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jujutsukgojo · 1 year ago

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Heat of the island

“How’d he die, (Y/n)?” Katsuki asks for the last time.

The last time for all of them.

There is something in the air. A sharpness to the quality that just doesn’t sit right. It is past tension and disbelief. Whatever it is, it’s off-putting and confusing. Something isn’t right and you may be the only one to notice it.

And that’s terrifying being among heroes.

A/N: i dont own bnha. tried to edit this the best i could. it's not the best but it'll work tw: plane crash, minor character death, allergies. reader x deku, reader x shouto

“Is everyone clear on the proper procedure?” You ask with your most professional voice.

“She’s acting like she doesn’t know us.” You point to the “whisperers” who are huddled together rather than listening to your instruction. “I do know you unfortunately, which is why I’m asking if you understand.”

Kaminari cackles and Kirishima rubs the back of his neck and mutters an apology. Mina jumps up with Ochako and Tsu, singing a tune about a fabulous vacation. Momo smiles sweetly and encourages it. It’s a wonder how they got through school like this, honestly.

Rolling your eyes, you go to the cockpit. Normally, you would take one of your bigger aircrafts when sporting this many people. It's just Ol’ Betty, your beautiful creation, is your flight of choice today. She wanted to fly again since it’s been a hot minute.

When you were a student in U.A., you worked tirelessly on a plane. A plane that would be safe, light, and secure. One built for speed and is amphibious too. No matter how many times Power Loader told you to make anything other than Betty, and how people made fun of her look, you were determined to finish her. Her mixed pieces of old junk metal, mix matched parts and seats, made her unique and familiar.

Finally, she was born in the nick of time. Right when Shigaraki attacked U.A. and the defenses crashed, it was you who gathered people into Betty and her attachments. She took off like lightning to Shitesku. It was your own version of heroism. Perhaps this is why these heroes trust you so much with Betty. Although she was made by your own hands, she is the best of the best. No other plane was up for the job to transport so many people yet there you and Betty were, ready, willing, and able.

You sit down and nod to your co-pilot, Jay. The plane comes to life and drives. Seconds later, she’s in the air she was made for.

“You sure are eating a lot of those.” Jay continues to eat his fifth bag of peanuts. “They’re good.”

“Honey roasted?” You ask.

“How’d you know?” You side eye him. “’Cause they’re mine punk, slow down on them.”

Jay smacks his lips and continues to eat them with one hand. You’ve known Jay since before you got your license. He was in General Studies, wanting to be a pilot. He sought you out for you to train him. Ever since then, he’s been your right hand. Jay was taking notes on how to create a Betty of his own, even though he criticized every little thing you did. To this day you want to smack the shit out of him.

“It’s okay, though. It's fair since I ate your Debbie’s.” He shrieks. “You ate my Little Debbie’s?”

You hum in response with a grin on your face. “I just love Zebra Cakes.”

“You motherfucker. I can’t have nothing nice.” He pouts and rolls his eyes at you. You laugh at him, just enjoying the ride.

The heroes you are carrying, Uravity, Deku, Dynamite, Pinky, Chargebolt, Creati, Red Riot, Froppy, Anima, and Shouto, are all relaxing and enjoying the ride. Shouto, as you suspected, is asleep the moment the flight started. Katsuki relaxes by the window at first until Izuku starts to excitedly talk about their vacation. The girls sing together and Denki dances in his seat, slightly scaring Koda who just wants to land already. Lastly, there is Eijiro who’s just trying to survive.

All these crazy ass people aboard your precious child. Thankfully, it doesn’t require gasoline like regular, old fashioned planes. No, your baby is charged up with energy and her own determination to go and get them away from you and to their vacation.

“Where are we headed anyway?” You show your co-pilot an island just west of Japan. It should be no more than a few hours flight if that long. With your experience of flying this way, it will be a breeze if everything cooperates, which no doubt it will. Betty is a speed loving machine that has never failed.

“They’re going on vacation. It’s our job to get them there and celebrate when they leave,” You poke your friend on the shoulder and whisper, “And preferably leave with a couple of drinks.”

Setting the course, you put on auto-pilot and pat Jay. “I’ll be back I have to use the bathroom.” In just a few minutes you are out of the bathroom and face your passengers.

“Pilot?” You turn to see Izuku shyly say your nickname that was given to you in high school. “Thanks for the ride.” A slight blush paints his cheeks. He looks away not wanting you to see it. The big guy practically takes up the doorway.

When you two met, you were in high school. You in the support department and him in the hero course. While he usually went to Mei for gear, you were visited for more flight-based items. Once Izuku triggered his Float, he was a client of yours too. Especially when he discovered that you were quirkless. Throughout U.A. it was only the two of you who were quirkless. Moreso you than him given One For All. Nevertheless, the coincidence of quirklessness gave a sense of camaraderie between the two of you.

Growing up with him for three years you got to see the many changes in his body. By the third year, he grew over a foot if not more. Now in the mid-twenties, his muscles are proportionate to his height. He still has his green curls but they’re shorter with an undercut now. His green eyes are still very round and big while his freckles are still prominent on his cheeks.

Honestly, it’s insane how much he’s changed physically. Izuku Midoriya is a man now. A deep voiced man that is so shy around you. Deep inside, he’s still a little nerd.

“My pleasure Izuku.” He turns beat red at the sound of his first name. After all this time he’s still blushing from it. You’ve never been one to call others by their last name. Hell, the teachers at U.A. don’t even get that treatment. You’ll never forget Shouta’s face whenever you called him that. His hair stood up and eyes glowed red and not by his quirk.

Though nothing could top Izuku’s reaction. Steam came out of his ears so much that you thought his poor head would pop off. “T-t-tanks-I mean thanks!”

Not giving up the chance to mess with him, you press it. “Well, how could it not be my pleasure to fly the number one hero.” You tease. Izuku wants to cover his face so badly.

Without the need of a mind reading quirk, you can hear the ‘You’re a hero, Izuku! You’ve faced tougher than this! You’re a man now, not a kid.’

When he first became a hero, you caught him telling himself that. Ever since then you’ve just known when he was saying it. You can admit that he’s cute. Hell, maybe not cute as much as handsome. He straightens up and stares at you dead on, ready to say something. “ Deku! You’re acting like Mineta, you little-”

“Don’t be mad because you're still on the ‘Pilot’ level, Katsuki. He’s got first name privileges.” You yell over Izuku’s shoulder. “I do?”

“Yep! It’s okay, Izuku.” You squeeze his callous, large hand. “Go on sit down. This is a safety hazard.”

“It is?!” Mina asks. “ Yes, it is miss . You’d know this if y’all listened!” It isn’t anymore at least. Not since you’ve taken off and have been in the air for a while. It's an innocent lie to get them to calm down.

You take off back to the cockpit, pushing back the red curtains for just a moment. Teenage you didn’t think about a door, okay? So the curtains stay for now.

Deciding not to check if Betty is on track, you instead lean back and enjoy the ride. Betty is on autopilot anyway. Nothing is going to go wrong.

With the singing and laughing in the back, the quiet sound of your own song, you don’t realize that this is the last bit of happiness and that you should have been more observant of your surroundings.

Suddenly, the sky is flushed with a dark blue that morphs into a stormy grey. Clouds are fluffy and reveal some streaks of light in their creases. There hasn’t been any noise yet. Nevertheless, the image itself is telling. There is a deep, eerie feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“Thunderstorm? There were no reports today...”

Before the ride, you checked everything to see how the air would be. Nothing showed that this should be happening. It was forecast that it would be a mild day. However, random storms can occur. Nothing is ever set.

Mina’s shouting is the clearest of them all. “What’s wrong with the plane!”

The turbulence is always scary for passengers. You grab the speaker and say beautiful words. “Please shut up. It's just a thunderstorm.”

“Are we going to die?!” You roll your eyes. Turbulence is scary but not concerning. It happens all the time.

“Denki, please shut up. No one is going to die. It's just a storm. We've been through worse.” You hang up the mic and continue on. It is weird that this happened so suddenly. There wasn’t any indication either. It was just a sudden darkness that washed against the sky after what seemed like a wave of blue. It kind of reminded you of an actual ocean wave.

“It’s fine. Nothing you haven’t been through before, (Y/n).”

Minutes pass with ease and only the slightest turbulence. Jay has been suspiciously quiet for a while. “Probably asleep, knowing him.”

Poking him, you call him. “Jay, how’d you expect to get to this level if you’re sleeping?”

He’s turned away from you. All you can see is the back of his head and the collar of his jacket high up on his neck, close to his cheeks. Pushing him now, you see him clearly when his face turns to you. His face has a tinge of blue and it’s swollen.

You scream at the top of your lungs.

“Jay? Jay?! Jay!” You shake him. What the hell is going on?! He was just fine minutes ago! You continue to shake him and call his name. It takes a moment for everything to dawn on you. The coldness of his skin finally wakes you up. It all starts to make sense. The peanuts, the silence, the equipment, the storm, all of it. You look at the screens again. No fucking wonder, it's because you’re off course. Jay was never sleeping. As he was suffering at some point, he must have messed with the controls on accident when you weren’t here.

He isn’t sleeping. Jay is swollen and blue and has crusted tears. Calling and crying his name isn’t waking him up. He’s not breathing.

His seatbelt is off at the worst time. A particularly strong turbulence interrupts your cries for your friend. The bounce of the plane is so strong that it moves his body on top of the dash. Tears stream down your face.

“Jay, I love you. But move your dead body!”

You push him off to control the plane again. Again, a blue color surrounds the sky that doesn’t look natural. It looks like a light almost. “Pilot? What’s going on?”

Izuku rushes to you only to see you crying, trying to get control of the plane and Jay on the ground, motionless.

“I didn’t even know. He had a check up! I-he pushed-he's cold! Check on him, please! ”

This can’t be happening. For some reason, the plane isn’t cooperating. In all of your experience, nothing like this has ever happened. The plane is refusing to steer correctly. Checking your equipment, you can see from your end that everything is fine. As a pilot, you need to take responsibility, yes. You shouldn’t have been negligent. But, at this moment, it feels as if the plane is being pulled down.

Izuku doesn’t know what’s happening here, but what is so painfully obvious is that the plane is about to crash. No matter how much you try to lift it, Betty refuses to raise up.

How could this have happened? How? Jay doesn’t have a peanut allergy! He had a check up recently and ate peanuts all the time before. It had been a while, but honey roasted was his favorite! Maybe it’s not peanuts? It could have been anything, right?

You killed him.

What else could have done him in?

Jay, Jay, Jay! He's so cold too. You are the one who bought the peanuts. You watched him eat them. You are the one who wasn't paying attention.

“Izuku, go sit down!”

“I can’t, (Y/n).” Before questioning why, he leans in and says, “My danger sense is going off.”

There’s a flash of lightning and the rain is pouring so hard it’s pounding. The lights are going crazy as the plane continues to bounce from the strange force and your will to control it.

Deep inside of your gut you feel it too. The plane dodges the strikes of lightning. Usually, you’d be able to navigate a storm and planes wouldn’t have to worry about dodging. However, this storm is drastically different. It’s not natural, you can feel it. Can Izuku?

“Obviously! We’re going down! Just try to sit your ass down.”

Finally, you see a small strip of land, an island. You could try to continue to fly through this or land until it gets better. Another wash of blue comes for the plane right as lightning strikes brightly. Your head begins to hurt, you feel dizzy and confused. A sharp chill runs up your spine and makes your hair stand up. For some reason your eyes can’t seem to focus on anything.

You push the special landing gear. Izuku wraps his large body around you, purely on instinct. Stretching your arm to push one more button and the yoke, you somehow, among all the chaos and heartbreak, are actually managing to land the plane.

The plane dives as you say, and the blessed features come out in time. Along with the average plane safety features, you installed a soft pad that lightens the plane before impact and if need be, floats in water. A parachute deploys and sends a bright flare into the sky. Cushions envelope the passengers to brace for impact. All these features were put in when you were a teen. They were random and some were based on heroes. Power Loader would roll his eyes at it until he saw it work when All For One and Shigaraki tried to take it down. Every passenger on board was completely safe.

After that, no one ever made fun of Betty. Funny how far you and Betty have fallen. Literally.

Strong arms tighten around you, Izuku pushes himself in front of you. With one last effort, you stretch your hand higher. “Iz-uku! One more .”

Screaming, your finger finally presses the button for nearby pilots, authorities, and radios for help. There is a good chance that it won't work. Nevertheless, Betty was going down by this mysterious storm and you can swear that there’s something pulling her down.

---

You wake up first. By the time that happens, the sun is shining brightly, and the heat is horrible. Tremendously sweating, it gets worse when Izuku becomes a boa constrictor and squeezes you. Your face smashes into his chest. “Izuku, please...” You gasp.

Moving slightly, your mouth comes to face his neck. Heavily breathing, you bite his neck. He wakes up with a hiss. “W-what?”

“Wake up, please.” A whisper is enough to make him alert. Izuku pops up and looks around. Somehow, he’s completely intact despite using himself as a cushion for you. His green eyes study you. His hands roam over your body to look for any wounds.

“Are you okay? Can you see me?” You nod and prop yourself up. “Slow down, slow down, Pilot.”

Groaning, you tell him you’re alright but you’re not sure about everyone else. “A cushion should’ve deployed. We have to go check though.”

As Izuku holds you up, Jay’s body lay behind him. “Huh?” Izuku looks behind him.

“What?” You try to see what he is staring at, but Izuku shuts that down.

“Sh, sh, don’t look. Don’t look.” Izuku holds your face towards him and leads you away. Your eyes burn and lip wobbles. It’s a surprise when lips touch your head.

You don’t even think about that. Who cares? Jay is gone. Betty crashed. The passengers may be gone for all that’s known. Where are you? The course was set, and the sky was clear. No storm came up on your reports and equipment. Not even a hint of a formation.

Jay, oh Jay. What did you do?

Why are you blaming him, you who bought the peanuts? You who didn’t check on him. Some friend you are. You killed him. You should’ve known what was happening. You swallow hard at the nausea. You whisper so quietly, Izuku doesn’t hear you. “God help me...” Help Jay, help everyone.

Everyone is safe, as far as you can see. The cushions on their chairs safely encased them. The seatbelts are wrapped around their body. You give a sigh of relief that there isn't a gory sight.

Walking to the first aid kit, you get the scanner that checks not only their temperature, but also any wounds they may carry. It is something Recovery Girl gave you when you helped at U.A.’s fortress all those years ago. You press it to Koda’s forehead then bring it down.

“97, sore throat?” That never happens with Koda. As long as you have known him, he has always made sure to care for his throat. Hell, Momo relishes that he comes to her for tea and honey. Then again, the sore throat could have been from him screaming, if he even did.

The news that he was generally okay feels like a heavy weight’s been lifted. That news alone is not able to completely release the guilt and heartache, however. There is still so much that needs to be done, to be figured out, to be buried.

“Katsuki, 98, no injuries.”

His usual, if you remember, is at least 105 or so. It always ranged whenever he used his quirk recently. That tends to happen for all of those who have fire-based quirks. Out of curiosity, you press your finger to his palm. The callous skin is cooler than it usually is. In fact, his hands are completely dry as well. There is not a hint of moisture.

You go through all of them except Shouto, whose eyes have opened. He rubs the back of his head and looks around confused. Each seemed relatively normal and with little to no injuries. The oddities are how their usual care is opposite, like how Koda’s throat is sore and how Katsuki’s palms are cooled down.

At least they’re okay.

This whole thing is surreal. Nothing about what happened makes sense given how sudden it was and yet, everything is okay. Almost as if it never happened. Like the rush of a blue hue wasn’t there or the feel of the pull was imaginary.

“Izuku, face me.” He reads at a normal temperature with only a few bruises and exhaustion. “Did you check yourself?”

“I’m fine. Isn’t it weird that everything is okay? And they’re reading the opposite of what they usually are?”

“It could be faulty. You still need to be checked at least.”

“Even though it’s faulty?” Izuku rolls his eyes and reaches for the device.

Steps are heard then. “Here, I'll do it.” A barely cool right hand presses the device at your head. Shouto used to help with Recovery Girl with you when U.A. was a fortress. He felt that it was his duty because of the destruction Dabi caused. With you being in the support course, you had also taken up a few tips and tricks with Recovery Girl. Following her around and learning led you to be a big help during the wars and the fortress.

You taught Shouto everything he knows. Does he remember it? Probably not, the spacey brat.

“A mild concussion.” Well damn. “Are you sure, Shouto?”

Izuku looks at the device too. “We have to sit her down.” Izuku agrees and helps you sit at one of the passenger seats. “I’m so sorry, Pilot. I should’ve done better,” You pet his hand that rests on your shoulder.

“Watch her while I go check everything out.” He reluctantly leaves but knows you are safe in Shouto’s hands.

You take the device and move Shouto’s hair so you can place it directly on Shouto’s forehead. “I need two.”

“I know, this is just to check something. 98.” You place it on both sides of his forehead, only to get the same results.

This is off. Usually, a fire based user will run warm and an ice user runs cold. In Shouto’s case, if he hasn’t used his quirk and is fine, the device should read ERR. It is normal to have to put two scanners on his head just to read what his temperatures are in case he isn’t alright. You remember the first time having to do a little math on him when he became sick.

Never has he ever been a normal human temperature. “I could just be off, Y/n.”

“Or the device is? It's hot out, so Katsuki's palms should be sweating a ton. And shouldn't we all be a little warmer because of the heat? But none of that is happening.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. It's right about you. You don't look too good.” He grabs it from you and tosses it to another chair. You put your head in your hands.

“Nothing feels real.” He rubs your arms. He’s always been very comforting and awkward. “What happened?”

It takes a few moments to remember everything, which you feel isn’t much. He nods as you tell of the random storm and how Jay is dead. “I feel like there’s more, though.”

“Well, the injury is minor. You'll be better in a day at most."

Aggravated noises come from behind Shouto. “What the fuck just happened?!”

Katsuki walks towards his friend (who he still won’t admit is his friend). “Where the hell is she!”

“I’m here, Katsuki.” Shouto stands when you give yourself away. “What the hell is going on? What the fuck did you do?”

“It was an accident.” Katsuki gets into Shouto’s face. “Yeah? By whose account? I know you can’t believe her.”

You understand he’s scared. It’s expected. But to think you’d endanger them on purpose is hurtful. Shouto defends you every step of the way. “Ask Midoriya then if you don’t believe. He was with her.”

The blond leaves with heavy stomping. “Deku!”

Shouto squats in front of you. “It’s going to be okay, Pilot.”

“I don’t understand this at all.” You truly don’t. And neither does Shouto, you think.

No more than an hour later, everyone is up and outside. The heat is slowly becoming worse, and the air is too dry. The sand is doing nothing to help. The waves carry on in the background, doing little to overpower the loud complaints from everyone.

