems better.”

Dash blinked. Whatever he was expecting her to say, that definitely wasn’t it.

Manson hugged herself, her shoulders hunching. She looked...small. Fragile. As if the slightest breeze would topple her over.

This wasn’t like her.

“Whatever you guys have been doing, it’s working. He’s getting better. I don’t know, he just seems more present now. And...it hurts that I haven’t been there during this. You know, it’s been months since I’ve heard his voice. Not since before he got captured, since before those evil devices were forced on him. I know they’re preparing for a court case to get them removed, and I know there’s a chance he’ll get better again, but I just…”

“You miss him,” Dash said, surprising himself.

“Yeah. I do.”

Dash sighed. “I don’t know how I can help with this.”

“Just give us a chance? Please. Just let us tag along, even if it’s only for a few days a week. We won’t interfere with the tutoring, we just want to be there.”

He stared at her silently, studying her face under her bangs.

The past year had been hard on her, that much was obvious. And Dash, as unobservant and bullheaded as he was, could see the dark circles under her eyes, her blotchy skin, her chapped lips.

The way she stood there before him, a person who she would never have been caught dead being friendly with, defeated and all but begging for help.

Dash wasn’t selfless. He wasn’t altruistic.

He was just a dumb jock.

But in that moment, as he scrutinized the way her hands fidgeted and her lower lip wobbled, he couldn’t help but feel her sadness, her regret.

It was painful to watch.

“Okay.” He turned away. “We meet at Kwan’s at four. I’ll see you both there.”

---

chapter two>

#danny phantom #phandom #phicc #my writing #tutoring phantom

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cardest · 4 years ago

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Halloween playlist

Halloween playlist By Cardest October is my favorite time of the year! Here is 300 songs or so I put together I think will make your Halloween rock! 001 The Misfits - Scream! 002 Alice Cooper - The Nightmare Returns 003 Acid Witch - I'm Back (Sorcery cover) 004 John Carpenter\Alan Howarth - Halloween Theme 005 King Diamond - Halloween 006 Ghost - Mummy Dust 007 Jerry Goldsmith The Omen OST - Ave Satani 008 Fantomas - Der Golem 009 Doyle - Cemeterysexxx 010 Mastodon - Halloween (Instrumental) 011 Cramps - Human Fly 012 Fright Night Soundtrack - Armies Of The Night 013 Shooting Guns - [Wolfcop Soundtrack - Wulver 014 Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party 015 Type O Negative - Halloween In Heaven 016 Phantasm OST - Funeral organ-dwarf in hearse 017 Grave Robber - Skeletons 018 John Carpenter - Theme from "The Fog" 019 45 Grave - Night Of The Demons 020 The Birthday Massacre - Horror Show 021 Bernard Herrmann - Psycho (theme) 022 The Misfits - Friday the 13th 023 Blood Ceremony - Coven Tree 024 Goblin - Profondo Rosso 025 October 31 - The House Where Evil Dwells 026 Michael Jackson - Thriller 027 Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt Kickers - Monster Mash 028 Ministry - Every Day Is Halloween 029 Sleepy Hollow movie Theme 030 The Damned - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 031 October 31 - The house where evil dwells 032 Rigor Mortis - poltergeist 033 Necrophagia - Reborn through Black Mass 034 Fantomas - Rosemary's Baby 035 Pseudo Echo - His Eyes (from the Friday the 13th V OST) 036 Misfits - Dig Up Her Bones 037 Sigh - Graveward 038 Christian Death - Church of no return 039 The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Over At The Frankenstein Place 040 With The Dead - Nephthys 041 David Bowie- Scary Monsters (And super creeps) 042 Early Man - Creature From The Black Lagoon 043 Hellbound Hellraiser 2 Theme 044 Rob Zombie - Dragula 045 Misfits - Night of the Living dead 046 Ramones - Pet Semetary 047 Roky Erickson - I walked with a zombie 048 Blue Oyster Cult - Don't (fear the reaper) 049 The Munsters TV show theme 050 Slayer - Necrophobic 051 Type O Negative - Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthropic Paranoia) 052 The 69 Eyes - Lost Boys 053 The Vision Bleak - The Night Of The Living Dead 054 The Devil's Blood - I'll Be Your Ghost 055 Ghost B.C. - Ghuleh / Zombie Queen 056 Voltaire - Brains! 057 The Shrine - Tripping Corpse 058 Zig Zags - The Fog 059 Doyle - Land of the Dead 060 Danzig - On A Wicked Night 061 Fantomas - One Step Beyond 062 Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence 063 The Misfits - Nightmare on Elm Street 064 Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London 065 The Cramps - Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon 066 King Diamond - Trick Or Treat 067 Arcturus - To Thou Who Dwellest in the Night 068 Deicide - Dead But Dreaming 069 Zombie Ghost Train - R.I.P 070 American Horror Story - Theme Song 071 Antonius Rex - Necromancer 072 THE WOLFGANGS - Cannibal Family 073 THE TWILIGHT ZONE THEME 074 Queens Of The Stone Age - Burn The Witch 075 The Hellfreaks - Boogieman 076 Ghoultown - Drink With The Living Dead 077 Fantomas - Experiment In Terror 078 Coil - Main Title (Unreleased Hellraiser Theme) 079 Autopsy - Skull Grinder 080 Beastmaker - Eyes Are Watching 081 S.O.D. - Freddy Krueger 082 Christopher Lennertz - And So It Begins Supernatural OST 083 Xandria -Vampire 084 Slayer - Ghosts Of War085 085 With The Dead - Living With The Dead 086 Devil Master - Listen, Sweet Demons... 087 G Tom Mac - Cry LIttle Sister 088 Celtic Frost - The Usurper 089 The Moving Sidewalks - Crimson Witch 090 Electric Wizard - Black Mass 091 Return Of The Living Dead Theme 092 Carcass - The Master Butcher's Apron 093 Cedell Davis - She's Got the Devil in Her 094 Zombi OST - Zombie Vs Shark 095 Rob Zombie - House of 1000 Corpses 096 Calabrese - Vampires Don't Exist 097 Dario Argento's LA TERZA MADRE - Main Theme by Claudio Simonetti 098 The Damned - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 099 Danzig - Bodies 100 Slayer - Postmortem 101 Fantomas - The Omen (Ave Satani) 102 Cannibal Corpse - The Cryptic Stench 103 The Vampires of Dartmoore - Hallo, mister Hitchcock 104 45 Grave - Party Time 105 Coffins - Decapitated Crawl 106 The Misfits - Them 107 Talking Heads - Psycho Killer 108 Denial Of God - The Curse Of The Witch 109 Lucio Fulci's Zombie Theme 110 Anthrax - Bordello Of Blood (Tales From The Crypt) 111 Iron Maiden - Phantom Of The Opera 112 The Exorcist Theme 113 Demented Are Go - Hotrod Vampires 114 The Creepshow - Zombies Ate Her Brain 115 Tenebre (Main Title) by Goblin 116 Voltaire - Zombie Prostitute 117 HorrorPops - [Bring It On! #09] Walk Like A Zombie 118 Death - Open Casket 119 Friday The 13th Original Theme Song 120 Wesley Willis - Vampire Bat 121 The Cult - The Witch 122 Dracula (1931) Theme Bela Lugosi 123 Slayer - Live Undead 124 Re-Animator Theme 125 Ray Parker Jnr - Ghostbusters 126 Megadeth - The Conjuring 127 Santana - Black Magic Woman 128 The Who - Boris The Spider 129 Entombed - Evilyn 130 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand 131 Twisted Sister - Burn In Hell 132 The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein 133 Electric Wizard - Dunwich 134 Danzig - Skin Carver 135 King Diamond - Them 136 Salems Lot Theme 137 Dio - Dream Evil 138 Tenacious D - Beelzeboss 139 Dokken - dream warrior 140 The Doors - The Ghost Song 141 Saint Vitus - White Magic/Black Magic 142 The Vampires of Dartmoore - Crime and Horror 143 Fantomas - Spider Baby 144 Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me 145 Samhain - Halloween II 146 Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla 147 The Five Blobs - The Blob 148 Rob Zombie - Superbeast 149 The Cramps - Big Black Witchcraft Rock 150 Phantasm Theme Song 151 The Addams Family TV theme song 152 Slayer - Black Magic 153 Necrophagia - Rue Morgue Disciple 154 Bastard Priest - Ghouls Of The Endless Night 155 Ennio Morricone - The Thing (theme) 156 The Vision Bleak - The Wood Hag 157 Soulfly - Cannibal Holocaust 158 Creepshow 2 - Original Theme Music 159 Dracula theme - Bram Stoker's Dracula theme 160 Monster Magnet - 19 Witches 161 Blood Ceremony - My Demon Brother 162 Janet Jackson - Black Cat 163 Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf 164 Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror 165 The Evil Dead - Pencil It In 166 White Zombie - Cosmic Monsters Inc. 167 Fred Schneider - Monster 168 Men At Work - Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive 169 Cathedral - Hopkins (The Witchfinder General) 170 Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science 171 A Nightmare on Elm Street - Theme Song 172 The Misfits - Halloween II 173 The Guess Who - Clap for the Wolfman 174 Inter Arma - Scarecrow 175 Royal Thunder - Sleeping Witch 176 Slayer - Spirit in Black 177 Yoga - Flying Witch 178 Down - Witchtripper 179 Witchcraft - Ghosts House 180 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll et monsieur Hyde 181 Danny Elfman - [Sleepy Hollow OST] Into The Woods (The Witch) 182 Deicide - Dead by Dawn 183 Elm Street - Elm St's Children 184 Acid Witch - Trick or Treat 185 Satyricon - Black Crow On A Tombstone 186 Possessed - The excorcist 187 Electric Wizard - Satanic Rites Of Dracula 188 Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) 189 Predator Soundtrack - Main Title 190 Kryst The Conqueror - Doctor Phibes Rises Again 191 Ministry - Every Day is Halloween (remix) 192 Megadeth - Devils Island 193 The Misfits - From Hell They Came 194 Devil Master - Black Flame Candle 195 Soiuxee and the Banshees - Fear (Of The Unknown) 196 Cradle of Filth - Her Ghost in the Fog 197 Goblin - Witch (Suspiria Soundtrack) 198 Cliff Richard - Devil Woman 199 NIN - Dead Souls (From The Crow Soundtrack) 200 Alice Cooper - Teenage Frankenstein 201 Misfits - Cold in Hell 202 John Carpenter - Halloween 2019 Theme (Main Title) 203 The Damned - Grimly feindish 204 Slayer - At Dawn They Sleep 205 Atrium - Doctor Jekyll 206 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll et monsieur Hyde 207 Darkthrone - Graveyard Slut 208 Faith No More - Zombie Eaters 209 Candlemass - Demons Gate 210 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead 211 Rigor Mortis - Vampire 212 Rob Zombie - In The Age Of The Consegrated Vampire We All Get High 213 BLOODY HAMMERS - Witch Of Endor 214 Ghost - Spirit 215 Autopsy - Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves 216 Alice Cooper - Keepin' Halloween Alive 217 Old Man's Child - Return Of The Night Creatures 218 Black Sabbath - Black Moon 219 The Misfits - Walk Among Us 220 Early Man - Frankenstein: I'm Dead Alive 221 Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards 222 Slayer - Spill The Blood 223 Carcass - Corporal Jigsore Quandary 224 Over Kill - playing with spiders/ skullcrusher 225 Frankie Stein And His Ghouls - Elbow Twist 226 Mercyful Fate - Black Masses 227 The Elm Street Group - Do The Freddy 228 Instant Funk - Witch Doctor 229 Cathedral - Tombs Of The Blind Dead 230 Celtic Frost - Necromantical Screams 231 Grave Digger - Witch Hunter 232 Basil Kirchin - Dr Phibes' Theme 233 Necrophagia - Coffins 234 The Misfits - Monster Mash 235 The Vision Bleak - Witching Hour 236 The Vision Bleak - A Witch Is Born 237 Megadeth - Last rites/loved to death 238 Overkill - Frankenstein 239 Dave Edmunds - The Creature from the Black Lagoon 240 Death - Zombie Ritual 241 John Fogerty - Eye Of The Zombie 242 Nunslaughter - Ouija 243 Main Title (Stephen King's IT) 244 Goblin - Zombi 245 White Zombie - I, zombie 246 XTC - Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead 247 Misfits - Green Hell 248 Autopsy - Embalmed 249 Slayer - Haunting The Chapel 250 The Devin Townsend Band - Vampira 251 The Frantics - Werewolf 252 Black Sabbath OST by Les Baxter - Main theme 253 Slasher Dave - Moldy coffins 254 Morricone Youth's Night of the Living Dead - Driveway to the cemetary 255 Bob McFadden - The Mummy 256 Screaming Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you 257 Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams 258 Buddy Haydock & The Boppers - The Raven 259 Helloween - Halloween 260 The Ghastly Ones - Draculon (with intro) 261 Echo & the Bunnymen - People are strange 262 Exhumed - Slaughter maniac 263 Nightmare Before Christmas OST - This is Halloween 264 Cerrone - Supernature 265 The Specials - Ghost town 266 The Cramps - Surfin' dead 267 David Bowie's Labyrinth OST - Magic dance 268 Lalo Schifrin Abominable OST - maine title 269 The Castle Kings - You can get him Frankenstein 270 Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the moon 271 The Grave Mistakes - Dig your own grave 272 Demons 2 OST - Videomix 273 Wolfmen of Mars - Mouth like Piranha 274 Entrails - The cemetary horrors 275 Obituary - Blood soaked 276 Cannibis Corpse - Mummified in bong water 277 Dawn of the Dead OST - theme song 278 Exodus - Piranha 279 Danny Elfmann's Nightbreed OST - end credits 280 Rigor Mortis - Wizard of gore 281 Ancient Order of the Droids - Torus 282 The Damned - Black is the night 283 Angry Birds Seasons Halloween - Haunted Hogs Theme 284 Dunwich Horror OST by Les Baxter - Black mass 285 Chopping Mall OST - movie theme 286 The Simpsons Tree House of Horror - Halloween Special theme 287 The B-52's - Devil in my car 288 Cannibal Corpse - Beyond the cemetary 289 Sturgil Simpson - The Dead Don't Die 290 Chained to the Dead - Beheaded by Berrymen 291 Sisters of Mercy - This corrosion 292 Exhumed - Defenders of the grave 293 The Cure - The forest 294 Book of Love - Witchcraft 295 Alice Cooper - Welcome to my Nightmare 296 TSOL - Wash away 297 Death - Born Dead 298 Scooby Dooby Do TV Show - theme song 299 Dead Vampires - The Day after Halloween 300 Danny Elfmann's Beetlejuice - main title 666 ACID WITCH - I Hate Halloween 999 Misfits - Halloween

#halloween #Halloween playlist #hallows eve #metal halloween music #horror music

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kathyprior4200 · 4 years ago

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Xirxine Laboratory

Hell, Episode one

A tall, slender demon with light grayish skin glanced down at her light gray clipboard in her hands. She wore a long white lab coat with black buttons and high collars. Large round red glasses covered her red narrow eyes. Her hair was blonde, with several hanging bangs, the rest tied up in a ponytail. Two black horns stuck out from her head. She wrote down on a clipboard after glancing down at the mauled body of a demon named Franklin. Next to her was a demon with thick wild black hair and a pale face. She had hair like a lion’s mane. She picked up a harpoon spear from Franklin’s body and left with a grin to sell it. The two female demons walked on.

