Song of the Swans Part 4

## **Chapter 13**

It was an average day in Avant Gardens.   The
sound of battle outside the Sentinel Base camp was ingrained in Beck
Strongheart's mind.   Occasionally a Sentinel jet squadron would
streak by overhead and deliver a booming payload.   Sometimes a Stromling would wander near the
gates, and he would hear a quick *pew-pew* as the riflemen promply
dispatched it.

It was one of those days where nothing out of
the ordinary happend, which was how Beck Strongheart liked it.   He
could plan his forces' next attack without having to worry about a sudden appearance
of Chainsaw Stromlings, or a Spider Boss climbing into the camp - now that was
out of the ordinary.   Today he could appreciate the world's
otherwise sereneness.

It was a day like this when, in between
sending soldiers to train in Survival or fight some Spiderlings, his mind
wandered to something else in the Spider caves.
 Or someone.   Her
name was Melodie Foxtrot, and Beck would never tell anyone that he loved her.   But
she seemed to like the Spider Caves more, Beck thought snarkily, because she'd
set up camp there, rather than his Base camp.

What could he do to get her to stay with the
rest of the Sentinels, where she would be safe?  Safe with him, of course,
he appended with a nod.   He didn't notice a recruit standing in front
of him that moment, and he looked up with a start.

"Salute, recruit!" Beck instructed,
and the minifigure did so, bringing his hand up in front of his black bangs.   Beck
scrutinized him.   He wore some pretty high level Avant Gardens
gear, the commander noticed, a Leather Jacket and Flight Suit Leggings, so he
was probably one of his experienced soldiers.
 But he did not recognize this
recruit, and Beck knew his recruits.   At least he thought he did.   Maybe
this was not a recruit, but an undercover agent sent from HQ.

Pursuing that hunch, Beck asked sternly,
"Did Exeter send you?"

The boy looked surprised, but he answered
with decorum, "No, sir."

"Under who are you stationed?"

"Commander Beck Strongheart, sir."
the minifigure said, puzzled, and broke protocol.   "Commander, you do recognize me, Intrepid
Fusion Eclipse?"

"No." Beck said.   "I do not believe we have met."

Intrepid turned to the Assembly Engineer he'd
met before, who now stood in the safety behind the base camp's rocks, polishing
his armor.   "You said this was January 3026."
Intrepid said accusatorially.   "My commander should know me."

The engineer looked up, shrugged, then
returned to his polishing.   "I don't know you." he said.

Intrepid raised his chin in annoyance and
stalked away from Strongheart.   "I joined the Nexus Force in 3025."
He waved a hand in the commander's direction.
  "He should know me."

The engineer, whose name was Strange Odd
Shadow, raised his eyebrows but still inspected the reflectance of his
shoulderpads.   "Perhaps in your time travels, you have
unwittingly removed your past self from ever meeting Commander
Strongheart."

Intrepid shook his head.   "No way.
 I just got here yesterday, and
that's not enough time for anything to change today."

Shadow did not say anything of that, and
moved on to his helmet, which he took off of his short, hazel coloured hair.

Intrepid sighed, and turned to go...  where?  He didn't know.   "You're a great help." he muttered.

"Oh!" Strange Odd Shadow looked up
then, and Intrepid turned back to him.   "I have figured that if you're an
accidental traveler, you must be interested in getting back to your correct
time!  Well, I have an idea that may help you!"

"I'm listening." Intrepid said.

"You should go to Nimbus Station and ask
Wenn Wuzzit to send you back to the future!  Or the past!  Or
wherever you come from!"  The young man stood up then and stowed his
engineer gear away, wearing his street clothes now.   "In fact, I'm headed to Nimbus Station as
well, so I would accompany you."

It was a good idea, Intrepid agreed.   "Good idea," he said, "but what
I really need is a rocket.   I left a friend behind on another planet, and
I need to get back."

Shadow, whose eyebrows were still raised,
dropped one so the other brow remained raised, giving him a peculiar look.   "But you didn't sscome here in a
rocket." he stated.

Intrepid looked at his left hand, which was
closed.   With nothing to lose, he opened it, revealing
the transdimensional maneuverability device.
 "I came with this." he
said.   At Shadow's curious stare, and he considered
how to explain it.   "It's like a teleportation device, that
can take the user anywhere he or she can envision.   Even
to other dimensions, and other universes."

"I stand by my first bet that you're
from the future, then!"

"The device sort of is," Intrepid
said.   "It was given to me by-"

"You should just use it, then, to go see
your friend!" Shadow interrupted.   "Unless it is broken."

"It is brok-"

"I know someone in Nimbus Station who
can fix it!" Shadow kept speaking, then he paused.

Intrepid wanted to wait for him, since he
obviously had much to say, and Intrepid didn't want to interrupt him...  or be interrupted.   But
after a five second staring contest, Intrepid figured, whatever, and asked,
"What's his name?"

"He is called Strange Odd Shadow!"

"That's you."

"Obviously!"  Shadow added,
"If your device is indeed a teleporter, then I can fix it and you can get
to where you need to go faster than it would take you in a personal rocket.   And I
know the public rocket transportation schedule and the next off-world launch is
in a week!  So, you'd best come with me."  He then ran off for
the monument path.

Intrepid looked after him.   Strange Odd Shadow did seem an odd character,
but Intrepid could agree with his quick calculation.   Without a better idea, he elected to follow him.

He had just passed Klaus Zett's stand when a
distant explosion permeated the air.

\*\*\*\*

  The boy watched as a pillar of smoke rose in the scene before him.   He
shook his head.   "Crimson." he muttered.   "Look what you've done now."

The girl beside him dropped her arms,
previously outstretched, and stamped a boot on the ground.   Her
heel struck the monument walkway with a clang.

"Careful." the boy chided.   "We don't need more attention-"

"Shut it." she hissed, and threw on
her Forester's Hood.   Previously around her shoulders, it no longer
covered the logo on the back of her black shirt: that of a light green colored
circle containing the lemniscate shape of infinity, intersected by a slash.

"There's no salvaging the ore now."
the boy flouted with a smirk.

Gritting her teeth, the girl whirled on her
teammate.   "Got a plan then?" she snapped, and
he shrugged.

"I don't plan to get in trouble for
you."

"Then get a move on."

So they ascended the monument, quickly
building speed.   He had disheveled, spiky beige hair, while her
dark strands poked out of her hood and danced in their wake.   The
metallic clanking of their running footfalls changed to absorbed thuds as the
catwalk beneath them changed to stone at the top of the monument.   They
were about to mount the bouncer that would launch them off of the giant statue
and give them enough speed to escape the world.

But the girl had to swerve, and in doing so
slow down, because then a minifigure stepped out from around the statue's neck,
right in front of her.

Looking back, the boy cursed and skidded to a
stop.   He opened his mouth to shout at her, but then
he noticed why she'd stopped.   Their interceptor carried a sharp, multi
pronged staff that matched his helmet, black and in the shape of a bat.   His
cape rustled in the high altitude wind as he approached the girl.   A Bat
Lord, the boy recognized.

The Bat Lord had his back to the boy, who
raised his fists and stepped forwards.

But then he was clubbed on the head by a Rank
1 Engineer wrench and fell face first to the ground.

"I rarely have use for this, being one
to achieve Rank 3!" Strange Odd Shadow declared, looking up from the boy's
stunned form to admire his wrench.
The boy groaned and stirred, while Shadow said, "But sometimes it is the
good old wrench that gives the best whack!"

Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, who was in the Bat
Lord suit, advanced on the girl, who backed towards the platform's edge.   She
dragged a foot along the corner of the precipice, and looked down at the drop.   Intrepid didn't shift his watch from her, but
when he spoke, it was of a large, purple, egg-shaped object above him.

"There's a Maelstrom Shard on Bob's
head!" he snarled.   His words, he realized, sounded ridiculous,
but he finished accusively.   "And you put it there!"

"You can have it!" the girl
shouted.

"I don't want it!" Intrepid shot
back, noting her feet.   Her legs began to bend, and he began to move.

"Neither do we," she said, and
stepped off the monument, and with a drop she disappeared off the cliff.

Intrepid scrambled over to the edge, nearly
falling off himself, and peered off the front of the monument.   There
was a catwalk some thirty feet directly below, but he saw no sign of her.   Then
he felt a rush of air behind him, and realized in the time it took to spin
around that he'd been hoodwinked.

There was a ripple in the air through which
the girl seemed to fall out of, but her feet were aimed at him.   Her
boots impacted right on his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs as he fell
backwards...

...and off the face of the monument.

Intrepid felt the air rushing past his ears
as he plummeted, arms and legs flailing, to certain smashing.   He'd
rebuild with a broken back would would help him very much in combat.   He was
being sarcastic.   Of course it would hurt.

But instead of a moment of cold, hard, pain,
he suddenly felt arms grabbing him, and orienting him - instead of falling
backwards, he felt himself being tipped over to land feetfirst.   He
stumbled when his feet, instead of his spine, struck the catwalk, and he landed
physically unhurt.   He still felt disoriented.

As soon as his head stopped spinning,
Intrepid was able to stand up and turn to his rescuer.   He
imagined Shadow could have jumped down and grabbed him...  although that didn't make much sense, since
Shadow couldn't teleport.   Intrepid knew who could, though, so he wasn't
surprised to see Red standing in front of him.

She wore a black coat over a hooded shirt,
the hood of which dropped to her shoulders as she looked up from a device in
her hand, which she stowed in her belt.

"I didn't expect to see you here."
Red said.

"Me neither."  Intrepid
realized a typical aspect of their encounters.
 They always left him with more
questions than answers.   Maybe that could change.   "We need to talk later." he
announced.

Red shrugged, and looked up above him.   Intrepid followed her gaze and craned his neck
to look up from where he fell.   He could see animated flashes characteristic
of Imagination weaponry - Shadow's weapons - and they both heard the distinct
crashes and thuds of combat.

"Hold on," Red instructed, then she
grabbed his arm.   In a flash they transdimensionally maneuvered
to the top of the monument.

Strange Odd Shadow seemed to be holding his
own.   His Rank 3 wrenches spun in his hands as he
dodged and returned punches to and from the boy and girl duo.   They
did not carry weapons, rather they wore them.
 Around the boy's forearms were
metal cylinders that seemed to boost his punches, and the girl had similar
devices around her ankles.   The one around his right fist flashed, and
then he delivered a lightning speed punch to Shadow's face, and the girl
followed up with a flying kick that knocked the Engineer to the ground.

At the arrival of Intrepid and Red, the boy's
eyes widened and he grabbed the girl around her mid, pulling her off Shadow.   She
yelped in protest, but became silent when she noticed them as well.   Intrepid stepped forwards, and they both
backed towards the bouncer; their escape.

Intrepid was about to rush them when Red
pushed him to the side, and he saw the muzzle of an energy pistol in her hand.   The
boy and girl were a second from the bouncer when Red fired an energy blast.   It
seared past the two and struck the bouncer, smashing it.

A second pistol appeared in Red's other hand,
and she aimed a blaster at each target.   "Surrender or get shot." she
threatened.

The girl shook her head and smirked.   "You fool, Red.   That's
not our only way off this rock."

"Don't tell her-" the boy
protested.

"Hush!"

They didn't throw themselves off the edge
like Intrepid expected.   Instead a blue rope appeared in the girl's
hand.   She flicked her wrist and the rope arced into
the air, up and above them, towards the tip of Monument Bob's stone hewn sword.   In an
instant it had wrapped around the giant sword and tightened.   The
boy and girl grabbed each other and it coiled, pulling them up into the air
faster than Red could fire, and flung them around so they built up speed.   At the
right moment they let go, launching themselves on a flying course straight for
the Maelstrom Shard, while the girl equipped a vacuum container.

As soon as they touched it, the vacuum
activated to capture the Shard, which de-spawned into her backpack.

Both the girl and boy smiled.   She
outstretched a hand, and the rope returned to them.   Then
they launched themselves off Bob's head, falling a short distance, before the
air beneath them began to ripple and distort.
 They continued to fall past the
monument's edge, out of sight, and they did not reappear this time.

Next to Intrepid, Red sighed.   "At least I won't have to clean up their
mess this time." she muttered, turning away from the edge and visually
scanning for any left over Maelstrom.   There was none.

Intrepid didn't looked over the edge either,
although Shadow did, because Intrepid knew that this time they were gone.   Probably to another dimension.   About
that...

