The One Million Word Project

[csyphrett]

Stars in the Sky

2017

Sam Starn wondered if he was going to die. Walking trees were all around him. Why
had he flown into New York?

 

That was a dumb question. He knew why he had flown in. His strategist had asked
him for transport and he had agreed. He just hadn’t known what would happen would 
happen.

 

Seeker had known because she had kitted up with her heavy assault gear. She must
have thought he would run when he saw how bad things were. Maybe he would have.

 

“All right, Cap,” said the third member of their team in his ear. “I’m coming in on the
trees to your right. I think I can punch a hole for you two to get through.”

 

“Moving,” said Sam. He jumped across a car hood, ran to a wall cutting him off from
a small park beyond, and scaled it in a second. He dropped down on the other side,
baton in hand.

 

The Rocket came down and turned at the last second. Blasts from his power caught
the nearest trees in their wooden faces and knocked them over. He flew up in the air.

 

Sam dropped fire extinguisher foam on the burning trees as he ran through the
playground. He left the invaders trying to light themselves back up before the Rocket
came back and did something to them.

 

Seeker was somewhere ahead, moving toward some unknown goal. She carried her
rifle at the ready. She had opted for a long coat to conceal the body armor and
equipment she wore. A dark face mask covered her round features. Her eyes glittered
copper sometimes when she moved under street lights.

 

Occasionally the rifle spoke. When it did, a dead tree fell with the flame escaping its
body.

 

Sam’s team was at the edge of the deployment. He had heard of big hero battles
before he put on his mask, but that had seemed removed from what he and his team
did.

 

His sister had been the Captain before him. She had led a team that had vanished
during an assault on a mad scientist lair. He found her lair and trained up to replace
her.

 

He had changed the colors on his copy of her uniform to stand out and make his own
way.

 

Seeker had joined after he had established himself. She said she needed work to hone
her ability. Just picking stocks made money, but wasn’t helping her skill any. She
wanted it to be better than that.

 

The Rocket had found out about what they were doing and asked to join them. He had
already been a hero for a while, a legacy from World War Two. They needed
someone who could do high speed chases and air searches. He was perfect for that.

 

And his dad had been on the Stars with Sam’s sister when the team had disappeared.
It had felt wrong to turn him away.

 

So the three of them had trained up with Seeker taking any weapon she could from
any armed bandit they caught up with. Half of the things she was carrying was stolen
from crooks they had taken down in the middle of their crimes.

 

Rocket’s grandfather flew by over head. He pulled one of the flying platforms into
a roll. The crew fell out as the ship rolled into the ground. He flew off to find
someone else he could knock out of the air.

 

Sam knocked a tree out of his way with his shoulder. He told some onlooker to get
clear and try to move away from the battle. They didn’t need for a civilian to be
stomped into the ground while they were trying to protect the city.

 

The civilian waved at him with a lit cigar and strolled down the road.

 

Sam headed along the road, leaping over anything in his way. He had worked for
hours to learn how to move smoothly over obstacles. He paused when he saw
someone using the roof of a building to shoot out in the night.

 

“Seeker?,” Sam said into his radio. “Can you see me south of a sniper shooting into
the park?”

 

“That’s me, Captain,” said Seeker. “I’m giving cover fire for others fighting down
there.”

 

“Can you point me and Rocket in?,” said Sam. “We’ll help take care of this.”

 

“Uncle Steve is down there with some of his friends,” said Seeker. “He’ll probably
shoot a flare now that you’re close enough to help out.”

 

A rocket flew into the air and exploded in a cloud of fireworks. That must be my
mark, thought Sam as he raced deeper into the park. The embers slowly faded away
as they fell.

 

Sam rushed forward. Seeker’s Uncle Steve used to adventure back in the day. He had
met the man a couple of times. He had probably flown in to help Seeker when the
news of the battle had broken out.

 

The Captain saw the older adventurer in the middle of a pack of wolves. The wolves
had too many eyes and teeth. He supposed they were shock troops of some kind.

 

He noted some other costumed adventurers with the retired aviator. He decided he
could introduce himself when he had saved the day. He booted the nearest wolf from
behind as he charged up on the scene. The animal flew out of his way and landed with
a whimper. It jumped to face Sam with a growl on its lips and a glare in its eyes.

 

“Seeker says hi,” said Sam. He readied himself for an attack from the wolves. His
baton didn’t seem that much of a threat to them.