Mina is screaming that she can’t use her quirk. Eijrou can barely harden, Katsuki gives the saddest explosions that cause him pain, Koda can only get a bird’s attention, this is the same trend for everyone. What is worse is that Izuku can only feel the embers of One For All and gave you a hurt expression when discovered. As if you had taken it from him.

Painful, absolutely painful.

As the sun beats down on everyone, you swear you can see a sheer blue tint around you. It graces ever so slightly on their skin. The same color lays all around you. The ground, the abundant trees, Betty, even the waves as much as you can tell. You want to voice your thoughts, but the situation at hand doesn’t call for it.

------------

The heroes start to calm down. Momo, as usual, begins to plan for shelter from the heat. Koda and Eijrou immediately run around for anything of use. It isn’t until Mina asks a question does everybody stop.

“Where’s Jay?” Mina asks. As the hour passed, your head began to get better. You inform everyone of a much clearer picture than you had told Shouto. How you found him, how the dash acted off, everything.

Mina gasps. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. His face was swollen and his body was blue when I got there. It must’ve been the peanuts! What else could it have been, y’know? He was completely fine when I left for the bathroom.” You sniffle.

“Allergies can develop at any age. Even later in life so it’s not impossible, Pilot.” Denki reassures. You rub your face with your hands. Katsuki leaves to go into the plane’s controls to check on him. “There’s always hope, you know.” Eijrou says as he rubs your shoulder.

“It doesn’t feel real. None of it does. How could this have happened? He just had a checkup. Everything was on the up and up. How did this happen?"

“It never does feel right. There is never a good answer, either.” You nod and lean into the touch of the large red headed man.

“Huh, what’d she say about Jay?” Katsuki calls. You yell back your answer, completely confused. Suddenly, he appears with Jay. Jay, who doesn’t look at all as you described. Gasping, you run to him. Instead, he...looks normal.

Completely fine. Inside you is a delicate flower of hope blooms. Did you see wrong? Is he just sleeping? Could it have been a horrifying illusion?

“Oh my God. Jay? Jay!” Katsuki holds him out. You lightly tap his face. Abandoning the taps, you go on to slight shakes.

Your friend is still dead as a cold doorknob. The flower that tried to blossom is crushed to dust, as if Tomura himself had reached his hand and touched your chest. “What really happened, L/n.”

L/n. He hasn’t called you that since your first meeting when you were fifteen. As they study Jay, everyone gets increasingly confused.

He repeats his question as a whisper that only you two hear. “I swear-”

Katsuki Bakugou doesn’t believe you.

“I-I swear, okay? Izuku can testify that I'm not lying. Jay was swollen and everything. The swelling must’ve gone down.”

“And the color?” His face is still accusatory. “I don’t know, I don’t know! I can’t think of anything else that would cause it.” Tsu puts her finger on her chin. “Is that possible? If that’s the case, then maybe it fumes that killed him?”

“What fumes,” Shouto comes to look at Jay. “Can cause this?”

You shrug. “I didn’t smell any.”

“But if he was blue, can people become unblue?” Denki squints as he inspects your friend’s body. “How’d he die, (Y/n)?” Katsuki asks for the last time.

The last time for all of them.

And that’s terrifying being among heroes.

----------

“They’re supposed to be here by now.” Shouta Aizawa leans back in his chair with a beer in his hand. Going to the island for vacation wasn’t his idea or something he was looking forward to, but damn is he glad he went. With the beautiful sandy floor, the fresh breeze and beautiful waves, all of it is gorgeous. The lagoon to his right where his colleagues frolic around to the sky where the birds roam free.

Paradise.

Tenya rubs sunscreen on his arms. “Sensei?” He asks as he puts out the lotion towards the hero. “I’m not your teacher anymore, kid.”

His old class have grown tremendously. Iida, or should he say, Ingenium, is one of the most in demand heroes. His speed is unrivaled even by One For All. Iida has grown to save all of those in his path, making not only his old teacher proud but his brother as well.

Iida’s still a stick in the mud though. And he still does those robot hands for some reason.

“Haha, I know. At least officially you aren’t. But trust, Aizawa-sensei, we’ll always see you that way.”

Rolling his eye, he takes the bottle from the former class president. It is seconds later that Hitoshi, who Shouta can consider his own protégé, comes up to them and informs them that they have lost contact with your plane a little over an hour ago with a parting message that is nearly impossible to understand due to the static.

Shouta jumps up with a poorly concealed worried look. If you can go down, something is terribly wrong. There is no way a renowned pilot like yourself can crash just randomly.

It must be a villain. There is no other explanation.

“Where’s the radio?”

#bnha #bnha fanfiction #todoroki shouto x reader #midoriya izuku x reader #deku x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #had this in my drafts for over a year #q #my writing

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crystalninjaphoenix · 4 years ago

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House Tour

A Horror Septics Short

(It’s been too long since we caught up with these horrors. Let’s see what they’re up to in this quick short story =) )

Real estate agents liked to joke that certain houses in the city were cursed. They just couldn’t be sold. The ones who were in the business for a while told the new hires that these cursed houses would each spike up a period of difficulty selling, then after a decade or so, they’d be sold, and the curse of unsell-ability would move on to a different one. Deborah had always thought this ongoing joke was rather tasteless. After all, the real curse these houses held wasn’t that they couldn’t be sold. It was the reason they couldn’t be sold. Everyone knew deaths drove down the price of a house, but it was just odd when it just kept happening over and over in one house before suddenly stopping, and then the same thing happening in another house.

She’d previously tried to bring this up with her fellow agents. After all, wasn’t it weird how the same thing kept happening over and over? Suspicious, even? But everyone else shrugged it off. Just a coincidence. One time, she’d brought it up with the police, but was met with a similar reaction. There was no proof of this...conspiracy. It was just really strange. About two years ago, she’d told her boss about her theory one too many times. He’d gotten annoyed, and then the next house she was assigned to sell was one of the cursed ones.

It had actually gone well, at first. Deborah sold the house to a family of three. Americans, just moving to the country, and willing to take a cheap house even after being told about what happened to the previous owner. But only a couple months later, they were moving again. Out of the city. And the house had to be sold again.

Months passed, and the house was still for sale. It was starting to wear on Deborah’s patience. People would be interested in the offers online, but when they came in for the house tour, they’d quickly change their minds. Always the same.

And honestly? It sounded crazy, but the more time she spent in the house, the more she felt like...there was something inside watching her. Something that didn’t like her, something that wanted her to leave and never come back. It was ridiculous, but that’s what she felt. Maybe her potential clients felt the same way, and that’s why they always decided against buying.

Now, it was six months since the last family moved out, and Deborah had a new house tour for the first time in a month. It was a rainy day, but she stood out in front of the house, coat wrapped tight around her, clipboard with the house’s information underneath said coat to keep it dry. In the distance, a small black car turns into the street, slowly approaching. It soon pulled over to the side of the road in front of the house, and out stepped a man in a long coat.

“Hi! I’m Debbie, I’m your real estate agent.” Deborah put some extra cheer into her usual script. “Are you Mr. Howell? We talked online.”

“Yes, that’s me,” the man replied. His voice had a refined accent. “Charmed to meet you.” He held out his hands, and they shook.

“Well thank you very much, Mr. Howell,” Deborah said. Shall we get started on the tour right away?” If she hurried him through, maybe he wouldn’t back out later.

“That sounds lovely. Thank you, Debbie,” Mr. Howell said cordially.

Deborah smiled, and led him inside.

By now, she had her spiel memorized, and was prepared for any potential questions. The house had been left unfurnished when the American family moved out, so she rattled on and on about the space each room provided and the features that could be included. In the kitchen and bathroom, she pointed out the smooth countertops—“As good as new!”—and in the upstairs bedrooms she suggested they could be “good to give children their own space, or for those without kids, could be easily turned into an office or guest bedroom!”

She finished the tour in the upstairs master bedroom, and felt suddenly incredibly proud of herself. By this point, the clients were usually vocal about their discomfort, often saying things like “It’s a lovely house, but we’re not sure it’s right for us” to ease the blow. But Mr. Howell had been pretty quiet the whole tour. But at this point, she was required to ask if there were any questions, so...“Alright, and that’s the last stop on our tour,” she said with a big smile. “Now, are there any questions you have about the house?”

And she turned around.

But much to her surprise, she was alone.

Deborah blinked, then squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, as if that would help her see. There was no getting around it. Mr. Howell had disappeared at some point. But...where? Where could he have gone? And how could she have not noticed. She could’ve sworn she could hear him responding to her selling points. No questions, but little comments that sounded impressed. Though...she couldn’t remember the specifics of those comments.

Well it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she somehow lost sight of her client! That wouldn’t look good to her boss. She hurriedly left the room. Maybe he’d gone back to check out another location?

Why...was it so dark in the hall? She’d made sure to leave all the lights on as they left each part of the house. But they were all turned off now. And when she flipped the hallway lightswitch, they didn’t turn on. Oh, great. A power outage. With the rain outside blocking light from the windows, the house was now exceptionally shadowy and gloomy.

Deborah walked down the hall, hurrying towards the stairs, but then...there was a voice. She stopped. “Mr. Howell?” she called. But got no answer.

Maybe that voice had come from one of the other rooms. Yes, that was probably it. In fact, now that she was paying attention, one of the doors was now closed. Even though she kept them all open as policy for the house tour. Weird. Even weirder that she didn’t notice. She walked up to it and slowly opened it, not wanting to disturb Mr. Howell if he was on a phone call or something.

The room beyond was as dark as the hallway. In the little light that came in from the window, she saw a figure standing in the middle of the room. Mr. Howell? She was about to call out to him when she realized something was wrong. Mr. Howell had showed up wearing a nice, long red coat. This figure was wearing red, but it wasn’t a coat. It was a hoodie with the hood pulled up. Maybe he’d changed? But she couldn’t even tell the figure was him, because their back was to her. And there was something...off about the way it was standing. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” the figure said. She didn’t recognize the voice. “It was an accident. But it won’t be too difficult to find them again. I can head there soon.”

The figure fell silent, but Deborah still heard a voice. Whispers, more like. Curious, she peered further into the room, and saw...another figure. Standing near the wall, a bit curled into themself, the posture of someone who’s trying to hide. But she couldn’t make out any details beyond that. Or hear their voice properly.

“Well, you can’t do it, can you?” The figure in red asked.

The shadow figure paused, then mumbled something.

“Huh? Really? How’s that work?”

More mumbling.

“Interesting. So...if I put her in a situation where she’d need to, would that work?”

Harsh whispering.

The figure in red raised their hands. The motion was accompanied by an odd crackling sound. Deborah cringed at it. The sound reminded her of cracking bones. “I wouldn’t do anything like that. You’ve made it perfectly clear how they’re off limits. Hmm...now that I’m thinking about it, she’d probably know that there wouldn’t be any actual danger.”

More whispering. This time softer, almost gentle.

“Notarzt is fine. The äµŬûĝËŇ escaping really freaked it out, so it’ll be staying in the maze for a while.” Wait, what was that word? She couldn’t quite catch it. “We...we’ll have to be careful. If Čĵĥ®Ķ¯ is really becoming more active again, and paying attention to us—and she’s still hanging around Èţ§ķőļ, too, so there might be—”

The shadowy figure cried out. It started to shout, and its words...Deborah cried out in turn and stumbled back at the strange force of its words. Even shouting, they sounded like whispers, but now these whispers were bombarding her ears.

she can’t! don’t they understand?! danger! danger! if something happened i’d die. i’m so lonely lonely lonely sad sad sad need warm warm warm—

She pressed her hands to her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, but the whispers echoed in her mind, still.

Until suddenly, they stopped. She opened her eyes—

“What did you hear?”

Deborah shrieked. The figure in red was right in front of her. And it—its hood was pulled down—she could see its face and—and—that...wasn’t...right.

“Run.”

She turned and sprinted down the hall. God, what was that thing?! Why did it—that wasn’t how things should be, why was it—she couldn’t even think about it, but she couldn’t get the image out of her mind. It made her skin crawl. It made her stomach roil. She wasn’t disgusted, but it just felt so wrong. It—it wasn’t human, it wasn’t alive, it wasn’t inhuman, it wasn’t dead, it wasn’t anything—

Her foot slipped.

...

The house’s lights turned on.

At the top of the staircase, something in a red hoodie pulled its hood back on. An indistinct figure, gray with black eyes leaking black liquid, peered around it to stare at the lump at the bottom of the stairs.

The corner of a step was stained red.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #jacksepticeye au #septic egos au #brigid writes fanfiction #horrorseptics

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thegayhimbo · 4 years ago

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I saw your reblog about Alcide, if you don't mind answering what are your personal thoughts on him?

Hi there. Sorry for the wait on this. I actually thought this was going to be a simple answer, but I realize there's a lot I wanted to say about the character in relation to how the fandom perceives him as opposed to how he actually comes off onscreen.

When I first saw the show, my feelings about Alcide ranged from okay at best to indifferent at worst. I didn't hate him, but I didn't care for him. He wasn't my favorite character on the show, and I found most of his story (and the werewolf plots) to be boring. I was actually surprised when I came online and found out he had a following with certain fans.

Upon rewatch, I'm still mostly indifferent to Alcide, but I lean a little more towards mildly disliking him now. And a lot of that has to do with how the fandom (especially people on Reddit) treat him vs how he actually comes across in the books and on the show.

I’ll start off by saying that I never liked Alcide in the books. He was an asshole, and most of the time he used Sookie to advance his position in the werewolf pack. What little relationship he had with Sookie felt one-sided on his part. It also doesn’t help that he unfairly blamed Sookie for stuff that was out of her control (like the death of Debbie in the books or the death of his father.) His attraction to Debbie in the books is also something that doesn’t reflect well on him. Contrary to the show’s portrayal, Debbie in the books was written as a one-dimensional psychopath with a jealous streak and no redeeming qualities. She’s basically a cartoon villain with no depth to her. The result is it’s hard to understand why Alcide got into a relationship with her in the first place, and it makes it look like he was just thinking with his dick. In other words, Book Alcide was nothing to brag about.

As for the show, like I said, I’m mostly apathetic to Alcide’s character (with a few exceptions that I will talk about in a minute) and I thought he was pointless. I know he was suppose to be a vehicle to introduce Sookie to the world of werewolves, but the way that was executed didn’t work. Common consensus in the fandom seems to be that the werewolf plots in both the books and the show were tedious and forgettable. It’s ironic because I know there are Alcide fans out there, but whenever I’ve asked them about what they thought of the werewolf stories, their responses range from “I don’t remember them” to “They were bad.” A lot of fans didn’t care for them. They could have been cut from the show without affecting the main story. That’s a problem because Alcide was usually involved in those stories, and the result is it was hard to care about him because of how non-compelling they were.

As for the character himself, I wasn’t impressed with him for a number of reasons.

First, there’s his relationship with women. I didn’t pick up on this the first time, but a rewatch has shown me how sexist Alcide came off during certain moments on the show. Case in point: His relationship with Debbie. One of the big conflicts between Alcide and Debbie on the show is that they both wanted different things. Alcide didn’t want kids and was fine not being in a werewolf pack. Debbie was the opposite where she did want kids and wanted to be a part of a community. Nothing wrong with that, but it was pretty clear from the get-go that this relationship was never going to work out. The problem though is that Alcide never seemed to recognize that, and kept trying to force Debbie to be something she didn’t want to be: A housewife who didn’t have kids, who was isolated except for her and Alcide, and who spoke softly and cooked meals for him. Basically the opposite of what Debbie was. And yes, I get that Debbie had a lot of problems and made really poor choices, but Alcide’s method of imposing his idea of what she should be was not the way to have handled that. It doesn’t help that he didn’t really seem to care about what she wanted because he thought he knew what was best for her. Like I said, that’s pretty sexist on his part.

And then there’s Sookie and how she factored into Alcide’s relationship with Debbie in seasons 3-4. I find it telling that when it comes to how this situation was handled, fans are eager to blame Sookie and Debbie for the whole mess that resulted in Alcide abjuring Debbie and Debbie getting killed by Sookie, but people rarely call out Alcide for his part in all of this. Personally though, I think Alcide bears some of the blame here for what happened.

Something that’s been pointed out is that during seasons 3-4, Alcide has only known Sookie for a brief period of time. Season 3 for instance takes place over the course of 9-10 days whereas season 4 takes place over 10 days (October 21st-October 31st). That’s about 2-3 weeks at best. And yet, despite only knowing Sookie for about a week in season 3, and despite having been in love with Debbie for a number of years, he’s already pining for Sookie:

youtube

Now maybe you could argue that he saw Sookie as a replacement in season 3 because his relationship with Debbie deteriorated and he was heartbroken. However, that excuse doesn’t hold up in season 4 when he’s supposed to have repaired his relationship with Debbie during the year Sookie was gone in faerie-land, and yet he’s still lusting for Sookie despite only knowing her for a short period of time.

It’s so telling to me that only a few days after Debbie’s death in season 5, Alcide tries to have sex with Sookie when they’re both drunk, and he tells Sookie “I’ve waited so long for this.” It really puts his relationship with Debbie in a negative light, and calls into question whether he actually loved her at all.

I’m not saying that Debbie was blameless in this, and it doesn’t excuse her cheating on Alcide with Marcus or trying to kill Sookie, but it’s not like she didn’t notice Alcide was eyeing Sookie for some time. This was a woman who had hitched her sobriety onto Alcide and felt isolated and alone, and the man she was depending on was emotionally cheating on her. And rather than owning up to that, Alcide tries to gaslight Debbie into thinking she’s crazy and it’s all in her head. He literally says that to her when they’re in bed together, and it’s nasty.

What’s frustrating is this usually gets overlooked in the fandom when people talk about Alcide’s character, and he’s usually referred to in a sympathetic light whereas Debbie is blamed for being an unstable, violent whack-job whereas Sookie is blamed for being a house-wrecker, even though she was in a relationship with Eric at the time.

This is also one of the reasons I never liked Sookie/Alcide as a pairing, and why them getting together at the end of season 6 felt forced: Putting aside how their only sexual interaction up to that point was Alcide trying to have sex with Sookie one night when they were drunk and Sookie vomiting all over him, it was basically Sookie getting pigeon-hold into the role of domestic housewife for Alcide. And I’m sorry, but I find it unbelievable that they were together for 6 months and Sookie never once picked up on any unkind or dirty thoughts from Alcide during the time they were together until the season 7 premiere when that suddenly was a problem.

But even putting aside his relationships with Sookie and Debbie, the biggest problem I have with Alcide is he’s not a compelling character. He’s a character whose motivations and personality change when the plot demands it, and most of the time the writers didn’t know what to do with him and just stuck him in different stories with no rhyme or reason. It doesn’t help that he has no character development during his time on the show. There is no difference between the Alcide we meet in season 3 and the one we end up with in season 7. The result is I don’t care about him.