“4,790 total casualties,” the white haired demon wrote down. “Franklin among the deceased. Exterminators gone as of this moment. Gathered a total of four angelic harpoons for future study.”

She wondered over to an old abandoned lab building. “Xirxine” was labeled on the front of it in yellow letters, the formerly white structure now worn and torn. Fluorescent lights flickered on and off over the narrow hallways, this time blood red instead of their former teal-white. The laboratory had another more aquarium-like lab connected to it underground. A lab belonging to a certain demon with fish-like fins, a gray-blue face, red and cyan eyes and an esca hanging from his top hat. Baxter.

Baxter had heard of Xirxine Laboratory and was intrigued. But of course, he preferred conducting experiments in his own lab in private. To this day, Annie would always wonder what went on inside that anglerfish demon’s head. He also had a past life…but he lived it as a Germanic human. His drowning death on a boat in 1912 was an easy way to go, all things considered.

Annie pushed aside past life memories. She could recall glimpses of it: working in Xirxine Laboratory in a place called Safe Haven. Having a robotic cat as an assistant and companion. Kipzie. Watching the facility she worked at get shut down by inter-species rights activists, led by none other than Cameron and her animal-like friends.

Getting arrested and dying from her own injections.

Now ending up as a demon from Hell.

She wondered whether she could still turn into a snow owl or not.

No matter. Work must be done.

She pushed her red round glasses up her face, straightening them out. The metal doors stood ajar, the keypad broken. She opened the doors and was greeted by the screams and torments of demons locked in rooms, being tortured.

Now that they were undead demons, there were no governmental restrictions to worry about.

For every life that was lost or damaged, was another possibility of a significant discovery.

For even in the afterlife, greatness and cost alike comes when pursuing the fruits of science.

All Alone

Safe Haven, many years ago

A young white blonde haired boy was sleeping soundly in his bedroom as rain pattered on outside. His room was decked in various shades of green: light green dressers, darker grass colored bedsheets, a bunch of toy cars and action figures displayed on an emerald colored stand. The walls in his room were a peaceful jade color. In addition, he had jade irises, large in size.

The boy’s name was Addison Woods.

The sound of knocking came from the living room.

“Police, open up!”

The knocking grew louder with each passing minute. Sebastian and Adelle, his father and mother, climbed out of bed.

“Who’s at our door this time of night?” asked Adelle, with sleep in her voice. Sebastian was a tall man with short blonde hair. Adelle had curly blonde hair and green eyes. Sebastian opened the door just before the door was broken down.

Two identical looking men stood there, with hardened faces. Their faces were pale and both wore dark blue uniforms. Their names “Po” and “Poe” were on each of their badges. Strangely enough, the men’s eyes were different colors, red and blue. One of them had a natural right blue eye while the left eye appeared to have a red contact in it. The eye colors were switched for the other man.

Sebastian could sense something wrong right away. They way they stood almost too stiffly, their icy stares…their black gloved hands twitching involuntarily. It’s like they were uncomfortable in their own skin.

But the batons and stun guns they had at arm’s reach was reason enough for the family to tread lightly.

“Good evening, can I help you?” Sebastian stuttered, trying to be polite.

Po spoke. “Are you Mr. Sebastian Woods?”

“Yes sir. Is there anything wrong?”

“Not at all,” said Poe. “We have come to talk to your son.”

“Addy?” asked Adelle. “He’s not in trouble, is he?”

“Not at all,” replied Po. “In fact, he’s been chosen for a volunteering program by the government. An out of town class, if you will.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Why weren’t we informed of this?”

“The government sent you all the information. Must’ve gotten lost in the mail.”

“It’s very…considerate of you…but, none of us are really interested,” said Adelle.

“The program is run to keep youth safe,” lied Poe. “And right now your son’s in danger.”

“From who, exactly?” Adelle asked, crossing her arms.

Sebastian and his wife exchanged glances. “Look, you can speak with him tomorrow if you’d like, but not in the middle of the night!”

“I’m sorry, mam’ but Addison needs to come with us,” Po said.

Sebastian blocked the door and moved forward to close it, when a black baton slammed into the wooden frame, holding it in place.

The men’s expressions turned ominous.

Sebastian stared right into their eyes. “No one is taking our son.”

A white fist met the head of the first officer, who stumbled back. The second one pulled out a black stun gun and jabbed it at Sebastian’s hip. Electricity fizzled and the man yelped loudly, his face wincing, his body shaking. He looked pleadingly at Adelle who immediately got the message. The policemen barged into the house, shoving Sebastian aside while Adelle raced up the stairs.

The last thing Addison had expected to see was two strangers barging into his room. The light was suddenly turned on and two meaty pale faces were staring at him with different colored eyes.

“Get up, kid, let’s go!” Po ordered. He grabbed Addison by his arm and forcefully dragged from his bed.

“Let go of my Addy!” his mother cried. She struggled against the Poe’s strong grips while Po restrained Addison with both hands on the boy’s hips. Addison screamed and struggled to break free. His dug his bare heels into the floor, which did nothing.

“What are you doing?! Let me go, you bucking freak!”

Po slammed Addison’s head hard against the wall, causing him to see spots. Adelle stepped onto her captor’s foot, managing to pull away more from his grip.

“Mom!” Addison called, extending his white hand.

“Addy!” she cried back. She elbowed Poe in the chest, inching forward. But Po had dragged Addison through the doorway and down the stairs.

A charred but angry Sebastian rammed into Po, being careful not to hurt his son. Po and Addison fell onto the floor, Po on his back. Sebastian briefly pried free his son from Po’s thick arms. His comrade soon raced to the scene, locking a protesting Adelle in Addison’s bedroom. Soon, Poe was pushing Sebastian back with his baton, and Addison was caught in his assaulter’s grip again. Addison found himself being carried from the man’s shoulder through the open front door. Po was now running with him toward a police car. The rain fell down in intense sheets and thunder boomed.

“Dad!” the boy wailed.

“Addison, NO!” called his father. He shoved aside Poe as hard as he could. Poe swiped his foot toward Sebastian’s legs, making him stumble. Poe raced out after Po. Adelle managed to pick the lock and swung open the bedroom door. She raced down the stairs toward her husband.

Po flung open the door and ducked inside, Addison still in his grip. Poe ran and hopped into the driver’s seat.

The engine revved as Addison was flung toward the backseat. He immediately tied to open the doors, but they were locked. Addison’s parents banged on the glass windows, their faces already filled with tears.

Or was it because of the rain?

Addison yelled in despair and pressed his hands up against the back window.

The faces of his shocked and devastated parents was seared into his mind, even as the car moved away. They ran after the car to no avail. He stared at them, mouth agape for as long as he could, before they vanished from view. Adelle sank to her knees on the sidewalk and wailed as Sebastian held her close with his arms.

Addison buried his face into his chest.

“Stop your sniveling, boy,” Poe grunted. “The place you’ll be going to, there will be no time for that.”

“The v-volunteer program?” he asked, looking up.

“No, Addison Woods. Somewhere more…remote.”

“What do you want with me? Who are you?”

The two men exchanged looks and waved their arms in front of them. Their disguises faded away, revealing their true forms: small white demon-like beings, each with red and blue eyes. They had straight horns and black hands.

“We are Safe Haven’s police force,” said Po. “And you’re the new subject of an animal hybrid experiment…at Xirxine Labs!”

“What?!”

Addison would’ve believed them more if they said they were aliens taking him to Mars.

“You heard us! Our job is to make sure that Safe Haven stays…well safe, from demons, monsters, and being seen by regular humans. And yes, Annie is one of our supervisors. Their practices may be unethical, but we get paid so who cares?”

Addison pondered in thought. “Wait a minute! I’m just an ordinary kid. What would a science lab want with me? And if you’re so bent on not allowing humans to see this Safe Haven place, why bring me along?”

“We were ordered to do so,” Po simply said. “Not enough humans in Safe Haven to experiment on. Now enough questions.”

Up in the air, Kaycey, a woman with long flowing white hair and yellow bee-like eyes grinned, while she ate a sandwich. It sure was fun influencing others to bring regular mind blind humans into Safe Haven. For every outsider brought in without awareness of the place, the protective magical barrier grew weaker. Evil creatures from Hell or the surface would eventually be able to arrive.

“Let the show begin!”

A prideful demon with long blue hair, a blue dress, and horns and a white face, shook her head at the other woman. “You always were a show-off.”

“Jestine! Get back to work creating nightmares!” Kacey said. “The dreams of mortals won’t watch themselves, you know.”

Jestine flipped her the bird and vanished.

Addison was silent the rest of the way there, too scared to ask questions. He felt vulnerable in his thin jade colored pajamas. There was nothing special about him. He had no magic powers or high IQ. And surely he wasn’t a criminal. Addison prayed that his family would call the real police to rescue him. He stared out the window at the buildings moving by.

When he listened to the two creatures talk. They shared some strange conversational exchanges.

“Remember that one time, when we caught that snake demon that emerged from the underworld?”

“Yeah, their fangs hurt like a bitch. But our handy shock collars managed to subdue them. We took the creature to the facility, got paid, and haven’t heard of it since.”

“And that one human girl who could talk to animals? The one with the curly hair?”

“Rosemary. I remember. We tracked her down just as she was leaving Zoo Phoenix Academy. Couldn’t let her reveal Safe Haven to the human population. Our multi-species citizens would’ve been hunted down.”

“And to think…we’re sending a scrawny boy over to be in some top secret experiment…”

“I’m not puny!” he protested.

“Oh shut it!” the creature spat. “We’re almost to your doom.”

The cruiser pulled up to a set of iron gates with barbed wire in spirals on top. It looked like a space for a prison. After Po and Poe scanned their claws, the gates slowly opened up. They drove up to a building, the gates soon closing behind them.

All too soon, the cruiser pulled to a stop in front of a looming industrial building. Lightning flashed across the sky, giving it a haunted house feeling. The loud thunder shook the area, sending chills to Addison’s spine. Addison was pulled out of the vehicle and held in place between them. They walked up ahead.

Addison got a closer look at the chilling facility. The building was round and white with a pair of double handle-less metal doors in front. A small keypad was nearby to the right. Metal chimneys emitted smoke like those at factories. The windows toward the back appeared to be tinted and barred with black bars. There were several large windows in front, giving it a modern look, despite the building located in a remote area not too far from Zoo Phoenix Academy. A white eye structure attached to the uppermost part of the building stared down at Addison, scrutinizing his every move. Branches of futuristic wire-shaped lines extended out from the eye structure in both directions horizontally. The most prominent feature was the sign itself: Xirxine appeared in bold cheery yellow letters against a blue sky background for the sign. “Laboratory” was displayed in smaller letters underneath it. A smaller sign read “Safe Haven’s #1 place of progress.”

The forced cheeriness of the main parts of the exterior design made Addison’s apprehension grow worse.

Po typed in a series of numbers on the keypad before the screen turned green and beeped in affirmation. The metal doors slid soundlessly open. Addison was shoved through with a grunt. The metal doors slammed shut with a dreadful finality.

They were facing a narrow hallway ahead of them, the room seamlessly clean. The interior was an eye-sore white: the tile floors, the walls, the ceiling, even the countertops in the other rooms. In every room, florescent lights hummed from the ceiling, tubular with faint teal auras of light around them. The air smelled of medicine, and the suffocating scent of cleaning supplies. It was similar to that of a hospital scent, only more evident. Judging from the faint screams that Addison heard in the background, this place already felt more like an insane asylum.

Addison was turned toward the right where a front desk was placed. A barrier of plastic clear as glass separated them from the person typing into a computer.

Well, not a person…but a crooked old crow wearing glasses and a fancy suit, four claws for hands.

“Yes?” he asked through the hole in the barrier.

Po moved Addison forward. “The test subject for the most recent project has arrived. Project Homo-Vulpes.”

“Man-Fox?” asked the crow. Po nodded.

They didn’t even bother to say his name.

The crow pointed down the hall with a black feather. “Room A113.”

Addison was led down the hall, Po behind him, Poe leading the way. Po and Poe briefly stopped to talk with another worker who had one eye and sharp fangs.

In the rooms, Addison glimpsed at creatures being held against their will. One white creature had a gag over her mouth, hanging by a black chain from the ceiling. The white fox appeared to be in a straightjacket, her feet chained to the floor. She cried and whimpered against the restraints.

