"Look Ellie," he said calmly, "I am sure that Lucas is perfectly safe. I sent him on this mission because I thought that he could handle it. Don't you think he can handle it?"
"Of course I do," said Ellie in a tremulous voice, "But I haven't heard from him. Have you heard from him?"
Andrew took a deep breath, and patiently launched into the same explanation he gave not three minutes before, "You know these missions take time, El. I haven't heard from The League or from Lucas. But this is normal, Ellie. You used to work for me, you know this. I am sure Lucas will call you as soon as this mission is in the can."
"But what if he doesn't? I just know something terrible has happened to him and to all of . . . "
Weinstein's phone beeped. "Oh thank God," thought Andrew, "Ellie, I have another call coming in. Look, I'll call you if I hear anything, OK? In the meantime, try not to worry."
"I'll try Andy, but I want . . . " she replied, then noticed that Andrew had hung up.
"Typical Andy," she thought wryly, "No time for friends anymore, just business." She lay the phone down in its cradle.
She was nervous, she couldn't help it. Lucas had been gone for almost 24 hours and she knew something was wrong, she knew it! There were some faint ticklings of terror inside of her that made her legs weak and her skin crawl. She just knew that damn Andrew was coolly discounting her concerns as "female intuition" or "that time of the month." She paced unsteadily around her living room, stopping abruptly as her eyes fell upon Lucas's well used guitar sitting by the couch. Ellie burst into tears. She staggered to the couch and just let the sobs convulse her body. When the tears seemed to be letting up, Ellie went in search of some Kleenex and blew her nose. Loudly.
"OK," Ellie chided herself aloud, "This is no way to run a railroad. You need to find something to do to occupy your mind."
She grabbed her sketchbook and her colored pencils off the bookshelf and sat down at the dining room table. "Time to draw a monster!" Ellie announced aloud, then laughed. "I really am going to lose my mind," she thought hysterically, "It's time to concentrate on my drawing."
She bent to the paper before her and started to draw. She let every stray thought seep out of her mind, concentrating only on her pencil, the page of paper and the task of creating. Like always, her drawing seemed to take on a life of its own. She began to feel better, although she didn't notice it. Powerful, even.
" . . . so that is my predicament, Mr. Weinstein. I feel certain that I am not safe here, my dreams are dark and disturbing. Do you have any idea what group the statue and its minions represent?" asked Professor Callidy.
"Not yet, but I have some ideas," replied Andrew, "but it might take some thought and some consults to actually sort this out. Can you path over here? My headquarters is well protected against all kinds of forces arising from the dark side of the spectrum."
"We can, but I'm going to arrive with no clothes on. It's a little glitch in my pathing equation," Callidy explained sheepishly.
"No matter," said Andrew, indifferently, "We're bound to find something for you to wear around here. Come on."
Lucas looked at the Naval ships around him as he strode down the dock, and wondered what had possessed him to agree on this harebrained rescue. The logical part of him wondered if the Explorers were even in trouble. A lot of them had been his former team mates, and he knew they were perfectly capable of handling all sorts of emergencies. That new woman who was leading the team now might be everything Lucas hates, but he could grudgingly admit that she looked like the type to get the job done.
Then Lucas looked up and saw Angelica standing by the sub parked at the pier and he smiled.
"Hey!" he shouted, "I thought your brother wasn't going to let you come!"
Angelica gave him her best naughty grin. "What Andy doesn't know won't hurt him," she said, "Besides, I think my powers will come in handy, when we reach the missing submarine."
"You know where it is?" said Lucas flatly, "Andrew told me he didn't know where it was."
Angelica hit his arm as she reached to hug him, "Don't be like that, Lucas! We found out after Andy talked to you. Somnambula told us where to find it, and she also told us that there was some black monster grappling with the sub."
"Who's Somnam-whatever-you-said?" asked Lucas.
"A new member of the Explorers. You haven't met her," replied Angelica leading him down the gangway, "and you won't on this trip. However, there is someone I want you to meet . . . "
Sweat trickled into Major Patriot's eye. "Dammit," she muttered under her breath, then bent down to her task. If she could just reroute that circuitry through that extra amp, then they might be in business . . .
