Song of the Swans Part 5

Chapter 19

It took the rest of the afternoon through late evening and a decent amount of cash for the cleaning crews to return Leek Works to a state of repair.   A delegation of Nexus Republic commissaries arrived at 8:30 to take a report on the attack, when the computer room had been set up with new tables and consoles but the spiral hallway was still stained with Maelstrom residue.

“You can tell me ‘I told you so’,” Prime Minister Overbuild said sourly as he stood in the connector, next to Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, “then I’d like if we can plan our next move, to counter their next move.”

The younger man folded his arms.   “I have nothing else to say about the past, except that you mentioned protection.”

“I did.”

“I want it.”

Overbuild quickly sent a message telepathically to his phone, and from there elsewhere.   “They will arrive in the hour.   Meanwhile, the council has called another deliberation on allocation of our defensive funding, 9 AM tomorrow morning.”

“Tell them to put it all on offensive weaponry and evacuation ships, equal distribution.   It’s fight or flight, you just need to figure out who in the population is fighting, and who’s flying.”

“We want you to be there.”

“Maybe.   I want to go to sleep.”

So Overbuild returned by personal transport to Republic Headquarters, while the 35 year old retreated to his office.   At 9:00 the annoying whirr of the Maelstrom vacuums finally turned off, and Intrepid was able to focus better on the files on the desk in front of him.   Instead of sleeping he’d been reading, under the dimmed light of an old fashioned desk lamp, as he perused plaques, data pads, decade old papers, manuscripts…

An hour passed before his mind recalled a technique that Ryder had taught him.   His eyes began to stop seeing the words in front of him, the print began to blur.   A chilling sensation trickled up his spine, into his head, and then it felt warm.   His neck stopped aching from being tilted down at his desk for so long.   His breathing slowed.   He imagined he was someplace else, somewhere he could feel her presence....

Then his door slid open and the sensation stopped.   Intrepid blinked at the interruption, then he looked back at his book.   He turned back a page, where had he been?  Meanwhile, a shadow stretched across the floor, silhouetted against the lighted box from the hallway light through the doorframe in the otherwise dark room.   He saw the head of the silhouette on the floor beside him.   He knew who it was, and she was waiting.

“Yes.” he said sharply.

“Dad.” his daughter said.   “Overbuild’s agents arrived.   They’re in the entrance room.”

“Send them my regards.” Intrepid said.

“You’re not coming?” she questioned.

“Not this time.   They know what they're here for.”  Intrepid kept reading, but in the corner of his eye he saw that the shadow didn’t seem to move.   Was she still waiting?  “Red.” he addressed, softening his tone.   “Is there anything more you want to tell me?”

His daughter’s shadow shifted, as she dipped her head to look at the floor.   “I should have told you-” she started.

“No,” he cut her off.   “It’s actually… better that you didn’t.   Some things are better not knowing.”

“Oh.”  There was a pause for a second.   “Okay.   Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Stepping out of the door and allowing it to close, Red looked up from her boots and sighed as the doors sealed her father away for the night with little more than a hiss.   Who knew if she’d even see him tomorrow?  And he’d found out after all, about what she did and who she’d brought, but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss it.   Perhaps he thought it was better, to clam up and hide away… well it wasn’t, not for her.

She turned away and returned along the outer spiral to the entrance room, where the others were assembled.   They were in the midst of a conversation when they entered, and considering the minifigures involved, Red could already figure out how it was going.   Because she knew these people, and a long time ago she’d asked the same questions.

“You’re twenty years old?” Intrepid asked, sounding most perplexed.   The black haired fifteen year old stood at the same height and eye level as both the lean, youthful looking brown haired boy and the brown haired girl who stood across the table from him.

“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” the girl responded with an eye roll.   But she smiled at the question, being a person who enjoyed messing with the ignorant.

“And you’re also… older?” Intrepid asked the boy.

“We’re twins,” he responded, “Katie and I.”  He was still facing Intrepid, his back towards the doorway through which Red had entered, when he greeted her, like he had eyes on the back of his head.   Or pressure sensors.   “Hi, Red.” Jay said.

“But you two don’t look older than, I’m going to guess, thirteen?” Intrepid continued, still flabbergasted.

Strange Odd Shadow, who sat in a newly added armchair, quipped, “Age and appearance are more independent than you’d think.”

“We were thirteen, actually, when this happened.” Jay said.   “Someone got a rogue process into our systems, which rewrote the process in charge of our outward appearance, and no one bothered to fix it.”

“Besides, looking like kids has lots of advantages.” Katie jumped in.   “Like, no one ever suspects us of anything, and it’s more consistent with our inner personalities.   We’re still kids at heart.”

“You are.” Jay corrected.

Katie gave him a friendly shoulder punch.   “Lighten up, bro.   Channel your inner child.”

“No.”

The door to the armory slid open and Skilled Honored Ninja stepped out, decked out in his Rank 3 Space Ranger Gear.   “I’m suited up and ready to rock ‘n roll,” he reported, “while you- eight?  There are eight of you here now? – have been what?  Dancing a waltz?  You couldn’t prepare any slower.”

“If anything you’re over-prepared,” Shadow said.   “We’re not planning to fight a war.”

“You can never be too prepared.   And if there is a war, I intend to win it.” Skilled declared, fixing Shadow with a staunch gaze that prompted the Engineer to stand up.

“You don’t know me, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you might not realize,” Shadow stated, “but I’m always combat ready.”

“Me too.” the Ninja Space Ranger said.   “I carry a Broom-Mop-Sword-Zipgun-and Arrows Combo Katana Staff that was originally an Energy Spork.”

“If you’d cut it out,” Kate interrupted, “we could move out now.”  Strange Odd Shadow and Skilled Honored Ninja interrupted their staring contest to glance her way.   She, Allison Ryder, and Ben Mercury stood at the door out, and Intrepid, Jay, Katie, and Red were headed that way as well.

“This isn’t over.” Shadow whispered.

“It isn’t.” Skilled agreed.

So the two went to join the others, and they all exited into the snowy night.   A light flurry had set over Nimbus Station in the past hour, and tiny snowflakes whizzed by, most visible in the glow of the streetlamps immediately outside the alleyway.   Red hunched inside her cloak and walked in front, leading the procession of ten towards the street.

Intrepid turned his head to count those around him again.   Ben and Allison were at the back.   He slowed down, letting Jay and Katie walk past, so he could say something discreetly to the two Leek Works employees.   “Are you sure you want to be involved?” he asked them again.   “This is risky business.   Your imagination sparks aren’t even unlocked, I doubt, so if you smash…”

“My dad can take care of himself.” Ben said stoically.

“He sure can.” Allison repeated.   “And you need our help.   You need Ben’s expertise to work the Ring, and as for me, I'm just looking for a change in environment.   This place is stuffy and I think I’ve caught a cold.”  She made a face at herself.   "Sorry, I suppose what I mean is, I can also help you find your family."

“Okay.” Intrepid nodded.   “You’re in.”

Meanwhile, Jay caught up to Red.   “I can’t help but think,” he posed, “but Overbuild told us we were here to defend the base from Maelstrom attack.   I don’t think he mentioned any transdimensional expeditions.”

“Yeah, he didn’t.” Katie said.   “Does Intr- your father, know what we’re doing?”

Red gave them each an over the shoulder glance, as they neared the end of the alleyway.   She could hear a car engine idling around the corner, and in the time it took for them to reach it, she decided on her answer.   It was hard to phrase in her head, but recalling her father’s words did make it easier to say.   So she told them.

“He doesn’t know what we’re doing.” Red said at last.   “But trust me, some things are better not knowing.”

****

The car was once an ancient black luxury sedan, but sometime in its 50 year life it'd been graced with a 10 feet stretch.   Now with seats for 10 passengers and a driver, it sat parked in front of Leek Work’s façade, with the engine running, clouds billowing from the exhaust, and interior lights on.   Held down to the car’s roof with nylon straps, ropes, and other tie-down equipment was the Ring in its ten-feet-diameter glory.   The car was already huge, but the Ring stuck out over its sides.

As the group made their way to the car’s doors, Intrepid couldn’t help but stare at the Ring’s precarious perch.   Until someone hacked the personal transdimensional devices, it was their only way back home.   The Ring’s construction impeded backpack transportation, so Intrepid hoped the driver knew what he was doing as he walked along the car’s length to its front passenger seat.   He gripped the door’s chrome handle, almost freezing his fingers trying to open it, and only after he slid into its leather front seat was he able to identify the driver.

“At your service, favorite nephew!” Tiberius said.

****

Intermission: 02030-NIMCITY Part 1

Opening File: 02030-NIMCITY

Bad Filesystem, Proceed? ( Y for yes / N for no )

Y

Nimbus City, Nimbus Station

-Summary

Nimbus City, also called the City of Nimbus, is a 305 square mile city first built for the Nimbus Republic's civilization reconstruction (CIVRC) project, and was the most populous metropolitan area in the system between 3026 and 3038.   Built over Nimbus Station's western sea, across the superbridge from the Race Place, the city's sea location was made possible by creating an artificial rock island for it to be built upon, with materials mined from the Darneu around Forbidden Valley.    The city's plan and unique base construction method was envisioned by former-Assembly craftswoman Dedria Signer, a mindstorm for which you can be assured she has received many awards.

-History

--Timeline

February 1st, 3026: The Nexus Force declares victory over the Maelstrom.

February 15th, 3026: Nimbus Republic formed, Civilization Reconstruction Project announced.

May 25, 3026: Ministry of Construction members Bruno Underbite, Dedria Signer, and Sandy Studs announce Project Stratospheron for a floating city above Nimbus Station.

June 1st, 3026: Project Stratospheron is rejected.

June 2nd, 3026: Dedria Signer proposes the ministry's backup plan, Project Atlantis, and it is approved.

June 9th, 3026: Mining of the Darneu is approved and following allocation of funds commences.

June 14th, 3026: Sufficient Darneu-sourced rock is placed in Nimbus Station's western sea.   With the foundation laid surface construction commences.

October 26th, 3028: Consctruction of Nimbus City proper is completed; construction of Nimbus Suburbs commenced.

November 25th, 3028: Construction of Nimbus Grove suburbs completed.

--FILESYSTEM DAMAGED, SKIP DAMAGED SECTORS?--

Y

July 21st, 3034: Transdimensional attack on Nimbus Republic

16:37 / 8:37 PM - Maelstrom infantry commence attack via transdimensional rift.

Intermission: 02030-NIMCITY part 2: Chapter ??

July 21st, 3034

What had started as a celebratory evening very quickly erupted into chaos.

First a low rumbling began to murmur from the heavens.   But what might have been thunder, quickly became apparent as something else, something not to be irrationally feared.   Rather, something to be legitimately afraid of.

The pictures on the apartment walls began to rattle.   They fell clanging, the tile floor creaked and shook, and every glass window, the small ones in the bedrooms and the large bay window, shattered.

