DARK LIGHT:
A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES II
By Dale Sherman
Gene continued to rub his hand as he stared at the man in front of him. He did so with an almost quizzical frown on his face, as he felt there was something he was missing about the man in front of him. Certainly, Gene thought to himself, the man was odd-looking due to the makeup on his face, but there was also something somewhat familiar about the man as well. Especially when the man had grinned. Like someone Gene felt he knew at one time, perhaps as kids. Still, nothing sprang to mind, and it was nagging in a way.
It was not the only thing nagging at him as he quietly studied Caravello. There were also questions floating through his mind about the events that had just occurred in his office, compounded by his increasing dislike for the woman who had saved him. Or supposedly saved him, Gene corrected himself. Her stance a few feet from the desk seemed both defiant and taunting to Gene, although he had no idea why. Her head cocked ever so slightly to the right as Gene briefly studied her, as if challenging him to even look at her. Although it was not his intention, he glanced at the blood quickly hardening on her gloved hand and noticed that the rings had disappeared from her hand. Glancing back up, the woman demonically smiled, making Gene turn his attention back to the more comforting sight of the man by the door.
Gene had hoped the man would continue with explaining their presence, but instead the man just looked at Gene. The reaction only increased Gene's bewilderment and it was slowly turning to anger again. Gene's frown became more evident as he opened his hands and raised his eyebrows as if giving Caravello the floor to speak.
It was an expression that Caravello had not expected and the smile soon left his face as he saw that Gene was not about to speak to him.
It was puzzling to Caravello. He had anticipated several reactions from Gene when they would finally meet, but not silence. Shock? Well, that was readily apparent from the look of Gene's still bulging eyes; and from the look of the room and the smile on Susie's face, she had done her best to get such results. So, shock was purely understandable. But what else did he expect? Fear? No, that did not fit into the type of person Caravello figured Gene to be, at least if he was anything like Susie. Anger? That he had anticipated but only now saw even a glimpse of that in Gene's face. Recognition? Well, that would have made things a lot easier for what was to come.
But silence? No, he had not thought of that at all. He had no plan for how to react to that, and his mind raced as he tried to conjure how to approach the situation. He was flashing through endless possibilities when Susie broke the silence.
"Do either of you have to have your key wound-up, or are we just going to stare at each other all night?"
Caravello grimaced slightly, not so much in annoyance, but rather in acknowledgement of making the situation even more awkward by trying to come up with a plan instead of going with the flow. And "the flow" was something he professed himself to be an expert at. So, he had no idea why he was suddenly stumbling now when he finally came face-to-face with Gene. He stopped in front of the desk and again smiled at Gene.
"You must be Gene Simmons," Caravello said, sticking out his hand for Gene to shake.
Gene continued to rub his hand. He looked up at Caravello, his facial expression unchanging.
Caravello lowered his hand. "You're probably wondering what's going on."
"That," Gene finally spoke in haughty yet clear words, "did cross my mind. I was sitting here in my office when that weird octopus . . . thing tried to kill me and the Wild Woman of Wongo over here played Bronco Billy with it."
"Well," Caravello continued, "like I said, my name is Paul Caravello. That 'thing' that attacked you was something called an Ancient One."
"Ri-ight," Gene interrupted, still frowning.
Caravello could tell that Gene did not believe a word of it. "It was sent here to kill you by a being called Blackwell."
"Uh-huh. Sure."
"Because you know something we're not supposed to know."
"Uh-huh," Gene rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Susie, but she was no longer where Gene had last seen her. Quickly surveying the room, he saw that Susie had moved to Gene's new dress jacket hanging on a hook by the office door and had commenced wiping the creature's blood off her hands with the jacket. "Hey!"
Susie turned around the sound of Gene's shout. She continued to wipe off her glove with Gene's jacket, her face registering quiet indifference.
"We've been fighting the Ancient Ones and Blackwell for years. They have tremendous amounts of power, but we've been able to hold them off until now." Caravello tried to ignore Susie and center Gene's attention back on him instead. "But we're losing. They're beating us. Then we found out about you and the others. You have the answer to tell us how to beat them."
Gene turned back to Caravello, and Caravello could tell that Gene's shock was quickly ebbing.
"What did you say," Gene asked, his voice deepening as he spoke.
"Help us."
"Help you?" Gene spoke quietly. "I'll help you. I'll help you out the door."
Caravello took a step back as Gene rose from his desk and leaned towards him. As they went through their moments as if in synchronicity, Susie took three long steps in order to reach Caravello and stood slightly in front of his right shoulder. From a quick flash out of the corner of his eyes, Caravello could tell that Susie's mood was almost as dark as Gene's.
"I don't know who you are," Gene's voice rose as he spoke, "and I don't care. I want you the hell out of my office! NOW!"
Caravello was surprised by Gene's reaction. "Uh, I don't think you understand the situation here. I think you're still in shock. Maybe we should just sit down and I'll go over it again in a clearer way."
"Hey," Gene waved a hand as if to wipe the story away before Caravello had a chance to tell it again. "I heard you the first time. And I don't know what kind of game this is, or who put you up to it, but I'm not buying it. Maybe you did a good job with the costumes and special effects, but you've wrecked my office, destroyed my paperwork and wasted my time. Time I don't have for people like you."
Susie laughed. "The wanker doesn't believe us, Paul."
"Apparently so," Caravello said without looking at Susie. "Doesn't any of this look or sound familiar to you at all? The name Blackwell? The Ancient Ones? "
Gene shook his head from side to side. "Nope."
"This is futile," Susie said, dressing Gene with a look of contempt as she spoke. "The man is pathetic. Even after the danger he's just been in, he can't grasps that we're here to protect him."
Gene flashed a look at Susie. "Oh, I understand alright. I understand that you're both a couple of nuts and I'm giving you 30 seconds to get out of here before I call the cops."
Susie stepped up to the desk, her face mere inches away from Gene. "How? You broke your phone! Or did you forget while you were wetting your nappies a few minutes ago?"
Gene was taken aback by Susie, jerking his head back slightly as she moved in on him. Quickly recovering, he thrust his head towards Susie and pointed out the door. "I'll get on the roof and scream for the cops if I have to, but I want you out of here!"
Two gloved hands appeared between Susie and Gene. They both turned to their left to see that Caravello was now standing at the side of the desk. "Okay, hold it. This isn't getting us anywhere."
Caravello looked at Susie. "Susie -"
Gene snickered and with a look of surprise turned back to the woman in front of him. "Susie? That's your name?"
Susie shot Gene a look that showed him caution should be taken. His frustration overrode and he paid the look no heed.
"You mean to tell me that the great Creature-slayer in front of me is named . . . 'Susie?'" Gene snickered again as the sarcasm rolled off his tongue.
"At least I remember my name, you bag of shi‹"
"Okay!" Caravello shouted, then dropped his voice down in a normal conversational level. "That's enough. Susie, check the hallway to make sure we haven't gotten any company since we got here."
Susie hesitated for a moment, while never taking her eyes off of Gene. With no change in her expression, she twisted around and stomped out of the office. Caravello sighed slightly and looked down at the desk.
"Okay," Gene said. "That's one of you gone. Now make it two and everyone will be happy."
"Mr. Simmons -"
"I told you already, I'm not Gene Simmons," Gene snapped.
Caravello dropped his friendly persona and raised his voice in a stern staccato. "But you were at one time, weren't you? You did use the name before, right?"
Gene moved his mouth as if to speak, then stopped.
"Right?"
"Yes," Gene confessed. "But it was a long time ago. A lifetime ago."
Caravello felt he was finally getting through. "I know you've just been through a lot. It's not easy to take when you get your first whiff of what we've been going through for years. But we can't just leave you here unprotected. Blackwell knows who you are and why we are here for you. He'll bring another to attack you, and next time we won't be there to save you."
"Look," Gene cut in. "I don't know who you are, and I don't know what just happened, but it's not funny and I'm not amused. Now, I'm giving you two a chance to beat it before I really lose my temper over this. I just want you out of here. That's all I care about."
Susie stepped back into the room, staying by the door. "We're still alone. Blackwell must have thought sending one would be enough."
Caravello shook his head in acknowledgement. "He probably figured we would get here too late." He looked at Gene. "Are you sure you just want to face this alone?"
Gene did not feel like participating in the bizarre twosome's scenario, but figured if a "yes" was enough to get the two out of his office, so be it. "Yes."
Caravello straighten up and looked Gene in the eyes. "Fine. Sorry to have bothered you. Good luck."
Caravello extended his hand to Gene and Gene took it with a firm shake.
Gene then felt Caravello's grip tightens.
Caravello shifted his head to look back at Susie. "Okay, let's go." Gene's eyes widen for the third time that day as he tried to release Caravello's vice-like hold on his hand. He could hear Caravello speak as he struggled.
"Sorry about this, but it's the only way to make sure you're safe." With that, a flash of blight, white-hot light surrounded him and the room faded away.
Peter had anticipated the brightness outside the club when he stepped through the entranceway with the man he had just met. He had also expected the steps down from the doorway to the sidewalk and compensated his stride to take them into account.
Nevertheless, he was a bit disconcerted at how bright it was outside and he stumbled a bit as he felt the ground briefly disappear beneath him. Fortunately, his new-found acquaintance had grabbed hold of him by the shoulder as they were leaving the club; and although Peter was not fond of people touching him unless he knew them, he was grateful this time as it allowed him to steady himself within a split-second.
Hopefully, Peter thought to himself, his awkwardness was not noticeable to the man who had come to see him. Last thing Peter wanted now was to look like he could not walk a straight line when trying to impress someone from the old school.
Still, he did have trouble seeing and Peter kept his eyes shut for a moment as he tried to blank out the white-hot light around him. He felt himself and the man turn slightly and with the light dimming and coolness in the air Peter figured that they had gotten underneath a shade.