Intrepid wheeled on Red.   "Care to explain what just
happened?" he demanded.

Red didn't say anything immediately.   She
gave her firearms a spin before holstering them, then reached for her belt.   There
were a few devices strapped to it, Intrepid noticed, including a particular
rectangular black object.   At that one, Intrepid's eyes widened, and his
eyes darted back to Red's face.   She wasn't looking at him.   He
couldn't have her escape too.

He reached out and grabbed her left arm,
perhaps a bit forcefully.

Red looked at him, annoyed.   "Let go," she said, and with her
other hand she picked up a different device.
 Intrepid was relieved, but he
didn't let go.   This device was white, also rectangular, with
a gray compass dial.   It began to project a green holographic image
in front of them that reminded Intrepid of Kate's topographical scanner, but
instead of any landform he recognized, it projected what looked like a bunch of
circles.

"I'm just tracking them." Red
assured.   "They've gone back to the original
dimension."  She turned back to him.
 "Please let go."

Even though a familiar burning sensation was
starting between his hand and her sleeve, Intrepid couldn't let her go.   Not
yet.   "We have to talk." he repeated.

Red dropped her face and leaned in until
their eyes were close.   "We'll talk." she said firmly.   "But let go first.   I
thought you trusted me."

Intrepid let his grip slack slightly.   "You promise?"

"I promise."

He let go and Red stepped a distance away.   He
didn't blame her.   "Great." she said, looking from
Intrepid to Shadow, then back to Intrepid.
 She glared at him and
conspicuously rubbed her arm.   "So, start asking questions?"

"Ahem!" Shadow cleared his throat,
and they both turned to him.   Intrepid hadn't noticed, but he now held a
paper and a pen in his hands.   "This is most interesting.   I say
that you, red haired girl, and those two no-gooders come from a different
dimension!  Is this true?"

Intrepid shrugged, and stepped over to the
edge.   "Good luck getting an answer,
buddy." Intrepid said.

"You catch on quickly." Red
answered Shadow.   "What are you drawing?"

"It's a surprise!"

"Hey guys," Intrepid spoke up.   "We may wish to relocate." he said.   Down
below, he could see a small crowd of minifigures had amassed in the base of the
monument valley, looking up at them, while Rusty Steele himself was ascending
the monument path.   The monument's foreman looked angry.   He'd
have a mouthful for them if he thought they'd done so much as scratch it...

"Where do you want to go?" Red
asked.

"Lots of places!" Intrepid cried,
thinking of Elistra, of his brother's house, of the apartment in Nimbus City as
well, since now he felt like quitting everything and going back home, wherever
home was.   But that just made Red look confused, since
even the girl who understood him the most couldn't follow his rambling
thoughts.

So he decided to say simply, "We can
start at the Sentinel Base Camp."

\*\*\*\*

  "So who were those two, the boy and the girl?" Shadow asked
once they were settled outside the Sentinel Base Camp's walls.   It
still unsettled Intrepid that Beck Strongheart didn't recognize him, so by
saying outside, Intrepid didn't need to look at him, so he could pretend he
wasn't thinking about him.   His mind had become muddled again.

"Their names are Cailan and Crimson
Crateris, brother and sister crime duo." Red said gloomily, as she played
with her dimensional scanner.   It beeped and chirped, flashed various lights,
and projected various images.  "They're
also the kids of a previous colleague of mine, hence their transdimensional
maneuver-ability.   Their first offense was stealing a Dimensional
Drop."

Shadow said, "Aptly named, because it is
a device that is easily triggered by the momentum of its user in a free
fall!"

"Exactly." Red said, putting the
scanner away.   "I like you."

Intrepid looked away and narrowed his eyes.   For
some reason, her saying that annoyed him.
 He took to watching the
battlefield instead, which was oddly calm at the moment.

"So what were the Craterises doing with
that Maelstrom Shard?  They seemed to be transporting it!"

Intrepid didn't expect Red to answer that
question, and while he wasn't facing them, his eyes widened when she actually
went and admitted, "I don't know what they're doing with it.   I've
only been following them since this morning.
 I'd like to detain them, but it's
not an easy job, as you've seen."

The battlefield was boring so Intrepid turned
back to them.   He noticed Red had her hood back up, revealing
a logo on the back of her coat.   It was a green colored lemniscate, the icon of
infinity, with a slash running through it, enclosed in a circle.

"Who are you working for?" Intrepid
asked.

Red turned to him.   "I was wondering when you'd finally get
to asking your very important questions.
 I don't have all the time in the
world."

Intrepid shrugged.   "You do with time travel."

Red scoffed.
 "Time travel doesn't exist.   Now to
answer your first question-"

Intrepid's brows had furrowed, and
interrupted.   "What?  Tell me about time
travel?"

"Time travel isn't real," Red
repeated.   "Dunno where you got that idea
from."

Intrepid's mind traveled back in time to a
few hours ago.   "But you told me- you came to me-"
he sputtered.   "On Elistra, you told me I traveled two
years back in time."

"I wasn't on Elistra." Red told him.   "And I never told you such a thing."

Something dawned on Intrepid.   "Maybe you haven't...  yet." he suggested.

"Time travel isn't real!" Red
groaned for the third time.   "But," she continued, now studying
her transdimensional maneuverability device, "actually...  maybe I do know where you got the idea from.   This
dimension we're in now, is two years behind your original dimension."

Both Intrepid's and Shadow's eyebrows shot
up, for different reasons.

"So you're from a different dimension as
well!" Shadow proclaimed.   He continued to draw something on his paper.

"Since when am I in a different
dimension?!" Intrepid shouted.

"I don't know," Red instructed,
"but you tell me what you know and we can figure this out."

"Okay," Intrepid agreed.   "So, this starts with...  yesterday.
 I got a call from my brother,
because he got a call from some relative called Tiberius."  Intrepid
watched for a reaction from Red, but her face stayed steady, as if she didn't
recognize the name.   Which could mean a lot of things.   Did
she NOT know him, which was another contradiction between Red and the Red who
visited him on Elistra?  Or maybe she did know Tiberius, but she was being
vague now.

He continued, "So, we flew to Elistra,
me and friends...  and Tiberius called me
in the flight.   So he told us he could save my family.   Then
we got attacked by the Maelstrom, and I crashed on Elistra..." his face
had turned absentmindedly during the dialogue, and now he turned to Red again.

"Then you came and told me I'd landed in
the past.   You told me not to follow Tiberius."

"Wasn't me." Red repeated.

"Someone who looked like you,
then." Intrepid amended.   "It was dark."

"Kate?" Red suggested.

"No." Intrepid said.   "She's elsewhere-" his voice cut
off, because he wasn't sure if he should tell Red what happened to her...  he didn't think she would be happy.   But
Red caught on.   Her eyes narrowed.

"Intrepid?" she asked.   "Tell me where Kate is."

Intrepid sighed.   "She's somewhere on Elistra.   I
don't know where."

Red's hand closed around the transdimensional
maneuverability device, and she disappeared, replaced by thin air.

"You have strange friends, Intrepid
Fusion Eclipse." Strange Odd Shadow noted.

Intrepid glanced at him.   "Yeah," he said, before looking
drearily at the ground.   He'd upset Red, and now she was gone.  *Good work, me*, he thought.

Then Red reappeared, but this time she was
holding the hand of a certain Sentinel Samurai.
 Kate seemed to stumble a bit
since her footing had just changed, and when Red let go of her she crumpled to
the ground.

Intrepid would have gone to her side, except
Red was stalking straight towards Intrepid.
 Even though she'd come back,
Intrepid had still predicted right, because she did not look happy.

"You left her!" Red shouted,
stopping inches from his face.   "I told you to find her.   That
means take care of her!"

Intrepid shot back, "I would have gone
back, but my transdimensional maneuverability device has been a little
broken!  Heck, I didn't even want to come to Avant Gardens-"

"Give me that." Red grabbed at his
wrist, where his device was strapped, and pulled the fake watch off.   "You've taken it apart, no wonder it
hasn't been working for you." she noted, and shook her head with a sorry
smile.   "No matter though, I have a spare."

"Can I have it?" Intrepid asked.

Red laughed, but it was disdainful and bitter.   "Okay, that was funny.   But
it's not up to me, so, no."

"I could steal yours."

Red stepped back.   "I don't think so."  Intrepid
looked past her.   Shadow had gone to Kate, and as soon as she
stopped heaving the Engineer helped her to stand.   Kate's
eyes darted around wildly until they focused on Intrepid.

"In..trep.." she muttered groggily.   "Please tell..  me..  what
is going..  on!"

"You've just been transdimensionally
transported some five lightyears in an instant." Intrepid said.

"Oh, yeah..." Kate huffed.   "It didn't feel this bad when we..  transported back from the..  other universe."

Inwardly, Intrepid was relieved that Red had
brought Kate back.   That was pretty nice of her.   But he
said hotly, "That's what happens when your driver is careless!  You
got carsickness."

Shadow frowned.   "Driver's care and carsickness are
unrelated except for the common setting.
 Generic motion sickness is more
applicable."  Now that Kate was standing on her two feet, he returned
to his drawing.

"Whatever.   I'm
glad to see you're okay." Intrepid told her.   "Thanks for getting her," he added,
turning to Red.

Instead of acknowledging him, Red's head
dipped, as if she were listening to something else.   Her
hair swept to the side, and Intrepid noticed a glint on the side of her head.   She
was wearing an earpiece, and listening to it.

"Who's she?" Kate asked.

Intrepid held up a hand for silence, and then
brought his other, right hand, up to that side of his head, to manipulate his
transmitter/receiver/hearing-aid combo.

"You're snooping." Kate whispered,
quiet enough for just Intrepid, and possibly Shadow, to hear, and Intrepid
stepped behind her.   Then he listened.

*"...unfortunate.   I*
dropped a hamper on Guppy Forest, which is *where they materialized.   An odd*
place, but they can't escape that way again.
 Mara is going after them.   We
could use you back here, so come to HQ."

A loud scream suddenly pierced the air which
caused Intrepid to recoil and cringe, since it came through exponentially
louder in his right ear.   If his right ear wasn't damaged already, it
would be for awhile now.

Groaning, Intrepid stood up and saw with
relief that Red hadn't noticed his covert operation.   Rather
she was staring at the source of the scream, as was Kate and Strange Odd Shadow.   Ripping out his earpiece, Intrepid rubbed his
temples before turning to follow their gaze.

The scream, which had been like an,
"Ah!" sound, came from a Rank 3 Paradox Space Marauder, who just
rebuilt after being smashed by a Stromling.
 Closest to the Stromling, a Rank
2 Samurai shouted, "Hey, get 'im! He smashed Ray!"

The Stromling then ran, but to Intrepid's
surprise, it did not run to attack the minifigures - rather, it seemed to be
running *away* from them.   The Stromling scrambled up the incline towards
the Sentinel Base Camp, where it got shot at by the guards, but somehow it was
not smashed...  yet.   One
Imagination bullet grazed its shoulder, and it stood stunned for a second.   Then
another struck it in the chest.   *Jinxed*, Intrepid thought.   Now it
would smash soon.   It was odd, and Intrepid couldn't place it,
but this Stromling looked the faintest bit familiar.

"Guys, it's time for us to go." Red
said suddenly.

"Wait!" Kate shouted, and then she
ran at the Stromling.

Intrepid reached out but she was too fast, so
he ran after her.   "What are you doing?!" he hollered
as she wrapped her arms around the Stromling and pushed it to the ground,
shielding it from any more gunfire.   Intrepid grabbed Kate's shoulderpads, just as
Shadow grabbed his hand, and looking back, Intrepid saw that the Engineer was
holding onto Red.

Then Intrepid felt his body being ripped
apart as they were all transported to another dimension.

## **Chapter 14**

  When Intrepid awoke, it was to a horrible ringing in his ears.   Despite the feeling of being put back
together, his whole body ached, and sitting up, more like trying to sit up,
made him want to throw up.   He'd never felt like this before - he could
remember many times he'd been subject to transdimensional maneuvers in the
past, and he never felt this bad.

Then again, considering his crash on Elistra
had apparently coincided with traveling to another dimension, it was more
accurate to say he had felt this bad before.
 Maybe it had to do with traveling
to new dimensions.   Or Red's piloting.

Groaning inwardly to himself, Intrepid opted
to wait for the fluttering in his stomach to subside, and while doing so he
heard voices.   He recognized Kate's voice.   Then
he heard another voice, which was familiar, which he verified with a turn of
his head to be that of the Stromling.