There was a loud bang and all the lights turned off, casting the white walls and everything in between them into darkness.

Someone struck a match and its little flame shone brightly in the darkness.   Somehow it withstood the quaking, burning only a gradual amount before the trembling ceased, and there was silence except for its little fizzling.   The flame was like a beacon, in many ways.

The flame had been meant to light the candle on the cake, on the dinner table, now forgotten in the darkness.   Around the table, the minifigures present all stood up.   In the flame's glow they saw each others faces.   The most illuminated face was that of a woman, the one who had lit and now held the match in one hand.   In her other arm she cradled a baby.

Kate stared at all those around.   She was about to open her mouth to speak, when other sounds, too low, too far away to be heard under any sound except that of the current silence, made their way in from outside.

There was a distant shout.

A distant snarl.

The piercing ting of distant gunfire.

A piercing wail filled the room, and Kate tensed, reacting immediately to hush the child in her arms.   "Shhhh," she hissed, but the child did not quiet.   Shadows danced across the walls as the match in her hand shook, and around her people began to move.

"I'm going outside." a man's voice announced.

"Looking to get smashed, Ray?" another male voice quipped.

"I don't think it's safe," a woman protested.

The match was nearly down to Kate's fingertips when an alternate form of illumination finally lit up, a phone screen.   Blowing out the match, Kate looked at the face illuminated directly by the phone, that of a third man.   In the noise and disorder she didn't recognize him at first, since lately she was used to seeing him with facial hair, since he was trying to grow a beard, but that morning he'd shaven for the occasion.   Her husband's face looked grim now.

"The network is down." Intrepid reported.   "The public network, our private channels too."  He held the phone up to his ear, and then blanched.   "And there's a heck of a lotta interference on the transdimensional channels.   I can't reach the base."

"We've got to do something." the first voice, Ray's, spoke again.   "I'm not staying in the dark."  Another phone screen lit up, held by Ray, and he began to move to the apartment's door.

"I think we should wait," the woman said quietly.

Kate heard her.   "I agree!  We're all in the dark here and we need to figure this out together  Someone needs to take charge."

Intrepid looked up.   "Okay." he said.   "I guess I can-"

"By someone I meant me." Kate said, and she turned her attention back to Ray and the woman.   "Mara," she addressed her, "you're in no condition for a fight."

Mara's face was pale in the glow of the smartphones.   "We're fighting?" she breathed.

"It's a possibility." Intrepid said.

"We are." Kate said for certain.

"How do you know?" the last voice, that of the second man, Luke Mercury, asked.

With her free hand, Kate tapped the side of her head.   "I was a Stromling once.   I know Maelstrom when I feel it."  She pressed her lips together in thought.   "Mara," she addressed again, "hold Red."  Gingerly, the other woman took the exactly one year old girl, who was finally beginning to quiet down.   With her arms free, Kate could fight.

"Now Ray," Kate continued, "you want to check things out?"

"Definitely." the dark haired man said, nodding determinedly and flexing his arms.

"Good luck punching the Maelstrom," Luke deadpanned from the other side of the apartment.   In the dark he'd moved over to a side table, locked with a passcode and key, both of which the Leek Works agent had.   From its drawer he removed a set of weapons, and he tossed an Elite Drill of Lasers across the room for Ray to catch with both hands.

"Leave it for the Maelstrom to come back when I'm the least able to fight them." Mara muttered, shifting her weight and resting her face on Red's fuzzy head.   The baby started to sniffle.   Technically Mara now carried two children: Kate's, and hers and Ray's.

Luke and Intrepid had silently gotten flashlights, cash and coins, insurance cards, car keys, and backpacks of old gear from around the apartment.   After handing Kate her backpack, the five adults all put on their shoes and exited Intrepid and Kate's apartment.   Flashlights and smartphones lead the way for the two couples and Luke, as they made their way out, down the stairs, to the building's lobby.

As they neared the door, the sounds from outside became louder and more discernably worse.   Intrepid, who stood at the front, at half the room's length away from the door motioned for them to stop.   He crouched down and began to open his backpack.

Kate conjured a picture in her mind of the backpack's contents, organized in the same way they were eight years ago, when she'd put her Nexus Force gear away presumably for good.   With her mind's eye she found her set of white Rank 3 Sentinel Samurai gear.   She pictured them adorning her frame, and it took only that thought for the gear to fly out of her backpack and equip itself on her.   They fit snugly, properly, and despite herself having grown some in the past eight years, they easily and effortlessly conformed to her new dimensions.

With her Samurai helmet came a heightened sense of sensual awareness, aided by Imagination.   There was a mechanical clock on the pale blue lobby wall, above the gray chairs, and its fingers pointed to 8 hours, 38 minutes, and 50 seconds post meridiem.

Elsewhere in the lobby, Intrepid had donned his old Bat Lord suit, while Luke now wore some modified Sentinel Knight gear.   Ray wasn't much of a Nexus Forcer but he carried his laser gun with purpose.   He stood in front of Mara protectively.

Now Kate focused on the world outside the door.   She, Intrepid, and Luke all had the same vision.   They all detected Maelstrom outside, doing Maelstrom things against the helpless Nimbus City populace.   Tormenting, damaging, infecting.

And Kate, Intrepid, and Luke all had the same thought.

They had defeated the Maelstrom one.

They would defeat the Maelstrom again.

*****

16:39 / 8:39 PM - Defensive force working from local secret base (see File: Leek Works) responds to the immediate threat.

16:40 / 8:40 PM - Leek Works engages the Maelstrom.

*****

Eight years of peace (since the Maelstrom War's end in 3026) categorized the city's formative years and the state of its current existence, at least until today.   Nimbus City held people from all walks of life, and all sorts of backgrounds, both Nexus Force veterans and immigrants from other planets and worlds who had never had to carry a sword into combat against forces of any darkness.

The newcomers brought friends and families.

That being said, the majority of Nimbus City was wholly unprepared for an attack.   It didn't help that the Nimbus Republic had disbanded its military and ceased funding of any offensive, or defensive projects long ago.

But that's why Leek Works existed.   Leek Works had persevered in the past eight years. 

Kate didn't want to think thoughts of, I told you so, or Look what happens when you don't listen to our warnings!  Since those thoughts could be seen as trivializing the real misfortune that was befalling the innocents around her now.

Brandishing her katana, Kate charged for the Stromling nearest to her position.   It was an advanced type, with hammers for arms and obsidian armor for its head and chest.   A flying kick later, the Stromling was on the ground.   A katana strike later, the Stromling was smashed.

Rising, Kate detected that the most nearby Stromlings had turned their attention to her: a minifigure who could actually fight back or impede their operation.   They turned away from their previous targets and began to advance.   At least she could fight, and the other civilians who were not yet infected, and there were many of them, wisely took the chance to run.

Kate was about to duel the nearest Stromling, a Pirate, when a car came careening around a street corner, straight towards her.   Three Chainsaw Stromlings had embedded their weapon arms into its black roof, and she could see the blades swinging and swaying in the monsters' attempts to reach the driver.   But the Stromlings only succeeded in cutting longer strips in the vehicle's metal, and sliding farther to its rear.   Nevertheless Kate loaded her bow and launched three arrows, before diving out of the vehicle's way.

The car plowed through the Stromling Pirate she would otherwise have battled, smashing it, and her arrows smashed each of the Chainsawlings.

"You're welcome!" she shouted after the vehicle's receding taillights, and then she ducked to avoid the swing of a Mech's arm, from a Stromling Mech that had approached her from behind.   With an upwards swing she removed the robot of its arm, and a followup strike turned the rest of it to a state of bricks.

Kate, Intrepid, and Luke had fanned out, and in a minute their efforts had effectively cleared the streets of Maelstrom forces.   There had been other signs and sounds of combat in the immediate area, but those had died down.

That meant there were other fighters around.   Kate raised an arm to signal the others, and then she darted to the nearest street corner.   Around the corner store, in the middle of the next street, she recognized the characteristic Sentinel gear of two fellow Nexus Force veterans.   Even more, she recognized their faces.   She waved.

"Is that all of them?" a man she recognized as Suave Able Cat asked.  The former Sentinel looked as well equipped as ever.  Somehow the 'Super Sentinel' still managed to equip a bit of each Sentinel kit into his attire.   He blew steam off a Space Ranger Zipgun he carried in his right hand, in his left he had a Samurai Bow like Kate's own, and on his back he wore his old Powerjouster and a new Energy Spork.

At his side walked another familiar figure, that of a man called Master Blade Nine, armored up like any good Sentinel Knight.   "If there are other reports of Maelstrom in the city," Blade started, "I haven't heard them."

"We would have no way of knowing," Intrepid Fusion Eclipse said, walking up behind Kate and looking around.   Kate followed his gaze.   The only Maelstrom damage they could see was restricted to these two streets, at this street corner on the city's edge, overlooking Vertigo Bay that seperated Nimbus City from the rest of Nimbus Station.   

Was it coincidence, Kate thought, that this same street corner, the one the Maelstrom targeted, was the one that housed their apartment building?  Or as a parent was she being too paranoid?

"Look up." Luke said.   Kate, Intrepid, Suave, and Blade looked at him for a second, and saw that he was pointing upwards.   Then they stared at the sky.   A dark blanket of purple clouds seemed to carpet the air directly above them, hiding the actual sky and smothering out the stars.

"This can't be good." Intrepid muttered.

Arcs of lightning flashed soundlessly between the clouds' folds, and then something began to change.   The storm's center began to swirl like a whirlwind, forming a dark hole in its center.   Then a lightning bolt arced right down from its center, traveling barely slow enough for them to see, and with a mighty crash it struck down not fifty feet away from the five of them.   The force of the blast cracked the road, shattered whatever glass still remained unbroken, and loose objects fell from wherever they were knocked loose, and all five of the minifigures were knocked off their feet and sent flying away from the blast.

When Kate's ears stopped ringing and she had enough bearing to stand, she saw what had formed at the point of the lightning strike.   A vortex that was both dark and light, black and white, purple and pink greeted them.   Flashes and shadows emanated forth in a familiar pattern.   Kate recognized it, and Intrepid recognized it too.   "Darn." the man muttered.   "So they did rebuild it."

It was the pattern of a certain transdimensional ring appliance, just infused, transformed- infected.   The Maelstrom counterpart from another dimension that was not their own.

Kate sighed.  "We destroyed it to prevent this from happening."

"We knew they'd rebuild it soon enough." Intrepid said with aimless obstinacy.   "It's not our fault no one did anything about it." 

A dark laughter echoed forth from the portal.

"I hoped it wouldn't get worse." Intrepid groaned.   "Now he's here."  Suddenly he stood up straight.   He gave Kate a glance, and she stared back, a silent communication being sent between them.   Fear.   Understanding.   Approval.

Kate shifted the weight of her weapons, found the optimal balance on her feet, and steeled herself.

If the Darkitect was here personally, they would need to fight back with everything they got.

