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I love puzzles. Though now that I exist how I do- they don't seem to matter. If I could see this one from a linear perspective, I think I'd enjoy watching the pieces coming together. Lucas and Ellie getting back together. Snap. Weird monsters under the sea. Snap. Weird statues. Snap. Weird religious cult. Snap. That's one row. Ellie being pregnant. Snag. New Histhology's messiah. Snap. My getting stuck in the tachyon field. There's the second. Andy hiding a girl who can, if she knows it or not project her dreams into the tachyon field. Snap. The ghost of a dead dog. Snap. H. Reginald Wilson's drug use. Snap. His death. Snap. Joe Bridge. Snap. The Wolff Pack. Snap. Josh killing my sister. Those are the easy bits. The corner pieces. Always the easier part of any puzzle? What's the whole thing look like? Wait and see... we aren't quite there yet.
Chloe waded along towards the red light, the marsh was getting shallower, and the air cooler. Arising in the distance, through the mist, she could see a road arising out of the shallow water. Some shape was over by the road, doing something...
"Tuffy" shouted Chloe, "Is that you?"
A distant bark answered her. Chloe picked up her pace. She scanned intently ahead. Was there another shape over by Tuffy?
Angelica was getting bored. It was time to see if her power worked in this dream dimension. She cast her mind forth, and was immediately overwhelmed by the alien thought patterns of the lizard people. They were screaming...and dying. She allowed herself to be physically drawn to the screams...and discovered Tuffy, gnawing a lizard leg bone.
"What's up Tuffy?" asked Angelica, cautiously.
"I'm having a snack," replied Tuffy, "Getting rid of the riff raff around here is a never ending job."
"Oh YUCK Tuffy!"
Angelica and Tuffy looked at a rumpled, sweaty, dripping wet Chloe, holding her water bottle and staring disgustedly at the lizard leg.
"Toughen up, kid," said Angelica, "I think we have to follow this yellow brick road, pointing to the yellow road ahead of them. But I am pretty sure you aren't Dorothy, and Tuffy isn't Toto and I think I might be dead."
"You aren't dead, Angelica," said Chloe reassuringly, "I'm talking to you, don't be silly! I guess we have to follow that road to see what happens next."
The girl with ruby slippers, her dog and the scarecrow. Snap.
Chloe followed the road across the field with Angelica and Tuffy close behind. The path wound and twisted a dozen times, sometime back on itself. They were obviously heading toward a small cottage at the end of the field.
"Why aren't we going straight there again?" Angelica asked.
"If we did that, we'd never get there," Chloe responded.
"Say what?" Angelica asked.
"If you must know, this place follows a very strict and very elegant pattern which doesn't always follow a coherent pattern of what the human conscious mind would consider logic. As for why we are going there at all: There is a young gentleman Chloe has dreamed about several times who might be able to help us. Only she has never actually dreamed about him. She has only dreamed that she dreamed about him... so this is actually the first time they'll meet. They'll know each other instantly and believe they've known each other for years. Now do you understand?" said Tuffy gruffly.
"And when did she dream this?" Angelica asked.
"About fourteen seconds after we arrive," Tuffy said.
"Precognition gives me headache," Angelica said.
The path changed and the cottage was right in front of you. A young man in his early twenties -- that's me -- got out of the cottage.
"In order to get headaches, you have to have a head, Dis," I said.
"What are you talking about?" Angelica said.
"That's kinda the thing. While you were sleeping- Josh kind of killed you," I said.
Chloe's jaw dropped for a moment.
"You're..."
"Yes."
"You were the injured white knight in..."
"Yep."
"And the elf with the stolen magic at..."
"Uh huh..."
"But sure not the sickly cabin boy aboard the..." she said.
"Guilty as charged," I said.
"Hey Toto- what are they doing.."
"Reminiscing about things that won't occur for years yet... even I don't know why she's blushing," Tuffy said.
"How can you tell? I thought dogs were color blind?"
"That, my dear, is a story for another time," Tuffy said.
Speak of stories of another time, this was months ago- during Andy's first fencing lesson. Snap.
Angelica rubbed her head and said louder, "I SAID Precognition gives me a headache! You two can flirt some other time. Malcolm, not that it isn't nice to see you, but all of your running around and mucking up the timeline has put us all in a hell of a mess."