"I'm Cyclone." the Stromling said.

Sitting next to him was Kate, and she
answered, "I know."  She paused and smiled at the Stromling's
surprise.   "My name's Kate.   In
another dimension, we're friends."

"But..." the Stromling, Cyclone,
stammered, "...how?  I'm infected."

"You were cleansed," Kate explained.   "We both were."

"You were infected?" this Cyclone
asked.   "But you're not now."

"Exactly.   And
soon, you won't be either."  Then Kate turned to Intrepid.   "You got any disinfection kits on
you?"

Intrepid found his voice.   "No." he muttered.   Maybe
someone here did, but he didn't know exactly yet where 'here' was.   Some
HQ, of whatever organization Red worked for?  He figured he could ask.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Kate shook her head.   "If you can get up, you'll see we're in
some sort of blank room.   That girl's gone, she wasn't here when I woke
up."

"Her name's Red." Intrepid said.

"Really?  That's a dull name."

*That rules out Kate naming her*,
Intrepid thought sulkily.

He did attempt to get up now.   He put
his right elbow on the ground, a smooth, cold floor - tile perhaps? - and then
his left poked into something soft, and Strange Odd Shadow screamed.

"Gah!" the boy cried.   "Do watch where you put your
elb-blargh."  Apparently he wasn't feeling too good either.

Intrepid sat up and looked around, at the
ground first, then upwards.   Indeed, the floor was tile, improved, a stark
contrast to the unfinished concrete walls that surrounded them in all
directions.   The ceiling seemed to have lightning integrated
into the edges where it met the walls; there were no protruding lamps.   One
wall had a metal doorframe, with a door, and some sort of peripheral scanner,
and no other visible means of opening it.
 Unless one of them had a passkey,
they wouldn't be getting through.

There was a logo on the door.   The
same green infinity-with-a-slash that was on Red's coat.   But
printed on such a large object, Intrepid could now discern that one of the
slash was actually shaped like a vegetable.

Like a leek.

Together, that and the concrete made sense.

"I think I know where we are."
Intrepid said, standing.   He tottered for a bit, then steadied his
bearings and approached the door.   The scanner had a dark screen, which lit up at
his approach.   It displayed the image of a fingerprint, and
Intrepid swiped his hand over it.

The scanner whirred and the door slid open.   "Credentials confirmed, Intrepid Fusion
Eclipse." a voice without a source intoned.

The door was open, so he intrepidly crossed
the threshold.

The room he entered was lined with tables,
atop which sat a bunch of transparent screens, with a chair for each one.   Intrepid tapped the surface in front of one of
them, and the screen lit up with text.   A gel keyboard oozed out of the table.   *Gross*,
Intrepid thought, when he heard the scraping of a chair against the floor.   He
turned around, and saw that the room wasn't empty.   In the
far corner, visible through all the transparent screens, a boy with auburn hair
was getting up.   Quickly, Intrepid darted back and ran his hand
over the surface of the table, activating all the screens and turning them
opaque.   Then he ducked behind a chair and peeked under
the table.

The boy turned around and noticed the screens.   He had
a round face and looked fairly young.   "Is someone there?" he called,
craning to look over the tops of the monitors, but he wasn't very tall either.   He
rotated his head towards another doorway on his side of the room.   "Red?" he called, before
disappearing into it.

Intrepid wondered who this guy was.   He was
about to get up and follow him, and maybe find Red in the process, when someone
touched his arm and he nearly cried out in surprise.

"Don't do that!" he hissed to Kate,
who had snuck up next to him.   Wordlessly, Kate pointed at both her eyes, and
then at the other doorway.   They both stayed crouched and watched as the
boy returned, this time with a different girl.
 She had dark hair, a chiseled
face, conspicuous freckles, and eyebrows that were tilted in attack mode.   Unlike
the boy, who dressed in a plaid shirt and simple pants, she wore jeans and a
large sleeved coat.

"You said there were intruders
here?" the girl asked loudly.   "I don't see anybody."

"Hush or you'll scare them off!"
the boy said anxiously.

"That's one to get rid of them."

"We plan not to leave so easily!"
someone else spoke, and Intrepid and Kate whirled to see Strange Odd Shadow in
their doorway, decked out in his Rank 3 Engineer gear and looking ready to
fight.

He looked down at his two teammates.   "Why are you hiding there?"

The girl laughed.   "Psh.
 It's one of those Maelstrom War
reenactment guys.   Check out his outfit."

Shadow looked back at them and set his jaw.   "I am wearing the latest and greatest
Assembly gear." he informed them.

Intrepid had seen a Rank 5 Inventor, but he
didn't say anything.

"I won't need to use it if you would so
kindly tell us where we are!" the Engineer continued.

In response, the girl held up her wrists, and
out of each sleeve extended...  frying
pans?  "Fight me." she said.

"We're in Leek Works." Intrepid
spoke up, standing now before either this boy or girl felt gung-ho enough to
attack them.   For his teammates' sakes, Intrepid clarified,
"We're in my secret base.   Evidently it's changed a bit in the past
twenty years.   The year here is 3048."

Shadow raised his eyebrows.   "You've been here before?"

"No." Intrepid said.   "I just know a few things."  He
turned to the two who they had intruded upon.
 "I don't know who you are,
though, so I'll introduce myself first.   I'm-"

"I'm Kate!" Kate interrupted.

"Strange Odd Shadow." Shadow said.

"I'm Intrepid Fusion Eclipse."
Intrepid grumbled.   At this, both teenagers' eyes widened.

"No way." the boy said.

"Way." the girl said.   "So this is what Red meant when she
met..." she clammed up and turned to her companion.   "Do they know?"

"Red brought us here." Kate said.

The girl nodded.   "Aha!
So this is what Red meant when she said she met her dad."

Now Kate whirled on Intrepid.   She
looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face.   She
opened her mouth a few times, was silent, and then decided.   "WHAT?" she shouted.

The girl continued.   "And that must be-"

"Hush!" Intrepid interrupted.   He
couldn't let this get out of control.   "Tell us who you are," he
instructed.

The girl gestured to the boy.   "This is Ben," she introduced him,
"and I myself am Allison Ryder!  It's very 'interesting', as is your
catchphrase here, to make your acquaintance!  Our Intrepid Fusion Eclipse
is pretty weird."  As she spoke, the frying pans folded up and
retracted back into her coat.   An odd choice of weaponry.   Perhaps she was the cook.

"Are you the cook?" Intrepid asked.

"I specialize in all-natural, healthy,
gluten free, high-fructose corn syrup free, baking." Allison confirmed
proudly.

The boy, Ben, sighed.   "I'm a-"

"-walking, talking hardware maintenance
manual." Allison finished, and poked him.
 "That's what he was talking
about before, about consulting a hardware maintenance manual to rebuild the old
laptops around here.   He's always talking about geek stuff and
things.   'Cores', 'random access memory', 'five
hundred petabyte cloud state drives'."

"Am not." Ben pouted.

Intrepid wasn't sure if he could take more of
this.   Before Allison could talk more, he directed,
"So where's...  everybody?"

Allison and Ben looked at him curiously.

He continued, "Mara Mercury, Luke
Mercury, Red, ...me?"

Allison shrugged.   "Mara
just went to Guppy Forest.   I dunno who Luke Mercury is.   Red
was just here, and so were you.   The janitor and-"

"They went that way." Ben
interrupted, pointing to yet another doorway.
 "Red and Intrepid.   To
talk."  Intrepid recognized it.
 This one lead out.

"I was telling him about the
others." Allison protested.

"He didn't ask about anyone else."

Intrepid wondered what he'd see if he stepped
outside, but he remembered their other companion, and asked, "You wouldn't
happen to have any disinfection kits on you?"

"No idea what that is." Allison
said.

"I do." Ben told them.   "They were used in the war, but production
ended a long time ago.   We don't have any, but we have something that
can accomplish the same thing."  He turned to Allison, as if for
approval, and she raised her eyebrows.

"I don't think Intrepid wants us using
The Ring." she warned.

Intrepid had an idea.   "Well I'm Intrepid, and I'm authorizing
you to show Kate, Shadow, and Cyclone how to operate it.   Can
you use it, Ben?"

"I'm sure." the boy said with a
nod, and headed for his doorway.

"When Intrepid, our Intrepid, comes back
and yells at us, I'll tell him it's your fault." Allison said, giving him
the evil eye.   Cyclone appeared beside them, still looking
like a Stromling and also looking confused, perhaps awestruck by their
surroundings, and Shadow lead him around the tables to the doorway, while
Intrepid began walking for the door.

"Where are you going?" Kate asked
him.

"I have more questions." Intrepid
said briskly.   He made it to the door, but before moving to
open it, he noticed that Kate was behind him.
 "You shouldn't come."
he said.

Kate rolled her eyes.   "Don't get anti-social on me, Intrep.   I'm
forgiving you for abandoning me on that planet, so all things considered, we've
made it this far together."

"Great." Intrepid said.   "So when you hear something you don't
like, I'll make Red do the talking."  That was being hopeful.   *And*
maybe someone else*, Intrepid thought.*
 *Maybe this dimension's*
Intrepid Fusion Eclipse would be *more willing to share what he knew than*
Red.   Maybe he would understand him better.   Maybe
he could learn what was going on in this dimension, with Maelstrom Ore-stealing
kids and people trying to trick him, and how it affected his original dimension.   Maybe
this Intrepid knew more about his family, and Tiberius.

*Maybe maybe maybe.*

He would know by stepping out of this door.   It had
an old-fashioned brass door handle.   With a steady hand, Intrepid gripped it,
turned it, and swung the door open.   A shallow breeze entered the room.   Taking
deep breathes, Intrepid and Kate stepped through it.

The first thing Intrepid noticed was the snow
that coated the surface of the alleyway.
 It was as if, sometime between 3020
and 3050, Nimbus Station had become Frostburgh.
 In the Nimbus Station Intrepid
knew, the world never had more than dustings of snow during the holidays.   Here
there had to be a few inches.

*Crunch, crunch* was the sound his and
Kate's shoes made in the snow, even though it was already flattened by the
footsteps of others.   Kate suddenly pulled on his arm, and he heard voices
ahead, but they were hushed.   Turning around, he saw Kate had paused behind
a dumpster, and she gestured silently for him to crouch down as well.   Smart.   People
who already talking discreetly wouldn't want to know they were being watched.

Kate held a finger to her lips and Intrepid
nodded.   Then he peeked around the edge, his eyes
followed the footprints already tracked up the alley to a point twenty five
feet away, halfway to the street.   There stood Red, covered in her coat and hood.   In front
of her, partly obscured in the line of sight from their hiding place, stood a
taller man with black hair and a long coat of his own, his hands in his pockets.   His
face was dark in the shadow of an overhang.
 This man almost looked like his
father, from a time when he was slimmer.

Intrepid swallowed his anxiety.   He
knew who this man was.   So this was him in the future, or more
accurately, this was him in another dimension set in the future.   So he
did have some more vertical room to grow, Intrepid noted gladly.   This
man had to be in his late thirties, he calculated.   But
exactly how much of a difference twenty years could make, Intrepid could only
tell if he could get a closer look.

He considered adjusting his earpiece again to
snoop, but then someone would slam a dumpster and he'd lose his hearing for
good.   There were other objects in the alleyway
between himself and Kate and himself and Red.
 He might be able to dart over to
a closer one, if he picked the right spots in the snow to tread...

Kate poked him and Intrepid looked up.   Abruptly, his older self turned and left to
the street.   Then he was gone, and it was just him, Kate,
and Red.   By the way Red looked in their direction and
proceeded to approach them, Intrepid suspected she knew they were there.

His suspicion turned to confuzzlement when
she said, "He's gone, you can come out now."

Intrepid stood up, Kate as well.   "What do you mean?" he asked.   "I'm trustworthy, right?"

Red stopped and looked at the ground.   "I trust you, a lot.   Both
of you.   But Intrepid, your version from this dimension
doesn't know you're here.   What I've done by bringing you here is a
secret."

Kate glanced at Intrepid warily.   "Actually, we might not be so much of a
secret."

Red looked up.   "You've met the others?"

"Just..."  Intrepid tried to
remember their names, "Ben and Allison.
 They're trying to disinfect
Cyclone."

"With the ring?  That won't
work."  Red walked past them and waved a hand over the door's
fingerprint scanner.  "We'd best
stop them before they implode the dimensions." she said while it scanned.