She would need to.   

Kate closed her eyes and breathed deeply.   She'd only done minimal training in these abilities with Cyclone, before...  before an event she'd rather not think about.   But before then, they'd shared a training room, and developed some skill.   It was difficult training in an art with no one to guide them but themselves, but they'd trail blazed it themselves.   It was difficult but rewarding.

She found the core of Imagination spark, nestled somewhere next to her heart.   She sensed the imagination within her being harnessed, and felt it being pulled forth with each heartbeat, being sent through each of her arteries outwards.   She felt the goosebumps on her arms, the hairs on her neck and each strand of hair on her head rising, her nerves prickled as her supply of raw imagination surged, threatening to breach her skin.   But she could control it.

Intrepid watched her in awe, his face lit up - his clothes as well, and the environment around them all, as Kate literally glowed with energy - her imagination potential emanated out from her.   It radiated from her fingertips.    

The darkness laughed again.

A shadow began to stretch forth from the portal.   A hundred times the height of any minifigure in length, it snaked across the tarmac ground towards them.   The portal widened, to accommodate the appearance of a towering silhouette.   Two large squared boots tapped on the ground.   A massive cape swished and swirled in the rush of air that howled from the vortex.   Atop its head stood a comparatively tall top hat, shiny black, brimmed article of authority, of supremacy.

Of barony.

Dark creatures skittered around their master's feet, up and down his cloak.   

A ghastly smile spread across the dark master's face.   Red eyes appeared under the brim of his top hat.   An arm extended forth from his figure, a hand opened, in it a glowing orb, a shimmering violet in color, pulsating and hovering above his palm.

With an upwards thrust, the orb was launched upwards into the sky like a rocket.

Like a missile.

It exploded in a searing white flash, accompanied by an instant of searing heat.

No one could see.   Kate couldn’t see or hear.   Her ears rang.   Despite her blindness Kate lashed out, and somewhere in the whiteness she heard a howl as her strike hit some fowl creature.   She felt a rush of air, and a shout from one of her teammates.

Her name?

A warning?  

She felt the heat of her own power rising within her, around her.   With her mind's eye she sensed the dark creatures closing in, and she swung her arms to dispel another imagination blast.   Thunder clapped, she'd emitted lightning, she felt the blaze of its heat on the inside of her arms, and the creatures turned to dust.

There was another rush, this time headed straight towards her.   She felt the air bouncing off her from its approach like an approaching train, and she pushed back.

Something sailed over her head.   It landed behind her.

Then she felt a knife in her back. 

Her ears rang with a different intensity.  She stopped feeling the power rushing through her arms.  She stopped feeling her legs, or feeling entirely.   She stopped seeing information, only white noise.   

Kate blinked, or tried to blink, but her sight remained unchanging.   She wanted to shake her head, but felt no response from her neck muscles.   When at last outlines began to appear in the grayness, and she finally began to see again, it was to the sneering face of a Stromling she never thought she'd see again, standing above her, staring down at where she lay on the ground.

She couldn't murmur his name, Demonstrait.   She could move her lips, and articulate her tongue, but her breath seemed caught in her mouth.

Demonstrait only smiled.

Kate's eyelids suddenly felt heavy.

She became conscious of the darkness spreading from the edges of her vision - the emptiness ebbing away at her spirit.

The hollow laughter of the Darkitect as he looked on at her demise.

She was smashing.

And she heard the cry of her name being shouted.   She saw Demonstrait knocked aside, out of sight, replaced by the face of Intrepid, only caring, only concerned for her.   His mouth moved silently as her hearing was lost as well.

It was too late for Intrepid to help her.

But it wasn't too late for Kate to help him.   

Perhaps her brain's last call of action, to push her arm upwards, successfully pushed Intrepid out of the way from what was about to come next.   But it was only Imagination and it wouldn't hurt him or any of her friends so long as they weren't infected.

But it would hurt the Maelstrom.

With Kate's last breath came an explosion of pure imagination.   Any Maelstrom within the blast radius of her detonating imagination spark was vaporized in an instant.

*****

Intermission: 02030-NIMCITY part 3

July 21st, 3026

16:39 / 8:39 PM - Defensive force working from local secret base (see File: Leek Works) responds to the immediate threat.

16:45 / 8:45 PM - First Maelstrom wave defeated.

16:50 / 8:50 PM - A second Maelstrom Vortex is opened for Maelstrom reinforcements, including the First Darkitect.   A Maelstrom orb bomb is detonated above Nimbus City, immediately infecting a hundred square miles of the island's eastern seaboard.

16:51 / 8:51 PM – An imagination explosion from an unknown source destabilizes the Maelstrom’s Transdimensional Vortex, forcing the Maelstrom to retreat.

16:52 / 8:52 PM - Leek Works casualties are confirmed.

--FILESYSTEM DAMAGED, SKIP DAMAGED SECTORS?--

N

File terminated.

Chapter 19 continued

Sufficiently spooked, Intrepid repositioned himself to the rear of the car, where everyone else sat.   Red liked Tiberius, she could have the front seat.   She was already in the back though, in the middle seat of the middle row, effectively in a position for taking charge.   Intrepid took a vacant leather seat and buckled in next to Kate, between her and Shadow, while Red began outlining their plan.

  "We're going to Nimbus City." she said, looking at two people, namely Intrepid and Kate, directly.   "Fair warning though, it won't look like you remember it."

  "Fair enough.   Nothing looks like we remember it." Intrepid said.

  "Man, the city looks great!" Skilled Honored Ninja deadpanned.   "It's never looked better!"

  "What do you mean?" Intrepid asked.

  "I'm kidding pal," Skill said morosely.   "The city got nuked.   It looks like garbage."

  Intrepid's and Kate's eyes widened.   "No way." she whispered.

  "What's Nimbus City?" Strange Odd Shadow asked.

  "It's a great city." Intrepid told him.

  "The best there is." Kate echoed.   "I can't believe...."

  "Here," Red handed him a datapad from somewhere in her cloak.   "We have a file on it."

  Shadow took it, and information lit up on the screen.   "It says the File System is Damaged." he reported.

"Oh." Red blanched.   "Just type Y and proceed."  While Shadow read Red's reading material, she removed another datapad and continued to tell the other two Other Dimensioners, "I've outlined our two primary objectives going forwards.   First," she pointed two fingers at Intrepid and Kate, "you two and Shadow need to get back to your dimensions.   Second, we'll find Cyclone."

"I'm glad you remembered him." Kate said, her face lighting up.   "Are we splitting into teams?"

  "What do you mean?" Red asked.

"Well, Intrepid and I are doing detective work on his missing family," Kate explained, "but we've also got to rescue Cyclone."  She suddenly gave Intrepid a sorry glance.   "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

  "Oh no," he said hurriedly, "no, it's okay.   My family isn't going anywhere, and we've got to stick together regardless."  He tried to give her a smile that was reassuring, for her sake and also for himself.   "I'll help with finding Cyclone.   My family would want me to."

  To his relief, Kate smiled back.   "Thanks, Intrepid."

  The interior lights darkened as the last car doors shut, as Ben and Allison climbed into the backmost seats.   "Comfy car," Allison said.

  With some clangs, rattles, and shudders, the ancient car proceeded to drive.

  In the darkness, except for the glow from Shadow's Nimbus City datapad, Intrepid couldn't help but wonder.   A lot of crazy things had happened.   Crazy things were still happening.   He wasn't betraying his family by putting them aside now, was he?  It bothered him like a poke in the shoulder.   They'd want him to help a friend, he was sure.   If anything, the betrayal had occured long ago, after he ran off to the Nexus Force and never returned.   Not a message, not birthday cards, no correspondence of any sort, and not even himself.   Then Alex showed up at the Launch Area.    It knawed on him deeper.

  Can I betray them any worse? Intrepid grimaced and moved a hand to rub his aching shoulder.   He brushed against someone's finger.

  There was someone nudging him in the shoulder.

  It was Kate.   She was whispering something, and Intrepid leaned closer.   "Sorry, I didn't hear." he hissed quietly.

  "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about your family." Kate repeated in a low tone, since now they were whispering for some reason.

  "Again, it's okay," Intrepid whispered back.   "Cyclone's a higher priority right now, I understand-"

  Kate snorted.   "No stupid, you don't."  She smiled to indicate she didn't mean it meanly.

Intrepid blinked.   "What was the question again?"

  "You're family sounds like cool people." Kate rehashed.   "Tell me what they're like?"

  Intrepid scrunched up his brow.   "Well," he started, "you know about Tiberius about as much as I do."

  Kate snorted again.   "Start with someone else."

  "Alright." Intrepid started again.   "There's my dad, Abe.   He was an explorer."  Kate raised her eyebrows, interested, so Intrepid continued, "He told me stories about his adventures, and where they went."  He couldn't help but grin at a particular memory.   "I barely believe it myself; would you believe me if I told you he found Crux?"

  Kate smiled.   "Before the Faction Leaders and the Baron?"

  "Gotta be." Intrepid chuckled.

  "I thought you said your home planet was technologically challenged." Kate challenged.

  "I never said Abe was from Elistra." Intrepid reminded, still smirking.

  Kate held up her hands.   "Before we follow that tangent," she said, her eyes glinting, "Tell me about the others.   You had a mom, obviously.   What was she like?"

  "She was an explorer too." Intrepid told her.   "Hazel Tanwaed.    She met my dad when they were exploring.   Two kids in a spaceship, my dad told me that.   That story had something to do with faces.   They later found each other again as adults and got married."

  "Sounds like a love at first sight thing." Kate whistled.   "Pretty romantic."

  Intrepid shrugged.   "Guess so.   Then there's my brother Alex, you've seen him.   So next is Evelyne..."

They were approaching a checkpoint, and Intrepid went silent, since he couldn't help but notice an uncanny similarity to Elistra.   A concrete retaining wall, and behind of that a larger armored wall, rose up from the street, artificially attached to the road surface with visible clutch power nodes that ran along its length.

  Intrepid looked around.   What was being held off?  Hidden?  Protected?  Contained?  The city around them, that they'd driven through meanwhile, did look great like Skilled Honored Ninja said.   There were other cars and people on the sidewalks, bright neon cafes populated even in the night, and towering apartment complexes with clean, maintained appearances.   The city looked normal, futuristic even.   But what was kept behind the wall?  It wasn't very tall, but he couldn't see much over it...

  "What's in there?" he asked Red as they pulled up to a gate.   Tiberius lowered a window for a pair of Nimbus Republic guards, and he held out some sort of badge.   It worked, since gates opened in both walls, and then they were through.

  Inside these walls, the city took on an ashen look.   Intrepid quickly figured out why he couldn't see anything over the wall.

  There was nothing to see over the wall.

  Apartment buildings lay crumbled at the roadside.

Intrepid and Kate had both been in their version of Nimbus City only a day ago.   Here was a residential area, a place familiar to them, lying in ruin.

