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.”

Next: Part Six: Back Home