Kate laughed.
 "You're a dramatic
one."  The scanner chirped and the door unlocked, while Red sighed.   Intrepid
didn't think she was being dramatic, and Kate frowned, doubting her words as
well.   "Imploding the dimensions...  sounds like destroying the universe.   That's
not a real danger, is it?" she asked.

Red sighed again.   "Actually, it is."

\*\*\*\*

  They found Ben, Shadow, and Cyclone in the junk room, which was more
cluttered than Intrepid remembered.   Allison Ryder was there was as well, and she
and the other three were standing at different points in the room.   It was
hard for them to stay together in this room, Intrepid knew, because navigating
the room was less like walking, more like wading through the towers of tools,
computer equipment, old artifacts, and canned food conglomerated within these
four walls.   Their arrangement was as haphazard as before,
and Intrepid made a mental note to do some housecleaning when they got back to
his Nimbus Station.

Intrepid stepped into a file cabinet and
nearly knocked over the air conditioning unit perched atop it.   "Wait." he said, holding out his
hands and looking around.   Everyone was standing in different places,
where should he look first?  "What are we looking for?"

"Oh, it's that thing." Kate said,
and Intrepid turned to see was pointing to.

She spoke of an object with a large circular
structure atop it, that stood ten studs tall with an equal diameter, more than
tall enough for a minifigure to step through.
 At the object's, or device's
sides were two control panels with levers, requiring two people to operate it.   Right
now only Bed stood by it, tinkering with its left side control panel.

"What is that?" Intrepid asked.   "I've never seen it before."

"It's some sort of teleportation device
from Nexus Tower." Kate explained.   "The Faction Leaders used it back when
Cyclone, Rover, Blade and I were infected.
 Cyclone and Blade had strong
Imagination sparks which created doubles of them, and the Faction Leaders used
the teleporter's portal to merge them."

"And it worked to disinfect you too?"
Intrepid asked.

Kate shook her head.   "No, that was separate.   They
used a disinfection room."

"Well I don't see any clones around
here, so why are we playing with this?" Intrepid questioned.

"That's exactly why we shouldn't."
Red said.   She took a look at the mess between herself
and Ben, then looked down at her TM device on her belt.

Intrepid expected her to warp over, but
instead she left it stowed, then proceeded to stomp very noisily across the
expanse.   Towers of junk tipped and stuff fell noisily.   Intrepid cringed as one tromp resulted in a
glass cracking sound, since what had glass, related to computers, and would be
kept in his storage room?  But Red kept going, finally getting to Ben and
she grabbed his shoulder.   Ben flinched at her touch, and Red said
firmly, "That's enough toying with things you don't know about."

Ben looked up from his work.   He'd
had the control panel off and was inspecting the wiring.   "We're trying to disinfect the
Stromling." he said.

"Didn't you hear what Kate said?
This isn't a disinfection device." Red said brusquely, waving a hand at
the teleportation device and nearly hitting it.
 "*It's probably the source*
of all our problems anyway*." she added under her breath, but Intrepid*
caught it.   Maybe Kate was right, Red *was* dramatic.   But
much like him, she didn't speak without reason, so Intrepid suspected there was
more to that sentence that she knew, and she ought to tell them.

"What do you mean, the source of
problems?" Intrepid inquired.   "What problems?"

"It's always questions with you."
Red snapped, glaring at him.

*Wow*.
 Intrepid thought, taken aback.   Red
was in a bad mood.   He was about to say something back, ideally
something snarky, when Kate somehow stepped in front of him and cut him off.   Intrepid let his mind calm and stepped back.   Kate
could read people - if anyone could get the truth out of Red, Intrepid would
bet on Kate.

"Listen, Red?  That's your
name?" Kate asked, and Red nodded.   "Right, so, you brought us here for some
reason, and none of us know what it is.   You're keeping us a secret from your father,
your Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, and none of us know why.   And
except for our Intrepid, who recognized something when you brought us here,
none of us knew where we were."

"We're at Leek Works." Intrepid
repeated.

"I know that." Kate said.   "My point is, Red - there's a lot we
don't know.   But there's a lot *you* know.   And it
would help all of us a LOT if you would tell us something.   You
need to help *us* help *you* - because that's why you brought us
here, isn't it?  To help you?"

Intrepid nodded to himself.   *Good*
job, Kate*.   It made sense.*
 And Kate was right.   Red
seemed less angry now, since her typical *poker-face was gone, and in fact*
she looked perturbed.   Why, Intrepid couldn't figure out, but maybe
she'd tell them now.

"Fine." Red said, lifting her chin
and straightening her posture.   "You're right, I did bring you here to
help me.   That doesn't mean you deserve to know
everything.   Intrepid has helped me in the past, and
there's a lot he doesn't know."

"I can attest to that." Intrepid
agreed.

"But there is a lot I can tell
you," Red continued, "and Kate, you're right, it will help you, and
me, if you understand what's going on."  She paused.   "Where should I start?"

## **Chapter 15**

"I think we have time to talk," Red said, sitting down.

A light snowfall had begun, the falling
flakes through the current room's skylight.
 Red, Intrepid, Kate, and Strange
Odd Shadow had all reconvened in a secret meeting room.   Ben
and Allison had left to try and craft a disinfection kit, and Cyclone was with
them.

This room was a new construction, Intrepid
noted, as well as much around it.   It was situated past a spiral hallway behind
Leek Work's main room, and accessible behind a smashable, then rebuildable wall
panel.   Very discreet.

Inside was a smooth gray table surrounded by
chairs, at which everyone else sat.   Intrepid looked around before sitting down.   There
was some sort of refrigerator on the far wall which reminded Intrepid that he
hadn't eaten in a day, and he went to look through it.

"You don't seem the type to have a lot
of time for chatter." Kate noted.   "Being a Transdimensional Agent must be
busy."

Red, who had explained her occupation on the
way to this room, nodded.   "Right.
 So, I have bad news."

Intrepid grabbed a soda and returned to the
table.   It was the only thing in the fridge he
recognized, everything else came in unidentifiable bags.   He
could survive on his consumables.   He took a swig of the dark liquid, turning to
face the sky, and nearly spat it out at hearing what Red said.   "Bad news?  This can't be
good." he grumbled.

"It's not." Red said.   "You're stuck here."

Except for the low hum of the generators that
powered the site, silence fell in the room.
 Intrepid turned to Kate, who
shared a glance with Cyclone, then Shadow.
 Then Intrepid turned to Red, and
he questioned, "What?"

"When my dad called me back here,"
Red explained, looking to everyone, "I heard in his voice that it was
because of a situation.   We've gone over situations before, including
one like this.   He confirmed it when I talked to him outside.   Leek
Works is suspending its transdimensional division."

Intrepid, Kate, and Shadows' eyes met, and
thay all turned to the transdimensional agent for an explanation.   "Why?" Intrepid asked.

Red procured her holographic projector and
set it in the middle of the table, and a 3D image of blue color appeared in the
air, and the room's lights automatically dimmed, and the skylight tinted.   "There's a space between dimensions we
call the Unverse," Red said, pointing to an empty spot in the image.   On it
there appeared to be a bunch of spheres, like bubbles.   They
all watched in interest, although Intrepid saw that Strange Odd Shadow had
returned to his secret sketch.

"The circles represent dimensions."
Red stated.   "For twenty years we've been
experimenting with transdimensional travel, for research, exploration, and in
recent years protection.   We started with the ring device you saw in the
storage room, which former leaders of the Nexus Force gave us after it
disbanded.   Last year we moved on to personal, wearable,
transdimensional devices."  She reached down to her belt and held up
her own transdimensional maneuverability device, then threw it on the table
with a thud.   "But not anymore."

Intrepid considered grabbing the thing, but
instead he studied the image.   Then Kate gasped.   "You're damaging the Unverse."

"Evidently." Red muttered, and
pointed again.   "So this is our dimension, but all these
little circles around it are holes.   Rips in the Unverse.   They
started popping up last year."

"So the new tech and the damage
coincide," Intrepid said, leaning over the table.   "But the rips seem more focused around
this other dimension, here."  He tried to touch a second, equally
sized circle to their dimension that was 'next' to it, but there was no tactile
feedback against a holographic depiction of this type, so he wasn't sure if
they saw what he was pointing at.

But they got the picture, because Red told
him, "That's the dimension we were just at.   The
one that's two years behind yours, twenty-two years behind mine."

"My dimension." Shadow said, and he
wrote something on his paper.

"Yeah, there are more holes around
it," Intrepid insisted, getting on the table and inching around to get a
better look.   "I bet they're causing it."

"Correlation doesn't equal
causation," Red said.

"Exactly.   It's
just coincidence that your new tech is employed at the same time."
Intrepid said.

"You never had any problems with the
ring, did you?" Kate asked.   "We have that in our dimension,
too."

"It was always reliable," Red
answered, "just awkward, heavy, and outdated.   But I
get what you're saying.   It is the same underlying theory powering both
the ring and our wearable devices.   It's classified, though."

"Both open a seam in the Unverse, the
ring within its perimeter, the wearable around its user." Intrepid
muttered.

Red wheeled on him.   "How'd you know that?"

Intrepid shrugged.   "Hey, I took mine apart, and I'm entitled
to, since I built these in your dimension.
 Didn't I?"

"No, it was Sandy Studs."

"I have no idea who that is."
Intrepid said.

"Nor is the name known to me!"
Shadow quipped.

Kate spoke up.   "He's one of Doctor Overbuild's
workers." she said.   When the others turned to her, she disclosed,
"One of the times I was in Nexus Tower, when Vanda Darkflame called for
me...  well," she continued with a
wry smile, "she left her computer unlocked and I wanted to know more about
the ring, so I read her classified files.
 Someone called Sandy Studs helped
build it."

"It's consistent with my dimension's
history," Red confirmed, looking up from a tablet.   "The records show Studs was with
Overbuild when he gave us the ring."

Shadow suddenly snapped his fingers.   "I remember Sandy Studs!" he said.

"What'd he do in your dimension?"
Intrepid asked.

Then Shadow frowned.   "It's left me.   I
forget."

"Well we know who he is, then."
Intrepid said.   "So when did you get the ring?" he
asked Red.

"When the war ended, and the Nexus Force
disbanded." Red repeated.   "The
Faction Leaders wanted to maintain a secret service so they hired us-"

"Yes, but when?" Intrepid pressed.   "What year?"

Red rolled her eyes.   "3026."

"And Kate," he continued,
"when did the Faction Leaders use the ring to disinfect you and
Cyclone?"

"Not disinfect." Kate corrected.   "*Re-merge*.   And it
was only used for Cyclone and Blade.   It was sometime in 3026."

Now Intrepid raised his hand, pinched his
fingers, and attempted to snap them ceremoniously.   But
they just slipped, and the result could barely be described as an audible, so
he failed.   Ignoring it, Intrepid said, "This is
consistent with my theory.   So the ring had to exist beforehand, for it to
be understood to work, for them to use it...
it had to be tested before."

"Maybe we were the test." Kate
suggested.

"*A* test, maybe." Intrepid
said.   "Did you happen to read about the ring's
history?"

"I only remember Sandy Studs." Kate
sighed.

"I remember him now!" Shadow cried.   A
second later he facepalmed.   "But I've forgotten again."

"I have access to the Nexus Force's
files on the ring," Red announced, pulling them up on her tablet.   "Overbuild gave them to us.   You're
right Intrepid, tests were run as early as 3025 and into 3026."

"Assuming our dimensions are
consistent," Intrepid concluded, "then our dimension's Nexus Force
ran tests in our 3025, and Shadow's dimension's Nexus Force ran tests in their 3025...  and are still doing so now.   And
they're doing something that's destroying the Unverse."

"It's a logical theory," Red admitted,
"but it's just a theory."

"But you've never had any problems
before-"

"I REMEMBER SANDY STUDS FOR
REAL!!!" Shadow shouted, standing up on his chair.   Intrepid, Red, and Kate all looked to him,
waiting for him to speak.   Shadow's mouth was open, he had a finger
pointed into the air, and he stared straight ahead as if he faced an imaginary
crowd.   And he was quiet.

Hoping he'd not forgotten again, Intrepid
prodded, "Well?"

Shadow's body seemed to crumple.   He
bent down and moved to resume a correct seating posture in his chair, and he
stared down upon the table, his gaze as cold as its metal.   He
looked ready to slump over, when he spoke.