  They were supposed to be strong buildings.   They were designed to be built up indefinitely, as the population needed, thanks to new, innovative construction methods.   These buildings could withstand any weight, any force pushing them down.

  All but one building lay in bombed out piles of rubble.   Only one building's frame stood tall, skeletal, stripped bare from the explosion that took out everything else.

  The bomb that had exploded had dropped right on top of that single standing apartment building.  It was a type of building that could withstand any downward force, but not a sideward force, so the explosion knocked down everything else.   This carnage was their city.   This was where they lived.

  Red said solemnly, "This is where the Maelstrom targeted Nimbus City."

  A horrible thought crossed Intrepid's mind.   The single standing apartment building, he recognized its approximate height, its position against the seaboard.   That building was where they lived.   Intrepid felt uneasy.   The horrible thought stirred.

  This wasn't just where the Maelstrom targeted Nimbus City.

  This is where the Maelstrom targeted us, he thought.

  "This is where the Maelstrom targeted us." Kate said.

Chapter 20

Old Nimbus City

Future Dimension

Sometime late at night

The job of lugging The Ring twenty flights up rickety apartment stairs was given to Jay and Katie.   Jay didn’t complain, not outwardly, since he wasn’t a complainer, but guess who was a complainer, so despite possessing qualities of superfigure dexterity and strength, many gripes and grumbles were to be heard by the decuplet of transdimensional travelers and Leek Works interns the entire twenty flights to the top floor.

“This is discrimination.” Katie protested on the fifteenth floor.

Without missing a step from his side of The Ring, Jay facepalmed.   “Katie, you're being annoying.   Please stop.”

“Hey, my brother speaks." his sister crowed.   "Don’t you wish we weren’t being abused for our abilities?”

“I wish Intrepid was here,” Jay muttered.   “He’d turn off your voice box.”

Katie gawked in mock abashment and at the sound of his name Intrepid must have snapped out of some meditative state, since he'd been quiet the entire way up.   “I’m here.”

“Not you.” Jay told him.

“The other you.” Katie corrected.   “And I’d never let him do it.”

On the sixteenth landing, Intrepid paused to catch his breath.   The air was thin this high up, and not to mention chilled at both this time of winter and this time of night.   Jay and Katie were already halfway past the sixteenth floor.   They were the fastest up despite about a hundred-fifty pounds of Nexus Force tech on their shoulders.   The others sort of made their way up in a disjointed line, also at various stages of tired, except Tiberius who stayed with his car.   The building had an elevator, but of course it didn’t work, or at least no one tried it.   And no one was going to.   

At this landing, there was one door that lead Intrepid to a makeshift balcony.   One wall was blown out, reminding Intrepid of Elistra.   The view, however, was no comparison.   From up here he could see all of Nimbus City and across the Sea of Sharks to Nimbus Plaza.   That mainland didn't look set to change much in twenty years, Intrepid noted.   

So where were we again? wondered Intrepid.   His backpack unslung and he knelt to rummage for his voice recorder.   "It is....  7:10 PM, local time." he recited.   "Intrepid's log.   I'm in an alternate dimension of Nimbus Station.   Tiberius's instructions lead through a spaceborne Maelstrom ambush and a detour through two alternate dimensions of Elistra.   Kate is with me.   I've met up with Red."  What else?  "We're alive."  That was obvious.   "We are...  we intend to make contact with home."

He put the recorder away.   He heard footsteps behind him.

"Hey." he greeted Red.   "Here to enjoy the sights too?"

She stood with her arms folded over her chest, looking past him.   "I didn't think you were into sightseeing."

"Same to you." Intrepid turned back towards the city, but tilted his face to the ground.   He kicked a piece of rubble out the opening. 

"I just feel we should catch up." Red said.

Intrepid looked up.   "I'm surprised you would say that.   There is definitely not a lot we know about each other."

"No, there isn't.   How's your brother?"   

"Alex is good, last I heard from him." Intrepid answered.   "I was following a lead, and trying to find my family." he told her, looking back to the floor.   "Somehow, I ran into you.   And now Kate and I are here.

"I have to ask you," Intrepid segued, "do you think our dimensions were the same, before we met each other?  Do you think the same things that happened here, in your dimension, will happen to mine?"

"I've charted a lot of dimensions," Red replied, "and there have always been slight historical differences.  There's no reason to think your future will follow my past precisely, especially now that we've met."   

"I just wonder about my future." Intrepid explained, still inspecting the floor.   "I just can't see myself in the future with Kate the way you implied.   Relationships, with anyone, aren't something I'm very familiar with.   I'm kind of fifteen right now.   Also, if you don't mind my asking, she dies?"

Intrepid looked up to face Red, who stood next to him now.   "She's dead here." he repeated.   "Kate.   Your mom."

Red sighed.   "She is.   It happened a long time ago.   I never knew her."

Intrepid blinked.   "How did this affect your dad?"

"I wouldn't know," Red told him.   "I have nothing to remember him from before, but as far as I do remember we never bonded.   He was always off on assignments for the Republic, so he was never around for me, but I had others, my dad's friends.   Luke Mercury and Charles Bradfordson."

"I know Luke." Intrepid said with a nod.   "Who's Charles Bradfordson?"

Red stuffed her hands in her pockets.   "You know him better by his Nexus Force callsign, Gallant Strong Cyclone."

"Yes, I do." Intrepid agreed, imitating the gesture.   "I'm...  sorry, if my counterpart here...  hasn't been there for you."

"Don't be sorry for him, you're different people." Red told him.   "At least I know you, for what it's worth."

Intrepid nodded.   "Will Kate die in my dimension too?"

"There's reason to think not," Red clarified.   "My mom was smashed in an attack from the Maelstrom dimension, the same one that tried to take over your dimension's Avant City."

"Avant Gardens."   

"Whatever.   That's a part of your dimension's history, but it's not in mine.   I doubt, twenty years from now, they'd repeat what they already did and attack your Nimbus City.   No, if anything they'd attack sooner."

"Attack who, do you think?" Intrepid asked her.

"Maybe some other dimension?" Red suggested with a shrug.   "Well, it's no longer Leek Work's responsibility right now.

"I will tell you though," Red shifted slightly closer, and spoke softer, "we're not the only body that's operating transdimensionally."

"Oh?"  

"After Leek Works was conscripted by the Nexus Gov, we had some deserters.   Luke Mercury," Red named, "and Callista Crateris.   His wife.   They have two kids, you know by now.   Well, Luke left."   

"For shame." Intrepid lamented.   "Luke is probably my best friend.   Although Cyclone, or Charles, was never in my Leek Works."

"Maybe not yet." Red said with another shrug.   "Mara Handerson stayed, though.   She's married to my dad."

"That's another name I don't know." Intrepid told her.   

"Mara?" Red shot him an odd glance.   "You know her.   Auburn hair.   Five foot seven."  Intrepid shook his head.   "She's Luke's cousin."   

"Oh, Mara Mercury."  An image of his brave fourteen year old, and fairly short, teammate dawned on him, and Intrepid did a mental faceaplm.   Putting two and two together should have been easier.   Then he looked up, confused.   "Who's Handerson?"

"Ray Handerson?"

Intrepid aimed a finger into the skyline.   "I one-hundred percent do not know, in the life of me, a Ray Handerson."

"Well, he's on Leek Work's memorial board.   Ray Handerson is a dead man."

Intrepid shivered, and stuffed his hands back in his pockets.   "Sorry.   I didn't know."

Red put her hands in her pockets too.   "He died at the same time as my mom.   I didn't know him either."

"Think we'll meet him?  His counterpart in my dimension?" Intrepid suggested.

"We?" Red repeated.   She shook her head.   "You might, maybe."

Intrepid considered the moment.   "Suppose you'd want to come back with us?"   

Red turned away, and at the same time a gust of wind blew the hood of her jacket to obscure the rest of her head from Intrepid, so he couldn't see the expression on her face.   "I have enough unfinished business here.   Leek Works will get back on its feet and I'll be maneuvering across the multiverse soon enough."   

Then she turned to him, pushed her hood out of the way, and gave Intrepid what he thought was a genuine smile.   "I do appreciate the sentiment, though.   We're good friends, you and I."  Then she walked back to the corridor.

Intrepid felt his conversation with Red was over, but there was one last thing his mind begged him to ask.   It concerned her identity.   The second time they had met, he'd given her the name Red.   Now he wondered, if through some cosmic logic, it made sense that since he named her, and in the future dimension she was his counterpart's daughter, if Red was her actual name.

Even though Red had turned to leave, Intrepid almost wanted to ask her the odd question.   Everything about Red, how he knew her, and how he should consider her, was shrouded in uncertainty.   Now he knew enough truth about her, but he still wanted to learn more about her.   They seemed to care about each other enough.

How much did their life really matter to each other, Intrepid wondered?  How much should Red matter to him, he questioned?  She was like a friend, but barely so.   She was like family, but she wasn't.

Intrepid's thoughts returned to his blood family.   The message he'd received from Tiberius had been quite clear about where he needed to be.   But that could wait, since now he had more pressing matters.

He followed Red up the stairs.   Like always, she was as secretive as ever.   She would always be.

~-~-~-~-

On the twentieth landing before the solitary door to the last apartment - in the same place as the apartment Intrepid, Luke, Mara, Cyclone, Kate, and Tornado were crashing in back in their dimension - Intrepid bumped into Kate.

"There you two are," Kate greeted him and Red.   She stood at the top of the landing, before the hatchway to the roof, looking down at them where they stood.   She had a look in her eyes that seemed to be scrutinizing them.   "So what's the deal with you two?"

"I’m sorry?" Intrepid answered.

"What do you mean?" Red asked.

"I can sense there's something between you two." Kate said from the overlook.   She squinted at them in the darkness.   "There's something, almost, similar?  Familiar?  Dare I say, familial in the way you both are staring back at me right now."

Intrepid glanced at Red, and then he saw what Kate saw.   Intrepid had looked in a mirror enough times to identify his face, or at least his own contemplative expression, in Red as she stared up at Kate.   And Intrepid knew he wore the same expression.

"You two are definitely related, because you have the same face." Kate concluded, bouncing back from the railing and smiling triumphantly.   "I can't believe you didn't tell me before, Intrepid.   What are you, brother and sister?"

"No." Red answered.

"Something like that." Intrepid said.

"Cousins?  I know you have cousins, or a cousin, Intrepid." Kate prodded.   "You're cousins, I'm sure of it."

"In a cosmic sense." Intrepid entertained her.   "Yeah, you'd have to label us cosmic cousins."

"We have to meet someone." Red said suddenly.

"What?" Intrepid turned back to her.   "We're meeting someone?  Who are we meeting?"   

Red meandered her way around fallen rubble to the apartment door.   "Remember I told you about the Leek Works deserters?"  Intrepid nodded.   "We're meeting Charles Bradfordson."

Kate bounced back to the railing.   "We're meeting Cyclone?!" she yelped.   