"Major," shouted Estallida hoarsely, "I can't hold the force field much longer!"
Major Patriot looked at Estallida coolly. "She sure doesn't look like the queen of the dance floor right now," thought Major to herself, looking at the distress and sweat on the woman's face. "You're going to have to hold it Estallida, our lives depend on it." She went back to her rewiring.
The lights went out again, and the sub lurched, "Estallida, I mean . . . HOLD!" said Major forcefully, fixing the straining woman with her best iron stare.
"I am, Ma'am," said Estallida gamefully.
The sub held steady . . . for now.
Lucas was idly day dreaming about Ellie in a bikini on a tropical beach when he was jolted back to reality by a cheery little voice asking him something.
"What did you say? I didn't quite catch that," he said politely, affixing his gaze upon this happy little female countenance.
"I said, do you know RBD?" she asked.
Lucas stared at her. "What is RBD?"
"I thought you were a musician," she said plaintively.
"I am! Ex leader of the Polarized Ions!" Lucas said indignantly, "Is RBD some musical group?"
"SOME musical group? Some MUSICAL GROUP? They are just the hottest, best, Mexican pop band around! You don't even know their music?" she said reproachfully.
"How old are you, La Ponderosa?" Lucas asked gently.
"I just turned 18," replied Rosa, "but I don't see where that has anything to do with my tastes in music. I think I have great . . . "
Lucas zoned out again, feeling old.
"Attention!" shouted Major Patriot, "This is the game plan! Estallida will shut down her force fields. Shock Jock, I want you to apply all of your electrical force to this enhancer I just built. Alexander, try to move this nautical crate upwards when the juice gets applied. I'm going to try to get a read on this thing holding us down with the sensors when the force fields go down. Everyone else, just stay strapped in. And someone start thinking of a Plan B."
"Aye aye Captain," called Pathfinder jocularly from the bridge.
Shock Jock unstrapped, rose from his seat and walked gracefully towards the amplifier. "Damn," thought Major Patriot admiringly, "that boy sure has a nice walk." She smiled at him, as she moved past him . . . not too fast, she didn't exactly want that. If she was going to die, she wanted to touch him one last time. Shock Jock gave her a knowing glance in passing. Jeff was all business, but he wanted her to know he understood. That was what Major Patriot liked about Jeff . . . they were on the same wavelength a whole lot of the time . . .
Major Patriot plopped herself down at the monitor board and said nonchalantly, "OK Estallida, take a break."
When Lucas came back to the land of the living, Angelica was vigorously shaking his shoulder and La Ponderosa was anxiously peering out the port hole.
"We're here!" said Rosa excitedly, "Turn on the running lights Captain!"
The pilot flipped on the running lights. The sight of the dark murky thing curling around the submarine struck horror into the young woman's heart. "Madre de Dios," whispered Rosa, "My sister is over there."
La Ponderosa turned around and asked, "Where are the dive suits? I want to swim over there and kick that thing's butt. I can do it, too!"
"What?" said Lucas, "Ridiculous! You look like you weigh 40 pounds soaking wet! What can you do, anyway?"
Harmonics felt himself being lifted high in the air. It hurt. This little girl was giving him the wedgie from hell!
"Super strength," announced Rosa, "and I am going over there to help my sister . . . "
"No you aren't," interjected Angelica, "I've mind scanned that thing and it's not sentient."
La Ponderosa dropped Lucas on the floor.
"What?!? They chorused together.
They scrambled back to the porthole.
Estallida collapsed into her seat. She let her seatmate buckle her in, while she relaxed. She knew that she could be called back into action at any second, and that she had better get her rest while she could. She took several slow breaths and tried to ignore the activity around her.
The lights flickered, the sub bobbled and then Shock Jock poured on the juice. He was sending so much electricity into the enhancer that his hair was standing on end. Jeff felt the thing detach from the ship and felt a certain triumph, then felt a knot in the pit of his stomach as he felt the submarine slowly being pulled downwards again.