How they got there left Peter a bit confused, however. He remembered the way the club looked from the outside - practically a hole in the wall, as it was just a solid brick wall with an entranceway. No shade, no canopy. Even the marquee was just a flat surface with light bulbs circling it that had been bolted to the wall next to the doorway. It was enough to make Peter depressed as they had made their way into the place that morning. So, where the shade came from was puzzling.
Beyond that there was also the sense of movement Peter felt, or rather, the lack thereof. Of course, Peter knew they were moving, but he could have sworn that he was barely touching the ground and he felt as if he was floating instead of walking. Inwardly, Peter assumed it was just a case of lightheadedness, caused by the instant change of surroundings from the darkened club to the sunlight; perhaps even a bit of his sugar-induced headache acting up as well.
Peter pushed such thoughts out of his mind as they entered the cool darkness and he ventured to open his eyes. He had figured that he would see the street and sidewalk outside, along with the passing cars. Instead he saw blackness with flashes of lights and images that he could not quite comprehend.
By the time he blinked again to clear his vision, the blackness had been replaced by the sunny day again, but not that of the city street he had expected. In fact, the scenery was just as incomprehensible as the darkness he had just witnessed. For, instead of blackness or the street, he now saw a small meadow with deep green grass, wildflowers and large, solid trees in full blossom just a short distance away.
He hardly noticed Ace's hand releasing his shoulder as Peter stared at the trees in front of him. The trees stood tall and solid, and appeared to be decades, even centuries old. A warm breeze blew across the meadow, pulling at the flowers and grass and making the setting look more pleasing than any Peter had seen in quite some time. Two butterflies flew past Peter's eyes and circled his head a couple of times before moving onward to the flowers nearby.
Peter took a sharp breath and nearly coughed at the richness in the oxygen. Nearly, but not quite; as coughing due to such a natural thing would have seemed like a blasphemy to Peter at such a time. The smell was that of dirt and wood and flowers and air. And if one could have smelled the rays of the sun that would have been in the mix as well.
Peter turned slowly in a circle, surveying that the meadow they stood in was in a clearing of a forest and certainly not that of anything remotely linked to the city street that the club had been located. He turned again to see Ace standing in front of him with a smile on his face.
"Well?" Ace said.
" . . . ut . . ." Peter spoke. The sound he made did not make any sense, but Ace could tell a volume in the utterance. As Peter stepped forward, Ace moved aside and Peter looked around at the meadow once again.
"Uh . . .Paul -" Peter said, not looking at Ace.
"Ace," Ace broke in, "please call me Ace."
Peter swung back around to look at Ace. "Uh, Ace. I may be wrong, but this doesn't look like Columbia."
"You've got that right," Ace said, with a splash of laughter in his voice.
"What happened? Where are we? What did I miss?" Peter asked his questions in rapid-fire, forcing Ace to hold up his hands as if to slow Peter down.
"I can explain everything, but it would really be best if we waited until everyone was here."
"Everyone? Who's 'everyone'?" Peter asked in concern. A flash of bright light shattered the calmness twenty yards away from them. Peter turned to see three figures popping out of the light and into the field near himself and Ace.
"Well," Ace said as he spotted the group, "speak of the devil." Ace crackled at his own statement as if it was a joke. Peter, however, took a step back away from the disturbance in front of him, his arms in front of him as if to ward off any danger that came near him. Then, when he saw that Ace had no similar reaction to the situation, Peter slowly dropped his hands and moved back over to Ace.
As the spots in front of his eyes disappeared, Peter could see that the three figures in front of him were that of a tall, slender woman and two men. The two men, one slightly larger than the other, were facing each other and holding hands as if shaking; the woman was a few feet away from the two and surveying the area. She looked strange to Peter, but apart from her outfit, Peter could not tell much more about her. Ace slightly waved as the woman spotted him and she acknowledged his wave with a curt nod of her head. Without a word, Ace placed a hand on Peter's right forearm and motioned him to walk towards the group. As before, Peter was at first hesitant about having someone touch him that he did not know; but there was something about the tall, slender man to his right that made him feel that he could place some trust in him. Before Peter could notice anything more about the group, he saw the taller man yank his hand away from the shorter one and take a couple of steps back. Although they were several yards away, Peter could hear the man speak due to the volume of his angry voice.
"What did you just do?" Gene yelled at Caravello as he snatched his hand away from the masked man in front of him.
Caravello released Gene's hand with no effort on his part and said nothing.
"He tricked you," Susie said, a knowing smile on her face as she looked at Caravello and walked towards the two. "It's what he's best at. A trickster."
Gene did not pay any attention to Susie and instead focused his attention solely on Caravello. "I repeat," Gene said in a slow, steady, but dark tone, "What did you do to me?"
"I . . ." Caravello began, and then stopped as he rethought his next statement. "You weren't going to come voluntarily. We needed to get you out of there as quickly as possible before you were attacked again. You wouldn't listen to reason, and there wasn't time. We couldn't just leave you there -"
"‹Although that may not have been such a bad idea -" Susie dug in softly under her breath, just loud enough for Gene to hear but not Caravello.
"‹So I had to take more extreme measures." Caravello stopped for a beat, then continued. "Sorry. If we had time I could have explained things in more detail, but the main thing was to make sure you were safe."
"Uh-huh," Gene rapidly spoke, "well you can stop with the tricks and take me back. I don't know what you did to me; but I don't like the idea of being drugged and forced somewhere."
Caravello looked bewilderedly at Gene. "Drugged? How in the world could we have drugged you? What are you talking about?"
"You had to have done something to me to make me believe that we were actually still in my office and now we're outside. Maybe slipped it to me earlier today so that I would hallucinate about that monster I saw. Whatever it is or was, it's wearing off and I've had it with you two." Caravello was close to exasperation. "Look, if you will just -"
"Gene?" A voice called from a short distance away. All three turned to see Ace and Peter coming up the small hill towards them. Gene squinted his eyes slightly to take a better look at the man who had just spoken until recognition came over him.
"Uh, Peter? Peter Criss?" Gene mumbled the words more to himself than as a salutation.
"Gene!" Peter exclaimed as he and Ace reached the group. He drew up his hand, waiting for Gene to extend his own for a greeting.
Gene flinched at first, then recognized that Peter simply wanted to shake his hand. He reached out hesitantly and Peter slapped the hand hard and shook it vigorously, making Gene's already sore hand ache even more.
"What are you doing here?" Gene said, trying not to let the ache of his hand register on his face.
"Uh . . ." Peter released his grip and pointed with his thumb behind him to Ace. "This guy brought me. Man, Gene, I haven't seen you in a long time."
"Yeah," Gene kept his eyes on Susie and Caravello. "It's been a lot of years. But -"
Peter spoke over Gene. "Yeah, must have been at least 1975, '76. Man, look at you. You've gone all business on us, Gene. The short hair and the tie and all. What happened to you?" "Look, Peter, if circumstances were different I would be more than happy to talk to you about old times, but if you haven't already noticed, we're standing in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of freaks around us. Now, do you know what's going on?"
Peter was taken about by the abruptness of Gene's demeanor. "Hey, Gene, I know we're in the middle of nowhere, but that's about all I know right now. I just got here myself."
"Well, you seem to be taking it pretty well," Gene grunted. "Why have a heart attack, Gene?" Peter smiled. "You're here, I'm here. Something weird is definitely going on, but it's not like I can do anything about it at the moment, right? And everyone seems to be cool so far. Don't get your panties in a wad about it yet, okay?"
Ace moved into Gene's view and slightly waved his left hand to get Gene's attention. "I brought Peter here. Just like Susie and Paul brought you. And once the others come we can explain exactly what's going on."
Gene shot Ace a look. "And who the hell are you?"
"I'm Ace." Ace said, not reacting at all to the anger in Gene's voice. Ace stuck out his hand with a smirk on his face. "Who the hell are you?"
"Oh, don't ask him his name," Susie spoke with false fear in her voice, "he'll get pissed. Might start stamping his feet or throw a tantrum."
Gene spun around and pointed a finger at Susie. "I've had enough from you in particular -"
Gene's remark was cut off, as a bright light appeared a few feet away from the group, causing Gene and most of the others to shield their eyes until it faded a second later. When it was gone, a man and a woman stood where the light had been.
Caravello breathed a sigh of relief and motioned the couple to approach the group. "Finally."
Paul saw the man ahead waving them forward. He looked over at Kathy, who was already starting to move towards the group. She still held Paul's hand and Paul felt obliged to follow her, moving quickly to catch up so that they walked side by side together.
"Who are they?" Paul asked.
"My friends," Kathy said, happy to see the others together in seemingly in perfect shape, "and friends of yours, I believe."
Paul was troubled by Kathy's statement, but such thoughts were superceded as he took in their surroundings. "Where are we?"
"Actually not too far from where we just left. At least in space, that is."
Paul was about to ask Kathy what that was suppose to mean, but lost the chance when they arrived at the others and he took in the sight of those waiting for them.
Paul had no idea who many in the group were, but he thought he recognized the two of the men. His assumption was proved correct when one of the men spoke.
"Well," Gene folded his arms in front of him. "This is fitting. First Peter and now Paul Stanley."
"Gene?" Paul spoke, as he hesitantly focused on the name of someone from long in his past.
Gene saw Paul's puzzled look, then turned to Caravello. "So, what is it? Some type of 'Where are they now?' thing for television or something? Is that why you got us together? Is that the point? Who's next? Our ex-wives? Perhaps my seventh grade gym teacher?"
Caravello shook his head.
Paul hesitantly turned to the other man. He regretted doing so as he saw the look on the other man's face.
"Paul," Peter curtly spoke. The disgust was hardly hidden on his face.