It’s funny because I’ve seen plenty of fans project these kind of criticisms onto Jason, but I actually think they apply more to Alcide than they do to Jason.

Jason actually had character development. He learned to become more responsible and be someone others could depend on. He began to move away from his womanizing behavior in the later seasons and eventually settled down and had a family. He re-evaluated his stance on supernaturals, and actually became an ally for them in several ways. There is a big difference between the person he was in season 1 and the man he became by season 7. If people missed that, or chose to ignore it, that’s on them, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Alcide on the other hand..............what was his character development? How did he grow as a person? What did he learn from his relationships with Debbie or Sookie or Rikki? Or even from the whole werewolf pack nonsense? Cause I’m drawing a blank here. Was it suppose to be that pack life wasn’t for Alcide because it would turn him into a power-hungry asshole? I never got the impression that was a problem for him in the early seasons, and it was a contrived conflict that was manufactured for season 6. The show never did a good job fleshing out what his arc was suppose to be.

Also, say what you will about Jason’s stories, but at least they were memorable: Amy and Jason’s relationship. The Fellowship of the Sun. The werepanthers. Becoming a cop with Andy. His relationship with Jessica. His hunt for Warlow. I would also argue that each of these stories added something to Jason’s character, and helped him grow as a person. Alcide’s arc on the other hand.......................not so much. When I was rewatching, I had to take notes just to remember what was going on with the werewolves, and even when I was rewatching, I felt the overwhelming urge to hit the fast-forward button. That is how boring those scenes were. It says something that even Alcide wasn’t able to carry them.

TL;DR: I’m apathetic to Alcide (with a few moments where I find him unlikable), and I don’t think he was a good character. The werewolf plots were tedious at best and irritating at worst, and Alcide’s arc on the show wasn’t compelling or interesting. I don’t hate him the same way I hate characters like Bill, Hoyt, and Violet, but I don’t like him either.

#true blood #tgh opinions #alcide herveaux #debbie pelt #sookie stackhouse #jason stackhouse #happylittlepuppydog #the southern vampire mysteries

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oforamuse · 5 years ago

Text

alone without you (by my side)

five times mickey milkovich misses ian gallagher + the one time he doesn’t have to

read on ao3 // tw slurs

juvie

Mickey is horny. Mickey is really fucking horny. Out of his mind, he doesn't know which way is up, teenage freak kind of horny. Getting laid in juvie is a difficult job if he wants to keep his status of ‘not to be fucked with’, plus recovering from a taking a bullet in his leg means he can’t exactly approach anyone subtly (fuck you, Kash). He’s still got a few months to go before he’s released back into the world and he can’t fucking wait, practically counting down the days. Mickey didn’t think there would ever be a day that he would actually miss the shithole South Side, but he does. He misses the loud streets and the broken windows, the L and even the fucking Kash and Grab. He misses…

No, no he doesn’t. He just wants, needs, to get laid.

Laid by Ian Gallagher.

Fuck, Mickey thinks, being betrayed by your own subconscious fucking sucks. He needs to be laid by that freckly ginger fuck soon or he may actually lose his mind (what he has left of it, anyway). Besides, he doesn’t actually miss the kid he just misses his dick. That’s it. He couldn’t give a shit about that Gallagher fuck. He really couldn’t. Not. A. Shit.

Really.

He runs his hand through his hair out of frustration, stop being so fucking dramatic Milkovich, since when did he get this fucking ridiculous?

He rolls his eyes at himself, 2 months to go.

Until then though, it’s him and his trustly right hand alone. Resigning with a sigh, Mickey swings his legs over his bunk and jumps down deftly from the top.

‘Fuck you going?’ Jay, his roommate, asks absentmindedly from where he’s been throwing a ball against the wall and catching it on the other side of the room. Jay’s not one for useful recreational activities.

‘None of your fucking business that’s where’ Mickey snaps, grabbing his towel off the hook and swaggering out into the hall. He walks the short distance to the communal bathroom, it’s midday he should be alright, and locks the door behind him.

His trusty right hand indeed.

married life

His knuckles sting as he runs them under cool water in the kitchen, he’s pretty certain he’s got some glass in there somewhere.

Fucking stupid.

‘The fuck happened to your hand?’ Iggy grunts from where he sits at the table, nursing a beer in one hand and a wad of cash in the other. Who the fuck is giving Iggy cash? Ignoring him, Mickey watches the blood mix in with the water as it gets sucked down the drain and into the sewers. He wishes he could go down with it, down below his house, below the sidewalk, below every single person who knows his name and get sucked into the drain of the fucking earth. Anything to stop the dull ache in his stomach, the ache that feels like someone has force fed him stones, weighing down his every step. The ache that constantly reminds him, no matter where he is or what he’s doing, of Ian fucking Gallagher. Ian, who he hasn’t seen or heard from in over a week, not since he stood in his doorway and told him he was fucking off to the army. Not since Mickey’s eyes stung with tears and ‘please don’t go, please don’t leave me, stay, stay, stay, stay’ threatened to fall out of his mouth and onto the floor between them.

‘Don’t what?’ Ian had asked, but Mickey knew what he really had been saying.

You know what the fuck I mean to you, Milkovich. Are you man enough to admit it? To make me stay?

No, he wasn’t, Mickey thinks darkly. The ache getting heavier at the recalled memory. Mandy had called him a pussy, she was right. He is a pussy, a pussy who allowed himself to get this fucked up over a boy, a boy he tells himself every single day that he doesn’t give a shit about.

He doesn’t know where the shift happened, where the thing with Ian went from banging to…to this emotional shit. Sometimes he feels so much he thinks he’ll drown in it, drown in what he feels for Ian, for men, for what he doesn’t feel towards women. What he should and shouldn’t feel. He doesn’t know when the shift happened but he knows there definitely was one. A moment of clarity, of something clicking into place between the two of them and the entire world changing. Was it the hot summer evenings they spent at the dugout? The hours in the Kash and Grab, between working and fucking? Was it those last few moments of ignorant bliss before his dad came crashing in and their false sense of security fell to the ground? He remembers every single fucking moment of that morning and it makes his skin crawl.

Get the fuck off him get the fuck off him get the fuck off-

‘Asshole, you’re running up our water bill’

Mickey’s snapped back to the kitchen, the water still flowing out of the tap, though there’s no trace of blood left. His other hand grips tightly to the counter top, almost painfully. Lord fucking knows how long he’s been standing there lost, Iggy’s now gone and Mandy stands with a disgusted look on her face, leaning against the fridge.

‘Fuck off’ He grunts, turning off the running water and walking straight past her to his room, not looking back once.

prison

6 months, 3 days, 2 hours and a handful of minutes, give or take a few, according to the scratches on Mickey’s bed post.

Over 6 fucking months since he last saw…Ian.

Mickey’s heart jumps right up into his throat at the realisation and he feels like he’s going to be sick. There’s a pain in his gut like someone has taken a knife to a vital organ and won’t stop slowly twisting it.

6 months, twist. 3 days, twist. 2 hours, twist.

And no fucking Ian.

He knew he’d been kidding himself when he asked Ian to visit him, but this is just cruel. There was a part of him during the first few months that he’d hoped he’d be wrong, that little flicker of hope that perhaps Ian would come to his senses. Maybe his meds would level out, the mania controlled and he’d be on the next bus over to visit. But he hasn’t heard from him, not even a call. It’s humiliating to think about the amount of time Mickey just spent waiting, like a fucking dog for his owner or a 1950s housewife. He’s not a fucking housewife. He’s seen more of his estranged wife and his kid - if it even is his kid - than he has Ian. Mandy hasn’t even been by more than once to check in on him, he hasn’t heard from anyone else either. Not Fiona, not Debbie and sure as hell not Lip, but fuck, who can blame him for being disappointed? He’d clearly managed to kid himself into a false sense of…something, at least. Family? Friends? Fuck knows what, but he’s never doing it again. Love and it’s bullshit.

Lying there on his shitty prison mattress, all he can think of is Ian’s face behind that glass, reserved and disconnected, having to be paid to even come and see him. As if Mickey hadn’t dropped absolutely everything certain in his life to be by his side, to be with him, to be allowed to love him. And the worst fucking thing? He’d do it again, a thousand times over. He knows that if Ian turned up today, smiling and flirting like he always used to, all of that would be water under the bridge. He had always been told that love makes you crazy, but no one ever told Mickey that it makes you fucking stupid too.

Fuck, he misses him. He loves him and he always will with every single fibre of his being, every bone and every atom.

I love you. The hell does that even mean?

Twist, twist, twist.

mexico

He’s been working closely with a few guys the last couple of weeks, dealing and selling, working the streets here and there. Mickey tries not to stay in one place for too long, doesn’t make friends, doesn’t own much shit. It works for him. He’s safe here, but only if he keeps it that way.

‘You ready?’ Emiliano asks from the front seat, a lit cigarette hanging from his bottom lip. Jose is passed out in the passenger seat, feet up high on the dashboard and lightly snoring.

‘Yeah’ Mickey grunts in reply, adjusting the sunglasses on his face, carefully minding the bruising under his left eye. He’d managed to get into a shit faced drunk bar fight last night and gained himself a punch to the face and a kick in the groin before he was pulled off the guy. This American guy a table over had been shit talking for hours, Mickey doesn’t even remember (or give a fuck) what it was mostly about. He does remember, however, him spitting out ‘fags’ at these two other guys who’d been standing innocently next to each other at the bar. Mickey didn’t even know if they were together, or if they had just happened to be standing there at the same moment. That was what sealed the deal for Mickey, leaping over the table and going straight for the fucker’s nose.

He reaches into his pockets for a cigarette and lights it as it balances between his lips. They’re driving further South to another city where their boss has some connections he wants to solidify, apparently they’ve not done business in a while so he’s sending Mickey down there to start off some talks. It makes Mickey feel like an important part of the operation, as if he was needed, but, he also knows it’s because if he ended up dead in a basement with a bullet in his skull, they wouldn’t feel like they lost one of their own. He gets it, whatever.

‘You miss America?’

His stomach jolts and the car suddenly feels too hot. The sun is powerful, it burns directly through the window and onto Mickey’s skin.

‘What stupid fucking question is that?’

Does he miss America? Does he miss being on the run? Prison? Having absolutely no one?

Well, not no one.

‘Your home, do you miss it?’ Emiliano catches Mickey’s eyes in the mirror, and even though he’s wearing sunglasses Mickey shifts his gaze uncomfortably to the moving road out of the window. Fuck feeling like he’s under a microscope.

‘No I don’t fucking miss America, ain’t got no home there’ He mutters, taking a drag and blowing the smoke out into the air.

‘You ain’t got a girl there?’

Mickey barks out an exasperated laugh which leaves a sour taste in his mouth.

‘No girl’ He spits bitterly, hoping Emiliano gets bored of this game of 21 questions he seems to be playing and move the fuck on.

‘No girl, dawg? So coming here was pretty easy for you then, yeah? You wanted that Mexican sunshine!’

He snorts. Easy isn’t exactly how Mickey would put it. Ripping your heart out of your chest with your bare hands and stomping on it a few hundred times before feeding it to a pack of wild dogs is probably how Mickey would put it.

There is nothing easy about thinking you’d finally fucking make it across the finish line and having it taken away from you almost instantly. There is nothing easy about the man you have loved since you were a kid telling you that he loves you but he can’t come with you. There is nothing easy about kissing him desperately at the border, begging with every touch that he’d change his mind but he doesn’t. Driving across the border alone, leaving the only person you’ve ever actually loved behind isn’t fucking easy.

Loving Ian Gallagher is easy, though. Once he let himself given in, once he finally faced those feelings head on and gave himself permission, it was easy. Deep down, it’s always been easy. It was the rest of the shit in their lives that wasn’t. Mexico was supposed to be their paradise, their freedom together but instead Mickey is here, alone. Forever.

He doesn’t know when he’ll see Ian again, but fuck, he knows that he loves him.

prison (again)

Mickey keeps his eyes on Ian until he sees him disappear around the corner and out of sight. Out into the world a free man, back to Chicago and his fucked up family. That’s where he belongs, that’s where he’s always belonged. Not in here, not locked up like an animal surrounded by criminals. Mickey’s heart pounds, it feels like it’s threatening to pump itself right out of his chest and spill directly out onto the floor. He knows he’ll be getting his new roommate assignment soon, some new guy will be sleeping in Ian’s bed, ruining the little world they created for themselves here. He knows missing their prison life is ridiculous, because who the fuck has a good time in prison? But it was the first time in their sorry lives that they could just be together. No homophobic dads, no out of control mental illnesses, no need to run to run away - if they could run away.

Mickey knew rolling on the cartel for Ian was a big decision, he knew that Ian’s crime was a lesser one that his and there was a possibility for him to get out earlier than him. He knew it deep down all along, except he really thought that perhaps the universe would be kind to him, just this once, and let them have longer together. Apparently not. Everyone else is allowed to be with the people they love but not Mickey Milkovich, not at all. It feels all they fucking do is say goodbye to one another.

His hands start to shake, and fuck, he misses him already. It’s ridiculous, they’ve gone months and months without contact, they’ve been in different countries and states without hearing a word from one another and yet this is hurting his chest like no other goodbye before. Was it the false sense of safety they’d created for themselves? Was it kidding themselves that they finally had this, after all their literal years of waiting.

Mickey hangs onto their goodbye from a few moments before, or had it already been hours? He doesn’t know, he’s not taken his eyes off the last spot he saw Ian before he left, left Mickey, left them behind.

Shut the fuck up, he begs himself, this time is going to be different. He knows that, he knows that they are still them, even if Ian is out there and Mickey is in here. Ian isn’t about to go find some other guy to shack up with whilst Mickey does his time, he knows that. Or at least he thinks he does. He hopes he does. Still, he can’t help but be reminded of every other time he’s been lulled into a false sense of hope by Ian Gallagher. Mickey loves him regardless but boy, does he have a talent for breaking Mickey’s heart.

This time will be different, he repeats, finally pulling himself away from the glass window. He turns reluctantly to look at their beds, Ian’s one looking hauntingly empty whilst it awaits its new owner. The thought of climbing into his empty bed tonight without Ian on top of him is depressing, and though they rarely actually slept alone, it was nice to always know he wasn’t far away. He’d been far away for too long.

Last night they lay tangled in Ian’s sheets, sweaty and spent but momentarily content in each other’s arms. The moment passed and the next morning’s event dawned on them both quite quickly. Mickey failed to hold back the threatening tears as he whispered his love against Ian’s neck in the dark.

‘I love you, I never want to be apart from you’

‘I know Mick, I know. I love you too’ Ian tightened his grip around Mickey as he kissed the top of his head, bringing him in as close as he could. ‘It won’t be long’.

Mickey sighs and climbs up onto Ian’s empty bed, fuck it, if Ian isn’t the one sleeping here then definitely no stranger will be. He hates top bunks but he knows he’ll lose his mind if he stays down below. He’s only ever been on the bottom for Ian, so why change that now?

He sniggers quietly at his own stupid joke, before rolling over solomly to face away from the door. His chest hurts, his heart hurts, his fucking everything hurts. He closes his eyes and imagines Ian is still next to him, like he used to when he was here the first time or when he was down in Mexico. He’s used to loving Ian from afar.

It won’t be long.

+ the honeymoon

Fucking Terry.

They really should’ve let Mickey murder that fucker when he wanted to because he’s getting real tired of his relentless shit. They’re covered in feathers, lying naked on the floor of their honeymoon suite, hearts racing from almost being shot rather than the sex they were about to have.

‘Your fucking Dad’ Ian laughs at the ridiculousness of it all, rolling over to give Mickey a hand getting up.

‘Ay, you should’ve let me shoot him like I wanted, at least we would’ve been able to bang on our honeymoon in peace’ Mickey snips back, attempting and failing to shake off as many of the feathers as he can.

‘We’ve definitely had the chance to bang in peace’

‘Then why aren’t we banging right now?’

‘Fair point’ Ian grabs Mickey by the hips and pulls him closer, man handling him in the way he knows his husband likes it. Ian cups the back of his head and brings Mickey’s lips to his, softly then with more pressure. They kiss slowly before Mickey pulls back, clearly still distracted by his father being a homicidal maniac.

‘Fuck, I want him dead.’ Mickey searches Ian’s eyes in hopes of meeting him halfway and knowing that this is the only way that they will be able to be together like they’ve always wanted. Christ, they’re fucking married for fucksake and it’s still not enough for the universe to let them be.

‘I know you do, Mick. If there’s any fucker that deserves to be murdered it’s him but-’

‘But what?’ Mickey snaps,

‘We’re married, you’re my husband and I can’t let you be thrown in prison when I just got you back’ Ian says, brushing his fingers softly through Mickey’s hair to get the remaining few feathers out. ‘We’ve been apart for so fucking long, so let’s just have this. Now. We’ll figure out a way to deal with Terry, I promise we will.’

Mickey softens, his heart stuttering in his chest as the urgency to carry out Terry’s immediate death ebbs away. He takes a deep breath and rests his forehead against Ian’s, pulling him in.

‘I love you.’ He whispers, and fuck he will never get used to the freedom he feels every single time he gets to say that to him without fear. Fear for his life, fear he wouldn’t hear it back, fear he would never get the chance to hear it back.

‘I’ve loved you since I was 15 years old, Mickey Milkovich, your father isn’t going to change that’ Ian softly replies, pressing a kiss lightly to Mickey’s lips.

‘Ay, that’s Gallagher to you’ Mickey mumbles, pulling back. They haven’t had that particular conversation about the name thing yet so it’s mainly supposed to come off as a joke.

‘Mickey Gallagher’ Ian laughs, testing the feeling of the new name out in his mouth. ‘I think I like the sound of that’

‘Ian Milkovich?’ Mickey suggests, giving Ian a knowing look, ‘Dad would love that’.

Both boys laugh softly, they know that Terry would probably burn down the entire South Side if that ever happened. Perhaps that’s all the more reason to do the name change, in hopes that it gives the old bastard a heart attack or some shit. Mickey could only dream.

‘Come’ Ian says, grabbing Mickey by the arm and leading him back to the bed in the centre of the room. It’s covered in all sorts of crap from the bullets but with a quick swipe Ian manages to send most of it to the floor. He flops straight down on the bed and pulls Mickey down on top of him.

This is it. This is what Mickey has been craving for years, the chance to lie in Ian’s arms without a timer on his back or anything else looming horribly over them. He knows they’ll have to deal with Terry soon, because Milkovichs don’t give up, but right now, he’s allowed to have this. He doesn’t know what his new name will be or whether or not they’re gonna move back into the Gallagher house or if Terry’s going to drive by in 2 minutes with another round of ammo. What he does know, and he knows this for a fact, is he is never fucking letting go of the man beside him. It’s also nice to know that Ian isn’t planning on letting him go any time soon either, which sadly shouldn’t come as much as a relief as it does. It’s hard to not think about everything as temporary when it’s felt like most of his life has been stuck on pause.