"In my dimension," Shadow said
grimly, "Sandy Studs is dead."

The door suddenly fell apart into its
individual gray brick elements, which clattered and shook as they fell to the
floor.   Intrepid quickly spun to face the opening,
Kate and Shadow stood up as well, and he had just equipped his staff when the
first items began to pass through the doorway.

First a tin pail slid through, filled with
soapy water that sloshed and threatened to spill over and out.   Then
the end of a broomstick appeared, held in rubber gloved hands connected to the
thick, burly arms of an otherwise lanky man in a faded red T-shirt, and on his
legs he wore white, blue and gold amored pants that resembled those of a
sanitation worker.

Or an astronaut.

Or a Space Ranger.

"Don't mind me, I'm just cleaning
up." the man said as the door rebuilt itself.   He had
short light brown hair on top of his head, which was tilted down,
nonthreateningly, at the floor, as the broom head on the end of his stick
mechanically folded up along its aluminum circumference, and out of its hollow
interior came a bunch of straggy gray ropes attached to their own folding
spreader, which folded out to become a wide mop head.

*Or a janitor*, Intrepid realized.   He
relaxed and let his staff tip to the ground.
 The end of it touched the
linoleum.

"AAAARGH!" a loud scream filled the
air, and suddenly Intrepid was falling backwards.   He
didn't know what hit him, before he hit the ground painfully and saw stars.   When
he regained his vision, it was to the janitor screaming at him, and he was also
sitting on him.

"YOU SCRATCHED MY FLOOR!" the
janitor was wailing.   "MY BEAUTIFUL FLOOR!"

A thought came to Intrepid's head out of
nowhere.   *Is this guy insane?* he couldn't help
but wonder, trying but unable to budge under the janitor, who quickly shifted
to pin his arms.

Obviously the janitor had tackled him, but
he'd moved with amazing speed and given Intrepid's current situation, he
evidently knew how to subdue a target.

Intrepid craned his head to at least
comprehend the icon on his shirt.   It was of the pirates' skull and crossbones
flag, but with a forbidden sign over it.
 Under it was the remains of an
iron-on sticker, faded and worn with twenty years of washing, the text:
"No Pirates!"

Oh.   So he was a ninja as well.

"Get off!" Intrepid groaned.   "My dimensional counterpart is your
boss."

"Dimensional counterpart, eh?" the
Ninja Space Ranger Janitor chuckled.

Thinking of the fingerprint scanners,
Intrepid said, "I can fire you with a swipe of my hand!"

"Well with a swipe of my modified
Magical-Broom-Mop-Sword-Zipgun-and Arrows Combo Katana Staff that was
originally an Energy Sprok, you won't have any hands!"

"Chill, Skill." he heard Red say.   "Let him go."

The janitor proceeded to fluidly stand up,
thankfully without any poking jabs, off Intrepid.   "As you wish, my lady!" the janitor
said, and he even extended a hand down to help his previous captive up.   Intrepid took it begrudgingly.

"So you're the janitor?" Strange
Odd Shadow asked.

"Skilled Honored Ninja at your cleaning
service!" the janitor said, turning around to face Shadow and giving a bow.   "The best janitor in the galaxy."

Shadow folded his arms.   "Maybe second best." he declared.

Skilled Honored Ninja straigthened.   "And who's the first?"

"He's in this room!" Shadow hinted.

"Why, he's me!" Skilled said.

"Didn't you hear what I said?  If
you're second-best, and first-best is also here, then it can only be-"

"Everyone stop!" Red shouted.

Intrepid, who wasn't quite sure what to say
about all of this, let his mouth shut.   He glanced at Kate, who's jaw had also dropped
at the exchange.   They shared a glance and shrugged, when
suddenly Skilled turned to Red.

"Might I ask what are you doing
here?" he asked.   "The boss called for a meeting in
Briefing Room 1 five minutes ago, so with that one off-limits for cleaning, I
came here instead...  and you're all in
here."

"We didn't hear anything." Intrepid
said.

"It was on the private channels."
Skill said with a smirk, tapping the side of his head.

Red brought her hand to her ear and fiddled
with her earpiece.   "I didn't hear anything."

Intrepid couldn't help but listen.   He
didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.
 In fact, he didn't hear anything
at all.   The ambient light suddenly seemed especially
dim in the room...  not just dimmed, but
unpowered.   As for the ambient sound...

Leek Works was powered by generators,
massive, loud, thudding, but scarcely audible due to their placement tens of
feet underground.

He didn't hear them now.

"Someone's bamboozling us."
Intrepid realized with horror.   "We're in trouble."  He ran for
the door, Kate, Red, Strange Odd Shadow, and Skilled Honored Ninja behind him.

They split up as soon as they entered the
spiral hallway.

“I’m finding Cyclone!” Kate called, dashing
down one direction, while Shadow, Red, and Skilled headed the other way.  Intrepid spun around, debating who he should
be with.  Kate could take care of
herself, right? But Red wanted him to keep an eye on her.

Fate chose for him when the section of
corridor between him and Kate collapsed from the ceiling downwards, and the
walls fell inwards.  Concrete slabs
crumbled and fell in, blocking the path and the air filled with dust.  Through the falling rocks Intrepid made out
Kate’s running silhouette still departing farther, but now they were seperated.

By who?

Out of the new hole in the ceiling descended
a rope, and then two familiar people slid down.

“Oh no,” Intrepid thought aloud.  “Not you again.”

Cailan and Crimson Crateris stepped out of
the rubble.  They did a double take upon
noticing their company.  “I knew you
should have detonated the next section,” Cailan stated.  He assumed a defensive stance and his weapons
whirred as they charged up.

“You two were transporting a Maelstrom Shard
before?” Intrepid queried.  His eyes
darted between them.  He could fight
myriads of Stromlings in a day.  These
were two, evidently combat trained, minifigures.  He didn’t risk a glance behind him, but he
didn’t hear Red and the others.  So he
was alone with these two psychopaths.  He
took a step backwards.  “Where’d you drop
that off?”

“With our client.” Cailain replied.  His sister slapped him, and they both began
to advance.

“So what are you getting now?” Intrepid
asked, stalling.  He imagined the rest of
his Bat Lord gear in his backpack, ready to be equipped.  He could don them in half a second, but it
would take less than that for the sibling duo to rush him.

Cailain showed a sidelong glance at Crimson,
but they both kept walking steadily to Intrepid, and with the spiral shape of
the hallway, he was bound to back into a wall soon.  “It’s a surprise.” Cailain said.

“How’d
you get here anyway? Red said all the Transdimensional Devices were remotely
disabled.” Intrepid began to turn his feet, and move a little bit faster.  The Craterises sped up, maintaining an
equadistant relative position to him as before.

That brought a smile to Crimson’s face as
well, but it was a malignant one.  “Silly
Red.” Crimson said mockingly.  “We’re
outside of the Nexus Government’s jurisdiction; Overbuild’s dimensional kill
switch can’t touch our tech.  Your
dimensional counterpart is probably mighty crossed at how much power they have
over his, supposedly, own organization.”

“I can still hear his anger from the last
time he chewed *us* out.” Cailan said with a fake shiver.

“We recovered and moved on to better things,”
Crimson whistled, sounding reminiscent.  Sounding
*distracted*.  “-but our father
didn’t.”

“That’s why he quit.” Cailain said with a
nod.

Whatever the two were thinking about, it made
them slow their walk, and Intrepid added half a feet to their distance.  But he needed them to maintain their lack of
focus.  “Oh, and who’s your dad?” he
prompted.  One foot.  Two feet.

“The one and only Luke Mercury!” Cailan said,
looking up and back at Intrepid.  He
noticed that increased gap that had amassed between them.  He began to run, but Intrepid had all the
space he needed.

In half a second Cailan was halfway to him,
but Intrepid’s Bat Lord gear flew out of his backpack and equipped itself to
him.  He felt his imagination power
amplified by the suit.

He pulled his right arm back and prepared to
deliver a striking blow, poking Cailan right in the chest and the bat wings
grabbed, stunning him, and he swung Cailan into the wall.

Then Intrepid bumped into the wall that was
behind him.

“Bricks.” he muttered as Cailan’s body armor
lit up, and a repulsive surge pushed Intrepid’s staff away.  Then Cailan ducked, and over his head
appeared Crimson, poised in a flying kick.

Intrepid speed-dove to his left and the girl’s
boots, from the soles of which portruded spikes, smashed into the wall.  The tiling shattered and she launched off,
twisting in the air to land on the ground.
Both stood up and aimed their weapons at Intrepid, but it was too late.

Running towards them, Intrepid activated his
shield slam and swung the shield ahead of him.
The imagnation within expanded its impact zone beyond its physical
dimensions, catching both Craterises and sending them flying down the hallway.  Crimson skidded on the ground while Cailan
bounced off the curved wall, back towards the rubble.  Intrepid quickly speed boosted and turned
tail, running at a speed of several meters per second back into the computer
room, where Red, Shadow, and Skilled were.

“Where were you?!” she shouted.

“We have company!” Intrepid shouted back, and
turned around to face the doorway.

He didn’t take into account that with a
transdimensional maneuverability device his targets could attack from anywhere.

This time they came from above.

## **Chapter 16**

To sum up his thoughts on the situation,
Gallant Strong Cyclone was very confused.

"So it's probably weird, that you're a
Stromling," the brown haired girl, Allison Ryder, chattered away.   "Aren't the Maelstrom kind of extinct
now?  Don't Stromlings hear each others' voices in their heads?  Do
Stromlings even have telepathy- do Stromlings even talk?"

"I can talk." Cyclone said
indignantly.   "Because I'm a minifigure."
Although when he thought about it, he had heard another Stromling talk, before
it got smashed.   Then he almost got smashed.   He
shuddered to think about it, although he was saved by...  Kate, was it?  She said they were
friends, but he'd never met her.   She was pretty, though.

"Yeah so what do Stromlings think
about?" Allison asked.   "About serving the Baron, or smashing
things, or infecting people..."

Cyclone rolled his eyes.   "I don't know what Stromlings think
about."

"But you're infected, so, shouldn't you
be, becoming, you know, thinking all evil things about now?  No offense
intended of course,"

"I still feel the same." Cyclone
said.

"I once asked my dad about
Stromlings," another voice said, and Cyclone looked up at him.   Ben,
the young auburn haired boy, had been going from file cabinets to bookshelves,
looking through the Leek Works archive room to find anything on disinfecting
Stromlings.   So far he hadn't found anything, because he
was still scuttling between drawers, running his fingers over book bindings,
and occasionally grabbing a book and opening it, but only to put it back.

"My dad said he had friends who were
infected, and disinfected." Ben continued, speaking while he worked on his
search.   "And they talked together, about being
infected, and the thing about my dad's friends...  they were special.   Something
kept them from being infected immediately.
 They told him that they always
maintained free thoughts, but began to experience evil 'urges', that became
stronger the longer they were infected."

With nothing left to say, Ben closed his
mouth, so the only noise from him was the bumping and clinking of drawers
sliding open and shut on their metal rails.

"I wonder who his friends were."
Allison mused aloud.

"Yeah, me too." Cyclone agreed, as
Ben stood up to walk and disappeared around a wall into the other part of the
archives room.   "Who's his dad?"

Now Allison rolled her eyes.   "It's not obvious?  Oh, I guess not,
since they don't look much alike.   But then again, neither does Red.   Red
hair seems to be the dominant gene with this guy.   The
boss of this place.   Intrepid Fusion Eclipse."

"*He's* their dad?" Cyclone
asked, surprised.   He pictured Intrepid...  he couldn't be older than seventeen.   He shook
his head, flabbergasted.   "*What*?"

"Yep!" Allison confirmed.

"Isn't he a little, you know,
young?" Cyclone queried.

"Oh, you're thinking about the wrong
guy!  Dimensions are so confusing!" she laughed, then continued.   "Yeah, no, we're talking about *our*
Intrepid Fusion Eclipse.   He's twenty years older than your Intrepid.   Yeah,
I can see why you'd be confused...  that'd
be strange really, ugh, don't make me think about-"

"So Ben and Red are brother and
sister?" Cyclone asked.

"Half-siblings."

"Oh.
 Why's that?"

"Everyone's always yelling at me that
I'm talking too loudly," Allison said suddenly, and she glanced towards
the corner around which Ben was.   Then she grabbed Cyclone's hand, the hand that
wasn't a literal sword arm, and pulled him surprisingly soundlessly into the
hallway.   There wasn't a door to close so Allison just
held a finger up to her lips.