"A version of him." Red said.   She opened the metal apartment door, and immediately a gust of wind blew into the corridor from the other side.   Kate vaulted down the stairs, while Intrepid figured out in his head that one Cyclone or another must have told Kate his name some time or another, and he too followed Red into the "apartment."   

Apartment was a sorry word to call this space that they entered.   There were no outer walls, and barely any beams supporting the roof over their heads.   Nimbus City's skyline filled the distance like a mural draped over the apartment's edges.   

Jay, Katie, Ben, and Ryder were inspecting the Ring in what was the apartment's bedroom, now no longer a separate room since only beams separated it from the open space that was the living room.   Strange Odd Shadow and Skilled Honored Ninja were off in a near corner, seated around a table and playing cards.   Standing beyond them in the far corner, staring towards the skyline in the same direction as Intrepid, Kate, and Red, but with his back to the newcomers, was a man dressed in undeniably gear based on that of a Paradox Space Maruader.

A spiked Nexus Force helmet sat not between his broad shoulder guards, but in a perch between his left arm and torso.   Where the Gallant Strong Cyclone tha Intrepid and Kate knew had his wavy brown hair, this man wore a dark balaclava that obscured his head.   And when he turned around to face them, apart from his faction heritage, the only feature this man shared, and barely so, with Gallant Strong Cyclone was their face.   Blue eyes, slender nose, subdued cheekbones and rounded jaw.   However in the last twenty years of this older Cyclone's life, he'd picked up enough scars to rival a scratched record.   Each scar, no doubt, had a song behind it.   The longest scar stretched from the top of his face to under the cloth of his head covering, somewhere on his neck.

So this was Charles Bradfordson, and Intrepid could only wonder what troubles he had gone through.   Seeing him looking so worn, hardened by battle and discord, triggered in Intrepid a selfish, self-preserving hope that he wasn't on the other end of any of that hostility, from between Charles and his counterpart to Charles and him.   After all, Red had called him a Leek Works deserter....

And Cyclone and Kate had been closer than Intrepid could ever describe how he was trying to become with Kate.   But in the future dimension, his counterpart and Kate had gotten married.   But that Kate had died, and his counterpart was a reclusive weirdo. 

Intrepid gulped.   That was just what Intrepid knew about him.   But what other dark, dirty secrets did Charles know about the older Intrepid?  And what would Charles think about him?

So Intrepid wondered if he should start backing to the door, when Charles Bradfordson began to approach them.   The first thing he said, "Hello, Intrepid." was in a tone undescribable as hostile, maybe even friendly, lukewarm at least, and Charles even nodded to him.   Awkwardly, Intrepid forced himself to nod back, and allowed himself to relax somewhat.   So this grizzled soldier that was old Cyclone wasn't about to smash him.   Good.

But then Charles turned his eyes to Kate, and he quickened his pace until he was barely away from the girl.

"Kate." Cyclone said her name.   He stood a few inches above her, aided by his boots, so Kate stared up at his face and his parted lips, waiting for him to finish.   When he spoke, it was in a voice broken by emotion.   "You don't know how good it is to see you again." he said.   He looked about ready to hug her.

"I don't know," Kate said softly.   "What happened to you, Cyclone?"   

The older Cyclone smiled.   "I could look better, but I've been too busy fighting in the war we all had thought was over to get some plastic surgery for my visage." he joked.   "The Maelstrom dimension is a dangerous place, but someone's got to keep fighting." 

Charles blinked, and then backed up from Kate.   He turned to the only other friend in their group.   "It's good to see you too, Red." he greeted her.   "How's your dad?"

"The usual." Red spoke up.   Charles nodded with some mutual understanding that made Intrepid uneasy wondering about what trouble his counterpart was in.   But he didn't have time to worry about it.

"So I hear I'm wanted to track down a missing person?" Charles asked, raising his arms to tap some buttons on the left wrist of his suit.   Intrepid could see it had been outfitted with additional armor, hydraulic assists, rocket boosters, and all sorts of modern, futuristic tech that no doubt assisted with transdimensional maneuvering.   

Kate's eyes widened.   "Oh, please." she begged.   "I wouldn't live with myself if anything happened to the Cyclone who got brought here.   He would have been smashed otherwise, but we saved him, but now he's disappeared."

Charles nodded grimly.   "I know where he is.   I've been monitoring the communications channels in the Maelstrom Dimension, the one where they control practically the entire universe, and they're trying to reach their shadowy tendrils into other dimensions...  I'm sure Red's told you about it."

"I have." Red affirmed.

"Do you have your own transdimensional organization?" Intrepid asked.   

"I work by myself," Charles chuckled, "but the only other one would be Luke Mercury's, and it's barely more an organization than what I do.   Sometimes we collaborate.   It's good to have help from time to time, and a safe house to come back to after any particularly bad encounters."  He smiled at Red.   "Leek Works, and by their name I mean this girl in particular has been most hospitable.   It's only right that I pay her back when she asks."

"So you'll rescue Cyclone?" Kate exclaimed.

"I will try." Charles said gravely.   "He's in the most secure place in the universe, the center of the Maelstrom Vortex, in the headquarters of the First Darkitect.   If my info is up to date, which I'm sure it is, he is set to meet with all the Darkitects very soon, possibly even now."

"Darkitects, plural?" Intrepid repeated.

"An entire universe is a big place," Charles said.   "Even a dark master like the Baron needs to appoint powerful lieutenants to oversee his kingdom.   I've never dueled underlings like the Four Darkitects before."

Out of the corner of his eye Intrepid saw Ben waving to him from where the boy and the Figdroids were messing with the ring shaped device that was supposed to, at least, open a communications channel with their dimension's Leek Works, and if possible actually get back there.

"What's up?" Intrepid headed over to them.

"Do you know how to activate this thing?" Jay asked.

"You think I'd know?" Intrepid asked back.

"Don't worry," Katie said, "he's just mixing you up with someone else who has the same name and is way more knowledgable about these things."

Intrepid folded his arms, offended.  "Did you check the instructions?" he suggested.   "Read the manual?  Call tech support?"  He stepped over to what looked like a blank panel, with a large black outline.

"We have, like, none of those things." Katie said.

Intrepid hovered his hand over the panel and it proceeded to flip around, revealing an array of buttons.   "Hmmm."  He pointed a finger at a particularly red colored button labeled Activate.   A light behind it pulsed

"I don't think it's a good idea to press that right now." Jay cautioned.

"Why not?" Intrepid's finger was poised to do just that.

"Something might happen."

"Good." Intrepid said with a nod.   "I want something to happen."  He pressed the button,

There was a loud, hollow, ear-popping BOOM and then a gigantic blue portal appeared within the diameter of the Ring device.

Intrepid reached into his backpack, found a transmitter, and tossed it in.   Then he grabbed his I-Brick, aimed it into the portal, and tried pinging the transmitter.

Jay and Katie, who had ran for cover, now watched in interest.   "Well?" Katie asked.

"This portal leads to somewhere," Intrepid reported, "but where exactly, I'm trying to figure it out-"

Suddenly a duck fell out of the portal.   Intrepid jumped as it flopped around on the floor, quacking and hissing and flapping its three-foot wingspan all over the place.   As soon as it righted itself, it began..   ..to speak???

While Intrepid and the Figdroids chased the duck, Charles Bradfordson paid them little more than an uninterested glance, before he continued to speak again with Kate and Red.

"I have the coordinates for the asteroid in the Maelstrom Vortex where your Cyclone is being held."  Charles outlined his plan.   "Once there I can get in, get him, and get out."  He entered another series of commands into his suit's hologram controls projected from his wrist, a diagnostic test over its systems: Transdimensional drive, ready.   Stealth generator, ready.   Motor-assist system, online.   Temperature stabilization, functioning.

"You're going alone?" Kate asked while Charles's suit computer chirped off the list of affirmatives.

"The Maelstrom Dimension is a dangerous environment." Charles excused himself.   "It's better if no one comes with me, so I can focus all I have on rescuing your Cyclone - and keeping both of us alive."  Kate stared back at him intensely enough that Charles lost his focus for a second.   In his vision, everything around her seemed hazy - he blinked to clear it.   A persistent beeping was coming from his suit, three beeps a long one, a pause, and repeated.   He looked down at the hologram projected from his wrist to see the diagnostics report.

"It's just the perimeter radar system..." Charles read.   "It's been on and off since I got jumped last."

Kate cracked her knuckles.   "It sounds to me like you could use another pair of eyes."

"It's too dangerous." Charles said quickly.   He almost added for you.   "For anyone, who doesn't know what it's like, what you'd be getting into in the Maelstrom Dimension.

"I'm sorry," he added, and he hoped he looked like he genuinely meant it, "but to be frank, anyone else coming with me would just slow me down keeping them safe."

Kate made a disgruntled grimace, unimpressed.   "I can handle surprises." she said, but she knew there was no point.   Charles had made his point, she was staying here, and he was set in his decision.

Charles turned around, away from Kate, and began inputting the lost Cyclone's coordinates into his transdimensional drive.   As for Kate's last sentence, "I can handle surprises," Charles had a response, but it was a response, he knew, that was best left unsaid.   

I wish you could.  he thought.   He realized he was more saddened than joyful by this encounter.   The last time he had talked to a woman named Kate, fouteen years ago, they hadn't parted on good terms.

He didn't want that to happen again.   Charles put on his helmet.

Then the drive fired, and he was whisked into a space that was emotionless, numb, cold, incomprehensible.   Charles felt a tugging in his chest, like a fish hook had latched on to drag him to his destination.   His vision, entirely black, began to filter in specks of information, pinhole-amounts at a time.   A final, spine-compressing shockwave against his back threw him out into the air, but his suit's gyrotech kept him oriened to impact feetfirst on a flat, rocky surface.

Charles gasped and inhaled the air as much as he could - it was thin and his suit had to compess it for him to breathe.   He looked ahead.   The ground stretched out flat like marble, smoothed by a thin layer of dust covering it, constantly supplied and flattened by the whirling dust in the air being pushed down by atmospheric pressure.   The ground continued up to a large cliff-face with an archway carved into its center.

Charles took a look behind him.   There was only a dropoff of several hundred feet down another cliff, into space - into the swirling gases and nebula of the Maelstrom Vortex.   But in this dimension, its spinning arms stretched far beyond the outer edge of the Nimbus System, deep into space, and provided a direct connection with other planets and star systems.   Rumor had it, some sort of teleportative transportation was possible through the Vortex's arms, which only Maelstrom beings could use.   It could transport bodies, but not souls.

Charles didn't have the time to look at it any longer.   A beeping in his helmet's earpiece informed him that his target was five miles beyond the archway, far inside a cave network that tunneled deep into the asteroid he stood upon.   There was the Cyclone he was rescuing, well in the grasp of a beast called the Maelstrom.