In another room was a series of vials, flasks and a few microscopes on a desk. A picture of a yellow and purple creature hung from a wall, surrounded by question marks. Words were written on it: “Subject 9, Zillion: Chupacabra, demon, or something else?”

Though another open door, Addison saw a terrifying sight, more so than the others.

Strapped onto an operating table was a blood-stained dirty looking fellow by the name of Ribbon. He had multiple yellow eyes and a thin white face. His hair was yellow and black, and his tongue was yellow like a snake’s. He was a hitman and body-hider for Castello, his boss and brother. He was part of a deadly gang that would terrorize Safe Haven with criminal black cats. He wore black heeled shoes, black pants and a stained white shirt with a series of numbers on a label. His feet were chained to the table and three white straps held him in place.

Standing right next to him was a tall avian woman wearing high black boots, a white lab coat with buttons on it over a black undershirt. Her hands and neck were black, her face pale, and her hair white with black spots on it like a snowy owl’s coat. Her hair was in a bun, bangs off to the sides. Her eyes were narrow and yellow, oval thin glasses resting on her face. She was Annie. A robotic cat named Kipzie sat close by on a chair.

“You are Ribbon, the one who works for the infamous Castello?” asked the woman.

“Yeah, so?” he spat.

“So,” began Annie in a monotone voice, “Your actions, occupation, and, most certainly, your inhuman appearance has caused the city to grow worrisome. But your reflexes and ability to evade capture for so long could prove useful for further study. I’ll need to collect blood samples from you and test your endurance through electrocution.”

“You’re a mad bitch!” he shot at her. “But, I’ll admit, you’re damn well cute!”

Annie ignored him, focusing her attention on a needle filled with yellow liquid inside. Judging from the bruises and needle entry spots on his body, he had been poked and prodded enough.

This time, he opened his mouth full of fangs, clearly panicked.

“Please! No more! You fucking crazy cute bitch! Let me go! Fuck!”

The hitman’s wails echoed throughout the spacious hallway.

“Let’s move,” said Poe, turning Addison toward the door.

Addison was soon maneuvered though A113. Tan-gray cotton pants and a shirt with numbers on the label were neatly folded on a small table.

Poe mentioned toward a nearby bathroom. “Go get changed,” he said.

Addison slowly walked over and picked up the folded clothes. He stared at them like they were rotten food placed in front of them.

“Now!” Poe barked.

Addison scurried into the bathroom. When he came out, he felt pathetic in his too loose new clothing.

A voice came over the speaker, “Addison Woods, please report to the circular office immediately.”

It was even worse than being sent to the principal’s office at his human elementary school. He wished that he was back in school. Even doing literature and math all day would be preferable to this.

“Will I ever see my friends and family again?” he asked himself sadly.

With a gulp and a shiver, Addison tentatively made his way forward across the white floor and into the room straight ahead.

“Take a seat, Addison,” said a figure from behind a black leather chair. Addison took the last available seat, another creature standing guard not too far away. Around the circular desk were officials dressed in white and black. Everyone stared at him like he was a newly arrived lab rat…in which he was. Addison wanted to shrink inside his head and curl up in a ball.

“Welcome to project Homo-Vulpe,” said the figure. The figure began explaining the process.

“Mr. Addison Woods has come here today as a subject to our first human-animal hybrid project. We chose our participant very carefully, from a sample of regular humans who appear to have some sort of affinity with animals. It is our hope that we can create an individual with enhanced features, to serve as a backup fighter, a statistic of success, and more personally, a great role model for Safe Haven and our facility.”

“This is insane!” Addison pipped up. “Using animals and humans as lab rats? What’s wrong with y…aaagh!”

Crackle.

Addison was stunned in the back by the white creature guard. “Hold your tongue!” he hissed.

The figure continued, “We have performed behavioral experiments, and put our participants through strenuous exercise and stress…and most of them bet the odds. We’ve successfully made animal A.I.s as well, including Dr. Annie’s first experiment, Kipzie.”

The officials nodded in approval and took notes.

“We’ve nearly been able to extract the magic and intellect of several inhabitants in Safe Haven and a few from Hell as well. Their powers will hopefully be conducive to drive away those who threaten our very existence.”

“Demons and humans and angels,” someone muttered, almost too quiet for Addison to hear.

“But to this day, we have not been able to create the true animal human hybrid to properly serve our functions. However, now that the boy’s here, and our hypothesis ready, and our systems operational, we should be able to implement this trial. Our goal: this.”

A screen in front blinked to life, displaying a creature’s anatomy in detail.

But not just any creature…

“This should look familiar to you, kid,” said the figure.

It showed Addison…but with very different characteristics. In the diagram, Addison had a long white fox tail with yellow and black stripes on the end. His ears were upright fox ears, also white. His eyes were small and yellow instead of green, his nose round and black. Instead of human legs, his legs were long and furry like a fox’s.

“Here it is, Addison 2.0.” The screen zoomed in at each feature mentioned. “Large ears for enhanced hearing, hearing sounds from several miles away. A round nose for greater smell, essential for tracking enemies. Strong flexible legs for speed, agility, and grace. Eyes with human retinas, allowing him to see color like he does now. Slightly sharper teeth. And a white furry tail for an adorable effect.”

The figure snickered.

Addison gasped in horror. That thing was supposed to be him?!

“You can’t do this!” he cried. He was knocked back down by the white serpent-like guard.

“Oh but I can and I will. And in the meantime, you will behave yourself like a good boy. That means doing the tests without complaints. Letting us inject fox DNA into your body and modifications for the process. Keeping yourself sharp and clean for study. Addressing your superiors in a respectful manner. I’ll say, this experiment will prove a success in seven years or so. Or, ten, maybe more. You might be able to go to college when this is all over.”

Ten years?!

And he was only 8.

He couldn’t imagine being stuck for that long. By then his parents, his friends, everyone he knew before would forget he even existed.

“N-no!” Addison said. “I’ll find a way out of here. You can’t control me. I refuse to be a part of your sick plans!”

“Try that and you’ll be cleaning the bathrooms at midnight,” said the guard.

Addison jumped out of the chair, the snake guard catching him with four long arms.

“I WANNA GO HOME!” Addison cried as he struggled to free himself in vain.

Another official walked over to him, holding a needle in her hands.

“No! Stop! Let me go!”

The needle plunged into his neck with a sharp jab. A sedative.

Addison could feel his body grow heavy.

“Take him to his cell,” said the figure. “And be sure to cook me a nice plate of anglerfish tonight. That will be all.”

The officials wandered on to work, not daring to question about their boss’ eccentric choices of food.

“Go to…Hell,” muttered Addison.

The figure turned around to him.

“You will know me soon enough,” the figure said. “I’m the CEO of Xirxine. My human counterpart had the same personality as me but he’s gone now. A fellow scientist, what a shame. Humans, animals, inter-species…all have more in common than many think. All of them oblivious as to what lurks in the depths below their noses.”

“I hope you enjoy yourself,” he continued with a grin of sharp white teeth. “You may call me…”

He had light blueish skin with round black eyes with small white pupils. Square glasses were under his eyes. His hair was short and colored an oceanic blue, the lower tips white. A small part of his hair twirled upward in a spiral. A small round hat lay on his head. His shoes were pointy and black as were his pants. He wore an indigo colored suit complete with white buttons and a dark colored bowtie.

Addison heard his name before passing out.

“…Dr. Baxter.”

Experiments

There comes a time in life where the days are so long, almost predictable, that one stops counting them as they go by. You wish they would be over, but then you realize that the same cycle will happen the next day and the next and next.

That was what it was like for Addison. Between all the tests, poking and prodding, punishments, and sleepless nights, he almost forgot what year it was. He was thankful he didn’t have to go through a sterilizing process like some of the “clients.” He was homosexual and reproduction wasn’t allowed. But everything else he endured day after day. Even when he counted the days be etching them into the wall of his cell, it didn’t do much good. Before long, he wouldn’t have any more room to put the marks on the wall. His only companions were in separate cell blocks from his. Black manacles were around the lowest part of his legs, only allowing him to lie on his metal bunk bed or make a quick trip to the concrete toilet and sink to the left. A black colored hatch for trays of food was by the door.

The manacles soon snapped off after someone pressed a button from the outside. His restraining time was over. It occurred every time he acted up or made a mistake, which was a lot.

A clock overhead chimed noon. It was time for lunch. The hatch opened up and food appeared on a blue plastic tray. Addison walked over toward it.

A small salad, an apple, chopped up chicken, peas and potatoes. A plastic water bottle came through next. The food was always healthy and varied throughout the day, unlike typical prison food.

“Our subjects need to have healthy bodies and minds,” the officials claimed.

Addison wondered why they say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” If anything, it did the opposite in his case. A faraway calendar read February 15th.

Addison ate up everything, even though it always seemed like he was hungry and thirsty here. When he was done, he pushed the food back through another hatch that led down to the garbage chute. The hatches were much too small for Addison to climb into.

The barred doors soon slid open with a long squeal. Two guards stood there, dressed in all black.

“It’s time for the first part of the main experiment,” they said. “Dr. Annie will see you now.”

Addison gulped. Annie was one of the overseers of Xirxine, cold, analytical, and apathetic.

From the moment Addison had first met in her well-kept office, Addison had gotten icy vibes from her. Her white hair and white face and white lab coat almost made her blend in with the room. A black circle with four lines coming from it stood as the logo for the facility.

She kept asking him yes or no questions and regarded him as a living tool.

“Addison Woods, welcome to Xirxine, our facility in Safe Haven. My name is Dr. Annie Tell us, do you know of any inter-species citizens outside Xirxine?”

“I...dunno…”

“Yes or no.”

“No.”

She regarded him coldly. “Address me as mam’. Do you have any allergic reactions to animal fur or scents?”

“N-no mam’.”

“Your interests?”

“I like art and painting, mam’.”

She took notes on her clipboard. In a dark corner, red glowing eyes stared at Addison.

“Yet another naive organism,” a robotic voice meowed. A white-blue cat with a black stripe down its long tail hopped from its perch and landed on a desk beside Annie. Its ears were long and pointed. A circular metal device was inside its ears.

Annie regarded her companion, and a hint of a smile crept to her mouth.

“This is Kipzie, my first experiment,” she said. “A successful result in making an animal with artificial intelligence. He’s a walking talking computer, knows about pretty much everything. Math, chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, etc.”

“Annie and I have worked for years together. We are the only reasonable ones, unlike the other illogical primitive individuals around here.”

The cat waved his tail and gave Addison a snobby look.

“He serves his purpose well. No need for him to possess human emotion. Now back to business,” said Annie. Her cat jumped down, rubbed against her legs and sat back by a computer.

After more questioning, Addison was taken back to several rooms and put through tests.

Some of them were simple ones: IQ tests on pieces of paper, inkblot tests, and reflex tests.

Then the more invasive ones came as he grew older. With electrodes attached to his head, Addison was forced to run several miles on a treadmill. Anytime he faltered or stopped, he would be stunned from behind.

Addison lost count of how many MRI scans he had to go through. His brain recognized faces, or solved equations. The loud pounding of the machine around him was almost unbearable, but he was forced to lie still during the process. The pictures of his brain were handed over to avian workers who observed them on screens off toward the back of the darken room. Addison was not allowed to see them or ask any questions about it.

The shocks and needles were constant pains he experienced as well. They glimpsed at his naked body when he was strapped down on an operating table. Liquids and drugs were pumped into his body through IVs, which made him sick for several days. Antidepressants, opioids, narcotics that messed with his mind. One day he would be experiencing hallucinations, the next day, his mind would be blank and unfeeling. The operating room was the worst part…he would go there every week against his will, never knowing what would be done to him next.

Now here he was, being led to that same dreaded room. The room with the same black circular symbol on the white door. Annie, of course was waiting, hands crossed together with scrutinizing eyes. Kipzie’s red glowing eyes followed his every move.

“You’re in luck, Addison,” said Annie as he was stripped of his clothes and strapped down to the cold metal. “Today, you will be injected with the DNA of a white fox. This will be done every week so we can monitor progressions in growth.”

“STOP!” he screamed, flailing to no avail. Several pairs of hands, claws, and talons held him down as he placed on the table. Chains held his feet together and straps crossed over his chest and waist, and a third one dangerously close to his neck.

The doctors towering over him wore face masks painted with smiling faces. The sight would give Addison nightmares for days. His bare white back was covered with long scars. Every time he had tried to escape, he would be caught, dragged down, and whipped in a windowless room as punishment. The lashes on his back would bleed and sting like hot knives. Addison had to name off numbers from one to twenty for every hit he took. After twenty lashes, it would finally be over. He would then be made to sleep in the room on the hard concrete floor. The room was in the lower level basement, right next to a freezer. It was always cold in there.

Incisions were made to his nose, legs, arms, lower back, and upper parts of his head. Blood was drawn, injections pumped in. Annie and Kipzie wordlessly looked on as Addison’s wails mixed with the beeps of the monitors.

Addison was coated in nervous sweat…nothing but pain and fear and fatigue consuming him like a vicious predator.

Finally after it was all over, Addison was too tired and in shock to try and fight. He was led back to his cell with bandages all over his body, soreness and numbness in every muscle. He was put in a straightjacket instead of chains this time, barely able to move his hands. Fresh tears flowed from his eyes, his sobs filling the cramped space.

Annie walked over outside his cell and pushed something through the food hatch within his reach. It was a large piece of chocolate cake on a plate, with a red unlit candle and a cherry on top of the brown icing. A plastic fork lay next to it.

“Happy Birthday,” she said without emotion before walking away.

A week later, back in his cell, Addison felt something sticking out from his lower back. A hole had been cut in the back part of his tan uniform for a while. He reached around and felt something soft. A short white fox tail had slowly been growing from his tailbone as the days went by! It had a yellow tip with stripes on it. He screamed and tugged hard at the unfamiliar appendage. He found that he could move the tail on his own, which disgusted him further. Now he understood why the little hole in the fabric was there.