"What's the matter?" Cyclone asked
hushedly, worried by her sudden discreetness.

"What I'm about to talk to you
about," Allison whispered, "this subject, isn't something the rest of
us talk about much.   It's like an unspoken rule, saying it's
forbidden to talk about our personal lives.
 Actually not our, plural,
personal lives, but the boss's."  She shivered and grabbed her shoulders.   "I feel like I'm breaking a rule even
telling you about the rule!  You know that feeling?"

"I guess so," Cyclone said, trying
to understand.   "Why are we hiding from Ben,
though?  Is his mom...?" He didn't dare finish the grave thought.

"No, not her.   Not
Mara, she's very alive.   She's the boss's second wife, after..."
Allison gulped.   "...after Red's mom...  died.   She died a long time ago.   You
won't find anything about it outside Leek Works, though.   It's
not even in the main archives."

"It's expunged?" Cyclone figured.   "Why?"

"The only files are in the boss's
personal office, and no one's read them.
 I certainly haven't."
Allison explained.   "It's almost romantic.   But
they're really all hidden away because of the nature of her death.   Except
the boss, only the faction leaders know the details about it, and they said to
hide it.   Not to cause fear, since the war was
over..."

"It had to do with the war?"
Cyclone asked.

"Yeah.
 It was in our 3034 when it
happened..." she leaned in close to Cyclone's ear.   "A rift opened between our dimension, and
another dimension, where the Maelstrom won the war.   The
boss's team was the first to respond.   But then the Darkitect himself appeared….”

"You said it was a secret," Cyclone
recalled.   "If Red's mother's death was a secret,
how do you know so much?  You couldn't have been there, in 3034...  fourteen years ago?  You'd be what,
three?"

Allison sighed.   "Well, that's actually why I'm here.   I
don't really work with Leek Works the way the others do.   They,
Red, Ben, his mom, her brother - when he did work here, he left - and the boss,
and the others; they have a cause, to help the Nimbus System's citizens, and
all minifigures across the universe.   But I've never really understood the conflict.

"I kind of, well, work for the boss
himself." Allison said.   "And it's because of what happened to
Red's mom.   I’ve never told anyone else what I’m doing
here."

She grabbed Cyclone's head and whispered
directly into his ear again.   The words she said, not just because of the
close whisper she said them in, made no sense to Cyclone when he heard them.

He said so.
 “I don’t understand.” Cyclone
said.

Allison smiled.   “You’re not supposed to.”

As soon as the words exited Allison's mouth,
a loud BANG sound came from around the hallway, followed by the crumbling and
rattling of small bits and pieces of concrete hitting the floor.

Cyclone spun around.   It
wasn't a fiery explosion, since there was no heat or flames, but something had
broken apart - a thin cloud of dust billowed out from around the bend of the
spiral hallway's curve, and it slowed down as it approached them.

Then, like a ghost, someone ran out of the
dust field.   Cyclone stepped back, Allison as well, before
he recognized the girl who had rescued him before.   It was
Kate.   She skidded to a stop and rested her hands on
her knees, gasping.

"Man I'm out of shape," Kate
panted, "and Intrepid said we were under attack."

Cyclone turned to Allison, who looked like
she'd just seen a ghost, but she brought a hand to her ear and removed a small
earpiece to inspect it.   A green LED on it flashed.   "My comm's on, but I didn't hear
anything."

"Not your Intrepid," Kate
clarified, "my Intrepid.   He went the other way, and then the ceiling
broke, so we can't go back that way.   Is there another way around?"

"It's a spiral hallway," Allison
said, "but there is a door and a connecting hallway-"

"Good, let's go!" Kate said,
grabbing Cyclone's right hand and tugging.
 The left side of his body
suddenly felt heavy, and when he glanced down, he saw with sadness that his
left arm had reverted to a blade again.   How did it change?  What made it
change?  But now Kate was pulling him down the hallway so he didn’t have
much time to think.

"I'll get Ben!" Allison cried after
them.

"Who's attacking us?" Cyclone
asked.

"No idea," Kate muttered.   "Can't say I know anything about
dimensions, what's going on, and what's with Intrepid?  Whoever knows, I
sure don't."

"Apparently he marries someone named
Mara in the future." Cyclone recalled what Allison said.

"Mara?  Oh, her.   Red
hair.   That makes sense, when Allison said Red was
his daughter.   Since they’re both redheads."

"Well actually-" Cyclone was cut
off when they approached the aforementioned door and Kate pressed a button,
sliding it open.

But instead of looking into an empty
connecting hallway, they found themselves looking into a full connecting
hallway.

Full of Stromling Mechs.

"1T I5 T1M3 F0R Y0U T0 D1E." the
first one said, swinging its barrel around to face them through the door.   Kate
slammed the door.   "Where did they come from?" she
shouted.   Cyclone raised his blade arm while Kate's bow
unfolded into a shield, which she held in front of them for the inevitable
explosion.

The Mech's energy blast did strike the door,
blasting it out of its frame to bounce off her shield.   It
transformed back into a bow and she launched flaming arrows into the hallway,
which quickly engulfed the close quarters within its walls and the mechs began
to smash.

"444444HHHHHHHHH!"
"4444HHHHHHHHHH!"  "444444HHHH!" the mechs' robotic
voices echoed as they smashed into turret quickbuilds.   As
soon as the imagination flames died down, and the hallway was clear, Kate and
Cyclone pushed through.

Kate ushered Cyclone over to the door at the
end of the connector, and she gave her sword a spin before triggering the door
to slide open.   Immediately flashes of weapons fire began to
enter the hallway through the increasing gap, and sounds of combat reached
Cyclone's ears.

"Stay back," Kate warned.   "If you smash, you're dead."
Cyclone nodded, then she leapt into the fray.

Intrepid Fusion Eclipse was on the ground
inside a tent of overturned tables, outside of which Skilled Honored Ninja and
Cailan Crateris battled.   Red and Strange Odd Shadow were exchanging
melee attacks with Crimson, who kept jumping out of the reach of Shadow's
wrenches and dodging Red's blasters, and bounding back with powered punches
that would have knocked anyone else out already, but they were resilient.   Skilled's broom had transformed into an Energy
Spork, and he braced and spun the double handed weapon to block Cailan's
flipping kicks, and suddenly he delivered a strike that knocked the boy flying
across the room.   He fell over a table and crumpled to the
ground.

Before the janitor could move in for a followup
strike, Crimson suddenly rebounded off Shadow's chest and flew over the rows of
tables, twisting in the air to grab Skilled's head, her momentum pulling him
off course, but before they hit the ground a rift appeared in front of her
trajectory.   They both fell in, and Red squeezed the
triggers of her weapons while Kate, running to join Red and Shadow, launched an
arrow into the void.   Then the exit portal appeared in the ceiling
above the three of them, out of which flew the hail of blaster fire and a
flaming arrow, which they only barely dodged.
 Then Skilled fell out, landing
squarely on Shadow, and Crimson followed to plant her boots on Red's shoulders.   With a
jump, Red was sent sprawling across the ground.

Crimson double jumped and landed victoriously
atop a remaining table, then turned to face the last one standing for the
moment.   "I don't think we've met?  Shame
we'll never get to get to know each other." she taunted to Kate, tilting
her head to each side and stretching her arms outwards, before bringing her
gauntlets together with a clang.

In response, Kate smirked and mounted the
table row opposite her opponent.   Her bow transformed into a shield, and she
held her katana in front of her, assuming a dueling stance.   "Get to know this." she challenged,
poking the tip of her blade ever so slightly, while maintaining a perfectly
controlled balance atop the otherwise teetering structure.

Cyclone watched as Kate launched herself
across the divide and into an attack, and he heard the scrape of metal weapons
against each other, and that was all he heard from that room as he had to turn
around, because he also heard a scuttling sound from behind which required his
immediate attention.

A Dark Spiderling had entered the hallway and
was sidling around the smashed mech parts.
 Approaching him.

Cyclone gulped.   It was
a Spiderling that had infected him.   He felt an irrational fear: had that one
returned to finish the job?

Instead of attacking, preparing to attack, or
even looking threatened, the Spider continued to trot towards him.   Suddenly having an idea, Cyclone raised a hand.   "Stop!" he ordered in the gruffest
voice he could muster.   Surprisingly, the Spiderling did come to a
halt, but its forelegs twitched slightly, asking to proceed, or asking for a
reason not to.

*Think*, Cyclone thought hard.   Well,
the Maelstrom was here, and they'd tried to attack them...  and these two crazies were here, he could
still hear the girl and Kate exchanging blows, and they were attacking them.   So
that could mean...

"Our allies have this room
covered." Cyclone stated.   "Head back and patrol that way."

The Spiderling nodded.   Then
its fangs parted, its mouth opened, and it did something Cyclone didn't think
Spiderlings could do.   The dark creature actually spoke, and it
enunciated its syllables, the few there were, pretty well.   "Got it."

Then it turned around and headed out into the
spiral.

Wondering what use he could be, Cyclone
contemplated the situation.   One hit from a gauntlet would smash him
permanently, since he was infected and couldn't rebuild.   He
could be noticed by an ally who didn't know better, and be smashed that way,
and that wouldn't be nice.   But there was only one other way into the
hallway, and he could move farther down it and still be in a position to deter
any other Maelstrom reinforcements.

Perhaps he could use his current state to
learn more about the Maelstrom's objectives in this facility.

He looked back furtively, to see that Kate
was holding her own and that the others were beginning to recover.   Without another glance, he darted down the
hall and followed the Spiderling's clattering steps, deeper into the
facility....

**Intermission**

The council consisted of men and women,
wisened with age - or just aged.   Twelve of the thirteen seated on their
elevated chairs across the oval table were veterans of the war.   Prime
Minister Albert Overbuild, Minister of Defense Brick Fury, Minister of Housing
Autumn Helix, and former president Duke Exeter were easily recognizable names
to the older, adult citizens of the Nimbus Republic.   Having
seen their fight first hand, and a decade later having helped his children with
their government class homework, Intrepid Fusion Eclipse knew everyone in this
room.   He came before them now to yell at them.

Intrepid finished his tirade.   He
leaned over the table, chest heaving, but at thirty-five years old he could go
at this for awhile.

Albert Overbuild had risen from his chair,
and on his cybernetic legs he descended to Intrepid's level.   He
stopped a foot away from his edge of the table, opposite the younger man.   He
considered how to approach him for a moment, and when he did he began, "I
speak for the council, when I remind you, we have heard and we continue to
value your thoughts."

"Like dirt you do!" Intrepid shot
back.

"HEAR ME OUT." Overbuild thundered.   The
doctor was usually calm, but nobody flinched at the outburst.   Hearing his voice boom across the chamber had
become common in these meetings.   "The damage to Unverse is
unignorable." he said, lower now.   "The only lead is your operations.   Ceasure is the only option."

Intrepid took a deep breath, steadying
himself.   Overbuild's mind was always in silent,
underappreciated control of his words and volume.   It
took some steeling for Intrepid to maintain similar command, not just over
himself, but over the situation.

He turned to look up, from Autumn Helix to
Epsilon Starcracker, to Duke Exeter, and across all the other heads and secretaries
down to the current sitting president.

"You have no proof." he said
flatly.

*"We can't sit back and do nothing*
while *damage continues to be done.   Trans-dimensional travel is still on the*
agenda, but if we can't perfect it now, we need to make sure it's still an
option in the future."

*"For our children."*

*"But-"*

*"For that reason the council has*
voted *to suspend all Transdimensional missions.   This*
is final."

*"There is still Maelstrom-"*

*"We have adequate defense for any*
further incursions."

*"You don't need to take this*
personally, *but I have faith in our armed forces."*

*"I'M NOT AND I DON'T!"*

*"Proceed with the remote*
deactivation."

*"This is- you're- making a grave*
mistake!"

*"You have five minutes to recall your*
agents.   This meeting is adjourned."

*\* \* \* \**

## **Chapter 17**

*Don't dwell on the past, Intrepid*, the
black haired, black trench coat wearing man reminded himself.   Even
if the past was only ten minutes ago.   It wasn't easy, *but*, he resolved,
running a hand through his hair to scratch an itch, there was nothing he could
do about it anymore.   He shoved his empty soda away, wiped his
stubble, thanked the vendor, and stood up.