Charles steeled himself.   He thought a specific keyphrase, a word with meaning especially to himself, although an informed person could figure its backstory - KeenCarefreeBrouhaha - and then an automated lady's voice in his helmet confirmed, "Thought commands enabled."

Charles nodded and crouched down.   Alright, he concentrated, enable stealth.   He promptly disappeared from even his own view, and anyone else's.   Only through his visor could he see an illuminated outline illustrating the positions of his limbs to him.   He took a deep breath.   Charge the Intramural Jumper.

His suit whirred.   "Four jumps available." his automated assistant intoned.   

I'll make them count, Charles assured them both.   His tracker beeped more urgently, his target was being moved.   Charles took another deep breath, and then thought, Jump.

He was yanked across space, his only trace, his bootprints on the dusty ground, was quickly covered by dust from the air, to become uniform with the ground around it.

Charles was reconstituted inside a small antechamber, looking into a cavernous chamber.   The roof of the latter, shrouded in dark shadows, was a hundred feet up.   The far wall was even farther away, but through the doorway Charles could see some figures.   His visor enhanced the image, and Charles blanched as he recognized the first figure.   

Demonstrait.

And next to him, 

Me...  Charles realized.   As a Stromling.

And beyond them, an imposing presence larger than any minifigure.   Charles didn't need to think his name.   He knew who the Darkitect was.

Composing himself, Charles concentrated on his suit again.   Charge the Intramural Jumper, he instructed.   The suit whirred.

"Three jumps available," the computer informed him, and Charles thought, Jump.

With a concussive yank he was teletransported into the chamber, and suddenly he was staring into the face of Duke Exeter.

Luckily his suit muffled his gasp, and the twitching motion that Charles witnessed in the Duke's eyes was not in response to his sudden arrival exactly a foot from the former Sentinel leader, rather it was just the way his eyes moved involuntarily when their nerves coursed with Maelstrom.

While the being who Charles faced right now was recognizable as Duke Exeter, he could no longer be called Duke Exeter.   He did not share his mission, his purpose, or even his faction anymore for there was no Sentinel faction in this dimension anymore.   Only some parts of the Duke's face were shared between the man this Stromling used to be and the Stromling he was now.   

Not Stromling, Charles corrected himself.   Fourth Darkitect.

While the brashest and the bravest, Duke Exeter did not have strong Maelstrom qualities, so he was only the fourth most powerful of the Baron's four servants.   Albert Overbuild's inventiveness was more corruptable, as was Hael Storm's fearlessness.

But most powerful of the Four Darkitects was Vanda Darkflame, who in her prior lifetime had delved deeper into Maelstrom than any of the other Faction Leaders dared.

And it was Vanda who detected Charles's presence first.

His suit reacted faster than Charles could have, forcing his knees to bend to their full degree and dropping his upper body, right before Vanda's katanas sliced through the air where his waist had been - they would have cut him like butter.   He gasped, and again his suit continued to guide him to safety.   It twisted him around and activating his jet boosters, launching him into a flying course straight towards his infected, twenty-two years younger counterpart.

"I got you!" Charles shouted as he wrapped his arms around Cyclone, pulling him down with him into a roll.   Cyclone responded just by screaming, since to him he had effectively been tackled and now an unseen force was spinning him along the ground.

Bullets began to ping off the ground around the rolling Cyclones.   A hail of invisible projectiles sparked off Charles's shoulder armor, fired from the revolver of Hael Storm.   His HUD informed him that all four former faction leaders were chasing and gaining on them.   Demonstrait was not to be seen.   

Intramural jump! Charles thought-commanded the suit computer.

"Two jumps availa-" 

JUMP!!!!! Charles screamed in his head.

He wrapped his arms around his Stromling self as tightly as he could, and they were whisked into another room entirely.   This time they fell from a considerable height, and Charles positioned himself so he would hit the ground first - his suit would absorb the impact.   They hit the rock, and the impact knocked out Charles's cloak.   Suddenly he was visible.

He lay gasping for a second, before scrambling to his feet and pulling up Cyclone with him.

"Who are you?" Cyclone found his breath to shout.

"Someone I hope you'll never be." Charles muttered.   He said in a louder voice, only slightly distorted through his helmet, "I'm rescuing you.   Duck."

"Duck?" Cyclone repeated.   He looked around but didn't see any ducks.

"Behind me, now!"

Charles yanked Cyclone behind his back, at the same time that he saw the platoon of Stromling Spiderlings skittering towards them.   Behind them, over a long paved floor, the room's dimensions opened up into a hanger.   The hanger doors were currently open, with only an atmospheric shield spread over the large opening seperating them from the harsh, dusty world that was the surface of the planetoid.

Charles pointed his right arm forwards and blaster nozzles popped out over his wrist.   He squeezed his fingers into a fist and unleashed a stream of ammunition towards the approaching Spiders.   They were easy targets since they were attacking head on - the closest Spiderlings were smashed immediately, and the ones behind them had the sense to start weaving.

"Take this." Charles grabbed a laser pistol from his hip and pushed it to Cyclone.   "Find something for us to steal."

"What?"

"We're in a hanger!  Find a ship!"  He adjusted his aim and eliminated an entire row of Spiderlings.

Balancing the gun in his hands, Cyclone darted behind some metal crates, barrels, and tanks he pretended weren't full of fuel at the moment - and looking ahead he saw the nearest one in a line of Nexus Force class jet aerospacecraft.   They were all infected, of course, but Cyclone hoped they retained basic controls since they were his and his rescuer's ride out.

Most of the Stromlings in the hanger had ran off at the sound of battle, either to fight or to get to a comm panel, but a Stromling mechanic remained working on the nearest ship.   Cyclone took a deep breath, then ran out from his cover and shashed the Stromling with a single blast from the gun.   Since the mechanic had been working on the first fighter, Cyclone skipped it and went to the next one, which after a quick once-over looked as good as a fully working one.   He grabbed onto its wing and pulled himself into the cockpit, shutting the glass and flipping every switch on the startup panel.

The fighter powered on, lights first, and then a low humming began to drone louder and louder.   Cyclone grabbed the control stick and began to angle the fighter towards the exit.   As he did, a loud clanking filled the hanger, and then a shadow began to expand over the hanger's end.   To Cyclone's dismay, the Stromlings were closing the hanger doors.

Cyclone placed his hands over the triggers for the weapons.   Now he would have to use them.

Squeezing the triggers, Cyclone fired a series of missiles to the sides of the doors.   Panels were blasted off the walls and the door gears and mechanisms were disrupted by the explosions of the missiles.   The doors stopped closing.

Cyclone noticed, however, that a shadow continued to grow over the entrance.   He blinked a few times and moved his head to get a 3D image, and then he realized the source of the shadow was behind him.

Before he turned around, he also realized the shadow was minifigure shaped.

Cyclone turned around and his jaw dropped at the sight he beheld.   An army of various Maelstrom, infected soldiers this time with Mechs and Ape support, wasn't the most imposing presence entering through the back of the hanger.   It was the levitating man flying above them all, violet and purple arcs and waves of lightning coursing from and around a spherical shield he had projected around him.   The man wore a long cape over a dark vest and breeches, and a long beard that would otherwise drape from his elderly face's chin hovered as if filled with static electricity - it probably was filled with some energy.

There was a loud womp and then Charles appeared in the seat behind Cyclone.

"Why are we pointing towards them?!" Charles screamed.   "Get us out of here!"

Cyclone threw the control stick to the side, pointing their fighter back to the exit.   "Who is that?" he exclaimed as he engaged the thrust.   The fighter began to accelerate down the long hanger, picking up speed and soon it was a streak careening across the tiled length.   Cyclone didn't dare pick up air, since he just noticed that the hanger doors, which shut from the ceiling, were quite low and now he doubted if their plane would fit.

They were almost upon the opening, when suddenly the doors fell down the rest of the way.   Cyclone and Charles screamed before the impact simultaneously, before their jet punched through the doors anyway and they had escaped.

In unison, cyclone and Charles sighed in relief.   Their jet was on a straight course into the sky, at a maximum velocity of some several times the speed of sound, and the Darkitect's Vortex Planetoid was fading fast in the clouds in their rearview mirror.   They had escaped.

"Now I can tell you who was that man." Charles said, relieved.

"Who was that man?" Cyclone asked.

"I'm about to tell you, it's-"

He was interrupted by a loud clang from behind and then their jet's engine cut out.   That was followed by a bang from the front of the jet - the flying man had landed on their windshield!  The whipping wind distorted his hair and skin, and his long beard stretched like a web over the glass.   His hands on his arms stretched wide, which gripped the jet's metal body like magnets, began to glow electrically.

"--STRANGE ODD SHADOW!!!" Charles finished, just as their aircraft was about to explode from the power of the Peculiar Enchanter.

Cyclone felt Charles grabbing him, perhaps a gesture of camaraderieship - but it was just to keep them connected as Charles activated his Transdimensional Jumper, which had been charging in the past five minutes they had been trying to escape.   In an instant Charles and Cyclone were yanked out of the Maelstrom Dimension, went through the breathless void of Unverse, and then reappeared atop a skyscraper in a nighttime city.

Cyclone heard his voice being called.   "What?" he responded in a voice that became an inadvertent shout - his arms, which he could barely feel, flapped numbly on the ground which he lay as he tried to cover his ears.   His ears rang from the Unverse experience, and were obviously out of whack.

"Try not to talk," Charles's voice advised him.   "It takes a few more trips to get used to transdimensional travel.   You'll be fine."

Cyclone still couldn't see anything through his eyes, which he blinked to no effect.   So he lay back and just breathed, which he hoped he was even still capable of doing.

Chapter 21

A boy cracked his knuckles as he faced the ring shaped apparatus once again.   "Alright." Intrepid said.   "We threw the duck back in.   Now let's do something useful with this."

"You can have this junk back now." Katie said, from behind the control panel of the Ring device.   She threw a brick at Intrepid that would have barely missed his head, but he sidestepped anyway.   The Ring had analyzed the brick, from Intrepid's backpack, to determine its original dimension.   Once it had created a visualization of Intrepid's Nimbus Station, Ben had programmed the Ring device to open a low level rift straight into Intrepid's Nimbus City apartment.   Now Ben stood near the Ring's power cells, watching the levels and making sure nothing was going to overload.   The portal to "The Ducks Dimension," as Strange Odd Shadow had called it (or had he said Duckz?), had been a fully fledged Transdimensional Travel Portal capable of taking people, or ducks.   But sustaining it had nearly taken out the Ring device in a fantastic explosion that they barely stopped.   

It's not junk, Intrepid complained to himself, not to suffice Katie.   He wondered if he'd ever find the patience to deal with them.   Katie, at least, was the more annoying of the Figdroids duo, and Jay was sarcastically pessimistic.