Paul swallowed and released Kathy's hand as he turned slightly away from Peter and looked at the trees in the distance. Kathy's smile faded and she took a step back as she recognized the discomfort between the two men. Paul tried to keep an even tone in his voice as he spoke, but he found himself unable to look Peter in the eyes. "Peter."
"Oh," Peter responded, "is that the best you can come up with? After all this time, man, and you can't even look me in the eyes."
Paul turned back to Peter. "Well, what do you want me to say, Pete? It's been a long time."
"Oh, yeah, Paul. It's sure has. Of course, it wouldn't have been so long if you had ever bothered responding to any of my phone calls or letters. But I guess the big, bad record producer can't be bothered with his old friends when they ask for a favor." Peter moved towards Paul and stopped as they were within inches of each other. In doing so, Paul had no choice but to look directly at Peter.
"Look, Peter, I'm sorry, but I made it a policy to not get stuck helping everybody I knew in my past when I started producing albums." Paul's voice wobbled a bit as he turned his head and saw Kathy's curious expression. He felt a bit of flush come to his face as he looked back at Peter. He had never been one for confrontations and certainly not with an audience.
"Oh," Peter exclaimed. "You would be 'stuck' if you had to produce me, is that it?"
Paul realized that he had not chosen his words wisely. "No, that's not what I mean, Peter. It's just that I made myself a promise and I couldn't break it."
"Not even for an old band mate? An 'old friend?' Man, I was really struggling there for a while and you were sitting high and dry on top of that money-machine you call being a producer and when I asked you for some help, I never heard a word from you."
"You didn't need help, Peter. I knew you would make it."
"Bull," Peter snipped. "You had no idea what was going on with me because you never checked. You didn't care."
Paul said nothing and tried to look past Peter to the trees again. "Yeah, some friend." Peter said as he turned away and walked back to Ace and the others.
"Like you ever helped me out, Pete." Paul said, although he uttered it softly. He looked up to see if Peter had heard him and was actually relieved when it appeared that he had not. He sighed and shook his head, the embarrassment lingering.
For a few moments the only sound heard was that of the breeze blowing through the meadow and the cry of birds in the distance. "Well," Ace spoke up after he could no longer stand the silence, "you can certainly feel the love here."
Susie picked up on Ace's comment immediately. "The warmth is making me want to burst into tears myself."
"It's certainly not at all what I expected," Kathy said in turn as she darted a couple of looks at the still-flushed Paul.
"Yeah, this is gonna be a bit harder than I had imagined." Caravello humorlessly agreed. He moved into the center of the group and spoke again. "Okay, I know everyone's been through a lot today already, but if I can have your attention, I can try to explain what is going on and why we have brought you all here."
Caravello canvassed the group around him. Most of them were looking his way with the exception of Paul and Gene. Caravello cleared his throat. "Mr. Stanley?"
Paul looked up and blinked a couple of times as he tried to focus on Caravello. Caravello nodded and turned back to Gene.
"Thanks, Paul. Mr. Sim - Mr. Klein?"
Gene turned his glare back to Caravello so quickly that Caravello thought Gene was going to jump at him. "Oookay. Now let me introduce everyone. First off," he waved a hand to himself, "I'm Paul Caravello." Caravello then pointed to Susie. "This is Susie Ballion."
"Susie . . .." Gene snickered as he raised his eyes to the blue sky above.
Susie tried to give a gracious nod, but Gene's vocal reaction threw her off and she just stared at Gene instead. Caravello on the other hand ignored the event and pointed to Ace.
"Ace Frehley over here."
"Hallo." Ace said, wiggling his fingers on his right hand to the group.
"And over there by Paul, is Kathy Bush."
As Kathy thinly smiled and nodded, Caravello continued. "And you obviously know each other, so there's no need for introductions there." Caravello paused to see if there was any agreement with his statement from the three men. Instead, he only saw stony resignation from Gene, while Peter was too busy staring down Paul who clearly felt Peter's glaze and was attempting to ignore it. It was a depressing sight to Caravello.
"Right. So, let me tell you what's been going on. As you probably have guessed by now, we have transported you all here in order to talk about what is happening. First off, I want you to know that this isn't a gag or some type of elaborate practical joke and we're sorry for the abrupt nature of your travels here. However, we really do have a reason for coming here to talk to you, and we have reasons to believe that it would be best to get you 'out of town' for the moment due to the danger you all are in. As we found out with Mr. Klein over here, our suspicions turned out to be correct. Now, I apologize for the way we did this to you all," Caravello put emphasis on the words and looked at Gene while doing so, but Gene showed no reaction, "but there really is no time to spare. Now you may not believe the story I'm going to tell you, but at least hear me out."
"As you know, we were able to bring you all here in a split-second. You're probably wondering how we did that. The way we transported you was through something called limbo. It's like a gateway through time and space that allows us and those we take with us to step outside of the time-space continuum and enter any other place in time. That should give you an idea that we're not just screwing around here, or making this up. And we have other powers as well, almost superhuman-like. Some of you may have even seen one of us use an additional power or two before you were brought here."
Caravello let that sink in for a moment. Caravello noted Paul glancing at Kathy after his comment, making him sure that Paul had seen an example of such powers. He noted to himself to ask Kathy later if the rescue had gone well for her and Paul.
"Now the reason we have super-powers and can do things like that is because they were granted to us by a group of . . . of aliens called the Elder. They're a race of beings that has been around for a long time; much longer than humans on Earth, in fact; and they have been keeping an eye on Earth for centuries."
Caravello looked at Gene to see if he was paying attention. Gene had his head down and was busy kicking back some dirt on the ground below his feet with the heel of his left shoe.
"A long time ago, the Elder began trying to help the human race out by giving a select number of humans the Talismans." Caravello reached into his vest and pulled up on the chain that hung around his neck, revealing a small silver talisman on the chain that was shaped like a fox's head. "The Talismans give each human recipient superhuman powers. You see, the Elder saw something in us that they thought could be developed further if it was just given a bit of a push. The Talismans do that. They also thought we might need some help to fight off another race of aliens called the Ancient Ones."
"Oh, c'mon!" Gene threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "This is like something out of an old Green Lantern comic. I suppose next you're going to say that can't use it against the color yellow, or have to take a power-pill every 24 hours."
"Shall I beat him senseless now, Paul" Susie jumped in with a theatrical tone to her voice so that all could plainly hear her. "Or do you think he's already to that point?"
Caravello smiled at Susie. Although she looked capable of it, he knew her well enough to know she was joking. "No. Not yet, anyway." Susie's words had thrown Gene enough to quiet him down once again. "Okay, have it your way. So who are the Ancient Ones?"
"I'm getting to that," Caravello said without even turning to acknowledge Gene's question. "The Ancient Ones are actually the children of the Elder. To make a long story short, they're considered to be a devolution of the race and crave only power and domination over their parents. Basically the Elder and the Ancient Ones have been at war for many, many centuries, with Earth in the middle."
"Why Earth?" Peter asked out of the blue. Caravello turned to Peter and was glad to see that the discussion had brought Peter out of his funk and back into the reality of their situation.
"Because for a long time, the war between the races was pretty much at a stable plateau. Then the Elder took sight of Earth.
Unfortunately, so did the Ancient Ones. And because of the ability of humans to be used by the Elder, the Ancient Ones started doing the same. The war escalated until there was a battle fought in the early part of the 20th Century where the Elder and the Guardians of the Talismans were not only able to fight off the Ancient Ones, but trap them in a dimensional portal."
"Okay," Gene spoke again, "so they're trapped. That still doesn't explain what is going on."
"Gene, what did you think that thing was that attacked you today?" "Some type of prop or hallucination, I figure."
Caravello shook his head. "It was an Ancient One."
Paul finally spoke up. "But you just said that the Ancient Ones were trapped in some type of dimensional whatsamacallit."
Kathy placed a hand on Paul's arm. "That's right. They were." Ace chimed in. "Emphasis on the word, 'were.'"
Peter felt the need to contribute to the conversation once Paul had. He looked at Ace. "What happened?"
"We happened." Ace said.
"No." Susie's face darkened with anger as she looked over at Ace. "No. It wasn't us. It was Blackwell that happened."
"Sorry, Sue." Ace seriously commented, then immediately smiled again as he thought of a joke. "Sue Sorry."
"I don't get it." Peter said, more to Susie's statement than to Ace's joke.
"You should know a little bit more about us before I get to all that." Caravello moved back into the center of the group. "After that fight, the Elder went back to their original plan and had the Talismans handed down every few years to a new generation of Guardians for two reasons: one, to get back to their original ideal of helping out the human race; and, B, just in case the Ancient Ones ever attacked again."
Caravello frowned as he recognized he had just ruined his speech by placing the letter "B" after the number "one." He hoped no one noticed, but such hope was dashed when he saw Kathy covering her mouth to stifle her giggle. "We were the latest in the line of what they call the Guardians. Most of us have had the powers since about 1976 and have been using the Talismans ever since."
Paul looked at Kathy. "But why you particular four? I mean, how did they pick you four out of everybody on the planet?"
"Well," Ace sheepishly replied. "I can answer that."
All of the others turned to Ace, who stood there staring back at them without another word.
Peter nudged him in the shoulder. "Well?"
Ace flinched. "Oh! Yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking of something else for a moment."
Ace laughed at the notion of everyone waiting on him to speak, but lost enthusiasm as he saw everyone's stony facial expressions. "Okay, okay. The Elder tends to look for a small circle of people that already know each other to become the Guardians. That way they can help each other develop their powers and work together to resolve problems. We were picked because we actually already knew each other." Ace shifted his eyes quickly to Caravello and then back to the others.
"Well, most of us knew each other. You see, we were all in a band together back in the '70s."
Peter spoke up. "But, Paul -"
"Ace," came the correction.
"Ace, I thought you just played in the Village. I don't remember you being in a band with these other people. When did that happen?"