"I'm in contact with the sub," shouted Angelica, "I'm talking to Josh. He's filling me in on what happened. Estallida has been using her fields, that's why we couldn't get in contact before! He's asking us if we can fire a torpedo at the creature without hitting their ship."
Lucas and Rosa peered through the depths at the sinking sub, the black creature swirling around the ship in a dark death dance.
"Maybe," said Lucas speculatively, "If we could get the right trajectory. Can we follow them down and try to get an angle at the target?"
La Ponderosa gasped, "There's a blue light appearing down there. What's THAT?"
Major Patriot stared at her board. What the hell energy source was developing now? It was bad enough trying to combat this black scourge from the depths without having something new thrown into the mix. She didn't *think* that Shock Jock could generate that much force . . .
"Jock," she asked, "that you?"
"That me what?" asked Shock Jock.
"Well, that settles that," thought Major Patriot as she answered absentmindedly, "Never mind."
The submarine started to shake violently. Lights started going out on Major Patriot's board.
"Major," shouted Pathfinder, "We're losing power."
Ellie stared at her drawing. "I really AM losing my mind, I think," she thought to herself, as she watched the blue creature writhe upon the page. "I really hope Lucas and The Explorers are OK," she thought fervently as she lifted her eyes to the heavens.
"Please God," she implored, looking at the ceiling of the small dining room.
When she looked down again, the blue creature was gone. Ellie put her face in her hands and cried.
"OK," said Harmonics, "We now have another thing out there. This one is glowing blue."
"What's it doing?" asked La Ponderosa, standing on her tiptoes, straining her eyes to see through the murk."
"My best guess? It's fighting the other thing. Although I suppose they could be having sex," opined Harmonics.
"Lucas!" exclaimed Angelica, pummeling his arm, "Just stop with the jokes."
"No, said Lucas, "It looks like that blue monster thing is doing our job for us. Look."
They watched as the glowing blue creature curled and intertwined with the inky black one. The black tentacles were coming off of the submarine, one by one, as the black creature sought to defend itself from the onslaught. The blue creature seemed to be emitting some sort of energy, which the black monster found unpleasant. Finally the black creature withdrew its hold on the submarine, and the two monsters drifted down towards the depths.
The problem was, it looked like the Explorer's sub was drifting towards the depths, too.
"Angelica," said Lucas, "Get Pathfinder to start moving people over here NOW."
"It's so good to have you back, Lucas," said Angelica, closing her eyes and opening a psychic circuit to Pathfinder.
The remaining sub, jammed with Explorers, made its way to its home port, a floating dock in the ocean. It was old home week for Lucas, seeing his old team mates again. There were hugs and handshakes all around. His happy homecoming was broken up by a terse, "I'm calling Andrew to report our status."
So this is the woman who replaced him, Lucas thought, looking at Major Patriot's ramrod straight posture as she called home base through the computer. "I wonder if she uses 'Go to Meeting' to talk to Andrew?" thought Lucas sarcastically, as he moved up to stand beside her.
Andrew appeared on the screen. "Yep, 'Go to Meeting' for sure," snickered Lucas to himself. Then Lucas noted a large man in a pink fluffy bunny costume standing next to Andrew. Harmonics started to laugh.
"League of Explorers reporting, SIR," announced Major Patriot, " All are accounted for."
"Who's the dude playing the Easter bunny?" guffawed Lucas, "Do we get chocolate Easter eggs on arrival?"
He felt the burning glare of Major Patriot. He settled down to a giggle.
"I am Professor James Callidy," said Mr. Bunny, "and this is the only thing they could find that would fit me around here. I believe it's left over from Halloween."
"I sort of like it," added Callidy with a goofy smile.
Harmonics decided he liked Callidy. A guy who was comfortable in a rabbit suit couldn't be all bad.
"Professor Callidy is an expert on various arcane arts," explained Andrew, "and we have every reason to believe that dark forces are gathering that mean the world harm. Can I have a debriefing, Major Patriot?"
Major Patriot launched into what had happened, in clipped, concise, objective terms. She moved aside to let Harmonics tell what he had seen from the second submarine.
"Very good," said Andrew Weinstein, "I expect everyone here for a conference in 6 hours."