Mickey shuffles around slightly so he can lie comfortably on Ian’s chest, his hand resting softly on his rib cage. He can feel Ian breathing in and out, rhythmically up and down. He’s safe. They’re safe. They’re together. They can just be.

‘What’re you thinking so hard about?’ Ian asks, his hand coming up to rest gently on the top of Mickey’s, their rings aligning perfectly.

‘You’ Mickey replies, ‘Always you’.

#shameless #shameless us #shameless fic #gallavich fic #gallavich #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #ian x mickey

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junkyardbluebox · 5 years ago

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An Unearthly Convention

I had to leave this con a bit earlier than planned, but I had such a blast!

All the fans I chatted with were great. Some had some awesome costumes too. I saw a Cyberman, quite a few folks dressed as the 13th and 4th Doctors, and a girl cosplaying as Susan in An Unearthly Child with an uncanny resemblance to Carole Ann Ford. People were sharing Doctor Who-themed ribbons to tack onto your badges. There were two K9s playing in the hotel corridors ...

Here’s one of them now!

Speaking of the hotel, things were a bit crazy due to extensive renovations going on. The lobby was reduced to pretty much nothing, but there were quite a few tables set up for people to sit and eat (and chat). I loved the format of this con so much, though. I’ve attended Creation cons in the past for Stargate and Supernatural, and this is nothing like them. It’s so much more laid back and you get more access to the guests. It’s not unusual to run into them walking around and stop and have a nice chat with them. Not long after I arrived and got my badge, I saw Katy and Frazer walking around on separate occasions, then then saw Louise who smiled and gave me a little “hello.” I also saw Paul McGann when I went to get something to eat in the restaurant, sitting at a nearby table with a couple of people.

I didn’t get to meet all of them, but the ones I did meet were wonderful. Louise is really sweet. Katy is so energetic and inspirational, and she gives great hugs. Frazer is lovely and has such a great sense of humor. John Leeson was also very sweet. During the autograph session he asked where I was from and told me how wonderful it is that people have come from all over to attend this convention.

I got two photo ops, one with Frazer and the other with John and K9. I lined up early for the first as I remember the lines at Creation conventions forming quickly (and being very long). I wasn’t expecting to be the first one and was a bit nervous, but Frazer is so friendly and approachable. He gave me a warm “Hello” and even asked if I could fix his jacket collar for him before we had the photo taken. He then asked “Can I put my arm around you?” I said “Of course!” He was really sweet and thanked me once the photo was taken. I paid extra for an electronic version but I scanned the actual photo to post here. Warning: I do not photograph well. He looks great, though.

After my photo op was done I went to get autographs from him, Katy and Louise. Louise looked up at me and said “Hello! ...Again!” She was very sweet and soft-spoken. When I got Katy’s autograph, before she could sign anything she had to give me a big hug. I told her it was my first DW convention and she said “Really?” I told her I was enjoying it and she said one thing she always loved about them is how everyone just gets to be themselves at them. She said she hopes she sees me at many more conventions (and that she herself gets invited back for them!).

When I went to get Frazer’s autograph I wanted to ask him if he’d brought any of those new 2nd Doctor and Jamie figures with him, but I didn’t see anything at his table apart from the photos so I assumed he didn’t have any.

I think I love John Leeson’s autograph the best. I thought his message was so cute so I had to post it here...

And here’s my photo op with John and K9:

I went to Katy’s panel, which was supposed to highlight all her different voice work but they talked about a slew of different subjects. She was asked what her least favorite outfit to wear on Doctor Who was. She named a couple but one that sticks in my mind is the one from The Sea Devils - the white outfit she wore there. She said that once it got wet it shrunk something terribly. She also mentioned she’d made her voice a bit higher when she played Jo, but every so often she’d lose that and Jon Pertwee would tell her she’d sound like “the lorry driver” again. A few pics from her panel:

My pictures here aren’t too bad as I was standing up in back (the room was pretty small and was packed). Sadly I have to leave her panel about halfway through since I had the photo op with John at the time, but I did enjoy what I did get to see of it.

I then attended Frazer’s (called “The Animated Man” as it was supposed to be about the lost animated episodes). I got a closer seat for that one, but for some reason my camera decided to focus more on the people in front of me than on him. These are the best pics I could get:

I should say that the camera doesn’t do him justice. In person he’s got this very nice, youthful spark (which goes perfect with his sense of humor). He was asked about the animated episodes and he mentioned a few interesting things about The Macra Terror. The Macra was a huge and very expensive prop, and you had to literally throw yourself into it to make it look like it was attacking you. He also mentioned that he and Michael Craze had to wear this ugly orange uniform with tight Bermuda shorts. He said the animator told him “We thought it was gray” and he told them “no it was orange.”

It was mentioned that Fury from the Deep will be animated in the future and he was asked about filming it. He mentioned how cold it was when they were on location at that beach and that his knees turned blue. He also told a funny story of when they were going to do the helicopter scene. Deborah Watling told him she was afraid of heights and asked if she could get into the helicopter first and then he and Patrick could sit on either side of her. Frazer told her “Of course,” but then she looks up to find him sprinting towards the helicopter and she started shouting “You swine!!”

Interestingly he mentioned that TPTB don’t like anyone going on social media to announce anything about these episodes being done, but he did say he recently went back to the filming location with some other guy, which I’m guessing will be included with the DVD in the future. He also mentioned a few other filming stories, like Evil of the Daleks (with the “up your passage, Victoria” joke... they showed a pic of the Dalek Emporer and he remarked that it’s wearing a brassiere, LOL), the origin of the “look at the size of that, Doctor”-“Yes Jamie, it’s a big one” joke, and about how they filmed in Seville for The Two Doctors.

He mentioned he would have loved to have seen The Highlanders animated since it’s only 4 episodes and there’s no monster in it that would have people saying “Oh that doesn’t look like a Dalek (or Cyberman, etc.).” A fan asked what his favorite story was to film and he said of course The Highlanders. They mentioned one of his earlier roles in a show called The Jacobites (and that interestingly it’s available on DVD only in Germany). It was pointed out that there’s a current theme in the shows he’s done with time travel and Scotland: that show, Doctor Who and Outlander.

And finally there was a really sweet moment where someone mentioned Jamie and Victoria’s goodbye scene at the end of Fury from the Deep and how powerful it was. He said that it wasn’t really acting, it was from the heart because they felt so badly Debbie was going to be leaving. His panel was very entertaining.

I was going to stay for the 4th Doctor panel with Louise and John, but by the time I got back there the room was full. Hopefully someone else has written up an account of what was said.

Although I wasn’t there as long as I would have hoped, I had a wonderful time. I’d love to go back next year if it’ll be on again.

#classic doctor who #conventions #frazer hines #louise jameson #katy manning #john leeson #k9

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michelles-garden-of-evil · 5 years ago

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Episode 18 Review: Making Biscuits

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 }

{ Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

Early morning on Maljardin. Exhausted from a day of shock and disbelief at the arrivals of her mother and Reverend Dawson on the island paradise(?) of Maljardin, Holly sleeps on the couch in the château’s great hall. Quietly, a fully dressed Jean Paul descends the grand staircase and stops behind the couch to cover her with a blanket. “Hi, Dad,” she says. “I had a dream. I thought that-”

I know that she’s probably a bit creeped out, but, honestly, I kind of envy Holly in this scene. There are days that I wish that I could wake up to see Jean Paul Desmond at my bedside. I know he has all kinds of issues and personality flaws, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find him cute and charming.

She tells him that she was dreaming about waiting for her father at home. “I know the feeling only too well,” he responds. “ Sometimes you know when memories haunt dreams, nightmares can follow.” I know that he is probably referring to nightmares about Erica’s death and/or to that freaky dream sequence with Raxl from the end of Episode 5, but still, I have to wonder if he, like Holly, lost his father at a young age. They reveal a little about Jean Paul’s father in the third and final arc of the show, but I don’t recall them discussing the specifics of his death beyond one thing that would be a spoiler to mention at this point. It would have been interesting to learn a bit about Jean Paul’s father in the Maljardin arc, but, unfortunately, we don’t.

So gallant! <3

We cut to a scene of Dan waiting impatiently for Jean Paul at the French Leave Café while talking to Vangie. Mostly, this scene exists so that Vangie can elaborate on why Maljardin is so hard to get to. “That channel is a cross between a tide and a continual tornado,” she says. “It's full of rocks and shoals. Actually, it’s never even been properly charted.” (Except probably by one of the des Mondes.) This is the only new information we get in any of the scenes between Dan and Vangie in this episode; the rest is nearly all recap, so I’m going to skip over most of it.

We return to Maljardin, where Holly and Jean Paul are sipping coffee from some dainty little cups. Before leaving for the main island, he asks her to attend Erica’s funeral, but she is reluctant because her mother and Reverend Dawson will be there. He advises her essentially to suck it up and go--which, as she points out, sounds like something "the good padre” would say. And then this happens:

I...don’t think that’s the generator.

Holly goes running upstairs and, just after, Jacques reveals that it was indeed he who tampered with the generator:

Love Jacques’ sarcasm in talking about the importance of the Holly portrait and how Tim and Holly may be “finished” before it is. And yes, the good Jacques portrait is back!

Next, we get what has to be the single most painful line of dialogue that the usually witty Jacques gets on the entire show: “Dear me, it does pose a dilemma,” says he about the situation with the Holly portrait that Boring Artist Tim is painting. “Pose, portrait, dilemma. A little play on words.” He snickers, indicating that at least he thinks the line is funny. “But I assure you I'm not playing games.” As Paflad would say, “BADOOM, and indeed, TSHHH!“

After the bad pun storm is over, he tells Jean Paul to bring Dan back with him to Maljardin because “[Jacques wants] to be sure that he doesn’t work against [him].” Cut to the second Dan and Vangie scene, where they recap nearly all the most important events on the show so far. It’s not all recap, however, as we do hear Vangie’s interpretation of the King of Wands, one of the Tarot cards featured last episode:

Vangie: “This way, a man of immense wealth and prestige and power in the world.”

“Reverse him, and he becomes the traditional card of ill-omen, a devil himself. Jean Paul Desmond...or Jacques Eloi des Mondes.”

And now onto the scene featuring the Matt-Holly-Tim love triangle, which feels endless because I can’t stand this subplot. I’m planning on writing a post someday explaining everything that’s wrong with this subplot and exactly why it doesn’t work, but I want to wait until after I’ve reviewed at least three more episodes featuring it. Nothing important happens in this scene, but we do get these lines:

Holly: "I wish my mother was on canvas instead of always on my back."

Be careful what you wish for, Holly. Someday you could have a portrait of Elizabeth Marshall that speaks to you constantly and manipulates you into doing things that make no sense to other characters. (Not a spoiler.)

The best Tim line on the show, and it’s a line flub. Go figure.

After the seemingly endless Tim scene ends, we return to the main island, where Jacques possesses Jean Paul while he is meeting with Dan. (He takes Jacques’ suggestions an awful lot, and I’m not sure if it’s because he actually agrees or because Jacques is manipulating him and he finds it too hard to resist.) We start with this shot of Jacques with ever-so-mildly creepy lighting:

Not scary, but it successfully conveys the message that Jacques has just taken control.

This scene makes up for the mediocrity of the rest of this episode. Jacques is his devilishly charming self, impersonating Jean Paul and making a fool of him by behaving far too cheerfully for a man in mourning. When Dan questions him, he insists that he’s only putting on a brave face and inwardly grieving, but Dan remains suspicious.

I must admit that I found this Jacques line--cheesy as it is--pretty funny.

Jacques, of course, takes advantage of the opportunity to troll him. Why not? For the first eleven episodes, he stuck to aiding Jean Paul and mostly just did things that they both wanted to do, with just a few exceptions like killing Dr. Menkin and giving Alison romantic dreams about him. Since Episode 12, however, he has been regularly screwing with Jean Paul’s life, trying to undermine nearly everything he tries to do in some way unless it also benefits him. By now, Jacques is in control of Jean Paul even when he’s inside the painting and so he probably feels he can get away with anything.

Anyway, remember when Jacques fired Dan in Episode 15? Well, he’s re-hired now and invited to Maljardin. He’s also more confused than ever, particularly because Jacques (who he believes is Jean Paul) keeps making faces like this:

BISSITS FACE!

For those of you who haven’t read my review of Episode 4 or who don’t remember it, Bissits Face™ is the name I gave to the cartoonish faux-innocent face that Jacques likes to make, where he opens his eyes extremely wide and purses his lips in a very cute way. The name comes from its resemblance to the face my cat makes when he makes biscuits, or “bissits” as I call them in baby-talk. I know the name is silly, but it is a silly face and probably not one you’d make in real life if you genuinely wanted to appear innocent--which is further evidence that Jacques thinks that he’s smarter than everyone else (and is probably right).

If his wrists weren’t crossed, he’d look like he was getting ready to make biscuits on that table like a cat.

Meow?

Of course, this isn’t his only bug-eyed expression, and he does keep those gorgeous blue peepers open quite a lot. I think that Colin Fox intended for Jacques to look “crazy,” which would explain all the wide-eyed expressions he has him make. Crazy eyes are, after all, pretty much standard acting technique for playing characters who are mentally disturbed to some degree. There’s an old French actor named Gérard Berner whom I’ve nicknamed “Crazy Eyes,” because, in the two miniseries I’ve seen him in (La dame de Monsoreau (1971) and Le roi qui vient du sud (1979)), he played characters with anger problems and, when said characters got enraged, he opened his eyes so wide that you would swear they were about to fall out of his head. This scene from Monsoreau is a good example, as is the one that follows it (Berner is the man with the longish hair and the silver doublet). Obviously, the intended meaning of Bissits Face™ is “I’m pretending to be innocent” and not “I’m angry,” but it’s still the same technique.

Gérard Berner (right) as François d’Anjou in La dame de Monsoreau (1971), demonstrating the crazy eye technique in a very different context.

Anyway, after Dan leaves to get ready to sail to Maljardin, Jacques and Vangie exchange a few words. By this point, she knows for certain who he is and that he will bring death to the island.

A rare instance of the subtitles getting Vangie’s name right.

I really like this exchange, so, as with many other exchanges that I really like, I’m going to post a full transcription:

Jacques: "Did you hear it all, Vangie?" Vangie: "Enough to make me wonder if I shouldn't contact the newspapers and let them find out the kind of man you really are."

Jacques: "You wouldn't do that, because you're afraid of my...power." Vangie: "In this world...or the next?"

Jacques: "Next world?" *laughs* "What are you talking about? You've been playing cards too much. It's dulling your senses." Vangie: "My father is dead. I am now the Conjure Woman. My senses are greater than ever. There is evil roaming on Maljardin. It must be destroyed."

Getting nervous, Jacques?

Jacques: "Vangie! You and your witchcraft. It will be the death of me yet.” Vangie: "I'm after the Devil."

Yup, definitely nervous.

Jacques: "And he's after you!"

And then we have a marvelous little credits scene where Jacques sits down in the big wicker chair, looking enormously pleased with himself. He puts his feet up on the table in front of him, grins, polishes his ring, all while looking incredibly self-satisfied. I love this comment about it on YouTube: “I can imagine the director telling Colin at the end credits,'Ok Colin-Baby, now just sit there and look smug...that's it...more smug-more smug...annnnd got it!'”

Smug.

Smugger.

Smuggest.

This episode is typical of Wednesday episodes on this show: light on plot and heavy on recap and character interaction that may or may not be filler. The only important things that happen in this one are (1) Jacques brings Dan with him to Maljardin and (2) Vangie reveals to Jacques that she has become the Conjure Woman and therefore a powerful opponent. But neither of these happen until the final scene, so, in all honesty, one could skip over most of this episode without missing much save for Tim’s hilarious line flub.

Coming up next: Reverend Dawson holds Erica’s funeral and Holly discusses an interesting nightmare she had about her mother.

{ <-- Previous: Episode 17 || Next: Episode 19 --> }

#strange paradise #gothic soap opera #week 4 #episode 18 #ian martin #review #maljardin arc #bissits face #the blue suit of sexiness #crazy eyes #creative line interpretation #the damned holly portrait #jacques putting his boots/shoes on furniture #la dame de monsoreau #tarot #strange title i know but i couldn't think of anything better

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thekwanderer · 5 years ago

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November 28 2019

Allison and I wake up just after six this morning. Our only plans are breakfast at 9 and our flight to Goa at 2:40 pm. It takes us a full ten minutes to realize that the power is off in the hotel room. The front desk answers before the first ring finishes and the frantic attendant informs me that the power will be back soon. Allison is hoping to work out, but the elevators are down so we decide it is best to wait until the power seems stable. Electricity comes and goes over the course of the next hour. Around 7:15, the electricity has been on for ten minutes and Allison takes her chances in the elevator. The internet must be on a different circuit because it stays up the whole time. I stay in bed and am able to find and stream the second half of the Celtics/Nets game!

I make a reservation for our group to eat breakfast at the restaurant on top of the building. At nine, we meet at the restaurant and have a relaxed breakfast. The meal is nice, but the breakfast at our first hotel outclassed it in my opinion. The options are essentially the same, but the dosas, bacon, and tea are all a disappointment after what I had come to expect. The view from our table is limited so we go to the balcony after the meal. New Delhi is a very green city. From our vantage, the city appears to be a sea of trees with only the occasional 5 story building rising from the canopy. The roof is occupied by a fleet of pigeons and two large birds of prey circle around the towers of our hotel. Between the birds, monkeys , dogs, and cows the streets of New Delhi teem with life both human and animal.

Allison and I pack our bags and meet the rest of our party in the lobby at eleven. Patrick, Stephanie, Allison, and I play a round of a game called exploding kittens while we wait for Debbie and Richard. Around noon, we call Uber's and start the trek to the airport. Allison and I split one with Debbie and Richard, while Patrick and Stephanie take their own. The drive is uneventful but the streets are as hectic a usual. Riding in New Delhi was overwhelming at first but now I am getting used to the constant noise and weaving involved in every trip.

Our driver pulls up to terminal three and we unload our bags without incident. Anna has arrived before us and tells us that there is a way to pay to expedite the bag check. We head towards the door to find that they check tickets even before entering the terminal. Our tickets are digital, so we head to the door with our phones out. The line is short but when we get to the front, the guard tells Allison that her ticket is no good. It takes a moment to realize that we have our tickets for the flight back from Goa rather than the ones there! Debbie bought the tickets, so she needs to access them on her phone but doesn't have internet. Allison lets Debbie tether her phone to get online, but the entire time we are at the front of the line and doing our best to let people by us. Finally Debbie pulls up the tickets and airdrops them to each of us. The tension drops and we queue back up. The guard checks the first ticket and calmly informs us that we are at the wrong terminal, that we need terminal 1, and that we need to get out of the line so the next person can get through. We scramble out of line and I spot a kiosk that will print our boarding passes. With paper in hand, I ask an Indigo (our airline) employee if our flight is from terminal 3 but no luck. The printing of the pass did not magically change our gate. Panic starts to build as we search for someone with English good enough to explain how we can get to terminal one.