How was he ever going to get back now? Even if he did escape, he knew of the dozens of eyes that would stare at him, the taunts of “fox freak!” from passerby.

But there was no use in trying to cut it off. It was a part of him now…a part that would remain with him for the rest of his life. The good news for him was that no other strange animal parts had popped up on him. Just the signature tail. After his tail had fully grown, he found himself wrapping his tail around himself, a strange new method of comfort. He buried his face in the white fur.

A New Home

Addison later barely escapes with his life by fighting off the guards and squeezing through a window. After he escaped, and went on the run, Addison remembered a kind-hearted woman staring at him, concerned. Her gentle touch, comforting arms around his shaking body. She took him in toward a small dwelling that looked like a greenhouse.

The woman was Latika, his new foster mother. She was Indian, with dark skin and long black hair. A red dot was between her eyebrows. She had pink eyes and round pink earrings. She would often wear a red head covering like a hijab almost, with golden flower-like designs. Her shirt was pink and short. Her lower body was that of a large red snake, with the same designs as her hair covering.

She had adopted him as her own, and raised him in a peaceful seclude environment surrounded by nature. She had also home-schooled him for many years. After intensive studying, he was soon ready to attend Zoo Phoenix Academy. He eventually became a teen and turned 18. And although school was alright with him, he still got traumatic flashbacks every time someone touched him or pulled his tail.

#zoophobia #hazbinhotel

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f4liveblogarchives · 5 years ago

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Fantastic Four Vol. 1 Annual 1978

Thur Aug 29 2019 [10:54 PM] Wack'd: The unusual detail on the colors (credit to F Mouly) contrasted with the horror on Johnny's face

[10:54 PM] Wack'd: Can't blame Keith Pollard this time [10:54 PM] Wack'd: Hi Sal Buscema [10:55 PM] maxwellelvis: “They took my fucking eyes.” [10:56 PM] Wack'd: Johnny is making 4s and also fireworks which I guess is a thing he can do [10:56 PM] Wack'd: Unfortunately NYC in in the middle of a three-week drought and the fire department politely asks him to knock it off [10:57 PM] Wack'd: Some sort of child

[10:58 PM] Umbramatic: “Put that thing back where it came from or so help me” [10:58 PM] Wack'd: So Alicia's brought the whole team to her apartment to unveil her latest statue [10:59 PM] Wack'd: "Actually, I just assumed you were young and pretty because you're a woman in a superhero comic. But I like your version better."

[11:01 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile, there's a string of kidnappings happening! [11:01 PM] Wack'd: Mole Man has let his Moloids into the streets of NYC and they're just fucking grabbing folks [11:01 PM] Umbramatic: damn moles [11:01 PM] Wack'd: Specifically: ugly people and blind people [11:02 PM] Wack'd: Also statues depicting the young and beautiful [11:02 PM] Wack'd: That's a little mean, narrator!

[11:03 PM] Wack'd: Humorously, the Moloids are about to nab Matt Murdoch when he jumps out into the night to investigate as Daredevil [11:04 PM] Wack'd: He doesn't notice the horde of moloids about to grab him I guess! Some radar-vision! [11:04 PM] Wack'd: Police spending has gotten out of hand

[11:05 PM] Bocaj: Official Police Limousine for Police Prom [11:06 PM] Wack'd: So I guess this takes place before 201 because Reed declines to help the police with the missing persons' case since they're all so busy trying to get their own affairs in order, like getting stuff back from SHIELD and re-renting the Baxter [11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: I'm going to guess Mole Man's plan is "If I snatch up all the ugly people and all the beautiful blind people in this city, statistically I HAVE to eventually capture Alicia and Grimm!" [11:07 PM] Wack'd: Alicia offers to let the Four stay with her but Ben turns her down because he doesn't want a supervillain attack [11:07 PM] Wack'd: @maxwellelvis : Nah, he knows where they are and is appreciative that they're too busy to look into his shit [11:08 PM] Bocaj: If Ben is ugly then why are so many people interested in him? Answer that with all of your science [11:08 PM] maxwellelvis: Because he's got beautiful blue eyes [11:09 PM] Wack'd: A child does actually ask Ben to his face why he hasn't been kidnapped yet, since he's so ugly [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Ben takes it about as well as you'd expect [11:09 PM] Aleph Null: jesus [11:09 PM] Bocaj: Rude child [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Probably better actually since he doesn't try to beat up this literal child [11:10 PM] Wack'd: So it turns out the Four don't need to be couch-surfing at Alicia's for supervillains to attack there [11:10 PM] Wack'd: The Four and Alicia find Mole Man and his moloids cleaning house on Alicia's sculptures [11:11 PM] Wack'd: Fight fight fight [11:12 PM] Wack'd:

Mole Man: Did you forget my bat-like radar-senses? Ben: Did you forget my club-like fists?

[11:12 PM] Bocaj: Hah [11:13 PM] Wack'd: So the Four are overwhelmed with sheer numbers and Mole Man makes off with Alicia [11:13 PM] Wack'd: I feel so goddamn bad for the Moloids, honestly

[11:14 PM] Wack'd: They put up with so much shit [11:14 PM] Wack'd: Also: this is the plot of the 1994 movie I'm pretty sure [11:14 PM] maxwellelvis: One time the Moloids found the Basilisk's frozen body, and one of them restores his life, and the Basilisk repays that by killing it. [11:15 PM] Bocaj: Being Moloid is suffering [11:15 PM] maxwellelvis: We'll know for sure if he starts trying to steal from Doctor Doom. [11:15 PM] Wack'd: 😦 [11:15 PM] Wack'd: So Sue invisibly follows the two out the window, implicitly also using the Moloid ladder [11:15 PM] Bocaj: God damn sue [11:16 PM] Wack'd: The remaining three slowly regain consciousness and give pursuit. Was kinda hoping for a Sue solo mission for at least a little but nah they catch up just about immediately [11:17 PM] Wack'd: *siiiiiigh*

[11:17 PM] Wack'd: Also they take a cab to get to where Sue set off the flare and stiff the cabbie on the bill [11:18 PM] Wack'd: He finally gives up trying to get them to pay when Reed tells him to bill it to Tony Stark, at which point he realizes he's wasting his time and drives away [11:20 PM] maxwellelvis: Was looking for a clip of Shrek going "For five minutes, could you not be yourself? FOR FIVE MINUTES?!" but there's not a version of just that line that's not obnoxiously loud. [11:21 PM] Wack'd: Marv Wolfman (or in this case Bill Mantlo) seem to really be pushing the narrative that Sue is essentially Johnny's mom, or at least mom friend, and I could keep grousing about the fact that there's no evidence of this for the first like 16 years of the team's existence, or I could just be glad that they finally have a dynamic and move on

[11:22 PM] Wack'd: But it does unfortunately continue to pigeonhole Sue as "the girl one" and I'm really desperate for literally any other reading of her character at this point [11:23 PM] Wack'd: So anyway they find Mole Man and Alicia

[11:24 PM] Wack'd: Given that we literally saw Moloids throwing bags over peoples heads to drag them off into the night, this is kind of a tough sell [11:26 PM] Wack'd: Not really sure how I feel about a narrative of minorities willingly removing themselves from society en masse

[11:27 PM] Wack'd: So, uh [11:28 PM] Wack'd: The story ends with the Four deciding that if folks wanna stay here there's...really nothing to be done [11:28 PM] Wack'd: (Granted, it's not all of them, and those that wish to return are guided back to the surface) [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Well...okay

[11:29 PM] Wack'd: I mean I imagine he traumatized a fair few folks...committed lots of theft...and he still has literal slaves [11:29 PM] Wack'd: But whatever. A happy ending! [11:30 PM] Wack'd: Yaaaaaaaaaaaay [11:30 PM] maxwellelvis: We're never seeing any of those people again, are we? [11:30 PM] Wack'd: *shrug* [11:32 PM] Wack'd: They're apparently a vaguely ongoing concern through the eighties [11:33 PM] Wack'd: Though the article does note that it does seem like most of the non-superpowered members eventually fucked off [11:33 PM] maxwellelvis: I'm surprised Masque didn't make them join the Morlocks or something.

#1978 #Bill Mantlo #Sal Buscema #The Main Book

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ladylynse · 7 years ago

Text

Here’s Part II of that Danny Phantom Lancer reveal fic request based off the being watched prompt! (I’d never anticipated writing a second part to it, but you voted for that, so here you go. *grins* Please take the science with a grain of salt; I’m better with biology.) Again, most of it is under the cut.

This fic can now be found on FF and the AO3 as Hobson’s Choice, title courtesy of @fantasticwhovian.

“It would seem,” Lancer finished, “that Danny Phantom was trying to protect your family as much as he tries to protect everyone else in this town.”

Jack and Maddie Fenton exchanged glances from their place on their couch; Jazz sat beside them, while Lancer and Danny had taken the free chairs. That Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were reluctant to believe Phantom would help them was obvious; it had been all Jasmine could do to stop them from immediately activating their Fenton Anti-Creep Alarm. But his insistence on the subject seemed to be puzzling them, and Danny had chimed in often to make good use of Lancer’s support for Phantom—even if he managed to appear reluctant whenever he did so.

Really, Lancer had always found young Mr. Fenton’s excuses rather pitiful, but these were inventive without being obviously contrived. I think Skulker was targeting me because you’re my parents. Not the most comforting point, but a valid one. Perfectly believable, given the situation; Jack and Maddie Fenton surely made enemies of the ghosts they hunted. He’s the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunter; of course he’d pit himself against you. A self-proclaimed point, but not one Lancer could dispute, given what he knew of the ghost. This is a weakness. The only thing that stopped him from exploiting it was Phantom. Another point that couldn’t be disputed, particularly given that it was true in more ways than one. I’m lucky it wasn’t worse.

“Phantom saved me,” Danny repeated quietly. “I know you don’t trust him, but he’s the reason I’m not lost somewhere in the Ghost Zone right now.”

Maddie closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose in thought. “Ghosts always try to do this, Danny,” she explained. “They want you to see them in the best light possible so they can exploit your trust later. Phantom and Skulker may have been working together in this.” She looked at her son then, adding, “I know how much you two look up to Phantom, but you can’t trust him. That might be the last mistake you make.” Her gaze suddenly switched back to him. “Surely you aren’t falling for his ploy, Mr. Lancer.”

“I am inclined to agree with your children in this instance, given what I witnessed.”

“That’s only playing into the ghost’s agenda,” Maddie pointed out. “Ghosts are masters of trickery. Phantom is hardly different.”

“I did work with him once, Mads.” It was a feat for Jack Fenton to look uncomfortable, especially when the subject was ghosts, but he managed a close approximation. “I told you about that. Plasmius threatened my family, and no one threatens my family.”

“One good deed does not undo the past.”

“But one bad mistake ruins everything else?” Jazz exclaimed. “That’s a double standard, Mom, and you know it! You can’t treat ghosts differently than people.”

“They aren’t human, Jazz,” Maddie said in the tone of one who had had this argument all too often before.

“No, but they were once.” Jazz bit her lip, glanced at Danny so quickly that Lancer nearly missed it, and amended, “Most of them, anyway. Phantom is.”

He was beginning to get a better appreciation of exactly how much Jazz did for her little brother.

Danny had had enough time to get cleaned up. He didn’t look good now, not by any stretch of the imagination. He had stayed as Phantom for as long as possible; Lancer had gotten a brief explanation from Jazz he’d only partially understood about accelerated healing due to the regenerative effects of residual ectoplasm, but he could appreciate the results. While Danny was still clearly exhausted and his wounds were still present, he no longer appeared in dire need of stitches, he was in no danger of bleeding through the gauze, and some of the tiny cuts and scratches that had marred him earlier were gone. Lancer was already unsure if he had imagined the bruises.

Lancer had never thought too much about Phantom’s resilience before, but it certainly made sense.

It also explained why there never seemed to be any evidence of Mr. Baxter’s abuse of his classmate. Lancer had turned a blind eye to that for too long, but without Danny so much as going to his parents with a complaint, let alone anything official made to the school…. It became difficult to persuade the school board that Casper High should remain open if it wasn’t bringing in any money from football games, and Dash was the star of the team. Kwan was very good, but he couldn’t carry the team by himself, and Casper High sustained too much damage to rely solely on handouts from the school board.

They’d exceeded their repair budget the first week the ghost attacks had begun, and things had only gotten worse.

But money should never have been a reason to ignore a child’s abuse, and Dash’s bullying of Danny was nothing less than that. What good was Casper High as a school if its students weren’t safe within its halls?

Well, as safe as they could be, given the ghost attacks.

It was rather surprising they hadn’t been shut down anyway. Elmerton didn’t see nearly as many attacks.

Granted, no ghost attended their school, but despite the attacks, Amity Park’s reputation for educational quality remained a shade better than that of their bitter rival.

Lancer only hoped it still would once things changed.

“As I see it, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton—”

Maddie held up one hand. “No, Mr. Lancer, I’m sorry. You’ve made your opinion very clear, but I’m afraid I don’t share it, and like Jack, I’m not willing to compromise our children’s safety. Phantom might have saved you this time, Danny, but it’s all too likely that he simply has a plan in mind for later. Go fetch a Spectre Deflector. I expect you to wear it until further notice.”

“Mom!” The exclamation came from Jazz; Danny’s expression was frozen in horror, and Lancer doubted it was all for show. “You can’t make Danny wear that!”

“As soon as I check over the other ones, we’ll all be wearing them,” Maddie said, her voice making it clear she wouldn’t stand for argument. “I’ve half a mind to distribute them free to the entire town, but I’m afraid we can’t afford that right now. If we could shut down the Fenton Ghost Portal without repercussions—”

“Wait, shut down the Portal?” Danny’s horror had melted into puzzlement. “We can do that?”