"Well, yeah, Pete, I used to play in the Village area, but that was back in the really early '70s. In fact, when you recognized me back at the club, I thought you might have remembered me from the band I was in a few years later. You see, back in '73 I got tired and fed up with the scene and wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to head to England for a while. I thought since it worked for Hendrix it could work for me, y'know?
"Anyway, I ended up getting to know some people there. Making the rounds and all. I even got to know Syd Barrett. Y'know, Syd from Pink Floyd? Man, he was a great guy; a little nuts, but you could always count on it being an interesting time being around him. I met David Gilmour through him and got to know him. I ended up playing on a couple of things for him and then he asked me to play on some stuff for Kathy over here. Kathy had written some songs and Gilmour was helping her out in the studio."
Kathy shook her head in agreement, remembering the recordings.
"And, Kathy, you were what? 8, 10 years old at the time?" Kathy froze as she shot a look at the crackling Ace. She knew he was just trying to rile her up, but it was not the time or place to be joking.
"You're getting away from the story, Ace," she said in a quiet tone that immediately brought Ace back in line.
"You're right. Anyway, once that was done I moved on and did some other studio work, played in some bands. By '76 I had started thinking about forming my own band when I happened to see Susie and a few others playing at a club in London. I thought she was great. Her band immediately broke up, so we got together and formed a band. And when we decided that a keyboardist would be interesting - and since Kathy was still waiting for a bite on her demos - we formed a band called COS."
"COS?" Peter asked.
"COS?" Gene asked as well, although with more recognition than Peter. "That name sounds familiar."
"C.O.S.," Susie matter-of-factly stated, "that's the acronym of the band's full name. We were originally called Colours Out of Space." "Wait," Paul nodded his head. "I remember that group, they had like two hits back in the late 1970s."
"Four, actually," Ace corrected. "Our final hit was back in 1981."
"I vaguely recall that band as well," Gene admitted. "Kind of a post-punk/new-wave type of thing with a lot of orchestration, if I remember correctly."
"Yeah," Paul agreed, "they were hitting it kinda big and then disappeared in the early 1980s."
When Gene realized he was actually being enticed by the story, he immediately shook off the thought. "What a minute. Why in the world would these 'Elder' pick a rock band to be their 'guardians?' Why did you guys get picked? Why not some real leaders or Nobel prize winners or something? It seems to me that would make more sense than to give it to some kids so they can run around in their Mystery Van or whatever."
"And what makes them different? Why do they deserve abilities over others?" Kathy asked Gene, looking him steady in the eyes. "Where are the real heroes? Where are the real protectors? Does a political leader make better judgements about life than a mother of a child does? Is someone with the means of mass destruction a better person than someone who can build a garden or feed a starving soul?"
Caravello finished up on Kathy's thoughts. "The Elder were not looking for political leaders that would use such powers for their own end, they were looking for normal people. Perhaps people with ideals that made them a bit special, but still just everyday folks."
"And it wasn't that out of the ordinary for them to pick a band," Ace concluded. "The past few teams of Guardians have been musicians or performers of one type or another. Maybe it was so they could keep the powers together in one unit. I don't know. I guess they saw in those groups the ability to reach out and send a message to other people. Something that sometimes no one in power has the ability to do."
Gene was getting a bit anxious for the story to come to a conclusion. "Okay, so the Elder gave you these powers. So what happened?"
Caravello turned to Gene. "We gained the powers through Blackwell and Morpheus, two of the Elder. We rarely saw Morpheus, but Blackwell actually trained us. Taught us how to use our powers. And we used them for several years with no problems."
"So what happened to you guys?" Peter asked.
"Back in late 1982 we were summoned by Blackwell to the Elder." Caravello's voice became softer in tone. "Blackwell had told us that some of the Ancient Ones had somehow escaped from their dimensional prison and had attacked and killed Morpheus. We couldn't believe such a thing was possible until Blackwell showed us Morpheus' body.
"He told us that the only way to make sure it never happened again was to destroy the Ancient Ones once and for all."
Caravello dropped his head for a moment as he thought about his next words. He then looked up at Gene. "You're right. We were kids. We didn't know any better and trusted Blackwell. He had trained us, after all. We felt we knew him. He was our friend. To some of us -" Caravello stopped, lost in thought, for a moment. "We thought he was telling the truth."
"He used us," Susie continued. "He had always helped us before, so we didn't even conceive he would be lying to us. We were entranced." Kathy followed. "We were told that if we submitted to using the Talismans powers through a device that Blackwell created, we would reinforce the barrier so that the Ancient Ones would never be able to escape again. Blackwell wanted us to do this without the other Elder knowing. The Council had always viewed the Ancient Ones as their children first and a danger second. Blackwell never saw it that way, and after what we thought had happened to Morpheus we had no reason to disagree with him."
"We found out later," Ace explained, "that Blackwell had actually killed Morpheus and made it look like an attack of some kind. But we didn't know that when we helped him."
"So?" Gene smirked. "You helped him? What's the big deal?" "You don't understand," Susie said. "He didn't want to destroy the Ancient Ones, he wanted to help them by opening the portal."
Caravello returned to the center of the group. "Once the barrier was opened, the Ancient Ones were freed. Half the council of Elder was wiped out in that first force. Nearly all the rest in the second attack. Once we realized what was happening, we managed to destroy the device Blackwell had and close the barrier again, but too many of the Ancient Ones escaped, along with Blackwell."
"That was thirteen years ago," Kathy said, almost in surprise to herself at all the years that had flashed by. Paul could feel the pain in her voice as she repeated the words to herself as if not quite believing them. "Thirteen years since the war started."
Caravello moved closer to Gene as he spoke. "Since that time we have been fighting a war against the Ancient Ones. If we left them to their own devices they would no doubt have turned their sights on Earth several years ago. Destroyed those that helped the Elder in the first place. That's why the band disappeared back in the 1980s, in order to stop the Ancient Ones from advancing to Earth. This is the first time we've been back on Earth since then."
Kathy laid a hand on Paul's arm, and Paul looked down at her as she spoke directly to him. "They want to reopen the barrier and free the remaining Ancient Ones, but they need the power of the Talismans - the final powers of the Elder - to do so. We've been able to fight them off this long . . . but the last few months have been the worst."
Ace nodded and for the first time that day seemed subdued when he spoke. "It's been pretty bad, and we lost the remaining Elder when they tried to protect us in a battle against Blackwell just about two days ago. We had just managed to escape -"
"‹Escape. . .." Susie said under her breath with a distaste that was twice as audible.
"‹When something happened that gave us a chance to turn this whole thing around," Ace finished.
"What was it?" Peter asked.
"That's where you all come in," Ace said.
"After we had escaped, we started feeling our powers draining." Caravello continued. "At first we thought that perhaps Blackwell had figured out a way to drain the Talismans, but that wasn't the case. We were hiding out in one of the ruined Capital building when this . . . this . . . silver orb appeared before us. It was only there for a split second before it burst into several pieces and came right at each of us.
"That was the last thing we all remembered before we blacked-out. When we woke up, we all seemed to have some memory of another version of what had happened for the past twenty years. Like there was another timeline where some of us didn't have the powers of the Talismans. Where we had led normal lives. But more importantly, both Paul . . . er, not you, Paul," Ace said, pointing at Paul, then pointing at Caravello, "this Paul . . . and I seemed to have some memory of defeating the Ancient Ones and Blackwell with the three of you."
Caravello agreed with Ace's version of the story. "At first, we thought it was just a trick of some kind to throw us off, but then we discovered that the three of you did exist here on Earth. And . . . well, I can't explain it, but there was something about us working together that felt so . . . right. Like it was what should have been instead of just some made-up story or dream."
"That still doesn't explain why you had to meet with us," Paul stated.
"Don't you see?" Ace said to Paul. "Somehow, the five of us, managed to stop the Ancient Ones and Blackwell. In fact, somehow we did that nearly ten years ago."
"But how do you know that?" Paul asked to both Caravello and Ace. The two men moved to Paul and the three almost appeared to be in a huddle as they conversed.
"Because our memories tell us that we defeated them back in 1985," Caravello looked at Paul steadily. "Somehow, we now remember things that didn't happen in the timeline we're now in."
"Uh, but, Paul -" Peter began.
Caravello, Ace and Paul all turned to Peter at the same time. "Yes?" They asked in unison.
"No," Peter corrected with a wave of his hand and pointed to Ace. "I mean, you, Ace. Ace, are you saying that you're from a different reality?"
Ace shook his head. "No, what I'm saying is that our timeline had been changed so that the five of us were never together to become the Guardians and stop Blackwell back in 1985."
Gene moved forward into the ever-tightening group. "Wait a minute. You said that there were four Talismans. How could there be five Guardians?"
Susie, feeling a bit left out, jumped in. "That's just it. We don't know."
"We don't know why there were five," Kathy dived in. "It's like our memory is only clear in spots and a bit confusing. I don't even have the memories that Paul and Ace have of this incident. I only recall bits and pieces of what my life was like in the original timeline where I had nothing to do with the Talismans."
"Same with me," Susie stated. "Only Paul and Ace seem to remember anything to do with the Talismans in another timeline."
Ace picked up the thread of the conversation. "I suspect it has to do with the fact that we've 'lived' this reality and so our memories of this one are stronger than those that have just been opened in our minds by that glowing orb."
"So," Caravello addressed Gene, Paul and Peter. "That's why we needed to find you. We wanted to know if you had any memories of the Talismans or how you defeated Blackwell. Unfortunately, from our experience with Gene, that doesn't appear to be the case."
"No," Paul said. "I can't say I've ever heard of the Talismans either. This is all new to me. Frankly, I'm not even sure if I believe it."
"I don't want to, but I have to agree with Paul," Peter sighed. "This is all so weird that I'm having a hard time believing any of this myself."