Our panic is spotted by an enterprising taxi driver and he saddles up next to me. He asks where we are trying to go and tells me my options are to take a shuttle, which will take an hour, or pay him 150 rupee (the government price, he assures me) each and he will get us there in 15 minutes. Richard and I are ready to pay the man but our intrepid ladies firmly tell him the only way he can help is to stop talking. Allison calls up Anna and tells her our whole sad story. Anna and Raul tell us that we need to head to the taxi stand and get a prepaid taxi. Meanwhile, the ore taxi drivers watches from twenty feet like a vulture waiting for us to give up. Without a look back, we grab our bags and set off for the taxi stand.

We head downstairs to arrivals and the prepaid taxis. The whole line at the stand is like all the lines in India - messy. It appears that sheer desire and brazenness wins the day here. Fortunately it is not too busy, and I am told the fare will be 300 rupees for four of us and four bags. The man in the booth points to his left after handing me a receipt and I believe that I misinterpret his signal. I think he means for us to talk to he man just to his left outside the booth. This man tells us to follow and takes us an awaiting taxi. He is pushy and constantly trying to grab my bag and the receipt. I am not properly on guard and allow him to get a hold of both! What a rookie mistake! Never let anyone get a hold of anything of yours! We make it to the taxi thankfully and the receipt makes it to the right person, the driver. The man who helped us holds the door open when we get in and refused to close it until we tip him for "helping". Now I realize we were supposed to go approach the drivers directly with the receipt. Worn down, our group produces a 100 rupee note and hand it over with a scowl. He closes the door entirely unperturbed by our disdain.

The ride to terminal one takes a full 15 minutes! The New Delhi airport is apparently very spread out. It takes ten minutes just to see a sign for terminal 1 and in that time I am terribly anxious that something will go wrong or we are somehow headed the wrong way.

Arriving at terminal one, we are anxious to get our bags checked and pass through security. We decide to pay for expedited bag-checking. We skip the line, but it still takes a solid fifteen minutes and three attempted up-sells to get our bags tagged and out of our hands. The security line is short but poorly organized. We find our friend on the other side and also a number of over wedding attendees who are taking the same flight to Goa. The gates are separated from the dining/shopping/waiting area and we are not able to get to the gates until it is close enough to our boarding time.

Once through, we form a gaggle in front of the gate. After queuing up, our tickets are scanned and we head out to a bus which will take us to the plane. The sheer size and inefficiency of the airport is staggering. It seems to me that the concern is strictly making things function, not making them function well.

The scope of the smog becomes apparent when taking off. Within a minute, the city is covered by a blanket of white. As the haze starts to thin, clouds become visible. The tops of dense white clouds emerge like icebergs from the sea of off-white pollution. The air in Goa is supposed to be much cleaner. I am hopeful that we will soon leave the smog behind so that I can see the countryside.

An hours travel from New Delhi, the smog begins to clear and a much dryer and browner landscape comes into soft focus. Landing in Goa, we are told that it is a military airport and we cannot take pictures. When we get off the plane, we see a pretty red sunset, but the air feels many times better than Delhi and we can actually breathe again. Now we are a group of 11 trooping though the airport, and we realize that all of us forgot to book the free shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Our hotel is nice enough to help us find a couple of hired cars to get us there. We didn't realize but the hotel is an hour away from the airport. By this time it is dark and we pile into the car with Debbie and Richard with all of the luggage. I thought I had gotten desensitized to crazy driving from Delhi, but it was still frightening to drive in the dark through Goa. The roads were much windier than Delhi and there was no divide between the lanes going in different directions. Our driver darted out into the lane with oncoming traffic to pass cars and at one point almost came to a complete stop when he realized he couldn't make it between two buses. Debbie and Allison got pretty carsick in the back.

We finally make it to the hotel after an hour. The area looks more like a beachside town with restaurants with open walls and a lot more palm trees and bamboo. This hotel is a Hyatt and familiar. Luckily they do not have a canceled additional room and we are able to untangle our rooms from Debbie and Richard. We go upstairs to freshen up, and walk to dinner. It is an interesting place to walk around because there isn't really a sidewalk to walk on and cars and mopeds don't slow down. In fact some beep and make Allison jump.

We walk to an outdoor restaurant called the fishermans cove where Rahul treats us as per our agreement when we stole his shoe during the wedding. We are just happy to sit and eat whatever was ordered for us. The meal starts with platters of fish and chicken cooked a number of ways. I find the chicken to be scrumptious and even have some butter-garlic shrimp. The entree is a number of curries along with rice and naan. There is some pork vindaloo that stood out with its deep red color and intense heat. This dish is famous in Goa so it was fun to try something from the original place. We then walk back to the hotel and say our good nights as we head to bed.

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the-shadow-of-atlantis · 8 years ago

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Hide and Seek

Tagging: @speedypan @insideoflit @coffee-randomness @cupidjayne @guns-n-lilies

A/N Jen, Faith, Debbie and Nick all belong to @melyaliz who helped in this.

Faith giggled as she quickly ducked behind a bush. Slightly poking her head above the bush she let out squeal when she heard a voice behind her.

“Found you!” Annabella giggled.

“No fair how did you find me so fast?” Faith pouted.

“I have my ways.” Annabella smiled.

“Oh yeah well tag you’re it!” Faith shouted as she slightly pushed Annabella back and started to run.

The younger girl laughed as her cousin chased after her. Annabella bit her lip wondering how fast she can run, scientists have already confirmed she is a bit stronger than normal kids she wondered if the same applied to her speed. Pushing herself to run faster she quickly caught up with her younger cousin and tackled her. Faith let out a small huff when they stopped rolling.

“Cheater.” Faith pouted.

“How am I cheating?”

“I don’t know but you are.” Faith stated matter of factly.

“Whatever you say Fe.” Annabella giggle as she stood up and helped Faith up.

The girls barely took a step when the ground beneath them gave out and they let out a scream. Instinctively Annabella grabbed Faith and held her close right before hitting the ground. Annabella let out a cry of pain as she felt her shoulder pop.

“You okay?” Annabella gritted through her teeth.

“Uh huh.” Faith looked up at the opening and back at Annabella helping her sit up. “Are you okay Zen?”

“Yeah shoulder hurts.” Annabella let out little huffs of air, clutching her shoulder as she tried to figure out what to do. They were way too far away from the manor where the adults were talking on the patio so calling out for help would be pointless. “Can you climb out?”

“No wall too slippery.”

“Okay it’s okay.” Annabella looked up and spotted a bird flying in the air. “Okay Faith listen no matter what happens right now I need you to be very quiet okay, it’s important.”

“Okay.” Faith whispered.

“Good, okay.” Annabella took a deep breath she held out her hand and Faith held onto it tightly.

Looking back up she focused on the bird. Faith watched as her cousin’s eyes suddenly turned white and she let out a small gasp before clamping her hand over her mouth.

The bird began to fly in the direction of the manor spotting the adults sitting at a table it quickly dove down landing hastily on said table.

“Oh my god!” Debbie shouted at the sight of the bird.

Bruce stared at the bird who began to caw in a strange way before pointing its head towards the woods. The bird flapped its wings desperately as it hopped in the direction it was pointing at.

“What’s wrong with that bird?” Debbie asked.

“The girls are in trouble.” Said Bruce.

Jen, who was sitting on the bench swing talking to Dick, looked up at her uncle at the mention of her sister and cousin being in danger.

“Alfred take Nick and get the rescue supplies. Debbie, Dick, Jen come with me.” Bruce ordered as he quickly followed the bird.

Debbie was taken aback at the sound of Bruce’s voice. She followed after him at a bit of a distance not use to having to run so fast.

Faith looked around the small cave feeling impatient at the lack of noise and movement. She looked back at Annabella whose eyes were still glowing white but noticed something trickling down her nose.

“Zen!” Faith shouted worriedly, Annabella gasped and her eyes went back to brown.

“Wha… what?” Annabella asked in a bit of a daze.

“Your nose.”

“It’s okay Faith it’s okay. Don’t worry about it okay. Please stay quiet a bit more help is almost here.”

Faith stared at her cousin worriedly but nodded. She watched as her eyes turned white again.

“Annabella! Faith!” Bruce shouted, as soon as Annabella heard her father’s voice her eyes turned back to brown only for them to slightly roll back and her body to slump.

“Zen? Zen!” Faith carefully shook her shoulder but there was no response.

“Annabella! Faith!” Bruce shouted again.

“Down here!” Faith shouted back she looked up and managed to see her uncle and mom looking down.

“Are you girls okay?” Debbie asked.

“I am. But something’s wrong with Zen.” Faith sniffles as she started to feel scared.

“Is she hurt?” Asked Bruce.

“I think she hurt her shoulder. And she did this thing where her eyes turned white and then her nose started to bleed and now she’s not waking up.”

“What?” Debbie asked Bruce who ignored her question.

“Okay Faith I’m going to need you to help Annabella lay down carefully. Try not to move her head too much.”

“Okay.” Faith slightly whimpered as she shuffled around to carefully put Annabella down mimicking the movements she’s seen mothers do with their baby’s. “Now what?”

“Just stay right there I’m coming down.” Said Bruce as Nick and Alfred came wheeling in a giant box.

Bruce quickly opened it to reveals different things to use for every type of rescue. Grabbing what he needed and attaching the harness on he slowly lowered himself with the pulley. Debbie held onto her husband and noticed Jen doing to the same with Dick.

“Okay Faith I need you help me with this.” Said Bruce as he split an orange stretcher apart and adjusted it against Annabella’s body.

“Okay on three you’re going to push your side as hard as you can. One, two, three. Good job. Okay she needs to go up first and then you got it.”

“Uh huh.”

Within minutes both girls were above ground.

“Mommy!” Faith shouted as she jumped into her mother’s arms.

“Alfred we need to get Annabella to Star Labs.” Said Bruce.

“I will get the car ready sir.” Alfred replied.

“Star Labs? Bruce she needs a hospital!” Debbie stared at her cousin as if he was crazy.

“Debbie trust me okay I’ll explain everything. Nick help me carry her.”

Debbie watched as they carefully lifted the stretcher. Her eyes never leaving the sight of her niece laying unconscious with a bloody nose as she followed them out of the woods.

…

Debbie bit her lip as she watched her niece sleeping on a hospital bed. The heart monitor beeping in the background indicating her strong and steady heartbeat. She was still processing everything Bruce told her, how her niece had powers, how she could talk to animals, make them do what she needed. Like saving hers and Faiths life. And suddenly a lot of things made since, how Annabella always loved to be with animals, how they were always so kind to her, how even with Faith not being able to stand still they would still approach her when her cousin was around. Nick held her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

The door opened and a young blond man walked in.

“Bruce.” He greeted her cousin.

“Barry, how is she?” Bruce asked.

“She’s fine. Brainwaves are normal, her shoulder is already starting to heal. She just used a lot of energy from trying to ignore the pain. She should be waking up soon.” Debbie noticed the small look of worry when Barry glanced at Annabella. He knew her enough to care about her.

“Thank you Barry.”

“Let me know if you need anything else.” Said Barry.

“Of course.”

Barry said his goodbyes before leaving the family. Bruce sighed as he rubbed his head.

“I should let Alfred know the good news so he can tell the kids.” Said Bruce.

“Go we’ll stay here with her.” Said Nick.

Bruce looked at them before nodding and standing up glancing at Annabella before closing the door. Annabella softly groaned as she slightly stirred slowly opening her eyes. She glanced around the room and focused on her aunt who started leaning in at the sound of the young girls groans.

“Where’s faith, is she ok?”

Debbie nodded taking the girl’s hand gently stroking it, “Faith is fine but we were really worried about you.” Annabella looked away for a moment embarrassed and worried. What would they think of her now? Would they reject her like her other family.

“I love you so much” Debbie continued gently kissing Annabella on the forehead, “No matter what you are a beautiful, strong and brave young lady.”

Annabella felt tears start to well up and went to hug her aunt. She nuzzled her face into the crook of her neck feeling a warm sensation spread through her body that came from her aunt. She slightly furrowed her eyebrows wondering what it was but chose to ignore it for the time being.

“Promise you won’t leave me.” Annabella asked quietly.

“I’ll always be with you little one.” Debbie promised as she kissed the girls temple.

#oc x oc #oc x bruce wayne #bruce wayne imagine #dc imagine #jen #faith #Debbie

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marigoldbaker · 8 years ago

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Imperfections (10/?)

ten chapters??? i should be worried. this isn’t even 1/4 of the way done.

warning for some mild violence in this chapter.

it’s also on ao3!

They were not okay. Not in any sense of the word. Halfway to the library, they heard a loud yell, and when they finally made it there, Pete was wrestling with werewolf Oz on the floor.

“Found Pete,” said Faith. Jenny gave her a look.

“The dart gun,” Rupert was saying to Buffy, Willow hovering nervously in the background.

Jenny saw the panicked look in Debbie’s eyes and was about to grab her arm, but Debbie moved first. “Pete, look out!” she cried, pushing Buffy out of the way just as the dart gun went off.

It hit Rupert.

Jenny shrieked. She didn’t do well with seeing Rupert get hurt.

“It’s fine!” said Rupert, turning around in an attempt to reassure her and glare at Buffy at the same time, except he actually just collapsed against the side of the wall. Jenny rushed to him, trying to make sure he was out of range of werewolf Oz. Werewolf Oz, who was going around and through the office, jumping across the counter, and rushing out of the door.

“You get the wolf,” she heard Buffy saying to Faith, and then something occurred to Jenny lightning-fast. The person Pete was going after—really going after—was the one that a Slayer needed to be focused on protecting.

“I’ll get the wolf,” she heard herself say, and she stood up, taking the dart gun from Buffy. “Faith, make sure Debbie’s okay.”

“Wh—” Faith didn’t look happy about this. “No offense, Jen, but we need a Slayer to go after a werewolf.”

“We’ll need a Slayer to take down Pete,” said Jenny sharply, worry making it hard for her to regulate her tone. “Anyone can operate a dart gun. Willow, you’re with me.”

Willow’s face lit up. Jenny tried to smile at her before they started running after Oz.

They actually got him pretty easily, mostly because Willow took the dart gun from Jenny and used her holy-water-gun experience to aim the dart straight at Oz as he ran away. “Ms. Calendar—” she began, hopeful and bright. Jenny could see in her eyes that she wanted one of their usual celebratory moments.

“Willow, go look after Rupert,” said Jenny, trying to infuse apology and affection into her voice. She wasn’t sure if she pulled it off. “I need to make sure Debbie’s okay.”

“Debbie and Faith,” said Willow, face falling.

“I promise,” said Jenny, squeezing Willow’s shoulder, “that we will talk—really talk—once all this is over. Okay?” Willow didn’t look all that convinced. Jenny wished she had more time to convince her. Crossing her fingers that she could find the girls in time, she started in the direction she thought she’d seen Debbie head in.

Faith caught Debbie when she was halfway down the hallway. Grabbing her arm, she yanked Debbie to face her. “Listen,” she began.

“You lied,” said Debbie, eyes hurt and accusing.

“That gun wasn’t for your boyfriend, okay?” said Faith. She wasn’t exactly pulling off the quiet, careful tone that Jen had somehow managed (how the fuck could anyone be that calm?) but she was angry, and worried, and she wanted to make sure Buffy didn’t get killed by that guy. “You saw that big thing attacking him. We were trying to get it.”

Debbie didn’t seem calmed by this, but she also didn’t seem as angry at Faith. “So Pete—”

“Is going to be fine,” said Faith. She was too determined to get Debbie somewhere safely out of the way to feel guilty about lying to her. “He’s fine, okay? I’m gonna go after him and—and talk him down, and you stay here.”

“You don’t know him,” said Debbie, a note of panic in her voice. “You don’t know what he can do. I have to talk to him, I—”

“Hey.” Faith placed a hand on Debbie’s shoulder. “Let a professional handle this one, okay, kid? Where’s he at?”

Debbie shut her mouth and looked down.

Faith considered her options. She could follow Jen’s instructions, hide with Debbie like a good little girl, and learn later that her not helping Buffy had gotten someone killed. Or, and this is the option Faith liked more, she could let Debbie take her to Pete and have the guy face not one, but two kickass Slayers. The point wasn’t to hide Debbie from Pete, really, it was to take Pete out. Jen would get it. Faith hoped Jen would get it, anyway.

“Okay,” she said. “You go to Pete, I’ll come with. How’s that sound?”

Debbie didn’t look happy with this agreement, but she seemed to realize that Faith wasn’t letting go of her arm anytime soon, so she nodded. “Fine,” she said. Her voice was shaking. “I’ll take you to him.”

“Thank you,” said Faith, throwing an arm up in the air. Debbie pressed her lips together and started walking.

The supply room was empty when they reached it, and at first Faith thought that Debbie had meant to trick her. But after a few minutes, in came Pete, still bleeding from what looked like a nasty bite Oz had given him. Great, thought Faith. Exactly the kind of guy we need as a werewolf.

“Pete!” said Debbie, a sob in her voice, and tried to run to him. Faith grabbed her arm, holding her back. “Hey—”

“What’s she doing here?” Pete demanded, eyes fixed on Faith with an angry, glinting expression Faith had seen many times over.

Suddenly, violently, a furious rage came over Faith, and she forgot about plans and Debbie and what Jen would think if she rushed in like a crazy person. She’d seen guys like Pete before. She’d seen what they did to girls like Debbie. All Pete wanted was control and power, and all Debbie wanted to give him was love, and Faith hated that, she hated how stupid Debbie was and how Pete’s eyes looked so ready, so eager to hurt—

Debbie was screaming. Faith felt her arm twist as Pete’s hands grabbed at her, but she kneed Pete in the stomach and his grip faltered. She thought she might be bleeding. All she could focus on was that she wanted to hurt him, wanted to hurt him until he could never, never hurt anyone again, hurt him and then some because god knows what he’d put the girls before Debbie through. “Faith!” someone shouted. Faith didn’t care, wouldn’t care—

She was thrown against the wall. She tried to scramble to her feet, but someone was running over to her, cool hands pressed to her face. “Faith, sweetie—” Jen was saying, a horrible, terrified note to her voice, and then Pete grabbed Jen around the waist.