This was news to Lancer as well. For all the Fenton Ghost Information sessions he’d attended—and that was many, despite the dismal attendance of the FGIs these days—the Fentons had never mentioned the possibility of shutting down their portal and cutting the ghosts off from what was surely their main entry point. Lancer knew the portal was shuttered, but he’d always had doubts about it staying closed, and the revelation of Phantom’s identity hardly inspired confidence.

“Not easily, Danny-boy. Not without a lot of bad mumbo jumbo that your mom’s been telling me about.”

Lancer saw Danny swallow, look at his sister, ignore the worry that was clear in her expression, and make a choice. Carefully, the boy asked, “Is it because the Ghost Zone is connected with our world?”

Maddie’s eyes widened. “You know about that?”

Danny shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve picked up some stuff here and there,” he said vaguely.

“Phantom told us,” Jazz added, and Danny glared at her. “I was doing some research on ghosts and ghost envy, and he agreed to answer a few questions.”

“Jazz—”

“Don’t start, Mom. If Phantom really wanted to hurt us, he would have done it by now.”

“Our previous encounters with Phantom do lend credence to Jasmine’s theory,” Lancer put in. He was trying to be helpful. If Jack and Maddie would at least agree that Phantom wasn’t solely a menace, it would make the eventual conversation easier on Danny. And that conversation would happen. Despite Danny’s worries, Lancer planned to encourage him to have it.

But because of Danny’s worries, Lancer also planned to have a contingency plan in place. He didn’t fear that Jack and Maddie wouldn’t accept the truth about their son; he feared they might think it a terrible hoax of Phantom’s at first, and he feared the psychological toll on the entire family once the truth became undeniable. Jazz’s concerns that they weren’t currently mentally prepared for the truth were hardly unfounded, after all. Still, at the very least, he would offer Danny a place to stay for the duration if it came to that. He would just rather make plans to ensure it didn’t.

Truth was, though, Lancer wasn’t sure his plans would make a whit of difference. He didn’t really know the Fentons well enough to know how they’d react, and even imagining himself in their situation was difficult. There would be horror, guilt, disgust, denial—angry, defensive denial and tearful, insistent denial—and maybe blank numbness, but in what order? Where would the acceptance finally fall? Initially, before the horror set in, or after, once it had begun working its way through and the need for forgiveness that may never come became overwhelming?

Yes, he could certainly understand why Danny had not told his parents.

But keeping the secret for long would only serve to make the situation worse.

Lancer was supposed to be a responsible adult. However much Jazz fancied herself grown up and fully matured, she wasn’t. He was. Which meant he needed to do the responsible thing, and covering for a secret like this…. That wasn’t it. Not in the long term. Not even for very long in the short term.

He needed to do whatever he could to change the Fentons’ view of Phantom, but he feared they might not unless they were presented with undeniable proof of Phantom’s humanity.

The same proof that could tear them apart.

“You did say Phantom helped you before, Dad, and not just when the entire town was under attack.” Danny’s voice was tentative again, but Lancer was beginning to figure out which emotions were part of his mask. Danny was clearly referring to an incident he knew all about but was pretending he didn’t, so his uncertainty couldn’t be genuine—unless it was merely there because he was unsure of what reaction he’d receive. “What if he wasn’t just helping you out to get his freedom? What if he really was helping because it was the right thing to do?”

“I never said anything about giving him his freedom, Danny-boy.”

Lancer saw the flash of panic this time, could recognize the falsity of the smile Danny plastered on his face. “But you would’ve captured him if he’d been close enough to help you like that,” reasoned Danny. “Besides, wasn’t that the time with the Fenton Weasel? You told us about that, too, not just Mom.”

This time, it was Jack’s turn to look uncertain, and Jazz stepped right in to back up her little brother. They had been at this for a while. “Oh, right, that time. I lectured you for weeks about capturing him in the first place, but as usual you didn’t listen to me.”

“And,” Danny continued before either of his parents could open their mouths, “if he can be trusted with that, maybe he can be trusted with something like this. As a trial. I’ll even carry ghost hunting weapons with me at all times, I swear. Maybe he can even help you guys figure out the Portal. Why exactly can’t you just close it, again? Phantom never exactly mentioned there being any repercussions of that.”

“Danny, we are not having this conversation now. Go get the Spectre Deflector.”

Danny still didn’t move, instead belligerently crossing his arms. “Mom, seriously. It’s connected with our world. I get that. But why can’t we shut it down? What would happen?”

“Danny.”

“But it would stop all the ghosts! We wouldn’t need to worry about them. Phantom might not even need to be around all the time if he doesn’t have to fight any of them.”

“Listen to your mother, Danny-boy.”

“Just answer my question!”

“I confess I would also be interested in the answer,” Lancer interjected mildly.

Maddie’s lips thinned, but she evidently decided that she and Jack were suitable protection for Danny in the meantime and didn’t wish to have a fight in front of a guest. After a pointed look from her, Jack coughed and flashed Lancer a brilliant smile. “As much as I love talking about ghosts, weren’t you here to discuss Danny?”

“You can go, Jazz,” Maddie added quietly.

“Mom!”

“No, she can stay.” Danny’s hurried assurance was no doubt born out of fear of losing an ally, lest he find himself in need of one. Lancer couldn’t blame him; he wasn’t sure he would be able to help the boy if it came down to it. “She’s…probably gonna end up helping me with my homework and stuff anyway. Maybe scheduling? A schedule might help….”

Lancer cleared his throat. “That is certainly an admirable idea, Mr. Fenton, if you can stick to it.” Looking at Jack and Maddie, he clarified, “I’m afraid Danny’s record hasn’t improved since our last discussion.” I’m sorry, he wanted to say to his young student, but he couldn’t suddenly appear unconcerned about the matter. It was still an issue, even if he now knew the truth, and he had pressed for this meeting.

“We’ve offered to check his homework,” Maddie said, glancing at her son, “but....”

Say something, Danny. It was the perfect opportunity for him to pipe up with an excuse, believable or not, but he remained silent.

“I’m afraid restricting his gaming time hasn’t been effective, if you’ve seen no change,” Maddie continued apologetically. “We’ve been hesitant to cut him off from Sam and Tucker. I’m sure they help him, and you know how teenagers are, Mr. Lancer. They never seem to want to come to their parents for help. I mentioned grounding Danny for two weeks once, on a trial basis, but Jack talked me out of it.” She turned a small, somewhat apologetic smile in Danny’s direction when she noticed his expression; clearly, his parents had never come close to instigating this particular punishment for any considerable length of time. “He reminded me that sometimes kids need an escape, and the real issue here might not be Danny’s inability to apply himself but an inability to focus or an uncertainty about how to tackle a deeper issue.”

Jazz, surprisingly, looked as if something suddenly made a lot more sense. “That’s why you and Dad haven’t been talking quite as much about your inventions, isn’t it? Because you’ve been trying to give Danny space and give him the opportunity to open up to you and not have the conversation taken over by ghosts.”

Maddie leaned over to touch Danny’s arm, though she withdrew her hand when Danny flinched away. “You never seem to want to talk to us anymore, honey.”

“I’m a teenager, Mom. You just finished saying we don’t talk to our parents.”

“Sweetie, please don’t twist my words like that. I know Sam doesn’t have a good relationship with her parents, but I know Tucker gets along well with his. We’d like you to know that we are here for you if you’ll only come to us. The problems we solve don’t have to be related to ghosts to be important.”

Lancer could see the defensive line in Danny’s posture, and he knew—he knew—how this was going to go if he let it play out. So he didn’t. “If I may,” he interrupted, “perhaps the problem is tied to ghosts after all?”

“What?” Danny’s yelp of shock was nothing compared to the betrayal on his face or the thunderous anger beneath it. For the briefest of moments, his eyes seemed to burn green, and he spat, “You don’t know anything, Mr. Lancer.”

No, he suspected he didn’t.

Not compared the whole truth or the little Jazz knew of it, at least. But he knew enough for this. “Forgive me, Danny, but am I wrong in thinking that you and Jasmine do not share your parents’ views on Phantom?”

“What does Phantom have anything to do with this?” Jazz shrilled. She looked no less betrayed than Danny, but fear played on her face more than Danny’s. Danny had not forgiven him for this apparent betrayal; Jazz was already thinking ahead to what it might mean. She couldn’t see where he was going with this.

“I’m not,” Lancer concluded when neither child answered him. “Could it be, then, that in defiance of your parents, and perhaps out of loyalty to one you think of as a friend, you help Phantom?”

He saw the comprehension dawn in Danny’s eyes, saw Jazz’s shoulders sag as she released her breath. They weren’t in the clear, but this was a better route than the one they’d first feared.

“It would, after all, explain the ghost’s motivations.” He looked at the Fenton parents now. “Rather than trickery, Phantom might simply be acting to protect his friends. Or assets, if you do not currently believe him capable of friendship.” It was a perfectly logical explanation, one he had found himself believing—and may have continued believing, had he not stayed to overhear more of the conversation or if the pieces had not been so carefully laid out in front of him. “If your children have formed an alliance with Phantom, they are hardly in danger from him.”

Surprisingly, Jack was the one to break the silence that had begun to stretch. “Is this true?”

Neither child made eye contact with any of the adults.

“You’re working with Phantom?” Maddie clearly had no trouble believing that conclusion, either. “Both of you? How long has this been going on?”

“I’ve been doing it for long enough,” Jazz finally whispered, “that I believe him more than I believe what you’ve been telling me about him. Scientists have to have open minds, and you two have a big blind spot when it comes to him.” Her voice had been getting stronger, gaining in confidence as she spoke. “He doesn’t have an end game, some nefarious ulterior motive. He’s good. A good soul. Death didn’t twist that, whatever you two think. Did you ever think that that’s why he’s so powerful? Because his goodness is so pure that it not only survived his death but has sustained him in the afterlife to the point that he doesn’t need to frequent the Ghost Zone as often as the other ghosts? That he’s been getting stronger because his good deeds are what strengthen him?”

Maddie sighed. “You agree with your sister, don’t you, Danny?”

“Phantom might’ve messed up before,” Danny mumbled, “but he doesn’t want to be evil.”

“But for all of your help, for all that he told you about the Ghost Zone mirroring our world, for all that he seems to have been treating the symptoms rather than the disease— You yourself said that Phantom never mentioned what would happen if we shut down the Ghost Portal. Why do you think that is?”

“Because he didn’t know?” Danny offered, finally looking at his mother.

“No,” Jack said, “it would be because he didn’t want to die again. Jazzy-pants, you know ghosts are sustained by the concentrated ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone. Phantom isn’t exempt to that, and he doesn’t have the ability to create natural portals.”

“So he’d destabilize if the Portal were shut down?” Jazz asked cautiously.

“All ghosts caught in our world would. Maybe not immediately,” Jack allowed, “and not the ones who’ve managed to tether themselves here some other way, but all the ones that have turned up since we opened the Fenton Ghost Portal? Including Phantom? They’d be torn apart molecule by molecule. Just slowly and painfully and not where we could analyze them.”

“Then why haven’t you shut it down already?” Lancer asked. He was surprised to find himself voicing the question, but he didn’t regret it. He knew Jack and Maddie were scientists, that they wanted to study ghosts, but they wouldn’t endanger the public like this, especially for so long, merely for the sake of capturing a specimen to study. They would have gone back to the drawing board and discovered a way of fishing ghosts out of the Ghost Zone that didn’t risk the entire town.

“We didn’t realize it until after we’d built the Portal,” Maddie said quietly. “We’d gone over the calculations countless times. Nothing had seemed out of place.”

“Not until the Fenton Ghost Portal didn’t work,” Jack put in. “The designs for that baby were perfect. It should’ve started up like a dream!”

“But it didn’t, so we went back over our notes. I saw it then. What it was supposed to need, what was supposed to sustain it. I was actually happy that it hadn’t worked. And then when we came home and it was….” Maddie trailed off. “I thought that meant I’d been wrong, and I was ecstatic to be wrong for once. But as time went on, I realized I wasn’t. I couldn’t be.”

“Wrong about what?” Jazz and Lancer asked the question at the same time, but the seriousness of the situation seemed to sap away any humour the incident might have caused. Instead of teasing his sister or making some sarcastic remark, Danny stayed silent.

If Lancer had learned anything of Phantom, it was that silence was often associated with the most grave and impossible of situations, the ones where grit and determination may not be enough to pull through but must be tackled anyway. It meant acceptance of the inevitable, should it come to that, and a seriousness that couldn’t be faced with humour alone. Too often, it meant sacrifice.

That scared him.

No child should be forced to contemplate that.

“The Portal contains a massive amount of energy,” Maddie explained gently. “It’s currently stabilized by the nature of our design, but the moment we move to shut it down, it would become unstable. Without an appropriate conduit….”

“It would explode,” Jack finished. “Worse than anything we’d see if we forgot to change the filter for a few weeks. The Fenton Portal’s slicing into the very fabric of our reality. You kids were taught about the energy released when an atom’s split, right?” He didn’t wait for them to nod before adding, “How many atoms do you think the Portal’s sliced through?”

Children of the Dust, the Fentons believed the outpouring of energy, maybe the release of some sort of radiation along with all the free neutrons that would extend serve to extend the explosion, would be more devastating than any disaster like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. They didn’t want to try shutting it down until they’d devised a way to contain it, and from what he could gather, they hadn’t figured out how.

“But….” Jazz licked her lips. “The Portal’s slicing through air. It’s not uranium. It’s mostly nitrogen.” She knew the truth. Lancer could see it. She just didn’t want to admit it. Acknowledging that pit of fear in her stomach would make it real.

Unfortunately, he shared the feeling.

“Does that even matter if it’s still enough energy to break an atom in half and start a crazy chain reaction?” Danny looked like he might be ill. “And there’s still all the ectoplasm from the ghost side.” He turned to his parents. “Mom, you said it needs a conduit or something like that?”

“We’re working on it, honey. You don’t need to worry about it.”