"Okay, so that's it then. We don't know anything." Gene clapped his hands together. "Then send us back to wherever we should be and go back to your fun of protecting Earth. Believe me," Gene sarcastically put his right hand over his heart, "we will remember you with honor in our hearts."
Everyone looked at Gene, trying to figure out if he was attempting to be funny or being contemptuous.
"Hey, Gene," Peter spoke first out of anyone. "Did the board in your ass come with the haircut?"
"Don't mouth off to me, Peter," Gene snapped. "You may be buying this BS, but even if it was true, their fight with these 'aliens' have nothing to do with us."
Kathy spoke, trying to bring the conversation back to a constructive level instead of the hysteria Gene was creating. "You don't understand. Blackwell knows that you have information somewhere in your head that could help us. That's why he sent others to do away with you three." "Three?" Peter chuckled. "Uh, I don't remember anything about being attacked just now."
"No, you don't Pete." Ace smiled. "I took care of the problem before you had to worry about it."
Peter silently considered what might have occurred back at the club. "Besides," Caravello said, "there is still another option that we have to consider."
"What's that?" Paul asked.
"Somewhere in the past, the timeline was changed so that the original Guardians were never picked. We believe Blackwell somehow was able to go back in time and change the past so he could manipulate the players involved. We have to discover what happened to change the timeline so that you were not picked as Guardians. Blackwell probably knows that this is an option for us as well, and I doubt he's going to let you three be free -"
"‹Or alive‹" Susie cut in with a glance at Gene.
"‹If there is any possibility at all that you could eventually end up helping us."
"So, what you're saying is that we're trapped unless we help you?" A sinking feeling hit Paul's stomach as he spoke the words.
"I'm afraid so." Caravello tried to convey sympathy, but he was also a bit anxious for them to get started as well.
"But what if this really is the proper timeline?" Paul asked. "What if the memories you're having are false?"
"If they were," Susie questioned, "then why would Blackwell even bring you three into the picture? There's no reason for it. If Blackwell created these memories, why didn't he come up with memories that would have made us transport into a black hole or have us attack each other thinking we were each other's enemy? And why stall us for some reason? All the Elder are dead. There's no reason to keep us alive as well."
"I agree," Caravello said. "There's no reason to involve you three even if it was a plot by Blackwell. And the attempt on your lives just reinforces that Blackwell knows you're the wild cards here." "So what's the plan?" Peter asked.
"Since no one remembers what happened in the proper timeline, we need your help in determining what Blackwell changed. And it could be anything, even something minor. Once we know what it is, we can go back to that period and try to prevent Blackwell from corrupting the timeline."
"Well, that's just fine." Gene mocked. "I'll just set the Wayback Machine and we'll be off."
"Gene, this is serious," Paul said.
"Oh, you bet it's serious." Gene laughed. "Seriously nuts." He turned away from the group and started walking down the meadow. "Where are you going?" Susie shouted after him.
Without turning, Gene yelled back at the group. "Home. I'm fed up with this and I just want to get out of this state park, or whatever it is, and I want to go home."
Ace chuckled and called out to Gene. "Well, you're not going to get there that direction."
Gene stopped and turned around, putting his hands on his hips. "What do you mean?"
"Kathy," Ace said, "why don't you tell him how to get home?" Kathy smiled as she was let in on Ace's joke. "Well, Mr. Klein, you see, you need to head off in that direction." Kathy pointed to the left of Gene. "And go about four miles . . ."
"Okay, fine." Gene started walking in the direction Kathy pointed. He had not walked that far of a stretch in one go in quite some time, but started calculating in his head how long it would take him. " . . . And about 683 years."
All eyes were on Gene as he walked a few more steps and then came to a halt. They then watched as he turned and headed back to the group. "What was that?"
"683 years," Ace replied. "The year is currently 1312. Columbus hasn't discovered America yet. In fact, he's not even born yet. Heck, I bet his great-grandfather wasn't even born yet."
"But, Kathy," Paul said, "I thought you said we were close to where we left my car?"
"We are. In space. It's just the time difference that really matters." Kathy's voice seemed depressed as she looked around. "In fact, I believe there's a McDonald's in the future where we are standing now."
"But why?" Peter asked.
"We need a place where we could talk to you without Blackwell swooping in and attacking us," Caravello said. "We thought the past would be the best place for it."
"1312?" Peter stumbled on the numbers as he spoke them. "Oh, c'mon, Pete." Gene said as he came up to the group and saw the look on Peter's face. "You don't believe that rubbish, do you? It's some kind of gag or something. They'll just pulling our legs."
"You just can't believe that something more is happening here, can you, Mr. Klein?" Kathy spoke.
Paul spoke up to defend Kathy. "I really think there's something going on here, Gene. Can't you see that?"
"No, I can't." Gene said to Paul in a crisp tone as he looked at the two women and two men who made up the Guardians. "I'm not going to stand here and believe for one moment that the fate of the world is dependent on . . . on ABBA over here. I don't believe in Ancient Ones. I don't believe in time-travel. I don't believe in Limbo."
Gene looked up over the group into the sky above the trees in the distant. He pointed to something behind the group.
"And I don't believe in that thing flying in the air over there." As one, the group turned to see what Gene was pointing at. The trees were far enough away that the creature in the sky could have for a moment been mistaken for a large bird. However, as it came closer and in their focused sight, its appearance became clear.
Gene thought the creature looked very much like the one he had supposedly seen at his office, although he clearly remembered that the creature there did not have wings. In fact, it appeared that this particular creature varied in that it had an additional set of tentacles located under the two arm-like tentacles, with the arms being longer and thinner than those of the creature from Gene's office. There was also a webbed film connecting the tentacles to each other and to the legs, allowing for the creature to slowly descend from the sky as if like a flying squirrel or a bat.
As to where such a creature came from, the group only had to look higher to see a silver hole in the clear, blue sky, with blackness at its center and three black figures barreling forth in quick succession. Within seconds it became clear to the group that the figures were three more of the creatures as they floated ghost-like to the trees near the group.
"What the -" Peter gasped.
"It's the Ancient Ones. They must have found us!" Ace's adrenaline began to rise. As he spoke, his clothes began to transform from the long jacket, t-shirt and jeans he had worn to the club to that of a one-piece black leotard and a blue, triangle breastplate that attached to a silver and blue belt and a silver cape, which flowed down Ace's back. His shoes changed to that of large black and silver boots. His face also began a metamorphosis; with silver and black cover his eyes in a star-like, twinkling pattern.
Peter did not know which was surprising him more, the creatures falling from the sky or that the man he had met less than an hour ago had turned into a superhero before his eyes. "‹Hell . . .." Peter absentmindedly said.
"How did they find us?" Susie puzzled in exasperation.
"No time to worry about that now, Susie." Caravello said as he surveyed the sky. He saw two more Ancient Ones descend from the portal and figured there were more to come unless it was closed in quick order.
The Ancient One that Gene had seen first floated into the trees opposite the group, as did the other three that followed. Within moments, two creatures - in a movement that seemed strange only to Gene, Peter and Paul - began using their legs and tentacles to move in a quick, spider-like fashion towards the group. Kathy could barely make out the other two Ancient Ones still climbing down the dark green and brown thickness of the forest.
"They're in the trees." Kathy breathlessly said. "They're coming." "Right!" Caravello touched Kathy on the arm to get her attention and calmly spoke. "Kathy, take Paul, Gene and Peter and move them out of harm's way. If worse comes to worse, get them out of here. We'll meet at the monument later if we get split up, okay?"
Kathy did not even look at Caravello as she moved towards Paul and Peter, and Caravello was confident that Kathy knew what he wanted her to do.
"Come on, we're going," Kathy said to Paul and Peter at the same time.
"What's happening?" Peter said as he tried to make out the dark figures moving in the shade of the trees.
"Blackwell must have tracked us down. We've got to make sure you three are safe." Kathy grabbed both men by the arm with a gentle touch. "Where are we going?" Paul asked.
"Not far, just need to get you under the cover of the forest instead of out here in the open." Kathy saw Paul's curious expression and tried to guess at what he was thinking. "Don't worry, Paul. If it starts to get dangerous for any of us we can always transport out of harm's way." "Then why don't you do that now?"
"And leave the Ancient Ones here in the past to do what they like? No, if we inadvertently brought them here, we have to make sure they don't remain here or else we would be the cause of even more harm."
"Wait," Peter said as he thrust his arm away from Kathy. "I may be in danger, but I'd rather french-kiss Satan than go anywhere with "Big-shot Producer" Stanley now! I'll take care of myself, and you can stay with loverboy here."
Kathy heard the words, frowned for a second, then smiled. Her put her hand on Peter's left bicep. "Nonsense, Mr. Criss. You'll come along this instance."
Peter was about to say something when he felt Kathy beginning to squeeze his arm tighter. At first it was just a firm grip, then it became vice-like. Peter looked down at her hand and although no effort seemed to be coming from Kathy at all, Peter felt the blood beginning to drain from his arm and numbness begin to take over.
"What - what are you doing?" Peter strained at the words.
"Why, nothing, Mr. Criss. I'm just keeping you steady. You look a bit worn from your travels and I thought you needed a bit of help." Kathy still had her smile in place as she moved to Peter's ear and spoke in a harsh, yet barely audible, tone to him. "We don't have time for games. Try to wrench free again and I'll break it. Understand?"
Peter nodded without another word.
She twisted her head to get Gene's attention. Gene stood with his arms cross and a smirk on his face as he watched the danger in front of them. Kathy's voice was cheerful as she spoke, knowing that intimidation would not have the same affect that it did on Peter. "Come along, Mr. Klein."
"Oh, no." Gene said, shaking his head. "I'm getting out of here. You kids can have your fun, but I've had enough of this cosmic version of the Starlight Vocal Band. I'm outta here."
With that, Gene started walking away from the group and into the far meadows.