 

A bullet streaking through the park punctuated his statement.

 

“You kids shouldn’t be here,” said Uncle Steve. He unloaded his shotgun into the
wolves from his side of the ring. Some of them went down, while the rest scattered.
“This is some end of the world stuff going on here.”

 

“Seeker would have tried to come on her own if we tried to back out,” said Sam. He
booted another wolf out of his way. “She’s really stubborn.”

 

The two Rockets did a fly by to try to keep the sky over the park clear of the enemy.
They attracted some weird birds that they allowed to chase them before using their
jets on them.

 

Sam looked around. Why were they holding the park? They should move out to the
other side and push the trees back where they would be easier to take apart. The weird
animals could be rounded up by Animal Control, or some other agency, and taken in
when this was over.

 

“Am I too late, Steve?,” asked a man in a dark suit, blasting wolves out of his way
with glances.

 

“No, Steve,” said Charlton. The adventurer adjusted his old pilot’s hat. “Are you sure
you can do this?”

 

“I guess,” said the other Steve. “I still think Memphis could help you more.”

 

“Your talent is the only thing that can help us,” said Charlton. “Cap, this is Stephen
Scry. Steve, this is the Captain from the Shooting Stars. When the push comes, Steve,
that’s when we’re going to need you the most.”

 

“I got it,” said the man in the dark suit. He rubbed his hands together. “I haven’t done
anything like this in a while. I’m going to need a second to warm up.”

 

“The push is getting ready to happen,” Charlton said. He looked up at the sky. “Marty
is getting ready to do his thing.”

 

Sam wondered what was going to happen. He looked up too. Explosions marked
purple light blasting the enemy from the sky. Giants appeared as a giant flaming tree
emerged from the cloud bank that had issued the trees and invading species. He
wondered again how he had thought he would make difference in the face of the
power being thrown around, when the Mark had been killed like that.

 

A kaiju appeared on the street. It rushed forward and helped the giants with the tree.
It roared a blast of fire against the enemy.

 

“This is it,” said Charlton. “This is the end.”

 

“Once I get started, I won’t be able to defend myself,” said Scry.

 

“We’ve got you,” said Charlton. He blasted a crow out of the air.

 

Blue flame blasted across the city. It went through the tree queen. She staggered back
into the cloud. Letters of light formed to disperse the cloud.

 

“Now, Steve,” said Charlton. He kept an eye on the park.

 

Sam took the other side. He wasn’t worried. Seeker had a rifle away from the
fighting. The Rockets were in the air overhead. Other costumed adventurers were
spread out away from his position. He saw one of the Finches using something for
batting practice and winced.

 

An eye of light formed around Scry. He stood still and closed his eyes. Sam heard the
sound of pages snapping in the air. Another cloud ring formed in the park. The
grayness thinned to reveal a place of gray stone on the other side. Costumed and
masked people jumped through the door, looking around at the park. They held
themselves ready to fight.

 

The magician let go of his spell and the cloud collapsed. He held himself together,
taking deep breaths to steady himself.

 

Sam looked at one of the people who had come through. She wore almost the same
costume he had in blue. He couldn’t keep a grin from his face.

 

“Amanda?,” he put his baton in holster. “Amanda?”

 

“Sam?,” said the woman. “Why are you wearing one of my costumes?”

 

“Where have you been?,” asked Sam. “What happened?”

 

“Not now,” said one of the other heroes. “We’re still in trouble.”

 

“It’s almost over,” said Charlton. “The main enemy has been defeated. The rest is the
clean up.”

 

One of the others took to the sky, reuniting with the Rockets. Sam grinned as the
three flew through the air. They chased each other.

 

“I think we have some catching up to do,” said Amanda. “We’ve been stranded for
thirty years.”

 

“The current situation is an invasion from another dimension,” said Sam. “We’ve lost
the Mark, and who knows who else. I have a couple of partners helping me, and
Captain Charlton figured out how to get you back somehow.”

 

“Steve did it,” said Charlton, gesturing at the man in the dark suit. “But the rest will
have to wait until we make sure the park is clear, and the enemy hasn’t decided to kill
civilians since they might be stuck here.”

 

“I think we can handle that part,” said Amanda. “This is more masks than I have ever
seen.”

 

“It’s one of the bigger assemblies,” said Charlton. He pushed his cap back. “The
excitement is dying down. We’ll be gathering our dead until morning. You folks
should go ahead. There’s a place south of here. We’ll meet there in a couple of
hours.”