But they wouldn’t figure it out. That’s what Danny and Jazz were worried about, and the thought disturbed Lancer, too. What didn’t help matters was the knowledge that the Fenton children might know exactly what their parents were missing. He didn’t know without talking to them, of course, but—

“I…I need to go.” Danny stood up. “Sorry. Can we, um, reschedule?” He ran off without waiting for an answer.

“Danny, wait!” Jazz was the first to react, albeit too late to catch Danny, and by the time Lancer got to his feet, Danny was nowhere in sight.

Of course, that didn’t mean much, now that he knew Danny could turn himself invisible and fly.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Lancer,” Maddie said as Jazz rushed out in a futile attempt to catch her brother. “We shouldn’t have burdened you with this knowledge. Please, trust that we’re working on it and developing more effective weapons to combat all the ghosts in the meantime.”

She had no idea what knowledge he was burdened with.

Ignorance really could be bliss.

But it could also be disaster.

Jack and Maddie needed to understand Danny’s situation. Lancer didn’t want his inaction to lead to ruin as disastrous as the tragedy Jack and Maddie were already trying to prevent. “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” he murmured, thinking of the horrible situation in which his young student had found himself.

“Pardon?”

Maddie must think he’d made some remark about their portal. He wished, if she did, that she were right. It would be a much simpler subject to discuss.

“Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, I have something I feel I should tell you.”

(see more fics)

#danny phantom #phanfiction #phanfic #dp fanfiction #dp fanfic #mr lancer #danny fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #dp snippet #request #text

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writersblockletters · 7 years ago

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Pioneer Returns V1.3

Updated with Act II - the script does cut off in the middle of the scene - notes are appreciated.

Pioneer Returns By Blake Baxter

INT. CAR - NIGHT EDWARD is driving down an empty highway somewhere in Washington state. His cars headlights are the only source of light for miles. Edward checks the time on his radio, 1:45am. The country station Ed is listening to fades jarringly cuts to static. Trying futilely for a moment to tune to a new station, Ed turns the radio off. Up ahead appears an all night truck stop/diner. He takes the exit and heads in to grab some coffee. INT. DINER - NIGHT Edward sits down at the counter, noticing the TRUCK DRIVERs the left and right of him are staring him down. MAGGIE, the waitress walks over and pours him a cup of coffee MAGGIE Don’t mind the regulars, they lost their manners years ago. TRUCK DRIVER Where you headed slick? Ed looks over at the gruff trucker to his right EDWARD I’m going up north to see about a logging job. The truck driver finishes the last of his coffee and stands to leave. He leans over to ed as he places a $5 on the counter TRUCK DRIVER No, you ain’t. The truck driver grins and looks back up at the waitress. TRUCK DRIVER Thanks for the pie Mags. Truck Driver exits. Edward follows him with his eyes until he is gone, returning his attention to the waitress. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 2. MAGGIE He’s harmless. Can I get you a slice of pie? Edward hands the waitress some cash. EDWARD I should be getting back out there, still have a long way to go. MAGGIE Here Maggie puts a slice of pie in a small box and hands it to Edward. MAGGIE CONT. ��It’s on the house. INT. CAR - NIGHT Edward is back on the road, the darkness seemingly has closed in on the car. The headlights are a match at the back of a cave. The headlights flicker, then go out altogether. The headlights come on after a moment, but the highway is now thick with fog. Edward strains to see anything in front of him. The fog is getting thicker and thicker, now the headlights hit up against the cloud like a wall. EXT. SPACE - NIGHT We see the classic car in full now, drifting through the void of space. Milky galaxies dot the sky. INT. CAR - NIGHT Edward looks all around him, he watches on as the car floats through the void. Eventually resigned to his fate, he relaxes and watches the void roll on. the RADIO jolts on - at first only STATIC - slowly, the sound takers shape - we hear the SOUNDS OF EARTH; RAINFALL, THUNDERSTORMS, THE JUNGLE AT NIGHT...These are the sounds of the pioneer 10/11 golden records.

3. INT. CAR - NIGHT Later on, Edward asleep, is jolted awake by another block of static from the radio. The sound forms once more - they are similar to the first set of sounds, but they are cut and arranged in a different order. The sounds seem to be jumping quickly from one topic to the next, as if a new message is being composed.. The tempo of the sounds increases, the radio dial jumps left and right on its own. A bright blinding light fills the car, edward throws his arm over his eyes to block it out. A loud metallic THUD rocks the car. The light cuts, all is black again. INT. CAR - DAY Edward awakens in his driver’s seat, the low pink light of dawn streaming into the cab. Edward takes stock of his car, his body...everything checks out. He reaches for the door latch... EXT. HILL - DAY Edward steps out of his car and looks around. He is parked on top of a hill overlooking a dawn-lit field. He now notices smoke rising from the hood of his car. Walking over to the front, he notices a GOLDEN PLAQUE lodged in the GRILL. With some effort, Ed pries the plaque out of his grill and examines it. Little does he know, it is the PIONEER PLAQUE. Down at the bottom a map of the solar system and the trajectory of Pioneer 10 is etched into the gold. To the right of the solar system, another craft has been scratched in, with another arrow indicating it’s direction towards earth. Edward looks out over the field, the peaceful dawn skyline has now transformed, and is filled with the milky space clouds he saw the night before, the smallest SILHOUETTE of a UFO is seen in the clouds.

4. INT. HOTEL - DAY Edward awakens in a shabby hotel bed, we see him from behind the ceiling fan in a semi birds eye view. He walks to his window and peers through the blinds... EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Parked by itself in the center of the small hotel parking lot is his car, apparently undamaged. EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Ed approaches his car, hesitates getting in, and decides to peer inside the drivers side window. INT. CAR - DAY Nothing out of the ordinary. Ed gets in, settles, and turns on the car. That’s when he notices... INSERT - A square foam pie container on the passenger side floor. Instinctively he reaches down and opens the box. The cherry pie from the previous night is inside undamaged. He closes the box and sets it next to him in the passenger seat. INT. OFFICE - DAY We see Ed from inside the building he is approaching - he walks toward camera - which pans to reveal a SECRETARY at her desk. SECRETARY May I help you? EDWARD I have an appointment with Mr. Brady today, well 10 minutes ago actually. I had a little car trouble getting over here. The secretary checks her appointment book. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 5. SECRETARY Mr. Brady is in a meeting now actually, what did you say your name was? EDWARD Edward Arthur SECRETARY Sorry I don’t have you on today’s itinerary. EDWARD I have a from letter from Mr Brady if that helps. Ed hands the letter to the secretary, who reads it momentarily. SECRETARY Mr. Arthur, the position this interview request was for has been filled. EDWARD There must be some mistake- SECRETARY Sir if you have no other business with us I will have to ask you to leave. EDWARD Please, ma’am if I could just speak to Mr. Brady. The secretary stares at Edward for a moment, then picks up the phone, dials, and raises the receiver to her ear. She speaks into the phone briefly, too low for Ed to hear. SECRETARY Sir I have notified security to escort you off the premises. I suggest you leave now Leaning in slightly towards Ed. and they will confiscate any narcotics found on your person. EDWARD Excuse me? Ed notices the edge of the secretaries NEWSPAPER.. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 6. INSERT - MARCH, 11, 1977 EDWARD Is that today’s newspaper? SECRETARY Excuse me? Edward snatches the newspaper from her desk and hightails it towards the door as 2 security guards walk towards him. INT. HOTEL - NIGHT Edward is sitting on his bed flipping through channels,and settles on a baseball game. Ed remembers his pie and jumps up to grab it - knocking the remote on the floor. The channel changes to... A science doc - animations, narrations, explaining the survey of the solar system Ed tucks into his pie while watching. DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR Late November, 1973. 20 months after launch - pioneer 10 closes in on Jupiter. Each hour brings the planet 20,000 miles closer. What lies below those inscrutable cloud tops? Could there be life in this maelstrom where pressures may reach 200,000 times earths. There are scientists who think that the answer might be yes. That deep in this raging atmosphere of ammonia, marsh gas, and helium, the self replicating spark may have been struck. One believer is Doctor Carl Sagan of Cornell university. On appears Carl Sagan at a JPL press conference, over his left shoulder is the pioneer 10 space probe DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR Doctor Sagan also provided for pioneer the famous picture postcard to extraterrestrial life. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 7. CARL SAGAN In the remote contingency that there are interstellar spacefaring societies which might someday pick up this derelict no longer radioing - we thought we would put a message on it - Cut to close up of Pioneer plaque, sagan points to the etchings on the plaque. CARL SAGAN to indicate a little bit of where are when we are, and who we are. We think that the information on where we are and when we are indicated in this part of the message by the configuration of certain objects called pulsars will be completely obvious to uh any society capable of traveling between the stars. These two objects will be more mysterious because it is unlikely that there will be human beings anywhere else even though there may be other creatures elsewhere and the plaque has served a very useful purpose in making us think about what sort of impression we might wish to give to the cosmos. Ed searches desperately for something to write on, eventually reaching for the bible in his night stand. He scribbles the image of the pioneer plaque down onto a blank page... EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT Ed is in his car contemplatively drifting down the county highway. From behind a curve appears the glowing island truck stop, Ed pulls into the parking lot. INT. DINER - NIGHT Walking in Ed sees the two heavy set truckers from before. Out from behind the kitchen walks maggie with a plate of chicken fried steak and eggs, and hands it to the trucker on the left. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 8. MAGGIE Jerry, that’ll be a $50 on your tip tonight sweetie. JERRY No, mags, by my watch it’s 11:56. That’ll be a free slice of cherry, and i thank you. MAGGIE Yeah, well you ain’t getting cool whip on top. ED Excuse me, I was in here the other- MAGGIE I know sweetie, sit on down and i’ll be right with you. Ed finds a seat at the counter across from the truckers. Maggie sarcastically drops a plate of pie in front of Jerry, then gracefully walks over to Ed. EDWARD I’m looking fo- MAGGIE You’re looking for some answers right? EDWARD Uh, Yeah. How- MAGGIE How did I know? Look we could be talking all night at this pace. Ill answer your next three questions; Yes it was aliens, No it means nothing, don’t worry you’ll be fine. Okay? Now, what can I getcha before we get started? EDWARD Cof- Ed stops himself, seeing Maggie has already started pouring a cup of coffee. MAGGIE For reasons unknown, this particular stretch of highway is a- a (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 9. JERRY A conduit. MAGGIE Yes, a conduit for...beings to contact us, or well, mostly long haulers and yourself. Each person tends to have a different experience, but they almost always come back to us. JERRY like a pilgrimage. MAGGIE Yeah, like that. I’d like to think it’s for the pie though. EDWARD so you knew I’d be back in here? MAGGIE I had a good feeling. EDWARD That was the bet right? How long it would take for me to come back? JERRY It’s not a bet when it’s a sure thing son. Money in the bank, right Mags? MAGGIE You got lucky pal. So how’d it go? EDWARD I saw something. MAGGIE I’m sure you did. EDWARD It was a lot of nothing at first, but then there was a flash and I saw..something. Ed looks at Maggie intently. EDWARD Did anyone ever see anything like this? (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 10. Edward hands Maggie the loose page with his sketch of the plaque.Maggie,without breaking eye contact with ed, slides the paper with one finger over to Jerry who passes it to the other trucker,GEORGE,on his right. GEORGE That would be the Pioneer Plaque, the proverbial interstellar message in a bottle. You say you saw this? �� EDWARD Saw, felt, held. I had to pry that thing out of my grill. George and Jerry glance at each other JERRY That’s a new one. GEORGE Is there anything else you remember? EDWARD Music. GEORGE Music? MAGGIE Music! EDWARD Yeah, it was different. You know like classic and Chinese and all this other stuff I’d never heard. GEORGE Wait, wait I know this one. JERRY You don’t have it yet. GEORGE No no, I got it. Mags, may I use the phone? MAGGIE By my guest Georgie. George walks behind the counter to a PHONE mounted against the wall. He dials and speaks into the phone briefly to KEN, the hits the speaker button. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 11. The sound of a phone rustling changes to an ancient sounding piece of oriental music. GEORGE Was it something like this? Edwards eyes flare and roll Back. EDWARD Oh Man. I’ve gotta. Ed stands and stumbles through the door, Maggie and the trucker’s sit back and watch. EXT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT EDWARD opens the door to the parking lot and is startled to find that the truck stop is drifting through the vacuum of space - The stellar clouds from before surround the building Eds car is also adrift in the void. EXT. HIGHWAY SHOULDER - DAY Ed wakes up in his car again, this time pulled over on the side of the road. A semi truck speeds by. EDWARD Ah christ! Ed falls back into his seat and covers his eyes He reaches for a pair of sunglasses and puts them on. That’s when he notices... INSERT - A familiar foam box. Ed reaches for it and opens it up. Inside is a classic slice of cherry pie, with a sharpie drawn Peace sign on the inner lid. Below that, a phone number. Ed starts his car and gets back on the road. EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Ed pulls into a small parking lot with a phone booth on one end. End walks to the booth and dials the number from inside the pie box. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 12. KEN Hello? ED Uh, Hi. KEN Who is this? ED This is Ed. KEN Beat- Ed who? ED I was at this Diner- KEN Be at this phone in 15 minutes. Ken hangs up abruptly. ED Hello? Ed hangs up his end and examines his settings. Across the street sits a lonely single story brick building called PIONEER RETURNS tax office. EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Ed is sitting on the hood of his car near the phone booth, he checks his watch. Just then the phone rings. Ed runs to the phone and picks up. ED Hello? KEN 47.8477ř N, 120.7076ř W. Come alone. �� Ken hangs up abruptly once more. ED Wait, hello? Shit. four..seven eight four seven seven... Ed runs to his car and frantically digs through his glove box retrieving a map and a sharpie. He unfurls the map - a county map of rural Washington state. (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 13. ED 47.8477ř North, 120.7076ř West 47.8477ř North, 120.7076ř West 47.8477ř North, 120.7076ř West Ed finds the point on the map, circles it, and jumps back into his car. He leaves the parking lot just as the sun begins to set. EXT. LOGGING ROAD - NIGHT Ed is driving down an old logging road, from the looks of which has not been used in some time. He drives until he hits the end of the line. Checking his map, he see’s he still has a ways to go. He exits the car with a small flashlight and sets off on foot. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT Ed quietly walks through the pacific forest, off in the distance, the small rumble of a thunderstorm can be hear, but above, the sky is clear. EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT Ed emerges from the woods, and finds himself looking at a single wide trailer with a series of large radio dishes on the roof. stepping onto the porch, KEN, a small in stature, clean cut man with thick rimmed glasses meets Ed. KEN Are you the guy? ED I could ask you the same- KEN Yeah yeah, lets go. Ken quickly disappears back into the trailer. Ed follows.

14. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT Ed walks into a small room filled with boxes. Upon closer inspection Ed notices some open boxes filled with file folders. In the corner of the room is a large radio post with an IBM computer spurting a string of code. Ken walks in from another room in the trailer holding a record in a blank sleeve. KEN I’m sorry to put you through all this trouble, you just can’t be careful enough these days. Anyway, the reason you’re here. Ken removes the record and sets it in a player. The familiar music from before permeates from the record. All of a sudden Ed begins to sway. Ken pulls the needle, and assists Ed to a seat. KEN I thought that might happen. Ed steadies himself. ED What is going on? Ken stares intently at Ed for a moment. KEN I started picking up this signal about two weeks ago. Ken gets up from where Ed is sitting and walks over to his radio set - a printer with a long unending stretch of printer tape spewing towards the floor, collecting itself into a box sits nearby, Ken tears the paper as its printing and brings the box over to Ed. KEN It’s the same code over and over. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it until George called me and asked me to play this record. ED What do you mean? (CONTINUED)

CONTINUED: 15. KEN This code. These miles and miles of code that I’ve intercepted. It’s the Voyager Record. ED Voyager? You mean Pioneer. KEN No I mean. Where did you hear about Pioneer? ED The same place I heard that song! KEN Holy shit. ��Ken walks over to the back wall where a stack of boxes covered in a moving blanket sits. He shifts the boxes and removes the blanket, revealing a chalk board. Ken Draws out a rudimentary mock up of the solar system. KEN Pioneer 11 was launched in 1972. It’s trajectory would put it somewhere between...Saturn and Jupiter... Ken Scratches an x in chalk on the board. KEN ..and Voyager. Well that was launched six months ago, but on a much more direct path...so that would put it at...well about at Jupiter give or take a few million miles. Ken scrawls another x on the board. ED So? KEN So we’ve got neighbors.

#Pioneer 11 #Voyager #Space #Sci-Fi & Fantasy #fiction #screenplay

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stumpyjoepete · 7 years ago

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What the hell is wrong with me?

Before I expound on that, let me say that I really enjoyed reading The Martian. It’s not just that it was a fast-paced, fun read, although it was. It’s not just that I nerded out about the science and technical details, although I did. It’s more that I could sympathize with the author for having written the book. Having an immensely detailed survival-on-mars-plus-the-orbital-mechanics-of-your-way-home-plan-that-you-worked-on-for-a-few-years in your back pocket seems like a reasonable thing to me. I mean, what if civilization got wiped out, and you needed to have committed numerous survival skills and several scientific disciplines to memory to rebuild? Or, like, what if you got stuck on mars? Better safe than sorry. There should be a merit badge for it or something.

What I’m saying is, I deal with stress by trying to gain superficial competence in probably useless areas. We are constantly buffeted about by the blind, uncaring forces of fate, and tending to our own little walled gardens of knowledge and technique as the storm rages outside gives a feeling of control that, while perhaps meaningless in the grand sense, is both comforting and perhaps also an apt metaphor for the human condition. In the end, we all succumb to entropy, but there is beauty in our struggle to maintain order as well as in our ultimate failure to do so.

What I’m saying is, Max Frisch was a good author.

For some reason, international travel is stressful to me. I suppose that’s also true for big life changes like moving or changing jobs, but international travel is disproportionately stressful, in that it triggers these feelings in me despite not really being a big deal in an objective sense. Domestic travel is also unduly stressful for me, but it’s scaled down, so I usually only worry about it a couple days ahead of time. Past things I have done (that I can recall, anyway include) in the weeks leading up to international trips: - Watching vast quantities of StarCraft II tournaments and strategy videos. I can’t actually play SC2 for shit. - Reading a spectacular amount about poker strategy. My actual skill level could generously be described as “novice”. - Getting half way through parsing Baxter’s transcriptions of characters in MC and trying to work out the phonological rules that would lead to their expected reflexes in Mandarin (in Python). - Planning out maker-type projects in great detail, including laying out most of a circuit board for a shower timer and learning how to recalibrate the internal timers of Chinese knockoff attinys.

What I’m saying is that I’m watching a lot of cooking videos. At least I can actually cook, but I’m rather skeptical that the last 15 hours of yt vids will have any actual effect on my skill level or repertoire.

In unrelated news, I’m going back to Japan in a few days. Lots of posts queued, but I will be blissfully unaware of all the garbage discourse on tumblr, so don’t expect any interaction.

#big in japan #personal

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blueyesandleatherjacket · 6 years ago

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Ghost of you, 6/?

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 6/?.

Pairings: Human!Nine x Rose; Human!Ten x Jack; Clara Oswald x Olivia Baxter (OC).

Synopsis: "Despite the fact he knew he was done, he was fighting against the virus. He didn’t want to lose that already lost fight and he was clinging to the memories of his friends, to the memories of the wife he loved so much. His change lasted longer than it should have because he was struggling."

A/N: I've started writing this fiction last year after I had a particularly weird dream (as usual) and after I wrote the prologue, I've put it aside to work on other stuff. I've gone back to it not so long ago and decided that it would be the fiction I would post next, after not posting anything for a while. I must have watched I am legend and Game of thrones way too much to come out with something like this but I hope you will like it. I am not a scientist, nor did I have a particular knowledge of sciences. I do my researches on the internet like everyone to make sure everything is as close to the reality as possible. I have a literature degree only. Writing is what I do and it makes me explore next fields, and learn new things.

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” - Kahlil Gibran.

CHAPTER 6:

Second day of October 2017. Day 1746 since the infection. Maxence Spitz video log. Take 2. What I’ve feared finally occurred on this day. We’ve been wandering in the town all day, knowing we wouldn’t see anyone. The lightwalkers don’t come out anymore, they’re all remaining hidden behind solid closed doors and blinds, hoping it will protect them against the virus, against the madness. The virus has mutated again and people have gone violent. The town is ravaged by fires and vandalism. It will become harder to restock the centre of researches with food and supplies. You have to find that cure in the days to come or you will all die from hunger and God knows what else if you have that chance of not being infected. Now, it’s either you find that cure, or you let the world fall into this madness. Or you let the world destroy itself until there’s nothing left. Humanity was a plague and Mother Nature is making us all paid. The nightwalkers came out while the night was falling. They were already out while it was still twilight outside. They are less bothered by the light now. They are cleverer than we thought they were. They knew we were coming. They set up a trap for us and we’ve run straight into it. One of them bit my neck, here. Xavier died to take me away from them. Allegro killed some. Adam ran away with Louise and Danny. It’s a chance. In normal circumstances, they would have been punished for this, but I don’t blame them. I would have run away if I’ve had the time to. This is my last words as your leader. I’ve sent Emily away with the rest of the team and ordered her to put the whole building in lockdown to protect all of you. I’ve named Tegan Smith as my successor and Jack Harkness as his second in command. I trust them both to the cure you are desperately looking for. I feel it, the noctiagus. It’s spreading in my body. It’s in my veins, burning every single nerve inside me. You probably can’t see it well but I know it. My eyes have turned black. Allegro has stayed with me. He locked me into the room of this sort of bunker we have found so I could record this last video for you. I’m gonna film my whole change into a nightwalker so you can have as many leads as possible for your researches. I’ve asked Allegro to lock me in the crate and to bring me back to the lab. I’ll be the living specimen I was supposed to catch. Jack has sacrificed Peggy for his new lead. I’ve been sacrificed for this mission and I’m giving you myself for your researches. I’m sorry this had to end like this. I believe in all of you. You’ll find that cure without me. No matter the time it will take. Goodbye. The rest of the video was just hours of the agony Maxence had gone through. Despite the fact he knew he was done, he was fighting against the virus. He didn’t want to lose that already lost fight and he was clinging to the memories of his friends, to the memories of the wife he loved so much. His change lasted longer than it should have because he was struggling. He still fought Allegro when the captain of the team came to lock him in the crate but the pain he was in prevented him from winning once again. He was locked in the crate with his camera to continue his long agony until he was brought to the building three days later. The battery of the camera had died some time ago but it had held on long enough to film the entire change, to see Maxence turning into a nightwalker because of a mission he was given. Rory and Mickey had managed to go to the cages unnoticed despite this hour of the day. Everyone should be out in the labs to work but no one was there. The tension was though. It was the calm before the storm. It was too quiet for something not to happen later, for the storm not to rage when the tension would reach its climax. In a way, it was good for the two men. They could work without the glances of everyone on their backs. They unlocked the airlock and went through it to the first cage. They entered the code and the door slid open for the two men to come in with the crate. They put it down on the ground. Their prisoner had calmed down now that they had reached a room lighted with UV lights. All along the walk, he had been kicking against the plastic and groaning loudly to protest. Or to express his pain. The two men looked at each other, wondering what they should do now that they had taken him to the cage. They couldn’t leave him inside the crate. They had to free him. But what if he attacked them? Rory glanced inside the crate. His boss had his eyes closed and his translucent skin was red on his face. Intolerance to the light they said. No wonder why he was protesting if it was burning him. He seemed inoffensive, almost dead. Some people were dying from the virus. Was he…? No, he was breathing. Slowly, too slowly, but he was breathing. Someone would connect him to the system to check his vital signs 24/7. He was their Guinea pig until the day he would either die or heal. Heal being the better option. Rory knelt down and dialled a code on the keyboard of the casing that was on the crate’s side. There were a couple seconds of wait before it beeped positively. The lid was unlocked with a click and Mickey stepped back when his colleague opened the crate. Rory took a step backward. Maxence didn’t move at first. The two men were on alert. They couldn’t keep their eyes off their boss but they really should leave this place. Mickey was opening the door when Maxence blinked and sat up in his crate. Rory felt like he was watching the ghost of a man he once knew as the tall man was extracting himself from the crate. He made no move to attack any of the men present with him in the cage. Instead, he tilted his head on the side to observe Rory, as if it was the first time he ever saw him. But he remained still, not trying to charge like Peggy had done with Jack. Before the situation could go wrong, Rory grabbed the empty crate he closed, never taking his eyes off Maxence, and dragged it toward Mickey who had finally opened the door. They locked the cage, walked through the airlock. They left the crate in the airlock, just in case, and left the pressurised sterilised place before they removed the upper part of their suits. “There was this woman I’ve always been in love with,” started Rory, standing in front of Maxence’s cage. “She was called Amy. It was short for Amelia. Amelia Pond. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. We were seven when I’ve told her that I’d marry her when we would be adults.” “She said you were crazy, slapped you and ran away?” “Pretty much. But I’ve never given up.” “And so? Has she given in?” “Unfortunately too late,” murmured the man. “I was asking her to marry me when I noticed her eyes. She used to have the most beautiful green eyes I’ve seen in my life and that night, they were gone. I could see nothing else but a dark empty void. She didn’t even know she was infected.” “I’m sorry, mate.” “I did my duty. I reported her to the authorities. They have a list of all the infected people. Of the ones that were reported anyway. I don’t know where she is now. I just hope she will hold on until a cure is found.” They both kept silent but their thought was the same as they watched Maxence wandering around his new place: they had lost their best asset to this war against inhumanity. Sure they had some of the most brilliant minds here, but they were all related to Maxence in their own ways and seeing him in this condition would upset them enough to influence their work. Rory had found the strength of leaving his Amelia behind for this cure, would Rose and all the team find that strength too? “Who’s gonna be in charge now?” “Maxence must have thought about this possibility. He has chosen someone he can rely on.” “Like his own wife?” “I don’t think he’d be biased. My mind would be on Jack.” “T is brilliant too.” “Yeah, but he’s not strong enough for this responsibility. Colin could be.” “Certainly not!” exclaimed Mickey, horrified at the thought of Colin Appleton as a leader. “He’s too much of a sociopath to be given any responsibility.” “Anyway, it’s not like we have an opinion to express on the matter.” Whoever had been chosen for this heavy responsibility of leader, both Mickey and Rory would have to do with that. They were giving orders to their own teams but they had to obey to the leader of the place which once had been Maxence. The two men left the room and walked back to their duty.