"Uh Andrew, you forgot something," said Lucas.
"And what is that Lucas?" asked Andrew, raising his eyebrows.
"I'm not part of The Explorers, and you can stick it. I'm going home to Ellie." Lucas cut the connection.
"That's just about what I'd expect from YOU," exclaimed Major Patriot coldly.
Lucas spun around, "Oh yeah?" he said, "Why is that?"
"You quit when the going got tough. You quit when there were difficult choices to be made. You ran from your responsibilities," said Major Patriot accusingly.
"Who told you that?" scoffed Lucas, "Andrew? Did he ever tell you what he wanted me to do at Guantanamo?"
"I served at Guantanamo," replied Major Patriot sternly, "some of us believe that there are larger, more important values involved here than individual moral qualms."
"I like my morals and values just fine," said Lucas, "What do YOU think is more important than that?"
"Protecting my country against all the forces that mean it harm. I'd give my life for it," explained Major Patriot, "sometimes there are larger issues than just ME."
"Well, good for you," said Lucas, then paused, "Look, I am all around protecting my country, but there are some things my country does that I cannot condone. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. Can we start over? My name is Lucas Curry, code name Harmonics. And you are . . . ?"
"Major Poupette Primeaux, US Army," replied Major Patriot, reaching out to shake Lucas's hand.
"Poopette Primo?" exclaimed Lucas, laughing again.
"I'm from Louisiana, it's French! I spent my childhood kicking boys' butts who teased me about my name," said Poupette smiling.
"Do they call you Poop for short?" giggled Lucas.
"I admit I haven't dusted up anyone who has made fun of my name recently, but I might make an exception in your case . . . "
"Don't bother," said Lucas, wiping a tear from his eye, "I need to call my girlfriend and tell her I'm coming home."
Lucas unlocked his apartment door and walked in. There was Ellie, in the kitchen, stirring something in a pot that smelled wonderful. He went over to her and kissed her neck.
"Miss me?" he whispered softly.
"You know I did!" exclaimed Ellie, giving him a big hug, "I was worried sick about you!"
Lucas strolled over to the dining room table. There he saw Ellie's sketch pad. "Been drawing" he asked.
"Yes and no, if that makes any sense," said Ellie, brushing a strand of her strawberry blond hair away from her face, "I thought I had drawn something, and then it wasn't there. I sort of woke up later at the table and I was afraid to look at my sketchbook. Maybe I just dreamed it."
"I'm not afraid," said Lucas smiling, flipping through Ellie's sketchbook. All of sudden he stopped, and stared at a page, his face incredulous.
"Well, call me a liar," he admitted to himself, "because I am afraid."
"When did you draw this?" he asked, holding the page open to the blue creature so Ellie could see.
"So I DID draw it," exclaimed Ellie, "Thank GOD, because I thought I was losing my mind."
"Ellie," said Lucas, slowly, "This is the same creature that appeared and took down the thing that was trying to destroy the Explorer's submarine. How can this be?"
"I . . . don't . . . know," whispered Ellie, staring at Lucas. They stood looking at each other for what seemed like a long time.
Lucas broke the silence, "Never mind," he said brusquely, "I'm going to take a shower and change into something comfortable. We can sort this stuff out during dinner."
"That sounds good," agreed Ellie.
Lucas strode into the bedroom. He rummaged around his chest of drawers, looking for his comfortable sweats. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something. He looked up, and stared at the viscous, black fluid slowly pulsing out of the bathroom. Lucas hit the fluid with his sound waves. Nothing.
"Uh Ellie," he shouted, "Listen up! Turn off the stove, grab your sketchbook and head to the door. NOW!!! I'll be right behind you."
Something in his tone made Ellie's blood run cold, she quickly complied with Lucas's instructions and met him at the front door, clutching her sketchbook. Together they ran down the apartment's steps.
"Lucas, where are we going?" asked Ellie.
"To a meeting at Andrew Weinstein's," replied Lucas, "This is much bigger than the two of us."
Next: Crossroads
Characters created by Jesse N. Wiley and Sheryl Roberts