"Yes," said Malcolm, but now I have an opportunity to return to the present and together you, me and Andy will be a family again."
"Oh bullshit," exclaimed Angelica, "You and the alien lizard people and the Histologists have some sort of plan to take over the universe..."
"No, he couldn't," interjected Chloe, "I've spent a lot of time with Malcolm and I can't imagine that he'd align himself with all of those evil forces!"
Malcolm smiled sweetly at Chloe while Angelica groaned.
Or to get more current there is the Summit at Lucas's apartment. Snap.
"Look Malcolm, you have to give up the idea of becoming the 13th Beast for the Histologists," said Angelica.
"Oh, but Sis, I have looked upon the future and it isn't a pretty sight. If I can get control of reality now, I can fix the future."
Angelica grabbed his arm and shook it, "You are the one who screwed it up to begin with by running up and down the timeline."
"Excuse me," said Tuffy, "But I believe that there is a passage emerging from our now to the dream state."
There was a high pitched whine, and a light was growing on the wall of the hut. Angelica grabbed Malcolm's other hand and jumped towards the light. She pulled Malcolm towards the light with her, then gave him a psychic and physical shove. Malcolm disappeared into the space between the dream state and reality.
"Don't worry," said Tuffy conversationally to Chloe, "he'll be back."
Here is where a god intervenes and accomplishes the resurrection -- at price. Snap.
"HEY! ISN'T ANYONE HAPPY TO SEE ME?" shouted a jubilant female voice.
Lucas squinted at the outline standing in the machine and recognized Angelica.
"You aren't the 13th Beast," complained Lucas.
"Yeah, I kind of talked him out of it, Captain Obvious."
"Sure you did," smiled Lucas.
"OK, so I sort of mind controlled him and sent him speeding off into another dimension. And I gave him a push. Happy?" asked Angelica, smirking.
"I am!" shouted Joshua, aka The Duplicator. He ran up to Angelica and hugged her.
"I hear you killed me," said Angelica, "Was that your idea?"
"No," replied Josh earnestly, "That's what Chloe told me to do."
"I would have bet on Andy," smiled Angelica flirtily, "Just don't let it happen again."
"Speaking of," the no nonsense voice of Major Patriot rose above the hum of conversation, "What are we going to do about our erstwhile leader, Andrew Weinstein? Who is going to help me dismantle this piece of equipment? And who is going to haul Joe Bridge to lockup?"
"Want me to short the machine out for you, Babe?" asked Shock Jock, sauntering up to Major Patriot.
Poupette glared at him. "Get your new pal the serpent god guy to fly Andrew back to base, Soldier."
"He doesn't speak English," interjected Estallida.
"Well fine," said Major Patriot brusquely, "YOU tell him to take Andrew back to headquarters."
"I'll go with them," said Angelica, "I have some things I need to say to Andrew."
"Me too," said Dr. Bridge-Traeger.
"I thought that was great Ilsalynn, the way you told Andy all that stuff off the top of your head. It certainly threw him off his game," said Ellie admiringly.
"I didn't make it up," smiled Ilsalynn.
Ellie laughed, "You and I have a couple of things in common then! I'm pregnant, too!"
"Not by Andy, I hope," laughed Ilsalynn.
"HEY!" shouted Lucas in mock surprise.
Ellie slapped Lucas's arm, "You aren't getting out of this that easily, Buster."
"I wasn't trying to" grinned Lucas.
Or moment where a woman must choose between two men. Which reminds me of a great joke you're going to tell me one day Okay- here goes. Do you know the difference between Joe Bridge and Andrew Weinstein? One is a rich, vaguely amoral sociopath. The other is my brother. Snap.
Chloe wandered into the room with Professor Callidy in tow.
"Doesn't anyone want to open up the capsules on the sides of the walls?" she asked.
"I will," volunteered Lucas, walking over to one and popping the lid.
"Oh yuck," he cried, "What a mess!"
"That's what I thought," giggled Chloe.
"Explorers 1, Alien Invaders 0," quipped Lucas, "Come on, Ellie! Let's go home."
Then they had to clean up the big mess. Snap.