Rose, my dear Rosie, my so beloved wife… Before you start cursing me and swearing that you’ll slaughter me as soon as you can get a hold of me, know that I haven’t chosen to go on that suicide mission. I always refuse the members of my team to go outside for any reason. I do that to protect them. This rule applies to you and to me as well. But I’ve gotten this call after the situation in London got worse. The government wants answers and someone has to go and get them outside. The responsibility falls upon me. It is a direct order from the Prime Minister and I can’t disobey it no matter I hate it. I never meant to lie to you but I didn’t want you to worry about me being outside. My focus would have been troubled and it is important for me not to worry about anything during this mission. My only focus has to be on catching this living human specimen. I don’t need to tell you how terrified I am right now. You can see it on my face, in my body language, in my eyes. You’ve always been good at reading me like an open book. My Rosie, I know you don’t want to hear these words but I have to tell you all of this now, through this video. Just in case I wouldn’t come back. Just for you to know. First of all, it’s really not against you but I name Tegan Smith as the substitute leader of the team. You and Jack will be his seconds in command. I trust the three of you the most. All the signed papers are in the last drawer of my desk. You won’t have any problem with everyone. I’ve planned it all. Just in case. Second, well, this part is only for you. My dear Rosie. The woman of my life. If it’s the last time I ever get to speak to you, I want you to know how sorry I am. I wish I had found this cure years ago so we could have gone back to our little life, so I could have given you the children you’ve always wanted. I’m sorry for failing my mission, for having myself infected, for giving up on you. It is all against my will. Just know that I will forever love you. I’ve promised you. I’ve promised to live you for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. I’ve promised to love you until the end and if I lose myself, if I get infected, I’ll hold on to the strength of my love for you to survive in the jungle of nightwalkers. If I never make it back to the lab, don’t forget me but, please, do not mourn me too long. Build yourself a new life and be happy as much as possible. I’m asking you a lot, I know that, but I don’t want you to grieve forever. As hard as it is, please, live on and remember me. I love you. Rose didn’t know how many times she had watched his video. Enough to have her eyes burning as if she had washed them with methylated spirit. She had cried all of the tears she had in her. Her head hurt but she couldn’t take her eyes off the screen that was displaying the last images of her husband. She would never see him again. He was somewhere, outside, in the middle of the nightwalkers. He was probably one of them too. It broke her heart to think about him that way. She pressed pause and the image stilled. She observed his face, his blue eyes, remembered his voice. Her fingers touched him through the screen. The window was cold but she was feeling the warmth of his skin through her memories. That was what made her take this decision. She left Maxence’s office and locked it behind her. She hid the key in her office and ran to the equipment room. If Maxence couldn’t go back to her, she would go and get him. She found a black combat dress that suited her and pulled it on without waiting. She was lacing her boots when she heard a noise that drew her attention. She turned around but saw no one. She could still hear the noise though. Someone crying. She followed the sound, trying to be as discreet as the boots were allowing her to. At the very bottom of the room, huddled in a corner, she found Adam, Maxence’s assistant. He was still wearing his combat dress. Had he been hiding there since Liv freed him from the tent? The young man was very upset and was hiding for the others not to see how shaken he was. Sure that if his own friends saw him like this, they would make fun of him though they had no idea what he had seen outside. “Adam?” The young assistant hiccuped and raised his head to see who had found him in here when he thought no one would. He wasn’t relieved at all to see Rose. How could he face her when he had seen her husband be killed right in front of him? “Miss Rose?” His voice let her know that he had been crying for a while but she made no comment as she knelt down. He sniffled and wiped away his eyes and nose with the sleeve of his combat dress. “Have you been hiding there for three days?” “Where can I go? Mister Maxence…” “I know. I’m going out to get him back.” “What?” Adam’s eyes grew big as he looked at Rose. “No. Don’t go outside. Don’t. They’ll kill you!” “Adam.” She was determinate. She would go outside and bring her husband back. “This place can’t work without him. He recruited us all. He’s the cornerstone of this building. If he’s gone, everything collapses. I have to find him.” “I’m sorry, miss Rose. I’m really sorry.” Adam broke down again and hid his face in his knees. He couldn’t hide this from her. He had been part of a secret mission and he wasn’t supposed to talk to anybody else but Maxence and since the boss would never be back, he couldn’t talk to anyone. But he couldn’t hide this from Rose. “We fell into a trap,” he murmured between two sobs. “It was the end of the day and we hadn’t found any clue of where the nightwalkers were hiding during the day. We wanted to find one and take it by surprise to bring it back here. It was the safest way to do it but…” He sobbed harder, reliving the scene again and again. “We haven’t found anything and we were coming back to safety. But there was this kid crying in the middle of the street. And mister Maxence… you know how he is. He knew we only had a couple of minutes to go to the van but wanted to help this kid. He told us to stand still and went over the kid.” He stopped speaking. The tears and panic were suffocating him. However, Rose needed to know more. Adam was delivering her the truth. She was afraid but she needed to hear it. She put her hands on his shoulders and shook Adam lightly. “What happened Adam? Tell me. What has happened to Maxence?” “The nightwalkers, they are cleverer than we thought and… they can come out earlier. The sun wasn’t down yet and they were already lurking in the shadows.” “Faster, Adam!” “The kid was infected. None of us had noticed it. When mister Maxence picked him up, the kid bit his neck brutally. The guards, they tried to intervene but the nightwalkers were surrounding mister Maxence. He yelled to us to run away, to go back to the building as more infected were attacking him. He had no chance. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Rose’s heart sank. She had wanted the truth and she had it. Her husband would never be back. He was infected. Going after him would be useless. He wouldn’t recognise her. His brain was dead. Her knight was dead and there was nothing she could do to save him. Finding the cure? They had no chance without Maxence, and the antidote they had synthesised showed no results so far. Jack was keeping them updated but Peggy’s condition hadn’t improved or gotten worse over the last three days. The results weren’t official as Maxence hadn’t confirmed them although everyone knew that Jack was a trustworthy and brilliant man. It meant that even if she could find her husband out there, she had no way to bring him back to her. She was alone to face the rest of her life and that’s an idea she couldn’t bear. Body and mind entirely numb, she stood up and left the room. She wandered in the building like a ghost. She didn’t want to see anyone, didn’t want to talk with anyone. She had had a little hope that Maxence could be alive and it had just been crushed down. Screw this man and his will of saving everyone! It had cost him his life and it was shattering her into pieces. The pain in her heart was such that she fell to her knees in the middle of the corridor she was walking in and she yelled to the top of her lungs and she cried over the loss of her only love.

Colin was unhappy. He had been told that Martha had been absent just for a couple of days because she had a cold and couldn’t work. Whenever you were sick, you had to stop working until you fully recovered. It was to avoid any sort of contamination of the possible antidote, to avoid the virus they were working on to grow stronger by mixing with another one as simple as a cold. It meant that Martha Jones would be back to work soon and that Colin would have to leave her lab to go back to the stuff maintenance. He was working on a cure of his own in a free lab. He had noticed the flaws in Rose and Clara’s work and was fixing it whenever he got time but he couldn’t test it on Peggy. Jack wouldn’t let him close to his precious pig. Colin had to find another Guinea pig. They didn’t have any animal left in the basement. All the rats were gone, the monkeys hadn’t survived. But Maxence was bringing a living specimen in. This was getting interesting. The tests were all done and the quarantine was over. It meant the specimen was between their walls. Colin headed to the underground labs where were the cages set for the human specimens. He needed to see it by himself. He needed to see if that dumbass Maxence had had the courage of going out to get this nightwalker. Obviously he had since one of the cages had been activated. The uv lights were on and the rest of the room was in the dark. The scientist walked to see the face of the infected that had been brought inside. He couldn’t help the smirk when he realised it was Maxence himself. That idiot had gotten infected. It would be a great pleasure to work on him. Colin knocked on the door to get his boss attention. Maxence out of the game, it made him the leader of the place. They had been recruited almost at the same time. It made him more legitimate to the job of leader than any other of his colleagues. He smirked wilder. Maxence walked to the glass wall Colin was standing in front of. With the last results of the tests, the man knew that the noctiagus was turning the infected into complete idiots and he expected Maxence to try and walk to him despite the invisible wall between them. However, even in his stupidity, Maxence seemed to remain clever. He stopped a few centimetres away from the wall and tilted his head on the side as if he was trying to remember who was the man before him. He really looked like the idiot of the village. He knocked on the wall to respond the scientist, his hand covered in dry blood because he had hurt himself by hitting the crate repeatedly. His face was covered in red marks that were turning into small white blisters, almost invisible on his translucent skin. He could die of an infection if it wasn’t taken care of. How ironic would that be? Surviving outside and dying from a tiny skin infection? Oh, how much Colin would laugh at that! “I really like how the wheel is turning right now, dear friend.” His voice was pernicious. He appreciated the show before him and couldn’t hide it, nor could he hide his nastiness. “You, in this cage and me, in your place. If you expected to have a special treatment because everyone is your friend out there, you’re wrong. You’ve humiliated me by pushing me away and you’re gonna pay for that. Do you hear me, idiot? Your life is gonna be hell from now on.” To prove his point, Colin reached for the control panel of the cage and pressed a couple buttons, changing the settings. The uv lights were replaced by normal lights. Maxence’s reaction to this change was immediate. His pale skin turned to red and he threw himself to the ground where he crawled under the camp bed to protect himself from the sudden burn he was suffering from. Poor creature was harmless at the moment and Colin was enjoying this more than he should be. It was a human being he was torturing after all. Even if he didn’t consider nightwalkers to be human beings, they still were. When he heard footsteps coming his way, he faked a panicked expression while he tried to bring the settings back to their normal state. He knew them by heart but it was more funny to see Maxence crawling like a worm to avoid the light. “What are you doing here?” Jack’s voice was so cold that everyone else would have frozen in fear but not Colin. He kept faking the panic and played his part. He was good at it but he needed the right audience. With Jack, it could not work. Especially since the argument they had had earlier. “I was passing by and I saw him turning as red as a beetroot. There has been a bug in the system and I can’t get the right settings back.” Colin stepped back when Jack approached the control panel and let him put the settings back to normal. Maxence was relieved when the uv lights were back and his whole body collapsed to the floor, welcoming the coldness of it with great pleasure. “Briefing. In five. Better be there, Appleton. I don’t wanna see you around this cage again or I’ll put you inside with him.” “He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” “Bet on it.” Jack pointed to the closest exit of the room and Colin followed this direction. For now, he was obeying. In a few, they would all obey him. He couldn’t wait. He headed to the conference room where most of the team was already gathered. The briefing was as brief as the name was telling. They were just informed that a living specimen was brought back by Allegro. They didn’t give names. Only the persons who would work on the specimen would have his real identity. The others would just work by a number. There also was another information that filled Colin with rage. As Maxence was declared dead outside, a new leader had been designed. Tegan Smith. Fucking poofta Tegan Smith had been picked by Maxence before he went away on that mission. And Tegan Smith would have Jack as his second. He was so enraged at this decision that he chose to leave the room before the end of the briefing.

Rose hadn’t gone to the briefing. She already knew what would be told. It was Jack who had found her crying and yelling in that corridor and he had only confirmed Adam’s words. Maxence was infected, but he hadn’t been left in the streets. Allegro had brought him back, on his order, and he was now locked inside a cage downstairs. Of course she had wanted to see him and when she was in front of this cage, she broke again at the sight of her dear husband, huddled on the floor, badly burnt by the lights. She had no tears left now and she was alone with a man who used to be hers. And she was angry. Very angry. So, when Maxence looked up at her – he was checking if it wasn’t that cruel guy again – she burst out. “What the hell has gone through that stupid mind of yours to go outside and not tell me? Do you have any idea of what has gone through my mind when I couldn’t find you? Do you know how worried I’ve been when the lockdown was pronounced? When you didn’t come out of this tent? Have you even thought of me, Maxence, when you obeyed that fucking order? If you had, you would have told me! That’s your fault all of this! If you weren’t so clever, you wouldn’t have been the leader and they would have sent someone else! What am I gonna now without you? Have you thought about the lives you were sacrificing when you didn’t check if that kid was infected? A kid in the middle of a street while night is falling. Even Adam knew it was a trap! And you’ve fallen into it head first. What now? Hm? How are we supposed to do without you?” She wanted to break again but she didn’t have that strength into her anymore. If she was selfish, she would have gotten into that cage and let him infect her but he needed her to find a cure now that he was in here. She was watching him, his burnt skin, the bite in his neck not looking nice, as he walked to the glass door to face her. He needed her cares and she couldn’t get close to him like she normally would. Did he even know who she was anymore? A knock on the glass pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked up at her husband who was staring at her, his hand on the glass wall. He pointed to it, to make her understand what he expected her to do. It surprised her. Nightwalkers weren’t known to take decisions or to interact with lightwalkers. Everyone thought they couldn’t but they were cleverer than expected. Rose placed her hand over Maxence’s on the glass wall and remembered the warmth of it against hers. She sniffled and he smiled to her. At that moment, Rose forgot everything. She couldn’t see the burns, the bite, the translucent skin. She only saw her husband and his smile. He was infected but somehow he hadn’t lost himself and knew who she was. He was making her understand that he was still there despite the virus eating him out. “Oh, Maxence, what have we done to end up like this?” she murmured. Maxence couldn’t hear her since she hadn’t pressed the intercom button. He acted like he had understood though. Rose closed her eyes briefly, her hand still over his. He knocked on the wall again. It sounded like a song. Their song. She pressed the button, quietly hummed it along his knocking so he could hear it. Her watch was ticking the seconds away but time wasn’t existing anymore for her. She was just taking advantage of this moment and making sure she would remember it later when he wouldn’t be himself anymore. She had no idea how long he would hold on to his identity, how long he would remember her and their relationship. So she kept humming the song to the rhythm of his knocking and when she couldn’t hum it anymore, she just moved her lips silently as she recited the lyrics again and again. “I’ll be back in five.” She suddenly ran out of the room. This wall was already too much for her so she pulled out a hazmat suit, borrowed a complete first aid kit and ran back to the lab. She went through the airlock and came into the cage. Maxence turned around to face her. Her latex gloved hand found his burnt cheek and he leant into her touch, much to her rapture. She didn’t care that he wasn’t her Maxence anymore – even if her heart was aching at the loss – a part of him was still there and that part needed her. So, she was gonna take care of him like she had always done and she didn’t mind what the others would say to her…

To be continued...

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In the next chapter:

There was no one in his office when Jack arrived there. The lights were off. Tegan wasn’t there. He must have chosen to hide somewhere so no one would see him being completely hysterical with anxiety. Jack wondered why Maxence had chosen Tegan as his successor. He must have known that Tegan didn’t have the shoulders for this. He was a great man with a great intelligence but he wasn’t very authoritarian. How would he be obeyed? Good thing Maxence had thought about Jack and Rose to help him deal with it. Naming Tegan was showing him a huge proof of confidence and maybe that was what Tegan needed to get some maturity. But first, Jack had to find him and force him out of his shocked condition. Where was he hiding?

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