Caravello took no notice of Kathy's problems as he had more pressing issues at state. Looking up at the portal in the sky, he took a quick couple of steps to Ace, talking to him from behind Ace's left shoulder. "Ace, any ideas on how to close that portal?"
Ace continued studying the portal without turning to answer Caravello. "No idea. It looks from here that they've managed to open a portal to Limbo and keep it open so that they can send in the troops for as long as they want. The only time I've ever seen Limbo remain open like that was --"
"‹When Blackwell first opened the portal for the Ancient Ones back in '82." Caravello finished Ace's statement. "Is it possible that Blackwell fixed the device he used back then? I thought we destroyed it beyond repair."
Ace nodded. "It's possible, but he would still need the power of the Talismans in order to break through the barrier that holds the remaining Ancient Ones. He must be taxing the reserves of the device now just allowing his own forces from the future to attack us."
"Can we stop it somehow? We can't allow the Ancient Ones to be brought back to this time period. Who knows what kind of destruction they could cause."
"Well, there is one thing we could try, but it would be a bit risky." Ace wet his lips.
"Okay, Ace. Hold on and let me get Susie -" Caravello turned to see Susie staring off into the distance, away from the approaching forces. "Susie? What are you staring at?"
Susie pointed to a figure walking steadily away from them all. "Our Mr. Simmons."
Caravello followed her finger to see that the figure in danger was none other than Gene. "God. He's going to get himself killed."
Kathy came running up. "I'm sorry, Paul. Klein wouldn't listen to me and took off. I think he's still in a state of shock and just refuses to believe any of it. If you want me to, I can go after him."
Caravello nodded. "No, Kathy, you need to get Paul and Peter to safety. Go." Kathy nodded, moved back to the puzzled Paul and Peter and took both by the arms. She directed them to the forest that lied opposite of the emerging Ancient Ones, helping support Peter as he stumbled along the way. Caravello checked Gene's stride again, only to see that a couple of the creatures who had emerged from the trees had noticed Gene and were beginning to move quickly in his direction. Caravello turned back to Susie. "Susie, grab that jackass and hold him tight. At this point, if he puts up a fight, clean his clock, but just get him out of there!"
Susie smiled. "With pleasure." She quickly threw her right fist into a hitchhiker's pose and vanished from Caravello's view.
Caravello swung back around to talk to Ace but found only empty air where Ace had been a moment ago. "Ace?" Caravello looked to his left and right to no avail. He then tilted his head back to the portal, only to see a familiar figure in the sky heading towards it.
"Ace!" Caravello yelled.
Ace was already too far away and was too busy concentrating on his climb upward through the sky towards the portal to hear Caravello. To those below it probably appeared as if Ace was levitating in the sky, but Ace knew that there was no physical way he could remain stationary in the air. There were, however, other possibilities.
Then again, he was unsure if those possibilities would pan out. What he was attempting was something he had only tried twice and had only succeeded in getting about fifteen feet off the ground the second time before he fell back to earth. Now he was trying to go up several hundred feet, possibly even thousands of feet into the air, not to mention that it had been years when he last tried to perform the feat. Back when they were still testing their abilities.
Way back before the war started, came the thought through his mind. With the thought, came the fall.
Ace fell about 15 feet when he recovered his concentration and popped into and out of Limbo so fast that to those on the group it looked like he had not disappeared at all. Which explained why it appeared he was traveling through the air as if he could fly. It would have been easier, he thought, if he could have just popped right next to the portal instantaneously, but he knew Limbo was a tricky element that could change in time/space structure at all moment. Ace had to be sure that the placement of the portal would not change in the moments between popping out on the earth below and reaching the portal above or else he could end up displacing himself inside of the portal and be whisk back to the entrance point where the Ancient Ones were coming from. An option he was less than thrilled with.
There was also the problem dealing with the number of Ancient Ones that were dropping like parachuting commandos on his friends below. They had to be stopped as they appeared before he could close the portal. Raising himself a few feet a time in Limbo allowed him not only to avoid popping into one of the creatures by accident, it allowed him to eliminate them as they fell from the portal as well.
As was the case when he popped back in again, only to find himself hearing the cries of a creature directly above him. Ace looked up to see one falling right on top of him; the creature's slit of a mouth wide open and the teeth flashing in the sunlight.
Kathy finally let go of Peter and Paul as they reached a closed quarter of trees in the forest. They were still close enough to see some of the battle out in the meadow, but far enough that the darkness of the forest hid them from view.
"Okay, we can stop here. Stay close though, as we may need to leave at a second's notice," Kathy said to the two men.
Paul was winded, but tried to fill his flaming lungs through his nostrils so that he would not look fatigued to Kathy. The quick thrusts of air made his nose whistle, however, so he gave up and tried to take measured breaths through his mouth. Peter, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide his discomfort, huffing and puffing next to Kathy while bending over and holding on to his knees as he did so. Looking at him, Paul did not feel as bad about his own physical exertion.
"No argument . . . from me this time," Peter gasped. "I don't think I'm going anywhere for a while."
Paul grinned a bit, and then felt something hot on his face. He touched his cheek, wiping away the liquid, only to discover that it appeared to be something purple. He felt a couple more drops on his hands and they were also of the purple, hot consistency.
"What's this?" Paul looked upward into the trees.
"What's what?" Kathy and Peter said at the same time.
Paul's mouth dropped as all three heard the song of tree limbs breaking above them. Looking back at Peter and Kathy, Paul dived at them and knocked them a couple of feet back. As he did so, several branches fell to the ground where the three had just been. A moment later, half of an Ancient One fell on top of the branches, the tentacles quivering like that of a dying insect. Purple liquid oozed from the bottom half of the creature and on to the grayish-brown tree limbs.
"What's THAT?" Peter shouted, pointing at the grizzly sight in front of them.
"Half of one less evil," Kathy matter-of-factly said. Paul studied her face, trying to decipher if she meant it as a joke or something more.
A short distance away, the half of another Ancient One crashed to the ground. Then out in the meadow fell two more in close secession.
"Ugh!" Peter said with a disgusted face. "It's raining monsters."
"Hallelujah," Paul replied. He was not sure if what he said was meant as a joke either by that point.
Caravello watched as Ace sliced through the airborne Ancient Ones, sending half of each creature back into Limbo on a one-way journey to nowhere. He still was unsure of what Ace's plan was, yet it was something to just add to the list of things to worry about as he saw that two more of the spider-like beasts had come out of the thickness of trees and were moving towards him. Knowing he was a line of protection for Kathy and the others, he immediately ran down the meadow and towards the enemy without a second thought. As he ran, preparing himself for battle, an orange glow surrounded his left hand. Slowly, a staff emerged from his left fist and solidified at the height of six feet. To Caravello, this was exactly what he expected, and he drove the staff headfirst into the ground, swinging himself into the air and heel-first into the face of the closest Ancient One.
Gene stomped as he walked, refusing to look at the bizarre scene that was playing out in the meadow to his left. It was a dream, a hallucination, anything but real, Gene thought, and he was not going to let someone make him believe in something that he knew could not be real. By refusing to acknowledge it, he figured would be able to escape the nightmare and get back to reality.
That did not mean that it would happen straight away, he knew. He could still see two of the creatures coming towards him out of his peripheral vision, but he was sure that they would only get so far before they would vanish from his sight, as illusions could never do him any real physical harm.
He also did not turn when he heard the loud popping sound behind him.
"Mr. Simmons," came a voice from behind him that he had already begun to hate.
Gene continued walking. He next heard another popping sound and then saw Susie standing before him about ten feet away. Gene noticed that the craw rings had returned, only now of both hands.
"Get out of my way, Susie," Gene said, advancing on her.
Susie looked to her right to see that the two Ancient Ones were fast approaching them and there was not much time left. She turned back to Gene.
"Mr. Simmons -"
"I TOLD YOU," Gene shouted, "my name is not Simmons!"
"I don't care what your name is," Susie shouted back, "but I do care about our mission. If you don't come with me now, I'll take you by force."
Susie advanced on Gene, forcing Gene to step backwards and away from her.
"Uh-uh," Gene replied with a grin on his face. "I'm not letting you anywhere near me. I already fell for that one with your boyfriend back there."
Susie hesitated for a moment; then realized that Gene meant the remark as a crack and nothing more. She looked over at the creatures approaching again and realized that they only had a minute or two left before they would be close enough to attack.
"Klein. Whether you want to believe it or not, this is real. Either I get you out of here now, or we'll have to do it the hard way."
Susie approached again, but such actions only led to Gene backing up further and even closer to the Ancient Ones than he was before. The closer of the two creatures began to gallop in a hard run behind Gene, leaving Susie no further options.
Gene stopped his backward momentum when he saw Susie put her hands up to her face and twist away from him. She held the position for a long moment, leaving Gene curious as if she was crying or sneezing and why she would be doing so at such a moment.
In a flash, she swung back around, pulling her hands away from her mouth to reveal three baseball-size fireballs gathered up in her right hand. Before Gene could respond, Susie threw the balls in Gene's direction.
Gene felt the heat of the fireballs as they whizzed past his head. He heard them hit something a short distance behind him, followed a second later by a scream that sounded much like that of the creature that was in his office. Still, he refused to turn.
"Look," Gene tried to speak calmly as Susie began to approach him quickly. "You can just stop it. There's nothing you can do or say at this moment to get me to change my mind. I'm outta here."
As she moved towards him, a shimmering red light appeared around both of Susie's arms, which grew in intensity as two large, menacing weapons materialized in each of her hands.
Gene thought he recognized the weapons from old kung-fu movies - long, sharp, curved, iron blades placed on long, wooden handles that were connected to iron chains which ran about three feet each and attached to a wrist-handle. Gene even remembered the names of the weapon as being called a Kama. He also knew the kind of damage they could do and "monsters" may be easy to discredit in reality, but sharp blades handled by a madwoman were something else.