Lucas was sitting on his couch picking out a tune on the guitar, when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out, looked at the caller, and groaned.
"Who is it?" asked Ellie, who was busy crocheting a baby blanket on the other end of the couch.
"Angelica," said Lucas flatly, "It can't be good."
"Won't know until you answer it," smiled Ellie.
"What do you want Angelica?" asked Lucas flatly, putting the call on speaker phone.
"I have a business proposition for you Lucas. Come to headquarters, and bring Ellie if you want," explained Angelica.
Lucas looked at Ellie, who nodded encouragement, "We'll come hear you out. But right now I'm not inclined to accept."
"Don't pass judgment until you hear the proposition," said Angelica cheerily.
"So you see- I could have escaped at several points," Malcolm said.
"Then why the hell didn't you?" barked Tuffy.
"I knew how important Chloe would be in saving my sister. I knew what it would cost in the short run..." Malcolm said.
"So it has nothing to do with a sickly cabin boy?"
"No. The horrible truth of the matter is that the berserker black knight, the magic stealing troll and the cruel and horrible pirate are also me," I said.
"Why? Why would you do that?"
"Because she'll need me to. She'll me to do it- to keep her sane. When she's not seeing the future she lives in myths all her own. Every myth needs a handsome prince and a monster. There are weird days ahead full of adventures ahead for all of them. Josh Andy. Angelica. Poupette.... all of them... except..."
"Except for who?"
"Lucas and Ellie."
"What? What happens to them? Something horrible?"
"Oh no. In fact some would say theirs is the greatest adventure of all," Malcolm said.
Lucas and Ellie sat in comfortable chairs in Andrew Weinstein's office.
"I told you I wanted to say no right away, Ellie" grumped Lucas reproachfully.
"I'm willing to hear Angelica out" said Ellie placidly, "and so should you."
Lucas looked at Ellie carefully, "Say, do you know something about this?"
"Why yes, she does," said Angelica, sweeping into the room and sitting down at Andrew's desk, "We've been in touch."
"Where's Andy?" asked Lucas suspiciously.
"Off with Illsalyn," replied Angelica, "Working on their relationship. He has resigned as head of Weinstein Industries."
"WHAT?" exclaimed Lucas.
"He's very disappointed in himself," explained Angelica, "He let his feelings for our brother overpower his usual common sense, and he ended up being a pawn for Joe Bridge. Frankly, Andrew uses people, they don't use him. So he decided he needed to take a nice long leave with Illsalyn, and get some therapy when he returns. You might get a wedding invitation, depending on how this leave turns out."
"Wow," said Lucas, "I'm speechless, and you know I'm not speechless often."
"So here's the deal, Lucas," said Angelica, "I'm in charge of Weinstein Industries now, and I need help. Not with running the Explorers, per se, Major Patriot is quite competent in that respect, but with training our youngsters in the Explorers. We have Chloe, Wu, Rosa and a couple of other kids that Andy brought in. This last mission proved to me that they need training to help them cope with not only the very adult problems that come up, but also the grey issues of what's right and wrong in various situations. I can't think of a better person than you, Lucas, to mentor them. It should be a part time gig, and you should be able to pursue your music career. What do you say?"
"How often am I going to have to go with these kids on missions?" asked Lucas shrewdly, leaning forward.
"Only in very, VERY rare instances," replied Angelica, "I promised Ellie."
"I'll take it then," said Lucas and then explosively laughed, "I never expected to be an arbiter of morality, but I'll give it a shot."
"It'll be great practice for when our kid is a teenager," enthused Ellie.
"Oh man, I don't want to think about that yet..."
A man. A plan. A canal. Panama?
October 3rd, 2010
The baby monitor screeched. The cries echoed the house. Lucas didn't know how Ellie could sleep through this. Still he took comfort in the fact that he could hear it. He pulled himself out of bed before pulling his dry aid kit of Ellie's copy 'The Works of M.C. Escher' and made his way down toward towards Erin's room.
"Baba!" she shouted.
"Okay -- you're hungry. Okay. I'll go get it. I might as well change you while you're up," Lucas said. "After that- how about we watch some Big Bird... then maybe see if Aunt Stacy wants to go to the park..."
The End.
Characters created by Jesse N. Wiley and various authors
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