 

“Thank you,” said Sam. He shook Charlton’s hand, then Scry’s. He was all grins.

“Everyone safe?,” asked Seeker over the radio.

 

“Yes,” said Sam. “We’re moving south. Your uncle said his group would catch up
with us now that the fight is almost done.”

 

“I have one more shot to take, then I am on my way,” said Seeker.

 

He nodded, despite knowing she couldn’t see him unless she was looking at the group
with the scope on her rifle.

 

“Why are you wearing a version of my costume?,” asked Amanda.

 

“I found your files and decided to take over for you,” said Sam. “Seeker and the
Rocket decided to pitch in. We’ve been doing okay.”

 

“I have so much to catch up on,” said Amanda. “Wait. Why were you going through
my stuff?”

 

“The county foreclosed on your house,” said Sam. “I went in and cleaned everything
out and put it in a storage unit. I’ll give you the key when we figure out what to do.”

 

“All of my friends must think I ran off,” said Amanda.

 

“They know you were missing,” said Sam. “I don’t know how you can explain this
to them. You might have to say you were stranded and couldn’t call.”

 

“This is going to take some getting used to,” said Amanda. “Thirty years is a long
time to be away from home.”

 

“The worst part is people got over you being missing and moved on with their lives,”
said Sam. “Except for me.”

 

“It will be like coming back from the dead,” said Amanda. “I’m not ready for that
yet.”

 

“Let’s find this place Cap Charlton was talking about and see if we can get some
food, and I’ll try to explain some of the things that have happened since you’ve been
gone,” said Sam. “I admit I never thought I would see you again.”

 

“Same here,” said Amanda. “We built a base out there to survive. Baseline could
never quite get us close to home. The call today, tonight, had come out of the blue.
When we get out there, someone will find that place if it is still standing and go I
wonder what happened here.”

 

“That’ll be a couple of centuries at least,” said Sam.

 

“Maybe,” said Amanda. “We found some things out there we can use to expand the
space programs here.”

 

“So you’re going to be an astronaut?,” asked Sam.

 

“I don’t see why not,” said Amanda.

 

“There might be some trouble ahead,” said one of Amanda’s group. He wore a mask
with an eye on it.

 

“Sean, this is my brother, Sam,” said Amanda. “Sam, this is Sean. He’s our recon
expert.”

 

“Nice to meet you,” said Sam.

 

“Okay,” said Sean. “Are we looking into this?”

 

“I don’t see why not,” said Amanda.

//314801

[csyphrett]

Timeline

5000 BC- The Murmur tries to summon the Destroyer and is opposed by Nobody,
Cain, Memphis, Al-a-Din, The King and Mr. Multiverse in the Destroyer. The line
of Kings is created by the Destroyer. The creature that would be known as Mr.
Multiverse was created to stop the Destroyer in the Will of the Universe.

 

1670- Bill Crenshaw is killed by a pirate hunter known as El Rey (The reincarnated
King) in Crenshaw.

 

1885- Bertram Chandler, the current King, deals with a river problem for a town in
King of the Wild West.
 
1925- Bobby Benson is born.

 

1935- Bobby Benson takes over from Cain in the Heir. He becomes the Mark.

 

1938- Sir Laurence Fletcher starts the Commando X program with its first recruit,
James Rafferty. The mission is to investigate smuggler Mick Brown for the Secret
Service. 

 

1940- Frank Flanagan decides to become the Protector in the Shield. The Mark brings
the USS Armand in to NYC Harbor after it was struck by a torpedo. Barry Nicklaus
sets a record for highest a human has been in the air. The Promethan saves people
from a fire. 

 

1941- Frank Saxon becomes the Rocket and helps defeat Doctor Rainey Sybil in
Flight of the Rocket Man

 

1945- Roscoe Burly musters out of the Army, and joins the Middleton Police
Department.

 

1954- Timmy Strangehold is born.

 

1955- Barney Strife takes over for Joe Carlson as Herocles in Inherit the Monsters.
Tooty Strangehold is born.

 

1956- Enemies of The Mark wound him and kill his friends and fellow spark bearers.
He lethally retaliates against them. Will Williams and Ann Baker were killed. The
Mark’s human side was wounded. Barberossa, Dr. Rainey Sybil, the Butterfly, Koal,
and the Spine were all killed by The Mark in the End of the Light.