"Well let's do this." Intrepid said.   Katie threw a switch, then grabbed Jay by the arm and ran over to Intrepid's side of the ring when another portal opened up.   The portal had a rippled surface, a distorted effect like light passing between air and water - but the picture it displayed was as familiar to Intrepid as if he'd been there yesterday.   He had been, in fact.   It was his apartment in his Nimbus City for sure, specifically the bedroom, and in it stood a brown haired boy, dressed in his casuals, facing away.

But at the soft, rumbling sound emanating from the portal, he turned around and faced the rift, and the people through it.   His jaw dropped.

"Cyclone!" Intrepid called.

Someone shouted, "WHAT?!" in response but it wasn't through the portal, which proceeded to collapse on itself with a brilliant flash of light.   Intrepid barely shielded his eyes with his arms, and was temporarily blinded, even after the light had faded as quickly as it had appeared.   He waved his arms, unseeing.   "BEN!" he exclaimed.   "What happened?!"

"The power levels were normal." Ben reported.

Jay and Katie returned to the other side.   "Something disrupted the connection, is all." Jay said, interfaced with the device's computer.   "Some instability in Unverse."

Intrepid rubbed his eyes.   "Try again." he said, and he turned around while the Figdroids and Ben set to priming the Ring again.

"Oh, he's back." Intrepid said of Stromling Cyclone, who now lay on the floor between Charles and Kate, the former crouched and the latter kneeling beside him.   Kate was stroking his violet streaked hair, and his face, and asking him, "Are you alright?" 

We're totally meant to be.   Intrepid grumbled.   I just want to get back to family - Luke, Mara, Alex - all of them.

And Red.   She tapped his shoulder.   "The portal's open again." she said.   Intrepid faced it.   Cyclone was back barely, as now Luke Mercury and Mara Mercury stood in front of him, blocking the view as they leaned close to the rift.   The distortion effect served to enlarge their faces, making Mara look especially gawky.

"Can you hear me?" Intrepid called.

"OW!" Mara screamed, falling back into Luke's arms.   "No need to shout, Intrepido."

"Great." Intrepid said.   "We're trying to come back."  He turned to the Figdroids, as if they were experts on the matter.   "Can we walk through this portal?"

Katie looked back over Intrepid's shoulder, and asked Red, "Can we walk through this portal?"

"Tou·ché." Jay said.

From the other end, Mara threw a landline handset at them.   Intrepid ducked, but as soon as it touched the threshold it vanished into oblivion.

"You can step through the portal," Red warned, "but only if you want to get lost in Unverse."

"Where were you when we needed tech support?" Katie asked.

"Watching," Red said uselessly, folding her arms, "and waiting."

"Enough of this." Intrepid said.   "We need to think."

"I'm thinking a million exabytes a second." Jay said.

Cyclone pushed Luke and Mara out of the way.   "There's another Ring device in our Nexus Tower." he suggested.   "The Faction Leaders used it for Kate and me, when we needed merging with our Nexus duplicates.   It might work as an exit point, if you try remotely activating it."

"Think it'll work?" Intrepid asked Red.

"Try it." was her response.

Jay made the adjustments, and nodded to Intrepid when he was ready dial in the other Ring.

"Any idea where the Ring is?" Intrepid asked.

"It was in Overbuild's Office, last I saw it." Cyclone said.   His voice was becoming slightly garbled as their connection depreciated.   It showed in the picture's edges.   Luke and Mara started looking particularly stretched in certain places, and squeezed in others.   Katie suppressed a giggle.   "It could be in storage for all I know."

"We'll find out." Intrepid said.   "Thanks."  He considered for a moment, not yet giving Jay the go-ahead.   He looked around, at everyone around.   Red stood next to him, but she wasn't coming.   Kate, Charles Bradfordson, and Stromling Cyclone had made a small group behind him.   Ben and the Figdroids had ambled over to face the portal, and the odd Allison Ryder had approached from the sidelines.   

There are too many people.  Intrepid thought.   "We'll talk later." he said to his Cyclone, who nodded.   "We have a lot of things to figure out."

He knew Cyclone was regarding his Stromling self.   "I see." he said.   "I'll send word to Rover to meet you at Nexus Tower."

"Sounds good.   Over and out."  Intrepid saluted, Kate waved, Mara and Luke waved enthusiastically back, and Cyclone just raised a hand when Jay flipped the switch.

As the portal cut out, then reappeared to show a different image, this time of a brightly lit, white and blue room in the midst of Nexus Tower, bustling with tourists, traders, soldiers, and guards who all stopped to stare at the hole in space that had appeared in the Nexus Force's most secure structure, Intrepid gestured his friends and allies forwards.   Skilled Honored Ninja grinned and tossed a stinky fish into the crowd, sending a lot of them of them running away screaming at its smell attached itself to their running forms.   He grinned at Strange Odd Shadow.   "I've wanted to do that since the war ended.   May the best janitor cleant hem up first."  Then he jumped into the portal, followed by he Assembly Engineer.

"You better get me back to my dimension!" the Engineer shouted before he passed through the brink.   He exited on the other side as Skilled Honored Ninja and the stinky fish had, complete and unharmed.

"Who's coming?" intrepid asked.

"I'll be leaving for an undisclosed location." Charles said.   "My favor to you is complete."  He handed Red a pad, with some address on it.   "If you could send some power cells to this address, I'll pick them up when I see fit."  She took it, shook Charles's hand, and then the man disappeared down the stairs.

Kate took Stromling Cyclone's hand.   "They can disinfect you there." she told him, and they jumped through the portal next.

"We've got work here." Jay excused himself and Katie.   "Glad we could help.   Maybe you'll see us again.   Come on, Ben."  They all followed Charles out the apartment's doorway, and Intrepid could hear their feet clunking heavily, metallically, for several floors down.

The last Intrepid saw of people jumping across dimensions, it was Allison Ryder, a mysterious girl, stepping through.

Then it was just him and Red left.

"So I guess this is goodbye." he said to her.   Intrepid let a puzzled expression crossed his face.   "Is there nothing more you can tell me about what we're getting into?"

"Can you tell me about Ben, and Allison Ryder?" Intrepid asked.

Red shrugged.   "I know a stud's worth about Ryder, where she comes from, or what she's been doing here.   As for Ben, he's your son."

"The-- what?" Intrepid shook his head in disbelief.

"Son-in-law," she corrected.   "From another mother.   I won't tell you anymore."

"Gee golly." Intrepid scratched his head.

"There are more important matters." Red shot hotly, startling Intrepid at her sudden boldness.   She took a second, and then softer, she began to preface, "You had told me, at the Base Camp this morning, that you'd seen me when you were at Elistra." Red reminded him.   "I denied being there."

She looked him dead-on.   "There are dangerous forces at play here, Intrepid." she warned him.   "Infiltrators and saboteurs, from the Maelstrom Dimension, are working to alter the futures of the other, relatively speaking, past dimensions.   Yours was a target, but we stopped them.   The second dimension, where you picked up Strange Odd Shadow, is still at risk."

"That's why you were there." Intrepid realized.

"I was chasing Luke Mercury's kids." Red retorted.   "They've been caught up in something naughty, but not necessarily malicious.   I don't know what.   But Intrepid," she gave him the death-stare again, "whoever you saw on Elistra, it wasn't me."

"It was dark." Intrepid recalled.   A chill went down his back.   He had thought it was Red, but it could have been anyone.

"You could have met..." Red tossed her head.   "I don't know.   But watch yourself.   Watch your back, everyone's backs.   A lot of people are in your responsibility, now.   Leek Works, as a transdimensional agency, is out of action now, so there'll be limited to no help from us.   It was a miracle I got Charles to help the way he did."

"We're on our own." Intrepid translated, and Red nodded.   He nodded too.   "I got it." he said.

"Your future should be your own." Red said, taking a step back.   "Do your best to keep it that way."

Intrepid backed towards the Ring.   He felt the portal's warmth behind him, but his eyes stayed on Red.   "Hope to see you later." he called.

"Live to fight another day." she responded.

Intrepid fell into the portal.   The warmth gave way to a chill as he was surrounded, for an instant, the cold grasp of Unverse.   Then he was in another dimension.   Nexus Tower's bright lights washed down from the ceiling and reflected off the walls.   Intrepid found this version of the Ring's controls, and with a yank he pulled a shutoff lever.   The portal was terminated, and then rough hands grabbed him around the shoulders.

"Hey!" Intrepid whirled around, finding himself face to face with an Assembly grunt.   Orange lining on the walls and the triangle shaped Assembly faction logos adorning every pillar told him he was in an Assembly floor - right outside the office of Albert Overbuild, perhaps!  And of course the presence of Assembly grunts made it obvious.   A small band of three surrounded his party, with reinforcements approaching from the hallways.   Thankfully their spears were pointed at the ceiling.   But even with the rest of their faces obscured by their visors, their mouths looked troubled none the less.

"How did you get in here?" the grunt holding Intrepid demanded.   "This is a secure area."

Intrepid made a show of looking around at the fifty or so multi-faction minifigures standing about, watching the commotion.   Some were still trying to wipe the stench of Stinky Fish off their clothes and selves.   "Looks secure to me." Intrepid said.

"You're not a member of any faction." the grunt responded.

Strange Odd Shadow stepped forward.   "I am Assembly, good sir." he said.

"And I'm Sentinel." Skilled Honored Ninja said.   He puffed his chest.   "And I'm, like, way more skilled than any soldier any of you have ever seen."

"There's a Stromling with you." another grunt said, pointing at Stromling Cyclone.

"You're going to disinfect him." Kate said firmly.

"You're in no position to order us!" the third grunt griped.   "You six just broke into Nexus Tower and no one knows where you came from!"

Intrepid opened his mouth to speak, but then another voice pierced the hubbub of the curious minifigures that crowded around them, and that voice also got the attention of the Assembly grunts.   The crowd quieted, and they all looked towards its source as a young woman dressed in Assembly Summoner gear strided towards them, her hand held in the air authoratively.

"You can unhand him, Miles." the girl ordered.   "The boy, with black hair- but why am I describing him?  You know who you're holding!"  Intrepid felt the Assembly grunt, Miles, let go of him.   He looked around, and saw that the other grunts had slunk back under her authority.   Was she important here, or just well-known?

"I'm here with Cheerful Power Rover and some of his pals."  She was finally in hand-shaking distance to Miles and Intrepid, and after smiling at Miles she grabbed Intrepid's arm and shook it fervently.   "I'm sure you know Sergeant Ghost Mustache.   He's been searching for you in the Sentinel Room, and Rover in the Venture hallway.   I ought to call them and let them know I found you first."

"Yeah, probably." Intrepid managed to say.   "We know Sergeant, and Rover."  He was still surprised by this girl's sudden rescue of them.   "Who are the others?  And," he facepalmed, and quickly before she could answer, he added the correct question, "who are you?"

The girl grinned, took off her helmet, and tossed her head.   She had brown hair and green eyes, and stood around Intrepid's height.   "Me?  Here's my Nexus Force designation: Epic Fivestar Empanada.   Rank Three Engineer mainly, but I've got kits for all the classes.   You can call me Jonna.   Did I hear you wanted to get someone disinfected?" She noticed Stromling Cyclone.   "Him?"