“You brought a teacher in here?” he was saying, angry and accusing, jerking Jen around to face Debbie. Faith felt a rush of cold fear, because all of it was happening all over again. Jen struggling, Pete bloody and bruised but still standing strong, Faith frozen to the ground, unable to do anything but watch. “You think she’s gonna help you?”

Jen elbowed Pete in the face. Pete didn’t falter. Faith wanted to move. Told herself she had to move, or Jen would die in front of her. Just like her Watcher.

Pete threw Jen against the wall. The first thing Faith felt was an almost shameful amount of relief, because if that was all he was going to do, Jen was probably fine. But then Faith remembered how small Jen was, and how easily breakable, and okay, yeah, she should be working on protecting Debbie or whatever but this was where Jen was supposed to be sitting up and giving her an easy smile.

Faith had pulled herself up and was halfway across the room when Buffy burst in. She’d never been more grateful for another Slayer to do the dirty work.

Jen was lying on the floor. She wasn’t bleeding or anything, but she also wasn’t conscious. Faith checked for a pulse, hands trembling and leaving bloody marks on Jen’s wrist. She wondered how badly she’d hurt Pete. How badly she’d been hurt.

“Please,” she said. She wasn’t sure who she was talking to, and she was kinda glad Jen wasn’t awake for this. “Please, please—”

Jen groaned. “Probably gonna beat Rupert when it comes to concussions this year,” she said weakly. “You okay?”

Faith almost started crying. It was really embarrassing.

Faith helped Jenny sit up, and both of them kind of stayed back against the wall while Buffy fought Pete. Jenny’s head ached too much to stand up, and Faith was covered in scrapes and bruises from head to toe, not to mention her blood-covered hands.

“You okay?” Jenny asked quietly.

Faith shook her head.

“Me either.” Jenny turned to look at Faith and saw the deeply shaken look in her eyes. “Hey,” she said. “We’re okay.”

“He’s not dead yet,” observed Faith, as if Jenny hadn’t said anything. The brief moment of vulnerability seemed to have vanished, but Jenny was too shaken from the whole thrown-against-a-wall thing to be disappointed in the missed opportunity. “If he kills Buffy, I’m gonna have to go back in there.”

“He won’t,” said Jenny with conviction.

Pete threw Buffy against the wall.

“I’m gonna go back in there,” said Faith. She stood up, wobbled on her feet, and promptly passed out, falling straight into Jenny’s lap.

Jenny hated every aspect of this, every single one. The head injury left her unable to fight back, an unconscious Faith meant one less Slayer to keep the non-Slayers safe, and she was watching Buffy get pummeled by a vicious, abusive, supernaturally powered monster of a high school student. There was really no way this situation could be any more frightening.

The door burst open. Standing there, vamped out and feral, was a furiously violent-looking Angelus.

#fic #imperfections #jenny and faith #the plot thickens. somewhat

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balshumetsbaragouin · 8 years ago

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Bittersweet Future: Chapter Ten

Summary:

A fateful meeting...

If You’re Feeling Like Dorothy…

The dark-haired teen lay stark still from his position on the floor, gun pointed directly at his forehead. On the other end of the weapon was someone he was both glad and confused to see. “Jazz?” Danny repeated, still amazed that his sister was on the other end of the gun.

The red haired girl’s eyes narrowed, before she hoisted the gun slightly closer to his head. “How do you know my name?”

The shock of surprise, which had previously settled into a soft tingle, was now jumping back to lightning bolt strength as it coursed through his consciousness. How do I know your name? You’re my sister Jazz…aren’t you? “I…um-”

“We told him!”

Danny’s eyes shifted slightly from the gun pointed only inches from his nose to the boy who had spoken up in his defense.

“You did? Why would you tell a stranger, a ghost stranger something so important Nick?” Jasmine didn’t bother avoiding his name; she’d heard both of them tell the ghost in front of her their names earlier.

“I didn’t think it was a bad idea. He’s really nice Jasmine.”

“Yeah,” Nate started defensively, “he hasn’t attacked us or anything!”

That’s when Jasmine realized something and swung her full attention back to the ghost in front of her. “That’s really interesting, but you know what? Nate and Nick only ever call me ‘Jasmine.’ Never Jazz. But you know who does call me Jazz?” She stopped to flick the setting on her gun to full power. “Jack Fenton.” She smoothly switched targets to the middle of the ghost’s chest. “Did he send you here? Did he capture you and send you after us?” She leveled at the being in front of her, voice heavy with accusation.

“Wait what? Why would-”

“Nuh-uh,” Nick cut in this time, “he’s not even a ghost.”

“Yeah, we didn’t even sense anything, well except-”

“Yeah but that was-” Nick interrupted back.

“-have you seen Daniel around?” they both asked simultaneously.

Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows, trying to discern the boys’ point. She hated when they finished each other’s sentences or spoke at the same time. It made her feel like she was missing half of the conversation. “No why would I? The only ghost the scanner picked up was this one.” She explained with a wave of her free hand.

“Yeah but the scanner can’t tell the difference between ghosts in that mode, just that they are around-” Nate spoke in his most exasperated tone.

“-and,” Nick picked up where the other boy had left off, “we can. We totally sensed Daniel around here somewhere-”

-and we figured he’d be trying to bring us back home by now.” They both concluded as one.

“Well, I guess I can change the mode to look for a specific ghost signature, but that doesn’t explain where he came from.” Jasmine focused her attention back to the, now maybe, ghost in front of her.

“I-uh snuck inside. One of my friends dared me.”

“Don’t bullshit me! I know this,” she gestured once again with her free hand, the one with the gun never so much as wiggling away from its position over Danny’s heart,” is just some disguise. So why don’t you stop lying, because the scanner doesn’t.”

Before Danny could respond, Nate and Nick did it for him. “We already told you. The scanner picked up Daniel. This guy’s totally human.” They had resorted to speaking at once in frustration.

“Stop talking at the same time, you know I hate that, and if you did sense him, where is he then?” Jasmine huffed and set her left hand against her hip, getting more annoyed by the second with the boys’ tenacity.

“Well I don’t know-” Nick started only to have Nate complete the sentence for him.

“- but you have the scanner. So put down the stupid gun-”

“-and look for him already.” Nick finished the other boy’s sentence with a sighed whoosh of air.

“Like I’m going to-”

“Listen, I hate to interrupt, what with the gun pointed at me and everything, but could any of you tell me what you are talking about?”

Three pairs of eyes honed in on Danny’s position on the floor.

“I mean ghosts, scanners, insisting I’m like, a ghost or something. Did I fall into crazy land or what?” He asked while levering himself up onto his elbows.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, and sent a warning shot next to the too human looking ghost. “I said stay still. Next time,” she slid the gun down a few inches and snapped it down a notch in power, “I’ll just blast off you ‘little friend’ so I’d suggest staying still.”

“Got it! Not even thinking about wiggling.” Geez! What has gotten into Jazz? She was never this aggressive. Danny felt the residual heat from the blast next to his skull. And she was never this good of a shot either. Well I’m glad that improved.

“Jasmine come on, let him up.” Nate implored, walking over to tug on the arm holding the gun.

“Yeah we’re wasting time. If we don’t have to leave right this second-”

“Then help us re-stock these boxes.” Nick finished for the both of them.

“Re-stock the boxes? You mean you came all the way out here by yourselves to fill up the reserve supplies?” Jasmine was more than a little exasperated at the thought. “You know it’s dangerous out here, and you aren’t supposed to go anywhere without me or Daniel, especially without telling anyone.” She spoke while sliding her eyes off of the humanoid ghost in front of her, keeping it only in her peripheral vision.

Nate looked visibly wilted. “Yeah well it was important. We might be coming back through here soon, and-”

“-If mother and father got here first, they would be sure to confiscate this.” A new voice interrupted from the shadows of the ruined living room on the other side of the kitchen entrance. He stepped into the room, a black device held dangling between thumb and index finger. “Is this what you two were searching for?”

“Uh-oh!” Nick and Nate said at the same time already backing from the room.

Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. It passed the Guys in White rejects, and Debbie, and the calls to his best friend’s houses. It even passed the ominous burnt out mansion he was currently kneeling on the floor of, sister threatening and cajoling him with deadly accurate aim. On the opposite side of the room, sporting his dark hair and blue eyes that were like his, but not, was his doppelganger. No. Nononononononono….this isn’t…that can’t be…I… Danny grappled mentally, unable to even think coherently at the sight a few feet from him.

“Daniel! When did you get here?” Jasmine lowered the sights on her ecto-weapon a notch; maybe the boys and this stranger were telling the truth.

“Oh about-”

“We told you! He got here like 15 minutes ago or something. But you never listen to-” the two of them started at once.

“Yeah that’s great,” Jasmine started while eying the strange boy on the floor. “You,” she started with a small wave of her gun towards Danny, “you aren’t a ghost are you.” It wasn’t a question, she was nearly completely sure of it now.

Danny was too shell shocked to catch the question. His heart was pounding; his limbs felt like jelly, and if everyone else in the room wasn’t referring to the newest member of it, Danny would be sure he was hallucinating from stress or fatigue. He managed to tear his eyes away from the person with the face that was his, but not, and gaped up at Jazz. “I…w-what?” He stuttered out.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and took the gun off of the teenager below her, thinking it was causing his nervous-like stuttering. “I said you aren’t a ghost, and you’re not. I guess the twins were telling the truth.” She slung the weapon onto the belt loop on her back pocket and sent a hand down towards the now pale looking teen. “Come on, get up. I promise no one is going to shoot at you or something.” The red-haired girl managed a small smile through her own growing sense of dread. We really shouldn’t be here right now.

Danny reached up and grasped the offered appendage with a tremor filled hand, using more of Jazz’s strength to get off of the ground than his own. His legs still felt like Jell-o in an earthquake. “I, um, yeah I’m not. I’ve been saying that for awhile now. Um, who’s that?” He asked while pointing over to the raven haired teen leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“Oh yeah, I guess I should actually introduce myself. My name’s Jasmine,” she explained pointing to herself, “do not call me ‘Jazz’. Those two morons over there-”

“Hey!-”

“Are my younger brothers. Nickolas and Nathaniel. If you couldn’t tell before, my obnoxious baby brothers are twins.”

“We are not obnoxious!” They protested at the same time.

“No, you’re just disobedient and reckless.” The dark haired boy sniped from across the room. He sent a disconcertingly familiar smile Danny’s way. “My name is Daniel, and Jasmine’s my older sister. Now I believe it’s your turn for introductions.” He suggest before raising an eyebrow at Danny’s odd stare. “What?”

There was no way he could deny it now. The mannerisms, the speech patterns, hell after taking a good look at him, I can nearly see��Oh God, I refuse to even think it. “I um nothing. It’s just my name is Daniel too. Oh, but everyone calls me Danny.” The time traveling halfa slid a glance down towards the youngest members of the room, eyes roving as discreetly as possible over their faces. Oh Jesus, they have the same color eyes as…

“That’s totally cool. Hey, that means I can say Daniel and get both of your attention at once.” Nate blurted out with an excited grin. He’d never met someone his brother’s age who had introduced himself before, and he planned on exploiting it for some fun.

“Daniel’s a common name. Honestly, I would have preferred if father had just given me his name.” Daniel moved from against the door frame of the entrance to the kitchen and walked over to stand in front of the twins. “You two are in serious trouble. How many times have I told you not to wander off? It’s incredibly dangerous, and more importantly, mother is worried sick. You’re lucky father is too busy working on the systems for the RV to notice you slipping off, but we have maybe an hour before he does, and then we’ll all be in trouble, and I am not getting grounded over your hardheaded shortsightedness. We are leaving now, and yes I am the boss of you.” Daniel finished the speech by ensnaring both of the twins’ wrists in each of his hands and nearly dragging them bodily from the room. He stopped at the juncture between the kitchen and the living room next door before adding, “Jasmine are you coming or not?”

“Yeah, I’m coming, just give me a second. I just want to grab some batteries for the weapons; we are running low back at Camp.” She leaned over and looked through the boxes Nick and Nate had been rummaging through just minutes before, before grabbing a few medium size spheres. Jasmine stuffed them in her pockets before turning towards Danny. “Listen sorry about pointing that weird looking gun at you. Just forget about it. In fact, forget you ever met me, it’ll be for the best actually.” She turned and began for the door, before something nagging at her made her stop at the threshold. “Hey, how did you get in here? I mean is someone going to be looking for you or…” She trailed off as she noticed the pale drawn look on the other teen’s face.

“I, uh, well…I don’t…” Yeah real smooth Fenton. Get it together! Danny took a deep breath before starting again. “I sorta lied about being dared to come in here. To be honest, I don’t really know where I am. I woke up in the forest out there, and came towards the castle because I thought someone might be living here, but I guess I was wrong. Um, could you at least tell me what state I’m in?” Please don’t be able to tell I’m lying like you always can. He hurriedly prayed.

Jasmine felt a small shock of worry and surprise go through her system. How in the world did a kid his- She cut off her own mental question, suspicion immediately replacing her natural empathy. To call the story sketchy would be generous, and there was too much depending on her to make a mistake at the moment. “You don’t remember how you got here at all? Do you remember the date?” It was possible that the boy in front of her just had short term amnesia from a concussion. Just as well, the tale was far too convenient.

“Yeah it’s like April 23rd or something right?” That was the last day he had seen before going back into the future.

Jasmine barely contained her surprise this time at Danny’s last sentence. “No. It’s May 5th, 2005. You’re missing like a week of time. Did you hit your-”

“Jasmine!”

The bright red haired teen turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. “Hold on a second Daniel, I think this kid’s in real trouble.” She leaned over and grabbed the likely amnesiac boy next to her, and pulled him along with her into the next room with her brothers. “He doesn’t know where he is, and he’s missing a week of time. I think we should at least drop him off in the nearest town’s police station. I brought the Hercules Hover with me, so we can just take him in that.” She finished before ruthlessly shoving away the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine that they were taking too long.

Daniel narrowed his eyes as he gave the male stranger a once over. There was something disturbingly familiar about his face, and more importantly, he never trusted anyone. It was too dangerous to take someone they didn’t know with them, even an hour out of the way max to get them to civilization. We’ve been here too long already; we need to get back to Camp. “Listen I don’t know if you’re lying,” he continued on even after his sister and the other teen started to interrupt, “and I don’t really care because it doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to waste taking you even remotely close to the nearest town. You’re on your own Danny. Jasmine let’s go.” He sent his sister a particularly pointed meaningful look before glaring down at his sputtering brothers, still trapped by the wrists, daring them to contradict him.

“Daniel,” Jasmine started with her lips pursed, “I’m not leaving him here by himself, in a burnt out house, with no food, no idea where he is, and barely any sense of time. That’s absurd.” She watched as he younger brother rolled his eyes, and it sent a wave of irritation through her system. He was always acting like he knew better than her, and she was definitely the older out of the two of them.

“What’s absurd is your insistence that we take a stranger with us. You know as well as I the dangers of leaving camp and especially of trusting people we don’t know. You’d think you’d have learned by now, but maybe I’ve assigned too steep a learning curve to-”

“Damn it; do not start your high-browed insults on me right now. This kid probably has a concussion and is suffering from short term retrograde amnesia. We-”

“And don’t start your pathetic pseudo-psychological babble on me. He’s probably just faking it to gain some sympathy. Turn off the empathy meter for five seconds Jasmine a-”

“You are such an asshole Daniel! Why can’t we just-”

“Listen you insufferable prat, f-”

“Insufferable pr-! Daniel, I’m in charge here. Don’t tell me I’m not, because you know mom and dad will ground you into eternity if you disobey me. I’m telling you, I’m taking Danny and the twins with me in the Hercules Hover, but you are free to get back however you want.” Jasmine let go of Danny’s wrist long enough to cross her arms and stare her brother down. He was so damn paranoid sometimes, it was unbearable. And he had this smug superior manner about him whenever he argued or thought he was right. Condescending prick, sounds just like dad sometimes, no matter how much he says he doesn’t. The ginger teen concluded before walking towards Daniel to extricate her youngest brothers from his grasp.

“Um, yeah hey…” Danny started before his sister made it across the room to the rest of the group. He waited until the anger buzzed eyes of everyone else in the room locked onto his. “I’m sorry I started this argument, but can’t you at least drop me off in walking distance of the nearest town? I mean maybe like 10 miles away, that would be close enough.” He watched as his alternate version sneered over at him before rolling his eyes.

“Just where do you think you are exactly? The closest town is nearly 50 miles away, and I’m not sure they have even 1,000 people living there.” He steadfastly ignored the tugging his eldest sibling was doing at his wrists to get to the twins. She couldn’t break his hold if she wanted to; he was much stronger than she was.

“Oh he doesn’t know, because he doesn’t know where he is, like I already told you.” Jasmine stopped to give an especially big tug. “Let go.” She gritted out irritably.

Daniel easily resisted, not bothering to even pull back. “No.” He answered her demand by steadfastly resisting her even stronger attempts. “Jasmine we have to leave. We can’t stay outside of the shields this long, even with the suppressers on, I…” he stopped suddenly cognizant of the stranger in the room. “The way I got out here is going to get their attention. You know that.”

Danny frowned in concern as the incongruous piece of information was taken in, ignoring the debate of sorts going on in front of him. While Vlad did live out in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area’s towns were famous for being technological centers of the state, if not the country. He realized with barely contained dismay that the reason for the towns’ economical and technological growth was likely the influence of Vlad’s companies on the Wisconsin area. “I, uh listen…I just need to get somewhere with internet or something. I’m actually looking for an old family friend.” Better just to get this over with now. “I’m sure I could look him up, but uh, not until I get into a town. So are you sure you couldn’t just-”

“Who are you looking for?” Daniel carefully shouldered his sister behind him loosening his grip on the twin’s wrists, his near innate sixth sense for danger kicking in.

“Oh well, his name is,” Here it goes, “Vlad Masters. The last plac-” Danny watched as the two younger boys were shuffled behind their older siblings, Jazz taking the ecto-weapon back out, and Da- , the person who wasn’t him, shifting into a fighting stance.

“How exactly do you know-”

“Stupid question Jasmine,” Daniel said interrupting already knowing where she was going with that sentence, “better one, when did you send the signal out to the GSU? Don’t lie or make me beat it out of you, I don’t have time for that.” He sent a polar chill level icy glare towards their enemy, already berating himself for not getting his family out of there sooner.

Jasmine ignored her younger sibling’s rude curt mannerism. He was always like that when he was worried, scared, or angry, and he was likely all three at the moment. She was too busy trying not to beat herself up over mistaking this obvious danger for a defenseless kid. “We don’t have time for that either Daniel, let’s just get into the Hover and haul ass. If we hurry we can still get out of here before anyone from the GSU gets remotely close. The nearest base is in Amity, and even if they take jets out to get to us, they’ll take 90 minutes or something. If I use the cloak-” Jasmine stopped her sentence when she heard a high pitched ominous sound coming from outside. The choppy whirl of something coming through the air towards their current position cut through the sudden silence of the room. In an instant, she knew they were in serious trouble. The only reason there’d be aircraft this far out… She started to think before shoving it away before focusing her mind onto the situation at hand.