 

1959- Marty Morgan is born

 

1960- Jim and Darby Strangehold die in an accident. Their children go to live with
their only living relative, Dr. Dale Strangehold.

 

1964- The Hazard Scouts help the Park Service with an animal enrager.

 

1965- Doctor Dale Strangehold helps Sgt. Roscoe Burly and the Middleton Police
Department deal with a monster in Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective.

 

1969- The Mark helps his alternate Earth counterpart, Captain Spark in Across the
Divide. The Hazard Scouts are decimated by an unknown enemy in Showdown in a 
Small Town. Only Marty Morgan, the Animal Boy survives.  

 

1976- Cassie Troy cements her prophetic abilities by stopping a summoned monster
in a church for the life of her friend, Hector, in Cassie’s Knife. She is abetted by
Nobody. 

 

1979- Marty Morgan leads Corona, Cog, Finch and Ren against Watson Security and
their superpowered minions, The Squad, and rescues Barry Nicklaus and Cortez from
imprisonment in Revenge of the Scouts. 

 

1981- Bond Tamagochi is born

 

1982- Mark Morgan is born

 

1984- Melinda Morgan is born.

 

1986- The Mark meets Eleanor, Carrie, and Money. He introduces them to Spiffy, and
Cassie Troy in the Sisters. Mark Hadron develops his lamp and begins to gather the
original Lamplighters in Light the Lamp.

 

1987- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money find out about the other Marks and are adopted by
the Mark. The Lamplighters are credited with saving New York by the Mark in the
Vault. The Shooting Stars are blasted into space.

 

1988- Sam Starn becomes the second Captain to take after his sister.

 

1990- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money help the Robot Rangers fight a building come to
life in Tokyo in the Robot Ranger Rescue.

 

1992- Pablo Estevez introduces his trainee, Henry Harkness, to his mentors and
Cassie Troy at the Good Eats Diner in the Four Musketeers. The Morgans and Bond
take Stella Marston Scouting in the Woods

 

1995- Shirou Morita becomes M-37 after touching an orb left over from the
Apartment Man’s attack on Tokyo in M-37. Stephen Scry loses his identity and goes
on the run from the Sons of Set.

 

1996- Dr. Yamada tests a radioactive coat for M-37 in Testing for M-37

 

1997- M-37 responds to an earthquake in M-37's First Flight.

 

1999- Darla Huitt is born. Moshe Levram is born.

 

2000- Stephen Scry and Memphis confronts Steven Scry at Last Stop, Nevada in
Meet Yourself. Tanner Lerner is born. Sara Levram is born.

 

2002- Lynette Harkness is born to Henry and Martha June Harkness in Happy
Birthday.

 

2010- Jason Parley gains the sword of the King during a bust of cultists and their
summoned monster in Return of the King. Al-a-Din and his butler deal with a
bombing in Master and Servant. Memphis helps Moshe and Sara Levram against the
Dog Maker in Duel in the Desert. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt gain their powers
from a meteor in Ink Buttons.

 

2014- The Lamplighters are decimated. Three are killed. Mark Hadron lost an eye and
had a hand punctured.

 

2015- Jane Hillsmeirer talked to Mark Hadron about restarting the Lamplighters in
The Hermit. Jason Parley, the modern King, threatened a deal of nonagression with
the local mobster in A Parley. Denver McGinty picks up Kisara, Princess of the Genn,
on the side of the road and drops her off in New York City in Girl on the Road. The
basis for Lamplighters West is formed when four women ask Mark Hadron for help
dealing with Crenshaw the ghost pirate in Splinter Cell. Marcel Hobart is the first
new recruit for the new Lamplighters in the Interview. Rangifer Tarandus, The
Reindeer, evades the Black Wolves while trying to save a town in Norway in Special
Delivery. Patty Page, Kathy Baker, Lin Qi, Jean Lopez form the Lamplighters West
and take on Crenshaw with the help of Mark Hadron in Blue Flames in San
Francisco. Roland Givens is embedded with seven spirits by Amenophis and the Sons
of Set despite interference from Tanner Lerner and Lynette Harkness in Button
Pushing. Bobby Iger and Maria Garcia-Lopez join the Lamplighters after a talk with
Harry Cho in Recruited. Ken Aioki is hired to be a Lamplighter in the Last Spot. 