Intrepid left the cafe on Vendor Street and
headed back to Leek Works.   He used to go to this place with Luke Mercury
and Mara Mercury all the time.   But that was dwelling on the past.   Now,
at least Red was back safely, Ben had made sure of that, while he had gone to
mope here after talking to her.

As he headed down the sidewalk he wondered if
Mara had caught up to the fugitives.   He thumbed the little dial on his earpiece
back to subspace mode, and signalled her.

"We're back to normal
communication." he said.   "The president was harsh."

"No wonder I couldn't bring you up on
subdimensional channels.   So it's done." Mara's reply was staticky.   "As for the mission, I did attempt to
reason with them, but they said they were coming back to base anyway.   What's
that supposed to mean?"

Intrepid shook his head at the ground ahead
of his walking feet.   "Kids these days." he muttered.   "I haven't a clue.   Well,
take your rocket, remember how to fly that? - and head back.   I'll
see what's going on."

"Love you!" she responded, and
ended the call.

He phoned Leek Works next, but the line
didn't even crackle with any interference, because there wasn't a line.   There
was nothing.   Intrepid quickened his pace, and for a second
he considered activating his Bat Lord helmet and speeding away...  except that was back in his office, in
storage, with the rest of his gear where he last left it years ago.   He
imagined the contents of his trench coat's pockets instead.   He had
a snapsickle.   That would work instead.   He
pulled it out of his pocket and out of its wrapper...  it was old and half-melted and sticky.   Grimacing, he let it touch his face.

Suddenly he felt like his body was being
pulled forwards, just his nerves and stomach and skin, leaving his skeleton
behind.   Then all of him was mashed back together in
the middle of Leek Work's computer room.

"Ben?" he called, almost falling
down from the inertia that stayed with him.
 With one hand he reached for a
table, at least to balance himself, and with the other he rubbed his eyes.   As
soon as Intrepid's head stopped spinning, he opened them and spun around to
survey the room.   His jaw dropped.

What.

The.

Brick.

Had happened to this place.

This place was DESTROYED.   Every
table except that which he leaned on was overturned or nonexistant.   The
computers...  ugh.   Blast
points adorned the ceiling, walls, and floor.
 Leek Works looked like it'd been
transformed into a warzone, and its people...

"BEN!" he shouted, but as with
before, he received no response.   Who else was here?  "Red?
Allison?  Tiberius?"  Everyone had to be elsewhere.   He ran
for the connecting hallway and slid that door open, to see it looking no
better, and the doorway on the other end looked pretty door-less.   All
sorts of mechanical parts littered the hallway, like someone overturned a metal
recycling bin in there.   Someone would need to clean that up.

That reminded Intrepid of one more person to
call.   Too bad he couldn't remember his name.   He was
never good with complex names.   "Number One Janitor?" he shouted
into the spiral hallway.   He held his breath.

"Yes!" a voice responded.

Intrepid exhaled in relief, and ran through
the hallway.   "What the brick is going on?" he
shouted.

As soon as he got through the doorway, he was
nearly hit by a stray blast of laser fire, but he saw it out of the corner of
his eye and ducked.   Intrepid swung his head to see the blast
strike the wall behind him, and proceed to infect it.

*Maelstrom*.   They
were all over the hallway, battling it out with some minifigures who looked
like they came out of a Nexus Force themed costume party.

Again, Intrepid thought about activating a
Shield Slam and sending the closest bunch of Stromlings to heaven.   But
again, he didn't have the corresponding gear.
 He had other stuff though.   A Long
Sword appeared in his hand.

Months of research and development had
created this ultimate weapon, based on a copy of his Uncle Killian's own legendary
sword.   Yelling out a battle cry, Intrepid swung the
sword and a wave of fire expanded out from its path, passing through everything
and everyone in the hall and smashing the weakest ones.   Stromlings and Mechs smashed on contact.   Intrepid then launched himself forwards,
vaulting over a fallen cabinet to thrust the sword towards the next closest
enemy, a Spiderling, which fired a web.   The sword gleamed electrically and the web
turned to dust, doing nothing to protect the Spiderling from its attacker or
his weapon.   It was felled as well.

"YOU ALL WANT TO FIGHT?!" Intrepid
roared.   He gave his sword several aimless spins, and
spurts of fire spun out in all directions.
 The Maelstrom horde, now
consisting only of Spiderlings, an Ape, and some Chainsaw and Hammer Stromlings
proceeded to turn tale and run down the other way of the hallway.

"Ha." Intrepid let his sword fall
and planted his feet triumphantly.   That felt good.   He
could chase them, but the base defenses should smash them anyway.   Come
to think of it, the base defenses should have smashed them already.   He
listened, but except for the hiss of imagination leakage from busted pipes and
the small crackling of aflame remains...
there was nothing.   The generators were silent.

Intrepid turned around to face the other
fighters for the first time.   There was the janitor he recognized, in his
Space Ranger pants and a No Pirates shirt, holding his Energy Spork.   There
was a guy dressed up as a Rank 3 Assembly Engineer.   Strange and odd, considering every engineer he
knew from the war had upgraded to Rank 7 during the last Maelstrom attack.   Then
there was a Sentinel Samurai girl, who-

Intrepid did a double take.

No.

It couldn't be.

The hairs on the back of his neck tingled and
he aimed his sword behind him to incinerate the Chainsawling that dared sneak
up on him.   Then he turned around for real, not to make
sure there was nothing left, but because he couldn't face these people.

*Red*, he thought with gloomy
realization.   *Why would you do this to me?*

Thinking of her, Intrepid asked, without
looking back, "Where's the others?"

The voice who answered "Yes!" to
his number one janitor question answered, "They went downstairs, to follow
the Craterises.   But then we got jumped by these
Maelstrom."

A door, to the archive room, suddenly opened
to Intrepid's side but he didn't aim his sword at the intruder.   Out of
the sleeves of her sweatshirt extended a frying pan each, and behind her he
recognized his son.   Just Allison and Ben.   "What'd we miss?" she asked.

"Stay in there!" Intrepid ordered.   "What did Cailan and Crimson do?"

"They attacked us." the Samurai
reported.   Intrepid didn't need to turn around to know it
was her, or to know it was her who spoke.
 "Intrepid and Red followed
them."

Intrepid closed his eyes.   "Stay here." he reiterated.   The
taste of snapsickle was still on his tongue, and he teleported himself to Leek
Work's basement.

All it took was one swing of his sword to
send a wave of rooting over everyone in the room.   Intrepid opened his eyes, and by luck, it was Luke
Mercury's son who stood right in front of him.
 He stared at Intrepid with his
eyes and jaw wide open in shock.

"Good to see you too, Cailan."
Intrepid muttered.   He turned around, looked around a tower of
milkcrates, and stepped over the unfinished concrete flooring to reach the next
person, Red, and undo the imagination trap that had grabbed her feet.   "Are you alright?" he asked, and she
nodded.

The basement lighting had switched to
auxiliary, which consisted of ages old yellow incandescent bulbs.   They
hadn't been seen working since the base's construction, so they weren't changed
with everything else.   They provided a dim glow across the level's
expanse, casting several shadows around each cylindrical support.   Intrepid sauntered past Crimson and gave her a
friendly punch on the shoulder, before proceeding along the wall past the
stairs to the upper levels, to the doorway into the generator room.   He
heard raised voices from inside, and he stopped.

"You know what?" Intrepid said,
spinning around.   All three young persons stared at him.   "Red, put these two in containment.   Then
get these generators back online.   I'll be in my office."  The
snapsickle was entirely gone and he decided he didn't like the
spine-compressing feeling of its travel anyway, so he returned to the steps,
leaving Red to figure out how to transport these two into cryogenic pods.   To
make it easier, he unholstered a stun gun and incapacitated both of his wife's
cousin's kids.

Then the man disappeared up the dark stairs.

\*\*\*\*

After getting the unconscious bodies of
Cailan and Crimson Crateris into two of the few Nexus Force-spec cryogenic pods
Leek Works had in its basement, Red leaned back against a dormant one and
rested.   The fight was exhausting, both physically and
mentally.   When she looked through the glass at the two
sleeping minifigures, she almost saw them the way her father did:
nonthreatening children, harmless, deserving of a second chance when they made
mistakes - the same way she saw them a long time ago, when that perception was
a fact.   How could such people, who were so innocent
before, cause so much trouble now?

Red sighed.
 The generators were still down,
so without their usual thudding reverberating around the subterranean room, she
still heard, in their place, the two voices arguing.   It
just so happened that the same room they were arguing in was the generator control
room, so she went there to question why they hadn't been restarted yet.

"Calm down, you two." Red scolded
as soon as she caught sight of Intrepid, who was facing an elderly minifigure
who had to be in his late sixties or seventies.
 That man sat on a spinning chair,
currently aimed at Intrepid, turned away from a large full size entertainment
center full of displays and charts, and a Nexus Force Plaque reconditioned into
a sort of control board.   Those were the controls for the generators.

The man was tall, appearing almost
disproportionately so, due to his incredibly thin torso hugged by a well-fitted
gray suit.   It fit him so tightly, even the shape of his
ribs could be seen through the cloth, and his arms were frail.   The
man's body had evidently not aged well, yet on his face he wore a smile.   Folding her arms, Red couldn't help but smile
as well, for as long as she could remember, Great Uncle Tiberius could put
anyone in a good mood.

Not Intrepid, though.

Their conversation had transpired as follows:

"You!" shouted Intrepid, upon
recognizing this man.   For while he had never seen him before, there
were features of his face he recognized as familial.   He
shared eyes, eyebrows, and a nose with both Intrepid's father and Uncle Killian,
while underneath his wrinkled skin his jawbone was a bit thinner, more like
that of grandma Lucille Talmid's slender face.
 His hair, a pepper colored gray,
may have been black once.

But this man was not Abe or Killian Talmid,
and despite being the same age as grandpa Ben Talmid, with the twenty-year
dimensional difference and things, this man was *not* grandpa Ben Talmid.   So who
else could he be?

This man could only be the arcane Tiberius
Talmid himself.

Tiberius Talmid had responded to Intrepid's
exclamation of, "You!" and corresponding jab of his pointing finger,
with a charismatic smile.   "I am afraid I have forgotten to take my
meds today!" Tiberius said.   "Because I seem to be hallucinating my
favorite nephew as a little boy!"  He laughed at his own joke.

"You," Intrepid repeated,
"have a lot to tell me."

"Apologies," Tiberius tapped the
side of his head.   "I stopped talking to imaginary friends
when my brother Killian was still infantile, and I saw him 'conversing' with
characters out of story books, and he looked like such a fool!  So that's
when I resolved to *not* appear so stupid, so excuse me while I abide by
that now."

In the corner of his eye, Intrepid noticed
that Red had entered, and he whirled on her.
 "What is he doing
here?" he demanded.

"Uncle Tiberius works for Leek
Works." Red said.   "He built the generators for this
place."

Tiberius turned to Red and squinted.   "You're a lil' young to be hallucinating
too, darling."

Red looked at the ground and managed to
stifle a laugh, while she explained, "It really is your nephew, Uncle, but
from another dimension.   The one I told you about."

"So it is, I knew it all along, I was
just messing with you." the old man said with a grin at both, then he spun
his chair around to face his control panel.
 "The generators are indeed
my brainchildren.   Such oxymorous creations; debatably
hypocritical; even Paradox said it could not be done, accomplishing what I
have!  Hmmm, it would seem the problem is a power drain!  Someone has
siphoned my generators.   You two," he ordered, without turning
away from his work, "you're young and strong, able-bodied and capable.   Go
refill the generators."

"Got it." Red said, and pulled
Intrepid out of the room before he could protest.

"I wanted to ask him what he knew about
saving my family." Intrepid complained as she lead him away, but not
disheartened, he still followed the back of her cloak over to the generators
themselves, hidden behind a concrete half-wall in the most far-off corner of
the basement.

Intrepid looked at the generators.   There
were two, looking like sets of large discs suspended in metal frames, facing
each other.   There were intake tubes at their bases.   They
definitely *weren't* the same generators that powered his fledgeling
version of Leek Works, and looked so alien in a room he otherwise knew the
layout of.

"He probably wouldn't tell you, since
whatever your dimension's Tiberius is up to, would be twenty years ago for
mine." Red said ruefully, as they approached a locked sliding door next to
the generators.

“What do you mean?” Intrepid asked.