At the same time, the twins jumped behind their older siblings, before trading a covert glance.

Wordlessly, Nick lifted a hand towards Daniel’s back pocket, reaching for the device he’d dangled in front of them when he first arrived. It was the reason he and his brother had come all this way. He looked down at the wrist reaching for the pocket, and suppressed a frown at the silver bracelet wrapped tightly around it. If he was lucky in a few seconds it wouldn’t matter.

Just then, Nate jumped to the side at the sound of a sonic boom overhead. He was nowhere near startled, but he needed his older brother distracted.

Nick took a deep breath at the same instant Nate jumped, and plucked up the device the moment Daniel was distracted. The amethyst eyed boy shoved it into his pocket before his older brother could notice and slunk over towards his twin.

Another boom sounded from above them, and this time no one had to fake shock. It didn’t sound like the rumbling boom of a jet flying over head. It was more like something slamming into the earth.

“Come on, they’re dropping off soldiers! We have to get out of here. Jasmine, take the twins around the back, and don’t let that GSU flunky out of your sight. I’m going to go talk to the welcome party.” Daniel strode away to the exit to the room, back towards the original entrance to the mansion.

Jasmine watched him go with a growing pit of apprehension swirling in her stomach. By the sounds of it, there was a practical army swarming outside waiting for them. If they didn’t get out of there right now they could be captured! But… There was just something about the raven haired teen in front of her. She couldn’t place a finger on it, and she didn’t have time to contemplate it at the moment, but the young man in front of her reminded her of something or someone. She narrowed her eyes in thought as her youngest brothers backed into the back of her legs. She didn’t trust him; she shouldn’t trust him, but the desperate naked fear in his eyes, contrasted greatly with the feeling of betrayal in her center. When she heard the opening explosions of battle, she made her decision. Danny was coming with her, after they searched him for bugs or tracers of course. The scarlet haired teen made a vague gesture with the hand holding the gun. “You, you’re coming with us. I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I don’t think you brought them here. It was probably one of the twins when they…came out here.” She stated carefully avoiding specific details. She didn’t know whose side the blue-eyed teen in front of her was on, but she didn’t want to give out any more information than necessary.

Danny was starting to panic. In between the gun pointed directly at his heart, again, the sounds of battle raging not 100 feet away from them outside of the castle, and the currently disappeared version of himself who went out to fight it, he felt like his world was breaking. He barely registered his sister moving the ecto-weapon pointed at him to gesture, but he did hear the command for him to come with the rest of the group. He silently thanked whatever god had decided to give him just the slightest bit of luck convincing his sister he wasn’t a threat, before slowly walking towards her.

Jasmine quickly snapped the ecto-weapon up to full power, in intimidation, when she saw the obsidian haired teen walk towards her. “Nuh-uh. You are going to stay over there. I’m going to point this gun at your back while you walk forward, and direct you from behind. If you so much as sneeze threateningly, I’ll blast a hole in your skull. Got it?” She finished her declaration by staring the boy across from her directly in the eyes. She couldn’t suppress a shudder at the deep hurt reflected back at her through his gaze. What she was more concerned about though was the resonating pain that flowed through her own system. Just who is this kid? She pondered before an especially loud explosion from outside made her jump. Time to go! The eldest teen in the room snapped the weapon down a few notches in power and made a motion towards one of the exits to the room. “You first.”

Danny shoved away the growing hole in his chest made by the cold and rough treatment his sister was giving him. If he ever needed a familiar face to trust him, it was now, but at the moment, the only person he knew either hated his guts or didn’t trust him farther than her gun sights. Neither option was really soothing to Danny’s mind. He glumly turned towards the doorway Jazz had indicated with her weapon. He started off slowly, partially because he was sulking and partially because he didn’t want to give her an excuse to shot at him.

“Come on, move your ass! We have to get out-” Jasmine was cut off by a several loud crashes echoing throughout the house before Daniel landed just a few scant feet in front of her, having been thrown through a wall.

“What the baklava are you all still doing here? Didn’t I tell you to high-tail it like five minutes ago?” Daniel shook off some of the dust from his clothing, now subtly glowing and color reversed from the last time he was in the room.

“Sorry, we were just leaving!” Jasmine spat out hastily, pushing her younger siblings along in front of her, before noticing Danny standing still. “Get going! Do you want to die?” She was nearly out of patience at this point. What was this kid’s deal?

Danny was shocked into stillness by the sight of Daniel flying into the room. He had obviously transformed, but he looked nothing like either he or Vlad. Other than the clothing he was wearing swapping colors, and the ghostly aura obviously surrounding his person, he looked nearly exactly the same. Well not exactly, his eyes are the same color red as Vlad’s, but why is his hair still black? Danny contemplated before realizing he was still standing at the edge of the room when they had a fight to escape. “Oh right, let’s get out of here.” He replied to Jazz absently dismissing the mystery that was his alternate self in favor of escaping the building. He followed his sister’s explicit and sometimes explicative filled instructions to the back of the mansion facing towards the southern side of the former Dairy King’s abode. It didn’t take long for him to identify the mode of transportation they were taking. What in the-“hell is that thing?” he asked voicing the tail end of his thoughts.

The Hercules Hover looked like a giant beetle made of bright white metal and silvery chrome and dark gray steel. It even had something that looked like pincers on the front.

“Do you like it? It’s a scaled up model of a Hercules Beetle, complete with energy scattering ecto-skeleton and strength built up to the car equivalent in size.” Nick gushed from behind Danny.

“Oook, that was the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a kid your age’s mouth.” The time traveling teen responded.

“Psh, the ecto-skeleton isn’t nearly as cool as the heat seeking weapons or the hydraulic system that runs it.” Nate stated with a huff before continuing, “and it especially isn’t as cool as multi-person motion compensating targeting system, complete with multi-scopes and several scanning modes for optimum dam-” He’s technological speech was cut short when a loud explosion sounded from the front of castle.

“Never mind that the both of you, just get inside.” Jasmine walked from behind the teen she was basically holding hostage to open the side of the vehicle. With a whoosh and a small puff of steam, the side of the craft opened up to reveal the insides before she climbed inside. The elder teen calculated the odds of the battle raging out front from the sounds echoing back towards them. Not good, sounds like Daniel’s having trouble keeping them all occupied. We need to get airborne before they manage to get past him and back here. She watched as her brothers climbed in first, and was just about to motion to Danny to get in next when a swirling mist of red gathered in the cabin.

“Alright, let’s get out of here. I’ve got a duplicate keeping them busy out front, so if we leave south-west of here we’ll be able to escape with cover for the first hundred miles or so.” The ghost powered teen began pressing buttons to start up the machine before he noticed Danny standing a few feet from the vehicle. With a start and a set of narrowed eyes, he turned to face his older sister preparing to pilot them out of there next to him in the cockpit. “What in Hades is that waste of carbon atoms doing out here? You should’ve-”

“He’s coming with us.” Jasmine stated calmly, already nearly done with the start up sequence for the Hercules Hover. She wasn’t about to fight with him about this when they were in so much danger. He’d better just get over it, because Danny is coming with us.

“No hold on, could I ask you something?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, instead plowing right into answering his own question. “Did you leave the rest of your frontal lobe in Camp, because you know, I was just wondering if I could attribute your sudden loss of IQ points on something other than your blasted empathy.”

“Shut up Daniel. Fly home if you don’t want to look at him on the trip, but he’s coming.” At this point Jasmine was so upset, she didn’t care what Danny overheard. She wasn’t arguing with her bull-headed younger brother about it anymore.

Before Daniel could retort a resounding boom echoed from the front of the grounds. A bright collection of red rushed into the cabin and towards him before absorbed into his being. His eyes flashed a darker red for an instant, before he gasped and reached from the controls. “We have got to get out of here. You’re not going to-” Another large explosion cut off the rest of his sentence, and the oddly shaped craft shook on the ground as the remnants of the building behind them imploded.

The blast threw Danny against the still open side of the Hover knocking him nearly senseless. He groaned when he felt the vehicle he was leaning against move away and barely caught himself before he hit the ground. The sight that greeted him when the battered teen pried his eyes open was not a comforting one.

The mansion had caved in on itself, and plowing through the rubble were the troops of the GSU armed with various weapons and flanked and backed up by an assortment of assault vehicles including a few tanks. They fired a few shots, purposely aimed poorly, just to watch their cornered quarry dance.

Danny jumped to his feet to avoid the first of the ecto-weapon’s blasts. He managed to dodge the first several attacks, before realizing they were just playing with him. I’m dead. He thought before settling into a shaky fighting stance. Danny was more than outnumbered; he was out gunned, and had no way to escape. Just as he was about to transform and face the inevitable, a strong dark green blast carved a path in between the advancing troops and his person.

In the hovercraft above the ensuing battle Jasmine had just strapped herself into the pilot seat, after making sure the twins were buckled first. They’d had more than one experience with the cabin suddenly and explosively opening, so they all strapped in now-a-days. She was just about to demand Daniel go down and pick up the other teen, when he had suddenly jumped from the craft, phasing through the ecto-skeleton. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind anymore. One minute her younger brother was insisting they leave the other boy to his fate, and the next he was jumping back into the fray, willing to protect him. If for five seconds you could make sense…

Truthfully, it was watching the other boy get fired upon, even if purposefully inaccurately, that had finally convinced Daniel to help. No way would they fire on one of their own like that. Their weapons are too dangerous. So, with barely a word to his sister back in the Hercules Hover, he’d jumped out of the craft and dived back towards the troops below. A carefully aimed blast cut the troops off from his target. The currently in ghost form youth maneuvered to a stop just in front of the designer clad kid in trouble. “Looks like you could use some help.” He said with the most apologetic voice he could muster under the circumstances.

“Could I ever. Do you think you could fly us out of here or something? I’d like to avoid ending up like the castle behind us.” Danny lifted up a hand towards the floating teen above him just as the fires from the ecto-attack died down. He felt his stomach drop as he was pulled into the air, and zipped towards the beetle shaped hovercraft. A few seconds later, he was dropped unceremoniously onto the cabin floor.

“Alright now let’s get out of here!” Daniel settled into the co-pilot seat next to his older sister and pointed towards the south-west. He began starting up some of the defense systems; there was no way they were getting out of there without a fight anymore.

“No problem.” Jasmine quickly agreed, before ‘punching it’. The hybrid bug-plane shot forward like a race horse out of the gate, zooming away from the quickly receding sounds of battle below. Just as they passed the edge of the forest surrounding the destroyed castle, the tanks behind them opened fire. With a few moves that looked like it came from an action movie, she quickly maneuvered them around the deadly weapon’s fire with ease.

The sounds of the blasts and the explosions of bright green grew softer and farther apart. Despite its nearly comical appearance the hovercraft was capable of moving well over 300 miles an hour.

Jasmine relaxed her grip slightly on the steering wheel of the flying beetle. The sounds of exploding ecto-weapon shells were miles behind them, far enough in the distance that she could calm down some.

Daniel narrowed his eyes and checked a few more scanning settings on the Hercules. There’s just no way it’s that easy. On the final channel he flipped to, he was rewarded with two flashing blips speeding towards their position. I hate it when I’m right. “Don’t let up Jasmine, we’ve got two boogies coming in hot.” With that, he flipped over the display onto the holographic read out floating in front of the windows in the beetle head shaped cockpit of the Hover.

“What are they?” The crimson locked teen asked punching a few buttons on the control console to narrow down the search area to just the planes coming towards their position.

“At this speed? I’d say fighter jets.” Daniel unbuckled himself and jumped towards the midsection of the craft. He’d likely need to intercept them himself; the Hover didn’t have the maneuverability to out-fly a couple of government issued jets.

“Oh great, because you know that’s just what we need, jets crawling up our six.” Jasmine huffed and started overriding the maximum velocity conditions on the craft, wanting to squeeze out all of the extra speed she could from the machine. She frowned when the jets over took the Hover’s position and banked back around obviously wanting an easy shot at the sides of the machine. “Daniel…”

“Yeah I’m on it.” He said before transforming and phasing out of the middle of the craft. He settled onto the nose of the Hover before creating a strong pink shield around the outside of the craft to block the incoming gun fire.

The planes strafed the outside of their target, firing large caliber rounds that were easily absorbed by half-ghost creating the ecto-shield. Even though their bullets were coated in ecto-uranium, like all of their equipment, and so especially effective against ghosts, hybrids were much more powerful than average, leaving the majority of their weapons ineffective. “Home base this is Flyer K, requesting approval to use heavy artillery.” The squadron leader sent back to their base in Amity. She spotted the rest of their group coming in from behind, slowed down by helping move supplies and ground troops back into the large air carrier. Should be here soon.

“Flyer K, this is home base, permission granted. Blast those mutant bastards out of the sky.”

The squadron leader smirked into her O2 mask before replying, “Roger that home base. Let’s see those freaks avoid these.” She flipped up the missile firing part of her weapons system with a nearly soundless click. The weapon’s display changed from the small caliber rounds and weapons to the serious ecto-energy seeking energy and ecto-signature specific missiles and attacks. She picked out a pair of her favorite missiles, the afterlife ender, and prepared to fire them while flagging her flying partner to do the same. Simultaneously, they sent off two pairs of missiles meant for the speeding bug-like craft now a few hundred yards in front of them.

“Daniel, we’ve got missiles baring down on us. You think your shield will hold?” Jasmine began steering the Hover in an erratic pattern trying to throw off the systems of the missiles.

The half-ghost teen sitting on the nose of the Hover narrowed his eyes as the missiles sped towards their position. “That’s a negative ghost rider. I’m going to have to make a copy to take care of it; I can’t drop the shield around the Hover, it would be too dangerous.” Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated. It was a drain on his powers to make a duplicate while holding the shield, after already having fought off the GSU troops earlier, but he didn’t have a choice at the moment. He grimaced when he felt his core ache in the distinctive way that signaled him running out of power. Not yet… With a deep breath, he forced the copy into existence and sent it outside of the shield to take care of the missiles.

The shield around the Hover flickered to bright green for a few seconds before changing back to a much softer nearly pastel colored pink as opposed to the deep nearly cherry pink from before.

“Hey, are you-” Jasmine started only to be cut off by her younger brother.

“I’m fine; we just need to end this fight quickly. If not, we’ll be in trouble.” He responded through grit teeth, pushing more energy into the cracking failing shield. It solidified under his efforts and he opened his eyes to watch the copy take off to intercept the missiles.

Danny was racked with indecision. Now would be a great time to transform and help out before they were all blasted into bloody chunks. On the other hand, he didn’t want to reveal he had ghost powers, in his recent experiences no time was a good time to reveal that, and with them already so suspicious they were contemplating leaving him to the GSU, he didn’t want to give them any excuse to do so. Plus I’m pretty sure just showing up with ghost powers when they think I’m a regular kid will get me at least tied down to a chair with a gun pointed at me. He mentally griped, feeling like a fish out of water sitting in the cabin instead of acting heroic.

The duplicate carefully flew between the first pair of missiles redirecting them back onto its tail instead of the Hover. It dodged around the second pair, making sure they were tailing as well before heading back towards the re-grouping squadron of fighter jets.

They were back in formation, all six of them, ready to deliver some punishing blows to the ghost hybrid boldly flying directly into their group. The leader radioed the rest of them to ready their large caliber bullets, wanting to rip the ghost in front of them into bloody chunks. To their surprise, the ghost didn’t even slow when they began pelting it with projectiles; it only created a shield, and continued flying right at them.

It sped towards the rightmost section of the formation, missiles still tailing and quickly closing the gap. The duplicate solidified the shield to full power, and poured on the speed. It zeroed in on the nose of the plane on the very right of the squadron, moving too fast for the pilot to avoid the collision course. The still shielded clone appeared out of the opposite side of the gutted split in half wreckage, just as the first of the missiles slammed into the debris.

Fire billowed out in all directions, causing the remaining planes to try and dodge around the raining fire filled destruction all around them. A large chunk of twisted and melting melted rammed into the wing of one of the fleeing planes, the one closest to the plane hit by the combination of the duplicate and the exploding missiles. It spun out of control, then caught fire, its engines exploding before the pilot could eject. The remaining four planes split off into groups of two, each flanking a side of the dying inferno in the sky.

Suddenly, out of the center of the blast, the duplicate appeared, with two of the missiles still hot on its trail. The energy clone shot diagonally away from the last of the falling wrecked plane, nearly straight down. It charged a pinkish blast in its hands, preparing to fire. Right when the attack was basketball sized, the duplicate flipped in mid-air, changing its orientation from head down to head up. It fired the blast just as it shot up and the missiles rapidly drew nearer. It transformed right after changing direction and using the momentum from its formerly powered flight to carry it away from the certain denotation of the ecto-energy seeking missiles.

Just as with Danny, the missiles followed past the energy clone in human form and straight into the light pink colored ecto-energy attack, igniting on contact. The blast rippled the air around it, creating distinctive concentric rings in the clouds around the area in the sky.

It flipped a few times head over heel, before regaining control over its flight after transforming back into ghost form. The duplicate used its position under the group of planes closest to it to its advantage, surging upwards into the wing of the closest plane. The wing rapidly sheared off, shredding under the combined assault of the stresses of flight and the energy clone plowing into it. It grasped the stub of the broken wing and twirled the plane, flinging it into the machine’s closest neighbor.

The combined flaming twisted metal ball, that at one time had been two planes, plummeted towards the earth’s surface, leaving sky choking smoke filled hole in the ground.

The energy clone stopped to admire its handiwork before looking around for the two remaining pilots. It suppressed a gasp as it located the planes flanking either side of it, guns primed and ready to riddle it with bullets. Unexpectedly, a nearly manic looking grin broke out across its face. “You’re never going to get a clearer shot.” It said while rapidly switching its eyes from the plane to its left to its right and back again. It held out its arms wide, leaving its torso very open.

“Die ghost scum.” The squadron leader spoke hitting the button for her machine gun.

The other pilot followed suit, and before long, there was a stream of bullets shooting towards the clone. He gasped when the hail of bullets disappeared into a cloud of red smoke. Just where did-He thought before an equally large cloud of red haze gathered around the outside of his cockpit.

“Here I am.” The cloud drawled while gathering into a humanoid shape. The duplicate sent an energy clothed fist through the reinforced glass of the cockpit window, before grasping the pilot inside the jet and flinging him out through the glass and back towards the rear of the jet, where he quickly caught fire before falling out of sight. It pressed down on the controls for the plane; rocketing the jet towards its compatriot at full speed.