 

2017- The Mark is killed by the Queen of Genn in Make Your Mark. Lynette
Harkness helps fight the invasion in her training suit in New Girl. Marty Morgan dies
leading the Hazard Scouts, the Lamplighters, M-37, the Robot Rangers, and others
against the Queen of Genn in The Scouts Hold the Line. Tanner Lerner and Darla
Huitt take part in the battle for New York in Push All the Buttons. The Fairy Man and
his princess help the magicians close the door on the Queen of Genn in Going Home.
The Shooting Stars return from space in Stars in the Sky.
 
 

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms

1987-

1

Mark Hadron realized as he stepped out of the airport that the air felt better than New
York’s. He pulled on sunglasses as he looked around. This was his first time in
another country, and he wanted to enjoy some of it before he had to go to work.

 

Harry Cho adjusted his fedora as he paused beside his friend. He looked around until
he saw a cab stand.

 

“Let’s catch a ride to our hotel,” said Cho. “Then we can figure out whatever we’re
supposed to be doing.”

 

“What we’re supposed to be doing is a scan of local energy readings,” said Hadron.
“I don’t see how that is going to help anyone since we’re the only ones who knows
what it means, and what we should be looking for. On the other hand, the Israelis are
paying us a ton of money for the survey, and Milton says we need it so we can expand
our operation.”

 

“We need it so he can expand his hat collection,” said Cho.

 

“You’re wearing a hat,” pointed out Hadron, pointing at the fedora on his friend’s
head.

 

“I have one hat, not six hundred,” retorted Harry. “He’s like Imelda Marcos and her
shoes.”

 

“I admit the wig stands might be a step too far,” said Hadron.

 

“Exactly,” said Harry. “And it’s creepy too.”

 

Hadron smiled. Harry asked the driver for a lift to the Hilton when they reached the
cab drivers standing around the marker post where they were supposed to pick up
their fares. One of the men waved at his cab, and gestured for them to get in.

 

“We’re going to have to rent a car while we’re here,” said Hadron. He sat down in the
back with his go bag on his lap. “We can’t afford a cab everywhere we’ll need to go.”

 

“Maybe we can get a driver,” said Cho. He tilted his hat back as he sat down on the
other side of the seat. He had a duffle he propped up between them. “I don’t know
why they would want a scan for turbulence out here. The lines should be changing all
the time.”

 

“I doubt it,” said Hadron. He looked out the window as the car rolled through the hot
sun. This close to the Med brought in cooling winds sometimes, but not now. “We’ll
see when we talk to the clients.”

 

“They probably want to use the turbulence to power something like a giant robot,”
said Harry. “Autobots! Let’s roll out!”

 

“I doubt it,” said Hadron. “I expect it’s something like a new style of power plant
powered by the natural energy. I would think there were obvious drawbacks that
wouldn’t make it feasible.”

 

“Like what?,” asked Cho.

 

“Well, that much energy being pulled in means that eventually you are going to start
generating ghosts, or opening rips,” said Hadron. “Then you have to shut everything
down, go to backup power, restart when the lines calmed down whenever that is.”

 

“And if they don’t calm down?,” asked Cho.

 

“Then you better be able to live with what is going to happen,” said Hadron. “Might
be a second, or third, level apocalypse. Not enough to affect the whole world, but
enough to reroute the lines and leave a lot of things wandering around that you don’t
necessarily want wandering around.”

 

“Like that thing in Mrs. Havershim’s attic?,” said Cho.

 

“Exactly like that,” said Hadron with a sigh.

 

“Excuse me,” said the driver. “What do you do?”

 

“We chase ghosts,” said Hadron. “The government has asked us to come over here
and look around for hauntings.”

 

“Pardon me for asking,” said the driver.

 

“That’s what we do,” said Hadron. He pulled a business card out of his wallet and
passed it over. Lamplighters ran across the top of the card in blue letters. “If you have
a problem with some kind of ghost, we’ll check it out for you. We’re only going to
be in town for a couple of weeks so we’ll have to charge you for a flight back.”

 

“Ask for the discount,” said Cho. He smiled. “We’ll burn up two ghosts for the price
of one.”

 

“But it’s the most expensive one,” said Hadron. “Our financial guy won’t let us offer
anything else.”

 

“Boy, let me tell you,” said Cho in a passable imitation of his friend, Milton. “We
ain’t bagging a type ten electrical whatsitz and a type two spirit beast, and only
charging for the spirit beast. Anybody can kick the hind end off a shadow cat.”

 

“Does your friend sound like that?,” asked the driver. He put the card in his console.