Red explained, "He's worked here since I
was born, but he doesn't talk about what he did before then.   Not
truthfully, I mean.   He tells a lot of stories, but very few are
from back then.   And they're all tall stories.   Like
the one where he became king of some distant country, and fought a dragon
singlehandedly, and pledged his life to the Darkitect… pretty farfetched."

Intrepid nodded with understanding, not
really understanding though, while Red unlocked the door.   But he
had some ideas.   "Huh." he said.   "Almost like he wants to forget his
past...  mistakes?  If he's
straightened out *now*, I should probably worry about what my Tiberius is
up to."

"He's your uncle though," Red
reminded.   "And saving your family doesn't seem so
bad."

"Yeah, but they're dead.” Intrepid
stated.   “And evidently his plan doesn't work, since I
don't see my dad, mom, or sisters around here."

"And look what happened to Luke
Mercury's kids." Red agreed with a sigh.
 The door let out a click as it
unlocked and began to slide open.

Inside this side room were several gray
cylindrical containers.   Some were stacked on shelves and others just
in a pile on the floor.   They were all unmarked, not even wearing
"DANGER" or "FLAMMABLE" warnings like any approved fuel
source would.   Red handed one to Intrepid, it was large and
weighty but liftable, and the surface was cold to the touch.

"So what's this stuff?" he asked.

"I'd have to mind wipe you if I told
you." Red warned.

Intrepid rolled his eyes.   "Seriously?"

"No.
 Just promise not to tell anyone.   The
council has enough scrutiny on us."  Shifting her hold on her own
container to one hand, Red switched off her communicator and stepped over to
Intrepid's side.   She whispered into his ear.   "The stuff is refined Maelstrom
ore."

## **Chapter 18**

Intrepid took a few moments to rhetorically
pick his jaw off the floor, as it had dropped in response to the freight train
of a proclamation that Red had driven on a collision course straight into him.   That
was rhetorical as well.

Now he exclaimed, “Whaaaaaaat?”  He felt
like dropping the fuel barrel in his hands, but to do so might cause an
explosion, or a fire, or inundate his base with *MAELSTROM*?!?!

*It was* blasphemous*.*

Leave it to Tiberius to create such a thing.   Intrepid shook his head.   The
man was evil.

Red sighed again.   “Don’t
be like that, Intrepid.   It’s only Maelstrom in its source.   This
is the last supply of ‘naturally’ occurring ore from Crux Prime, but it’s been
refined so much… basically reprogrammed.
 No one’s been infected working
here.   No one *can be* infected.   As far
as Maelstrom is concerned, it’s inert.   It’s just a really efficient fuel source.”

“Oh.” Intrepid responded.   “Okay.   Sure.   I’ll
buy that.”  He made a mental note to stick with the underpowered
imagination generators in his version of things, though.

They loaded four barrels of Refined Maelstrom
Ore into each generator, enough that their computer systems each let out a beep
to affirm full capacity, and then Red locked the room again.

“Suppose that’s why Cailan and Crimson were
here.” Intrepid started.   “They were lugging a Maelstrom shard when we
first encountered them.   Now they, and suddenly Maelstrom forces, are
attacking us.”

“And Tiberius said the generators were
siphoned.   I was wondering the same thing.” Red said,
suddenly sounding dark.   “Maelstrom forces could only come from another
dimension.   We’d be in big trouble if there’s another
large-scale incursion about to occur, and it’s pretty obvious-“

“-that my best friend’s kids are on the wrong
side of things.” Intrepid finished, looking over to the cryogenic pods.   “We
should interrogate them.”

They approached the first occupied pod,
Crimson’s.   Red tapped a few buttons on its numberpad,
first a code to engage a containment forcefield, and another to open up the pod
itself.   The pod began to hiss as its seams parted, and
steam began mist out, the byproduct of the pod’s internal, sleep inducing
atmospheric reacting with the outside air.

“To think I was in one of those.” Intrepid
said with a shudder.

“My dad told me it was a traumatic
experience.” Red shared.

Intrepid shook his head.   “Everything about the Venture Explorer is a
traumatic experience.”

“It’s all I’ve heard about it.”

As soon as the pod door had finished swinging
open, Crimson began to stir.   There was nothing crimson about her, since she
had dark hair, so Intrepid wondered why Luke Mercury, or whoever his spouse
was, had named her that.   Maybe they hadn’t.   As
soon as she opened her eyes though, Intrepid realized that he was mistaken.   Her
eyes were red.

Letting out a scream, Crimson lunged forwards
but rammed straight into the forcefield, and was bounced back into the pod.   Looking at her two captors angrily, she
shouted, “What do you want?”

“Answers.
 Who are you working for?” Intrepid
demanded.

There was enough room in the pod for Crimson
to fold her arms.   “No.” was all she said, and then she shut her
mouth and her eyes.

“Let’s try the other one,” Intrepid said, and
Red shut the pod again.   This made Crimson start screaming in
resistance again, but she fell asleep as soon as the pod door sealed.   They
moved to the next pod to wake up Cailan, and as soon as the beige haired boy’s
eyelids had parted, and he glanced between the two of them, Intrepid got the
feeling that he would be more cooperative.

“Who do you work for?” Intrepid repeated.

Cailan smiled and closed his blue eyes.   “No.”
he said, and folded his arms.

*Okay, I was wrong*.   Intrepid thought.   He
rested his hands on his side of the forcefield.
 “Talk or we’ll tickle you.” he
threatened.

Cailan laughed.   “I’m
in the Guinness Book of World Records for enduring the longest session of pins
and needles – and not complaining a darn thing about it.”

Intrepid slammed the pod door shut.   “Is
there even an entry for that?” he asked Red.

“I’m afraid we’re not getting anything from
them.” Red said dejectedly, as they headed for the stairs.   “We’ll
just have to wait and see what the Maelstrom do next.”

“You can,” Intrepid said.   “I
need to get back to my dimension.   I have an appointment with an evil uncle and
my brother, and my friends probably think I was smashed in a shuttle crash...  or infected.
 Kate too.”

“I wish I could help with that.” Red said,
truly sounding like she meant it.   They began to climb the stairs; a long flight
of over fifty steps, so they had a long time to talk.   “There’s nothing I can do since the council
disabled our transdimensional maneuverability devices...”  She pressed her
lips together in thought.   “Actually…”

They paused halfway up the steps to face each
other and make eye contact.   The dark irises of their eyes reminded each of
them of rings.

And from there, one specific ring: a ring
that was ten feet in diameter, with a triangular base and two controlling
levers, used for transporting minifigures to different dimensions.

“Yes,” Intrepid agreed.   “That
is a great idea.”

They ran up the stairs from there, exiting
out from a doorway in the connector hallway.
 From there into the spiral
hallway, they found Skilled Honored Ninja, Strange Odd Shadow, Ben, Allison,
and Kate.   The former two were leaning against opposite
walls, glaring at each other as if they had formed some otherworldly rivalry.   Kate
had her hands on her knees, looking very tired out, but as soon as she caught
sight of them she ran to grab Intrepid’s arm.
 She immediately tried to speak,
but her voice was cracked, and her eyes watered as she kept trying.   By the
expanded shape of her eyes and how fast and wavering her voice sounded as it
barely trickled out, he could tell that she was very distressed.

And rightfully so, because as Intrepid
scanned those around them, he realized someone was missing.

Kate coughed, and when she was able to speak
words all eyes turned to her.   The words she said confirmed Intrepid’s worry,
a fear shared by the girl shaking in front of him, that they'd lost someone.   "Have you seen Cyclone?"

````

One Stromling fell to the ground, spinning
around and hitting the stone hard.   His chest struck it painfully, his face
stopping inches from the rock, as it had all happened so fast and he only
barely caught himself.   Another Stromling had kicked him, and it was
this one that laughed at him now.

“Did you really think you could sneak in
here?  Without *me* recognizing you?” his guttural voice filled the
stone room.   “You disappoint me, Gallant Strong
Cyclone!  Gallant as always, but not very strong now, if I say.”

Cyclone grit his teeth and slowly rolled over
to try and get up, but another kick sent him sprawling onto his back.   He let
out a cry while the Stromling continued to laugh.   Around
them, other Stromlings, Spiderlings, Mechs, and Apes watched from a distance,
ambling about and trying *not* to look *too* interested, but they
were watching nonetheless.   And not interfering.   Out of
deference, honor, or fear?

“Aren’t you surprised to see me?” the
Stromling was continuing.  Suddenly he
raised his sword-arm right above Cyclone’s head, and brought it down.   Cyclone flinched but it wasn’t enough, the Stromling
was too fast, and the blade stabbed down – into the ground next to his head.   “Say
something!” the Stromling shouted.   “Did you think you defeated me?!”

Cyclone’s lips quivered, but as the
Stromling’s blade began to screech and scratch against the ground, getting
closer, he suddenly found the urge to speak.
 “I- I don’t know you!” he shouted.   “I
don’t know YOU!  I don’t know who you are!”

The Stromling pulled his blade up, his face
taking on a frown.   “So it would seem,” he agreed.   “I
don’t know you either.”  Cyclone watched him, worried of what he would do
next, if for some perverted reason his identity was the only thing keeping him
alive.   But then the Stromling got an idea and asked,
“Tell me, Cyclone, what year is it?”

“3026?” Cyclone answered, unsure what he was
getting at.   “Januar-“

“That’s enough!!” the Stromling interrupted.   “So
you’re from the thirty-first dimension.   There’s no reason why you’re still alive.”

“I was saved.” Cyclone said.

“Not for long!” the Stromling cackled, and
aimed his blade again.   “Our agent should have ensured your death.   She
failed.   I won’t!”  Cyclone squeezed his eyes shut
as the sword fell again, but when nothing happened for several seconds, he
dared open them a crack.   He exhaled sharply.   The
Stromling’s sword was inches above his heart, but for some reason he had not
completed the action.

“Yes….” the Stromling said to himself, and he
began to lift the sword and Cyclone breathed again.   “This
is good.   I will do better.   My
master will be pleased.”  Motivated by greed, his sword arm morphed into a
hand, and he rubbed the two of his hands together.   The
Stromling turned away, then shouted, “Ansley!  Get over here and bind this
Stromling.”

“Boss, sir!” a voice replied, and then a
Spiderling clattered over.   “Yo, sir, boss, bro, boss.”  The spider’s
legs danced on the stone as he outlined his preposition most giddily.   “I
helped lure him over, bro.   Put in a good word for me to the dark master,
bro?”

“SHUT UP AND DO YOUR WORK!” the Stromling
yelled, and the Spider instinctively wrapped himself up in his legs.

“Yes boss!” the Spider squeaked, and spat out
a trapping web over Cyclone’s body, before backing off.   Cyclone struggled but was unable to move, as
the web wrapped around him all by itself.
 Then Cyclone felt himself lifting
off the ground, as the dark powers that bound him could also move him.

“A long time ago,” the Stromling said, as he
began to walk away and Cyclone’s cocoon followed, “my master had a special
interest in beings like you.   Minifigures so naturally gifted, so imbued
with imagination, that he wanted to know how to infect you.   In the
end, my master decided that smashing you was much easier.   So in
all of the dimensions we’ve reached so far, your counterparts and all the ones
like you, have been smashed.”

They continued out of the first room, a large
cave, down a narrower stone passageway.   Cyclone’s eyes widened as the passage widened
at its end, and approached a set of tall, gleaming obsidian doors.   So
they were much closer to the Darkitect than he had ever thought!

“For your own sake,” the Stromling continued,
spinning around to face Cyclone before the doors, “pray that I can convince the
Darkitect to resume experimentation, rather than extermination, of your kind!”

“You’re the Darkitect’s personal slave.”
Cyclone realized.

“*Advisor*.” the Stromling corrected
sourly.

“If he’s already smashed,” Cyclone said
softly, “so much of my kind… are you sure you can convince him otherwise?”

The Stromling smiled most evilly.   “Certainly.
 I will admit I lied about your
interests, actually.   As soon as we proceed, you’ll wish you were
smashed.”

He then raised a hand into the air, and with
a massive cranking of unseen gears the doors began to open towards them.   “I
have more power over the Darkitect than even he realizes.” he proclaimed to
Cyclone’s ears only, and then he turned around again to face the opened room’s
interior.   The doors parted, and past the Stromling’s
shoulders, Cyclone could barely make out in the distance, a towering form….

“Now,” the Darkitect’s advisor hissed his signature
phrase as they entered the throne room,

“allow me to demonstrate."

Next: Part Five: Butterflies and Cyclones