"Uh," Gene responded, the smile long gone from his face, "then again, I'm always willing to talk. Just tell me what you want. What do you want from me?"
Susie was only five or six feet away from him, but she did not speak.
Gene began to sweat. He repeated his question in hopes of an answer. "What do you want from me?"
"Head." Susie replied quietly as she lifted the Kama up in the air. "'Scuse me?"
"Head," Susie repeated. "Move it or lose it."
Susie was nearly on top of Gene as she reached into a throw with her right arm. Gene bent down into a crouch, his arms raised to protect his head from the crushing blow that he knew would come next.
Instead he felt nothing. He heard a slumping sound immediately behind him and turned to see the Kama imbedded ten inches into what must have been the skull of an Ancient One that was only a foot away from him. He scrambled on his hands and feet several feet, backing away from the monster as it fell face-first in the green grass. When it fell, Gene saw that a second monster lay off to one side of the first, fire consuming its upper body.
So the fire wasn't meant for me, Gene thought to himself.
Susie stepped forward and pulled the Kama from the body. "There'll be more coming in a moment." She moved over to Gene and, making one of the Kamas disappear just as easily as it had been there, held a hand out to pull him up. "We have to get back to the others."
Gene slapped at the hand and was in the process of looking down as he picked himself off the ground when he heard Susie grunt. Standing, he lifted his head only to see that Susie was now also face-first on the ground, with the still-smoldering Ancient One hovering over her as she tried to shake the blow to her head.
Ace looked down to the ground, missing the plight that Susie and Gene were in, instead only seeing Caravello as he smashed his heels into the head of an Ancient One. There was another one coming up on Caravello as well, yet Ace could do nothing except continue on his way to the portal. Zeroing in on the portal once again, he could now see clearly into the portal. Five more Ancient Ones were moving towards the portal's exit but were still a bit of a distance away.
Popping in and out one last time, Ace found himself only a few feet directly above the portal in the air, facing it.
"Whelp," Ace said out loud to himself, "here we go."
He allowed his body to drop back towards the ground, trying to calculate hurriedly in his head as to when he would need to make his next jump into Limbo. He could once again briefly look inside of the portal and saw that the five creatures were now near the exit, meaning that he would be literally face-to-face with them in another half-second.
When he reached the center of the portal, one of the Ancient Ones had noticed him and took a desperate spring at him.
"Man, you are one ugly soon-to-be-ex-Ancient One," Ace said as he threw his hand back into a hitchhiker's pose and immediately opened Limbo around him.
In doing so the flash of Limbo that appeared around Ace, negated the portal's structure and it began to crumble around the creatures as they crawled desperately to the quickly diminishing exit. Ace reappeared a few feet away just as soon as he had left, watching as the circled closed upon itself like water down a drain. Beginning to fall, Ace tried to free-fall, hoping to catch the final closure of the portal when he saw two objects fall past him. In the split-second they were in his view, he recognized them as two tentacles from the creature that tried to attack him.
Ace smiled at the perseverance of the creature. Even though its chance of success was crumbling around it, the Ancient One had still tried to get at him, managing to get at least two tentacles out into the real world again.
"Gotta hand it to him," Ace quipped as he began his teleportation back down to the ground.
Peter could no longer see any of the battles occurring out in the meadow. Nor had he seen any action whatsoever for quite some time. "Is it safe? Is it over?"
Paul stood near Peter, understanding the shock and stress Peter was under as such a feeling was only now starting to leave him. "I don't know, Pete. I don't know."
"Boo."
Both Paul and Peter jumped when they heard the voice from behind them. Kathy knew better and shook a finger at the just-arrived and laughing figure of Ace. "Ace, you know better than that. You've scared them half out of their wits."
"Aw," Ace waved the lecture off, "they're alright. Besides, they need to be on their toes now. Anything can happen from this point forward."
Peter moved a couple of steps towards Ace. "Ace, is it over?" "Not yet, Pete. I don't know what's up with Gene or Susie and I think Paul still needs a hand out there, but the portal closed and no more of the Ancient Ones made it out. I just wanted to make sure that you all were okay."
"Who closed the portal?" Kathy asked.
"I did," Ace said with a bit of hurt in his voice, as if he was shocked that he had to explain it was his doing. "I figured there had to be some type of device used by Blackwell and the Ancient Ones to hold open the pathway from Limbo to here. Like a type of 'doorjamb.'"
"Did you find it?"
"Well, no, not really, so I just allowed myself to be sucked into the opening of the portal and then sent myself to Limbo as I normally would. By doing that, I managed to disrupt the portal's exit enough that it closed in on itself before anymore of the Ancient Ones could get through."
"How many are left, Ace?"
"As far as I know, only five actually made it to the ground. Two were heading off in Gene's direction the last time I looked."
"Is Gene okay?" Paul asked.
"Far as I know, Paul," Ace shrugged.
Peter looked at Kathy. "We've got to see if Gene's okay."
"No," Kathy responded. "We have to make sure you two are safe."
"It's your decision, Kathy. I can't stick around. Paul needs my help more than you do right now." Without another word, Ace disappeared.
Paul tried to shake off the still-new effect's impression on him as he watched Ace disappear. He looked over at Kathy. "We need to find Gene. Gene has to be safe as well. He could be the key to helping you guys out as much as we two could be."
Kathy considered it for a moment, and then shook her head. "It's too risky."
"We can't just stay here," Paul said. "I know I haven't seen him in years, and okay he's a bit of a jerk right now, but I can't just stand by if he's in trouble. If it were your friend you would be out there trying to help him. He was a good friend at one point way back. He was a band mate. You do anything for your band mates."
"Yeah," Peter chimed in. "You have to do what you can for your band mates."
Paul looked at Peter, expecting to see Peter mocking him with the irony of his own words. Instead, he just saw concern on Peter's face.
Kathy thinned her lips as she thought. "Okay. You're on, but stay with me and don't trail off on your own. It is still dangerous out there."
They began moving cautiously back out into the meadow.
Gene watched Susie try to pick herself off the ground, and he actually took three steps towards her to help. Three areas on the creature's body still burned where Susie had hit it with the fireballs, and the air stunk of the foul, burning flesh that was already shining black under the sun's bright rays. If the creature felt any pain anymore, it was not evident however, and instead the Ancient One moved slowly towards Susie's head, like a spider to a captured fly.
Gene felt the need to do something. What it was, he had no idea. He looked quickly around in the grass for a tree branch or rock, but found nothing. Digging in his pockets he could feel his house-keys jiggling in his hands and pulled them out. He looked at the keys in his right hand and knew then that he was about to embark on the most pathetic rescue attempt in the history of mankind. He looked back at the huge monstrosity and then back at the seven keys on the metal key-ring.
"Oh, what the hell." Gene said to himself.
"Hey! Get off of her!" Gene yelled as he threw the keys at the creature as fast and hard as possible.
The keys slapped up against the side of the monster with a small "pap" sound, then fell to the ground silently. Gene watched.
"Yep. That worked."
Slowly, the creature's head rose and looked up at Gene. The eyes of the creature boiled red in anger at Gene as it took one step towards him.
"Uh-oh." Gene said again to himself. "That did work."
Just as Gene started cursing himself for getting into trouble, the Ancient One above Susie momentarily stumbled on its tentacles and weaved to the right on the ground. Losing its balance, the creature attempted to latch on to something, exposing the sharpened quills on one tentacle and reaching out to the air. As it did so, the quills sunk into Susie's exposed back, drawing blood diagonally in three thin lines.
Seeing the quills tear into her flesh, yet not quite close enough to help, Gene waited to hear Susie cry out in pain. Instead, she lifted her head and grimaced for several seconds before falling back to the ground unconscious.
As the creature fell on its back, Gene saw that Susie's other Kama was sticking deeply in the center of the Ancient One's chest. The monster quivered a couple of times and then stopped.
Ace popped up into the meadow where he had last seen Caravello, only to find a large tentacle swinging inches towards his face.
"Whoa! Excuse me!" Ace ducked down and rolled to his right until he was sure that he was several feet away from the action. He picked himself up to see Caravello ducking the swing of an Ancient One and jabbing at the creature with the staff. The second Ancient One came up from behind Caravello, although to Ace it appeared that Caravello was too busy to notice its approach. Ace wanted to use his Limbo abilities to send the creature away, but it was too near Caravello to risk the chance.
"Paul," Ace shouted. "Look out!"
As Ace spoke, the second Ancient One lifted a tentacle and prepared to strike the quills into Caravello. Ace closed his eyes, unwilling to see his friend's demise.
There was a roar a second later and Ace opened his eyes to see that the quills were firmly implanted into the belly of the first Ancient One. Caravello was off to the side, holding on to the staff and watching as the two Ancient Ones began to fight against each other: the first by tearing at the tentacle in its stomach with its teeth, the second by trying to use other tentacles to put up resistance as it tried to dislodge the first set of quills.
Caravello smiled as he spotted Ace. "Hi, Ace. How are you doing?" The roars continued as Ace replied. "Fine. Hey, I closed the portal. There shouldn't be any more Ancient Ones today. But let's not stick around to make sure, okay?"
The first Ancient One had managed to bite through the tentacle of the second one and the two began wrestling on the ground for domination. Caravello stood straight and walked over to Ace, the staff disappearing into his left hand with an orange flash.
"Say, Ace? Could you do me a favor?"
"What, Paul?"
Caravello past Ace and began moving in the direction where he had last seen Gene. "Take out the trash, will ya?"
"Sure thing, Paul." Ace pointed an index finger at the two monsters in front of him and they vanished in a bluish glow.