Intrepid nodded.   "You got it..." was all he said.

Jonna looked serious.   "We'd best get him to the Sentinel medbay immediately."   

Chapter 22

Meanwhile, in someplace else entirely:

Screams reverberating down the halls of the military hospital in Nimbus Station - they sent chills spinning across Edgar’s body, as if icicles had formed on his back.  A cold sweat had fostered on his forehead since he’d arrived at the hospital, with the girl who now lay on the hospital gurney.  He watched, and she twitched and writhed in resistance to the dark energy coursing through her, to no avail.  Evelyne, Intrepid’s sister, had been entrusted in his care.  Before, Edgar had been proud of his friend, and happy to picture him and his traits, courage, determination, and fearlessness, for he saw them in his teammate’s sister.  But now when Edgar pictured her brother in his head, he only saw his shock, his disappointment, and his sadness – Edgar shared all these negative thoughts, and one more: failure, because he had failed to keep her safe.

Not that there was anything he could have done.

“Is there anything I can do?” Edgar pleaded to the team of Nexus Force medics who finally made their way to Evelyne’s gurney.  One look at her symptoms prompted the lead doctor to point to a set of double doors: urgent care.

As she was wheeled out of Edgar’s grasp, the doctor turned to him, shook his head, and had one word for the broken man.

“Pray.”

He left Edgar in the lobby, sealed off through those white double doors.  But Edgar could still hear Evelyne’s cries in his recent memories, and he could feel her pain through the wave of defeat that hit him like a knockout punch now.  He slumped against the wall, falling to a seated position not even near the chairs.  He buried his face in his hands, he prayed, and he wondered.

Was there anything I could have done?

*****

Present Dimension;

Nimbus Station;

An hour earlier:

“So, what would you like to do?”

Over the chrome-edged, red plastic diner table, Edgar posed the question to his young companion.  She looked up from her drink to respond, not immediately, since there was still a straw between her mouth and the gradually lowering surface of soda in her glass.  Edgar smiled.

“Hm?” she murmured, letting go of the straw.  “Well,” Evelyne admitted, stretching and extending her arms to crack her knuckles, “I’d like to see my family.”

An involuntary lump formed in Edgar’s neck, and he swallowed nervously.  Evelyne must have noticed, since she gave him a perplexed look.  “Sorry,” Edgar said, then he looked down and coughed.  “Must’ve, ack, breathed in some of that, ah,” he stared at his plate, “macaroni.” He raised a hand.  “Give me a second.”

What could he tell her? Intrepid’s teammates, and Gallant Strong Cyclone, had visited him on Elistra not twenty-four hours ago, for the exact purpose of finding Intrepid’s missing family.  And in a year before that, before Edgar had set up his Elistran dojo, he himself had traveled with Intrepid and small band of Nexus Forcers, to do the same thing.  But they had been too late.

Edgar remembered the names of his teammates, fallen and not.  Their handsome pilot Quinn, and dashing fighter Hazel.  The battle had been disastrous, and he hated to think about it.  For the longest time, he’d thought Intrepid and Alex had smashed as well, but then one day Alex turned up.  A year later, Intrepid stepped through his dojo’s front door.

But that was just the two brothers.  Edgar gulped as he thought of how to tell Evelyne that they were the only members of her family left.

Although, he realized, Evelyne herself had been suspected smashed.  But here she was, alive and breathing.

“Intrepid’s away.” Edgar told her, and she looked back at her glass, obviously crestfallen.  “On a mission,” he added quickly, “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.  In fact those were his teammates you met, Mara and Luke.  A funny bunch, aren’t they? I just met them myself.”

“He always hung out with the strangest people,” Evelyne reminisced, still looking down, “when he socialized at all.  I saw Mara and Luke had each other, but that means my brother’s alone, right?”

“I think he was with another teammate.” Edgar said.  “And I’ve seen him hold his own in some very, very bad fights.  If there’s anyone I know who can take care of himself, it’s your brother.”

Evelyne looked up.  “Do you have any pictures of him?”

Edgar tried not to look taken aback.  “I don’t, in fact, I’m afraid.  I’m sorry....” he looked back Evelyne, and then his eyes fell on a newspaper article pinned to a corkboard in the diner’s opposite wall.  “Excuse me.” He stood up and made his way down the aisle, past the line of other tables that were both occupied and empty, until he reached the newspaper.  Something on it had caught his eye, or more specifically, someone.

“Wanted for questioning.” read the front page title, and under the byline was a picture, three pictures in fact arranged next to each other.  They were taken from security camera footage from a local Nexus Force Correctional Facility, and having just seen two of the persons pictured, and knowing the third, Edgar easily recognized the blurry faces as those of Luke, Mara, and Intrepid.

Smiling, Edgar brought the newspaper back to Evelyne, who grabbed it with interest.  “There you go.” he said.

Evelyne smirked as she read the details.  “My brother,” she began, “is an idiot.  Just read about this, one hundred percent crazy, stunt he pulled off – breaking into a jail? Breaking a prisoner out? Escaping through the cafeteria windows?”

“With all our facial recognition technology,” Edgar pondered, “it’s amazing they haven’t pinned them down yet.  Although knowing them, they’ve probably purged all their records from the system to be safe.  And it’s worked.”

“I hope he’s safe.” Evelyne said quietly, putting the newspaper down with a far away look in her eyes.  As she did, Edgar noticed a stain on her sweatshirt.  It looked like nothing more than a stain, at first, but he blinked and suddenly it stood out to him.

He leaned over the table for a closer look, and Evelyne noticed him staring.  “What?” she asked.

Edgar raised a finger partway.  As he visually inspected her, he saw that the same discoloration was on her sleeves, and a dark shadow seemed to cover her upper arms.  “Evelyne,” he said quietly, “Could you unzip your jacket?”

Her arms, resting on the table, had begun to tremble, but it stopped as soon as she focused on moving them to do as he said.  Edgar’s brow furrowed, and when she parted the sides of her sweatshirt, he gave an involuntary gasp, and he heard Evelyne’s own sharp intake of breath.

A large purple splotch covered the front of her previously white shirt, and a light mist seemed to rise from within its source, undoubtedly on her.  Now Evelyne began to shake again.  “What is it?” she whispered.

It surprised Edgar too, but he said what he knew it had to mean.  “You’re infected.” he said, keeping his eyes on the Maelstrom infection, and he glanced to her face.  She was breathing through her mouth and her eyes were widened in trepidation, while he mentally reached into his backpack.

“I have a disinfection kit.” Edgar told her.  “I don’t know how this happened to you, but we are beings of imagination.” He placed a box, shaped like a first aid kit, on the table between them.  He opened it, removed a Jet injector marked, ‘FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY’, and showed it to Evelyne.

“This won’t hurt, not as much as the alternative.” Edgar told her.  He bit his lip, and at her nod, he held it to her arm and pulled the trigger.

He couldn’t have known at the time, but falser words could not have been spoken.

*****

An hour later:

A nurse entered the lobby to deliver a message.  Edgar, now seated on a bench, stood up at the nurse’s approach.  “Is there anything?” he asked, the hope steeped in his voice.

“The doctor would like to speak to you.” the nurse informed Edgar, and then dipped away with her head down.  The doors to urgent care remained open, and Edgar moved towards them.  He began to run, down the painted white halls and tile floors, until he saw the open door with the lead doctor standing outside it, staring at the floor with his arms crossed, and a disquieted look on his brooding face.

Edgar felt the same troubled air from the nurse around the doctor.  It permeated his thoughts like an infection.  Before it could eat at him, he regained his composure.  He didn’t want to lose hope.  He couldn’t lose hope.

“This is a most abnormal case.” the doctor said.  Like Edgar, he had sand-colored hair, but unlike Edgar’s his would be long and unruly if it were not kept under a surgical hairnet.  He turned to Edgar to face him.  “I’m Sandy Studs, a physician here, and also an assistant to Doctor Albert Overbuild.  After we stabilized the patient, I went and used Overbuild’s credentials to access the Paradox faction’s files.  You know they ran, I’ll say, experiments on captured Maelstrom creatures.  When I say this case is abnormal, I mean for a minifigure.  We are creatures of imagination, the two of us.

“But this girl,” Sandy lowered his gaze and shook his head, “while she is intelligent, and seemingly not under any visible physical or mental Maelstrom influence, her vitals are homologous to that of a pure Stromling, born straight from a dark Nexus.”

Sandy Studs gave Edgar a grave look.  “I don’t yet understand how it is possible, and I pray the Paradox do not get their hands on her, but I must inform you this girl does not have an imagination spark.”

Edgar felt faint, and he placed a hand on the wall to steady himself.  “I taught her Imagination Spinjitzu.” he murmured.

“You may have taught her Imagination Spinjitsu,” Sandy explained, “but she would have learned Maelstrom Spinjitsu, if such a thing existed.  Her abilities are not from the energy we call imagination.”

“Can I see her?” Edgar said imploringly, staring hard at Sandy Studs.  “Tell me she can speak, and I can speak to her.” he begged.

“She is stable now.” Sandy told him, and Edgar breathed out heavily in relief.  “But she’s following very strict intake parameters.  She looks like a minifigure, and she should be a minifigure, but if she even touches or comes into contact with imagination energy,” Sandy shook his head grimly, “it may kill her.”

*****

“I overheard what he said,” Evelyne told Edgar, “the doctor, when he was talking to you.”

She spoke with him sitting up, with the head of her hospital bed in an inclined position.  She looked better than Edgar had expected, and he was both thankful and overjoyed to see her without injury.  Only a purple stain now adorned the chest of her hospital gown, and her face and arms, previously smooth like Intrepid’s, were now decorated with purple spots, not unlike freckles.  She otherwise looked like any other minifigure.  There were no characteristic signs of a Stromling growing in her; no patches of dead skin, no bones glowing radioactively.  She was a minifigure, but not an imagination minifigure.

A Maelstrom minifigure.  Edgar thought.  He shook his head.  The thought was otherwordly.

“He said I don’t have an imagination spark.” Evelyne repeated Sandy Stud’s words.  “Does that mean my soul?” She didn’t let Edgar stop the train of thought.  “I know I was dead before, but now, am I even alive?” she whispered.  “Do I even have a soul?”

“You have a soul,” Edgar assured her.  He stepped closer to her, and put a hand reassuringly on her shoulder.  Now that Evelyne was safe, he no longer saw Intrepid’s disappointed when he pictured the boy, but his determination, and it reminded him of the first time they met.

“Two years ago,” Edgar began.  “I made a pact with your brother.  I would go with him back to Elistra, and help him to do whatever it would take to help our families.” He stared Evelyne straight in the eyes, and as serious as he could be, he proclaimed to her, “As his friend and teammate, I say this to you, his sister.  I will continue to do whatever I can to achieve that goal.  I swear I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

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