Oh shit. She thought before slamming down on the button for the eject. She shot up and away from her plane just as the other jet barreled into hers. The flames from the resulting explosion ripped her parachute like tissue paper, and she fell back through the licking burning inferno of her jet, disappearing from sight.

The energy clone sighed into the smoky sky darkened by its destructive attacks before dissolving back into red energy.

Daniel sighed tiredly from the front seat next to Jasmine. He’d dropped the shield and phased back into the co-pilot’s seat seconds after his energy clone dissipated back into pure spectral energy. Well my powers are baked for the next few hours. “Well Danny, there’s a few things you need to know, since you are stuck with us for awhile. We aren’t exactly a normal family. Those guys shooting at us back there? They’re called the GSU, and they want to mount my family’s head on a pike like a medieval decoration. Also, we can’t tell you where we are going, because frankly I don’t trust you, and every second outside of the homemade safe zone is risking our very lives. They want us dead because, we’re part ghost, which, by the by, is why I can fly and bat missiles out of the air if you were wondering.” He turned around; wanting to see the shock filled gapping expression he was sure the other teen was making. When he was met with a blank stare, Daniel couldn’t help but raise an inquisitive brow.

“What?” Danny started upon seeing the look on the other boy’s face. “I don’t know what state I’m in, I’m missing a week of time from my life, the government was just trying to kill me, I’m being held hostage flying to God knows where, and you think the fact you have superpowers is the most concerning thing to me right now?”

“Good point.” Daniel settled deeper into the seat before starting the monologue back up, “In any case, once we are sure you aren’t working for the guys who are trying to kill us, which I still not all the convinced of, we’ll fly you to the nearest city and drop you off. The last thing we need is another mouth to feed anyway.”

“How in the world did they find us?” Jasmine grumbled, changing subjects, finally setting the Hercules Hover into auto-pilot mode. If would be a few hours more until they got back to Camp, even flying at maximum velocity, and there was no way she was holding the steering wheel the whole rest of the way.

Daniel visibly sagged into the co-pilot seat, more tired than ever now that they were no longer in danger. “It might have been me. I mean I was only in ghost form for a few seconds to teleport, but I had to take the bracelet off to do it, and they can track me with it off. Speaking of, hand back my bracelet you little louts.”

Nick and Nate shared a look before facing back around to look at their older brother. “Uh what do you mean?” They asked at once.

“Oh please, as if you being nervous wasn’t obvious, the device you were trying to pilfer is right here.” He stopped to dangle the completely black chain over his shoulder where his brothers could see it. “What you currently have, in your pocket Nick, is my bracelet. If you notice, it’s black and silver. Good try, but you need to take some more dots in stealth and street smarts.” Daniel chuckled before shoving the device back into his front pants pocket. “Now hand it over thing one and two.”

The two of them grimaced before tossing the bracelet over the top of the co-pilot chair. “You’re no fun Daniel.” They decided at the same time, before settling back into their chairs on the opposite side from Danny.

“Well I don’t think so.” Jasmine decided, picking up the conversation where Daniel had left off before talking about the bracelet. “I mean if they picked you up that quickly, how do you know it wasn’t the twins they found first? I mean they flew out there, so their signal was stronger for much longer. Hey! That reminds me, how exactly did you two fly out there? Neither of you have access to enough energy to transform, so how did you-…” Jasmine trailed off and fiddled with the cloaking device on the Hercules some more, changing it in response to the different type of radar their pursuers were using.

“Does it matter really? I mean we all got out ok so-”

“Sure if you think destroying a supply cache and nearly being blasted out of the sky is ok. Oh, and father’s going to turn me inside out for this mess. You two are dead meat anyway, I’ll just tell one of the parental units to clamp your suppressant levels tighter.” Daniel resisted the urge to smirk, knowing threatening to have the restraints increased would get them to talk. To his surprise neither of them offered up any further information, so with a shrug he dismissed the conversation onto the list of things to worry about once they got back to Camp. He glanced down at his own bare wrist and frowned. Even though he barely had any spectral energy at the moment, and what energy he had, he was consciously suppressing, the ghost powered teen knew he had to place the bracelet back on eventually. With a purely internal groan, Daniel wrapped the bracelet back around his form and snapped it in place with a click. A few seconds later, he felt it come fully online, and the rest of his powers slip out of his grasp. He leaned his head against the back of the seat, enjoying the sudden silence in the cabin.

“So whose idea was this…weird beetle thing?” Danny asked breaking what had been a comfortable lull in conversation. He had to admit, it was cooler than he first thought, what with the laser defense system and the outer shielding that could absorb missile damage through some sciencey energy thing, the twins had over-enthusiastically explained, but it still looked like a giant bug.

“It was mine.” The twins answered at the same time.

“Nuh-uh! I thought of it first!” Nate protested.

“No way, you didn’t even like entomology until I started studying it! You’re just a bandwagoner.” Nick objected back.

“Ento-what?” Danny tried to break up the ensuing argument.

“If you two recall, neither of you started studying entomology until after Jasmine said you could use it to identify the age of corpses, which, by the way, was after she suggested using an insect or arachnid as a model to make a tank-like flying vehicle. So she thought of it.” Daniel stopped and looked over at the interestingly similar looking to him teen opposite Nick. “Ignore them, they always fight like this.” He supplied. “So what’s your last name? You never did say.” Daniel leaned back into his seat, resisting the urge to sleep after the dog-fight with the jets earlier. He needed to stay alert-more of them could be back at any time.

“Oh er…Moley.” I’m back to this again already?

“Moley huh? That’s an awful alias. If you are going to lie to me about your last name you could at least pick something good, like Phoenix.”

“Or Gryphon.” Nate added from his position opposite Danny.

“No wait! My name is now Nickolas Cthulhu.”

Daniel chuckled from the front of the cabin. “Fantastic, where’s your tentacles elder god?”

“Foolish mortal! If I were to reveal my true form, it would splatter your consciousness among the cosmos.” Nick responded with exceptional bravado.

At that, the whole group, excluding Danny, broke out into a fit of giggles. “Um…who?” I hate sounding stupider than 10 year olds. He thought cursing his serious lack of book knowledge.

“You know, Call of Cthulhu.” Daniel supplied helpfully turning to face the group’s clueless member from the front seat. Upon seeing a blank state met his information he clarified further. “H.P Lovecraft, the…author. Do you even read man?”

“I read! I mean, not much outside of school assignments, usually just comic books.” Danny ended the sentence mostly in a mumble, realizing he didn’t read on the regular because of all of the ghost fighting, and certainly nothing classical in nature.

“Oh. Well, um, I a little bit of a literature lover-”

“And by that he means he’d marry a library if it were legal.” Jasmine interrupted.

“Would not! Though I might’ve married one of the Bronte sisters if it were possible.”

“I can’t believe you like the romantic drivel.” Nate and Nick complained at once.

“If you ask me, I much prefer Hemingway.” Nickolas added.

“Or Tim O’Brien, can’t beat war stories.” Nate countered.

“Yeah and Tim O’ Brien and Hemingway are fantastic marriage material.” Daniel’s tone managed to carry both sarcasm and mirth. He listened to his younger brothers’ sputter from the back of the Hover, a victorious smile firmly planted on his face.

“Uh so, what are you guys’ last names?” The conversation was veering into serious nerd-level territory, and unless Danny wanted more of his lack of book knowledge revealed, he needed to change the subject.

Jasmine scoffed and turned around towards the edge of her seat to look back at Danny. “How about we’ll tell you if you tell us your real one?”

“Um…I did already?” Even to Danny’s ears it sounded unsure and meek. Yeah great way to convince them you’re telling the truth. He crossed his arms and sent a light glare towards his sister-who-wasn’t. There was no way he was telling anyone anything about his actual life until he knew more about the crazy world he found himself in.

“Yeah right. No wait didn’t we tell you? Our last name is Moley too. Just what are the odds?” Daniel mocked while he unbuckled himself and headed for the back of the Hover.

“Daniel, quit being so sarcastic!” Jasmine frowned at him from his position standing near the weapon’s case in the back. She watched him fiddle with a couple weapons, carefully, unconsciously, she realized, eying the other male teen. He’s nervous. She didn’t blame him honestly. This kid shows up out of nowhere, and knows our dad’s name, and then the GSU shows up, but he can’t remember anything for a week, and won’t tell us anything about him. Yeah, I’m nervous too Daniel. She remembered before honing in on one of Danny’s admissions. “How do you know Vlad Masters anyway?” And he was going to explain that one, even if he wouldn’t tell them anything else.

“Like I said, he’s an old family friend.” Between the other boy fiddling with the weapons in the back and his sister needling him for answers in the front, Danny was beginning to feel like a caged animal.

“Listen, if you’re going to lie to us about your last name, you could at least be honest about that. Not many people would call him a family friend anymore. In fact, the list of people includes our mom, and Jack Fenton, and well he depends on the mood and the level of crazy.”

Danny was about to say something about calling his dad crazy, when he remembered he knew nothing about anything going on at the moment. So instead, he settled for a slightly stronger glare and a stonewalled face.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. “Ok, don’t tell us, but until you do, we aren’t letting you out of Camp when we arrive.” She sighed shakily, hoping they weren’t bringing a Trojan horse back into their version of “Troy”. There was really nothing for it though. They couldn’t let him go, he was too dangerous, knew too much already, but…Bringing him with us has its own set of risks. I mean, we already had him scanned a million different ways for bugs or transmitters, but that doesn’t mean he can’t contact them some other way, and Camp is the only safe place left. Still, something stronger than her fear was pulling at her to let him stay, and it was something she couldn’t explain. The crimson haired girl glanced at the map tracking their position. Only an hour and a half left. They were close, and she was determined to get some info out of him before then. “Danny,” she sighed out before standing from her seat at the front of the Hover to walk back towards him.

Danny had receded back into himself, wanting to think over some of the reams of information he’d learned over the past 36 hours or so. It doesn’t make any sense. That was the only conclusion he’d been able to reach over the last few minutes, and it seemed to encompass everything about his last day and a half. Amity Park didn’t make any sense. The GSU didn’t make any sense. Vlad’s burnt out mansion didn’t make any sense. The kit and caboodle of the giant flying bug he was inside didn’t make any sense. If he was honest with himself, nothing had made sense since he had taken Clockwork’s Medallion and wished the bonds of time away. And what was with Jazz calling dad crazy? Or saying he had sent me after them? Admittedly, she thought I was a ghost at the time, but that doesn’t actually make it make…any more sense. Danny resisted the urge to massage the headache forming behind his eyes away. All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to make this any better. I have to ask the only person with answers, which means I need to avoid being thrown off this tub by its other worried passengers. He decided, before suddenly turning to face his sister who wasn’t. “What’s Camp?” The ghost powered teen asked, face a picture of calm attentiveness.

Jasmine was taken aback by the tenor of the question. She had been expecting him to ask where they were going, or perhaps how they knew Vlad Masters, but instead…She tilted her head as she processed through the way to answer the question. She almost jumped when Daniel answered for her.

“Camp is a safe haven, and no we aren’t telling you where it is exactly. It’s the one place on the planet where we can’t be found by the GSU, though of course I’m not going to tell you why either. That should answer any and all questions you have about the place, at least any we are willing to answer.” Daniel leaned against the rounded wall closest to the guns’ rack and eyed Danny suspiciously.

Danny groaned and let his head rest against the back of his seat. It was tired of dealing with people so unwilling to answer anything, but at this point he could understand some of their behavior. More annoyingly, he was getting a karmic taste of his own uncooperative medicine. “If I tell you how I know Vlad, will you at least tell me your last names?” Danny offered. It wasn’t as if he needed them to tell him, he knew the answer already. It was completely obvious. On the other hand, he needed them to trust him, and confiding in him was a good way to get that to happen.

Jasmine frowned from her seat next to their tag-a-long. It seemed like a genuine offer, and a reasonable trade. Chances were if Vlad was really an old family friend like the teenager next to her claimed, then telling him their last names wouldn’t do any damage. And since he had offered his information first, there was really nothing to lose. If he’s lying, I’ll know about it before we tell him anything. With that thought, she locked eyes with her brother at the back of the Hover. For a second she thought he wouldn’t agree, but she plunged ahead when she saw him shrug his shoulders. “Alright, so how do you know him?” Jasmine questioned again, a little more gently than the first time.

“I know I already said he’s an old family friend, um, but I didn’t say who knows him. It’s my mom actually. She knew him in college.” I hope this works. “My mom’s name is Harriet Chin, she used to be friends with Vlad Masters, and I think she was the roommate of a woman called Maddie, er, she was never really clear on her last name. I guess she thought it was obvious or something.” Danny muttered through the last of the sentence and closed his eyes. He really didn’t want to deal with the fallout if they didn’t believe him this time.

“Harriet Chin? She was my mother’s roommate in college, except…” Jasmine narrowed her eyes at the boy next to her, looking him over. “You don’t look much like her. I mean mom said she was Asian, and to be honest, you look whiter than snow.”

“Yeah well, she’s my step-mother.” I’ve developed a lot of step-parents on this little trip. Danny mused before continuing, “And she’s dead.” And a whole bunch of dead ones too. What? This is like the third parent I’ve killed off, as long as I don’t count the imaginary biological mom I killed to get related to Ms. Chin. Danny opened his eyes and stared as imploringly as he could manage at the girl sitting next to him. If he could communicate a single thought with his eyes alone, it’d be “please believe me.”

Jasmine was about to comment on how convenient it was for his step-mom to be dead as a door nail, when the look on his face froze her lips mid-word. There was enough raw pain on the other side of his stare to give her pause. At the very least, he was really hurt about something, and as far as she could tell, it wasn’t out of the question for it to be about his “dead” step-mom. She passed an unsure look to her brother behind Danny, wanting his unspoken second opinion about it. Even if she’d never admit it out loud, he had an almost prenatal sixth sense about people and their trustworthiness, and she trusted him to decide whether someone was safe to trust or not. Honestly, the only one better at it is dad.

Daniel couldn’t see the pained desperate look on their “house guest’s” face, but the emotions were coming off him in waves. The dark-haired teen wasn’t a trusting person by nature, at least not anymore, but his most basic instincts were screaming at him to have faith with a person he’d never laid eyes on before in his life. Even if he didn’t trust him with everything, his gut instinct had been demanding he let him in since he’d seen him back at the cache in Wisconsin, and it was driving him nuts. There was nothing about the other boy that lent itself to greater trust, and if he was honest with himself, there was every reason to not believe him. Everything from the story of his arrival at the cache, to his step-mom tale just a few seconds ago ranged from flimsy to absurd, yet here he was, fighting with logic against every base impulse. What is it about you that drives my trust so deeply? Daniel pondered before catching his sister’s eye on the other side of the teen they were practically interrogating. He saw the light of uncertainty reflected in her eyes, before deciding to give into the irrational, but strong, impulse to trust the boy in front of him implicitly. “Ok. So you’re step-mom is, forgive me, was Harriet Chin, who was a good friend of my mother, and at the very least an acquaintance of my father.” He quirked his mouth into a semi-balance of a worried thin line before continuing past his reticence, “If you haven’t guessed by now, my last name is ‘Masters’, and so is everyone else aboard this flying bug. That is except you.”

Danny had been excepting him to confirm his- what was it at this point? Worse nightmare or saving grace?- but the effect was greater than he’d thought. Instead of the vague tingle of surprise and the uneasy sensation of wrong, wrong, wrong, he’d expected, he was awash in an intense jolt of near painful vertigo. It was like the whole world had decided to turn upside-down but, regretfully, forgotten to inform him about it or even warn him in advance. Even if he could go through the mental gymnastics necessary to logic away his sister’s presence, the boy behind him turned the best of his rationalizations about how “not different” this world from his own into laser hole ridden tissue paper whose ashes had been rocketed into space. And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known any of this before he heard it out loud, but there was a difference between just thinking about it, and having someone basically tell you the family you know and love doesn’t exist. Danny managed to avoid the thought of curling up into a ball and just giving in for a few hours until he could summon up some more emotional energy. It wouldn’t really help in this situation, and if anything, he needed to be fully alert from now on. There was no way to know how much this…reality differed from his own. Hell there’s no way of knowing whether Vlad will even be happy, or even ok seeing me. If he isn’t, it’ll just be a matter of time before the GSU find me, and then it’s bye bye Danny. He took a deep shuddering breath and settled his dismay and discomfort to the back of his mind.

“Hey guys, I think we are getting close. Well the map is beeping more, so I think that means we’re getting close.” Nate offered from his stolen seat in the pilot side of the cockpit.

“Yeah we’d know for sure if you guys ever let us touch anything up here, like ever.” Nick added before leaning over his twin’s shoulder to stare at the flashing map more intently.

Jasmine looked over at the shell-shocked teen in front of her a moment longer before heading back to the front of the Hover. There were a multitude of things to attribute his reaction to. Everything from relief of deep worry and stress to a high level of shock about the content of the revelation was up for grabs emotionally. So instead of questioning the raven-haired teen who looked so much like her brother, but not that it scared her, she decided to take a look at the radar. Sure enough, the twins were right. They were only a few minutes away from the Rockies, and from there it’d only be a five or six minute flight to the outer reaches of Camp. She melded into the pilot seat with a sigh, before buckling herself in. “Alright everyone, strap back into a seat, we’re pretty close now. It’ll be just a few minutes longer before we reach the mountains, and then after that, Danny,” she added just to make it known she was mentioning this just for him, “we’ll be back in Camp airspace.”

“So if you have any GSU transmitters, don’t expect them to work or anything.” Daniel suggested brushing past Danny to get back to the co-pilot seat at the front of the Hover.

“Yeah never dream of communicating with the people who were shooting at me a few hours ago.” He sniped back with a roll of his eyes. God is this guy paranoid. He mentally added before continuing, “And good thing we’re about to land too, ‘cause I was about to ask ‘are we there yet?’ and God knows how annoying that question is.” Danny joked before clicking his seat belt back into place. He watched as the older siblings cajoled the twins into complying with the barest of safety measures, before returning to their own seats at the front of the cabin. If there was ever a time he’d wished for a window seat, this was it. Other than knowing they were probably going south-west, because Daniel had mentioned it earlier, and being relatively sure they were in the Rockies, because what other mountains were there to the west, he was lost as a lab rat in a maze. Just as he felt the flying bug dip down out of the sky, a cool tingle raced up his spine. “What wa-” He heard the older siblings from the front of the cabin let out a whoosh of air.

“Well Danny, welcome to Camp airspace. We’ll be setting down in about five minutes, and you better bet our parents are going to have a lot to talk about with you. So you better have more answers for them than you did for us.” Jasmine warned before pressing forward on the controls for the Hercules Hover.

Yeah, I hope so too.

…then you might have stepped into your personal Oz.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Phantom Fanfiction #Phandom #Bittersweet Future #Balshumet's Fanfiction #Balshumet's Baragouin #Chapter Ten

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