Gene started towards Susie again, yet stopped as he thought over the situation. Gene knew that the creature Susie had just managed to kill was the one she had hit with the fireballs earlier, thanks to the obvious burn marks on the creature's body. Obviously, Gene thought, Susie felt confidant that she had killed the creature off and was not worried about it attacking her. Still, Gene reasoned, that should not have stopped her from keeping an eye open for anymore creatures that could spring out and attack them. So why did she let herself get attacked?
Unless, she was too busy making sure he was safe, Gene considered. He felt a sense of guilt come over him, but shook it off as he ran the situation over in his mind further.
Or, that she intentionally made it appear that she was attacked so that Gene would try to help her and then he would be trapped once again, just like earlier. That could just as likely be the case, Gene thought to himself. Still, he considered, the creature did manage to tear up her back pretty well and she may need help.
Gene grinded his teeth as he tossed the ideas back and forth in his head.
"Oh, this is just great." Gene said, as he moved towards Susie. As he reached her, he noticed that the wounds on her back were already starting to heal, and merely three red streaks ran across her back now and over the dragon tattoo. He knelt, wondering if there was something he should put on the wounds anyway to help, when he heard her gasp for air.
"Uh, Susie," Gene said quietly. "Susie? Are you okay?"
Susie coughed a couple of times and then lifted her head slightly from the ground. "Of course . . . I'm not okay, you prat!"
Gene was surprised to hear her speak and let the remark go. "Well, you sound normal, anyway."
Gene could see the sweat that pour from her face just before she put her head back down into the cool grass. "What's wrong, Susie? It looks like the wounds are healing."
Susie did not lift her head when she spoke again. "The outer surface of the wound is healing . . . but the quills are always covered in venom. I've been infected."
"Uh, what can I do?" Gene waited a moment, then spoke again when there was no response. "Can any of the others help?"
"No, no." Susie lifted her head with a bit more ease. "It'll work its way out of the body soon enough. I just need time to concentrate on my powers and use them to heal me."
"Oh."
A breeze blew through the grass as Gene leaned back on his feet and looked from Susie to the meadow.
"By the way, Klein," Susie said from the ground.
"Hm? What, Susie?"
"Thanks for diverting the Ancient One's attention away. It gave me enough time to use the Kama."
"Sure. No problem."
"What did you hit it with, anyway?"
"Uh, my house keys."
Susie chuckled into the ground.
"Are you sure there's nothing I can do, Susie?"
"Just . . . shut up . . . for a while."
Gene did not answer. He put folded his legs into a sitting position and looked out over the meadow.
Kathy, Peter and Paul moved quickly through the meadow after spotting Caravello and Ace. As they walked, Peter kept looking for the carnage he had expected.
"Um, not to sound sick or anything, but where are the bodies?" Peter said, moving his head left and right.
Kathy kept walking as they talked. "Bodies?"
"Yeah, those monsters with the big flapping tentacles. I thought for sure I saw pieces of them out here earlier."
"Yeah, Kathy," Paul shook his head. "What's up with that?"
"Once they are killed, they disappear. It usually takes a few minutes, but they just vanish once their lifeforce has been destroyed."
"Well, that's very nice of them to clean up after themselves like that." Peter said, still looking around.
"Hey, Pete," Paul said. "Don't start sounding like Gene."
"Hey, Paul, don't start telling me what to do," Peter quickly shot back.
Paul's good humor left him as he realized that Peter's attitude towards him had returned. Kathy spotted the icy air between the two.
"We've never been sure as to why it happens. Only thing we can guess is that the Ancient Ones had been locked up in the dimensional portal for so long that they have trouble keeping their physical presence intact when back in this dimension. Once they're dead, their bodies dissipate."
Even though Peter wanted to ask another question, it had to let it go as it was as they reached Ace and Caravello who were walking quickly up a small hill.
"Paul!"
Caravello heard Kathy's shout and stopped for the threesome to catch him with him and Ace.
"Kathy," Caravello said, as the group caught up with them, "is everything okay?"
"Yes, Paul. Peter and Paul are safe. Are there anymore of the Ancient Ones left?"
"Only if Susie was not able to stop them from catching Klein." Kathy's breath caught in her throat. "You don't think that anything has happened, do you, Paul?"
Caravello smiled and shook his head. "No. Susie can eat these guys for breakfast. I'm more afraid of what she might do to Klein. He's probably better off with the Ancient Ones than with her!"
"Well, where are they?" Paul looked around.
"Should be just over this hilltop here. C'mon." Caravello moved into the lead as the others followed.
Gene was still looking off in the meadow and thought he saw some figures at the top of a small hill in the distance. He was about to wave to the figures when he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes. He lowered his hand and turned to his right, only to see another Ancient One emerging out of the trees and quickly towards Susie and himself. "Uh, Susie?" Gene said quickly.
"What now, Klein?" Susie spoke in a lazy voice.
"I think we better do something quick."
"Why," Susie attempted to move her arms and found that she could actually lift herself slightly off the ground and look up at Gene next to her. "What do you see?"
"We've got one of your friends coming at us at a fast pace from your left."
Susie found enough energy to raise her head even higher and saw the Ancient One approaching towards them. Startled, she tried to put her feet under her, but only succeeded in feeling vertigo seep in, falling on to her back. Although the wounds were healing, the coolness of the grass sent a wave of shock down her spine as they hit the fresh scars.
Susie cried out in pain. Tightening her fists, she again struggled to get her feet under her and stand up. She looked up to see the creature only a few yards away from them as Gene desperately moved towards the Kamas sticking out of the dead Ancient Ones near them.
"Klein, stop!"
Gene halted in his tracks and turned his head back to Susie. "What?"
As he said the word, two flashes appeared in front of him. He faced forward only to find that both Kamas and the two dead Ancient Ones were now gone.
"What happened?" Gene said, racing back to Susie, who weaved as she tried to steady herself.
"The bodies disappear after a short time. If you had grabbed hold of them or the Kamas, you could have gone with them." Susie attempted to look at the approaching Ancient One again, but in raising her head she felt another bout of vertigo come over her. She started to fall, only to be caught in the arms of Gene.
"What can we do?" Gene asked while throwing one of Susie's arms around his neck and supporting her at the waist. "Can you make another weapon?"
Susie closed her eyes, and then opened them again. Her shout to Gene had taken all of her additional energy and she felt the urge to simply let the world slip away. "No . . . I can't . . . concentrate on that and . . . the venom at the same time."
They watched in unison as the Ancient One came within thirty feet of them. It was not running like the others had. Yet then again, Gene thought, it had no reason to hurry at all.
"Oh, God," Caravello said as he reached the top of the hill. He looked down to see the Ancient One fast approaching Gene and Susie, and could tell from the desperation in Gene's face and the obvious disorientation in Susie that they were in trouble.
Caravello lifted his hand into a hitchhiker's pose and instantly disappeared. He reappeared a few meters away from Gene and Susie and to their backs.
"Hold on, you two," Caravello said as he began running towards them. The orange staff was already emerging from his hand once again.
The sounds of the Ancient One crowded out Caravello's cry. Gene looked down at Susie, only to see that she appeared to be asleep. He shook her.
"Susie? Susie? We've got to get out of here! Can you get us out of here?"
"Hhmmm?" Susie did not open her eyes. "What was that, Paul?"
"Susie," Gene said again, seeing the Ancient One only about six feet away from them. "We need to get out of here. You need to take Gene home."
"Take . . . Gene . . . home?" Susie whispered, not understanding Gene's words clearly.
Gene felt odd seeing Susie in such a defenseless light. Like it was something that was not his to see at all. Still, there was no time to worry about such things.
"Yes, Susie. Take Gene home. He's got to go home." Gene looked up to see the creature only a foot away from them. The creature began to reach out to them, the quills exposed on two tentacles.
Caravello was only ten feet away as he ran, praying he was not too late to stop the Ancient One in front of Susie and Gene.
"Take Gene home now," Gene shouted as he grabbed Susie's hand and forced it into the pose he had seen Caravello do back at the school. Gene felt the blinding light around him and Susie as the creature brought down its tentacles towards the two.
The tentacles came down and crashed together in a sickening thud, the quills from both limbs piercing the other limb. Just as the creature was about to scream, a staff rammed into the creature's head, sending it backwards and on to the ground.
Before it could even look up, a pair of boots dove into the creature's chest, smashing the bones and plummeting the organs within. It was the last thing the creature felt before dying.
Caravello had no care for the monster under his feet; instead he turned around to see what had happened to Gene and Susie. When he saw no one, he ran to their last spot and looked in all directions. He turned the staff in his hand absentmindedly as he looked in frustration.
"Paul?"
Caravello spun around at the sound of the female voice, only recognizing it for Kathy after he had turned to face the approaching group. Peter, Ace, Paul and Kathy reached Caravello, with both Paul and Peter stopping short when they saw the smashed body of the creature.
"Ugh," Peter said in disgust. "Ancient Roadkill."
"Where is Gene and Susie?" Ace asked.
"I don't know. I thought I heard Gene say something and then they disappeared as if they went into Limbo."
"Do you think they're safe?" Kathy asked.
"I - I don't know," Caravello said again, looking off into the distance. "Susie looked like she was in trouble."
"You don't think Simmons did something to her, do you, Paul?" Ace said in concern. As the others talked, Paul felt a glint shining in his eyes and he studied the ground, spotting a metal object close by in the grass. He moved over to it, picking up the object and studying it as the conversation continued.
"I'm not sure. He mentioned something about going home . . .."
"Going home? Then they could be okay." Kathy breathed a sigh of relief.
"Maybe," Paul spoke as he walked back to the group, rattling the object in his closed right hand. "But he's going to be mad when he gets there."
"Why's that, Paul?" Caravello asked.
Paul opened his right hand to display the seven keys dangling on the key ring. "He left his keys."
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Copyrighted (c) 2000-2001 Dale Sherman / KISS ASYLUM
Artwork by Larry Blake
We kindly ask that you please not reproduce this feature without prior consent!
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KISS Museum