 

“He’s from Texas,” said Hadron.

 

“That explains that,” said the driver. “Your hotel is up here on your right.”

 

“Thanks,” said Hadron. “We don’t have our equipment with us, but if you do have a
ghost problem, we’ll fix it for you one way, or the other.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said the driver. He doubted he would ever have a spirit
problem. Once he let these two kooks go, he could find normal fares to drive around
the city.

 

Hadron and Cho got out of the cab. They looked around as they headed into the
Hilton. The driver shook his head as he drove off.

 

“Do you really think they would try to harness the turbulence?,” asked Cho. They
headed for the front desk to check in.

 

“There’s always someone doing something stupid,” said Hadron. “Look at what we
do.”

 

“We did save the city, possibly the world,” said Cho.

 

“The Mark and Scry saved the world,” said Hadron. “They just gave us credit for
some reason.”

 

“Because we did most of the work,” said Cho. “We’re the only ones who know how
to do what we do. Reservation for Cho and Hadron.”

 

“I don’t think that’s right,” said Hadron. “Magicians know how to do what we do.”

 

“But they don’t,” said Cho.

 

“Your rooms are on the fourth floor,” said the clerk. She eyed them from behind her
computer screen and the large counter where she stood. “416 and 415.”

 

“Thank you very much,” said Cho.

 

Hadron led the way across the lobby to the elevators. He wondered if he was grumpy
because he didn’t know why they were on the other side of the planet for a survey, or
because he needed something to eat.

 

His stomach told him he needed something to eat in a loud way.

 

“I think we should stow our bags and see if we can spend some of the local currency
on food,” said Hadron as they waited on the elevator.

 

“I don’t see why not,” said Cho. “Are you going to last that long?”

 

“I’ll be fine,” said Hadron. He pushed the button to send the elevator to their floor.
“I have to call Janie to tell her we’re here and everything is okay so far.”

 

“I think she’s sweet on you,” said Cho.

 

“Milton said the same thing,” said Hadron. He stepped out of the elevator and used
his card to open his door. “Give me five minutes.”

 

Hadron put his go bag under the bed. He looked around the two rooms of his suite,
then the bathroom. It was like every other hotel he had ever visited except for the
view outside his windows. Paisley walls, bed, couch, television, desk, chest of
drawers.

 

He wondered how much Milton had made the government agree to pay before he
even got on the plane.

 

His friend was a shark when it came to money.

 

Hadron picked up the green phone receiver and pushed the international code for the
States, and then the full number for their company headquarters in New York. He had
talked with Milton about getting radio phones, but their finance man was watching
the tech columns for a deal.

 

“Lamplighters,” said Janie Hillsmeir after he listened to the ring for a few seconds.
“How can I help you?”

 

“It’s me, Janie,” said Hadron. “We’re down in Tel Aviv and waiting for the rep to
meet us tomorrow.”

 

“Get back as fast as you can,” said Janie. “Milt and Dyson are having problems with
a phantom in the subway. He’s leading them around by their noses.”

 

“I’ll do what I can,” said Hadron. “We don’t even know what we’re supposed to be
surveying yet.”

 

“Be careful,” said Janie. “Check in tomorrow night. Milton is going to want details
so he can write the bill up.”

 

“Okay, Janie,” said Hadron. He shook his head. He wondered how much Milton was
going to try to overcharge the Israelis for their services.

 

Milton was in the wrong job to charge people for services rendered since they were
there to stop problems from beyond. And do research on the side.

 

He still did research. Most of it was bent on how to kill the spirit that had suddenly
sprung into existence and was causing problems. He hadn’t done real research since
he dropped out of college.

 

He hadn’t wanted to do that, but he couldn’t keep up with his studies and help with
the business like he needed. And the job was making him money and giving him a
view of the strange that he had looked for all his life.

 

He hadn’t expected how mundane it would seem after the last year of dealing with
things and trying not to get killed.

 

The others seemed fine with it.

 

He took a moment to get a grip on things so he didn’t scream into the phone. It wasn’t
Janie’s fault about how things had turned out.

 

“I’ll call in tomorrow, Janie,” he said. “This is the phone number, or I guess you can
call the front desk and ask to be transferred to our rooms.”

 

He gave her the number.

 

“I’m in 415,” said Hadron. “Harry is across the hall in 416.”

 

“I got it, Mark,” said Janie. “Watch yourself.”

 

“I do all the time,” said Hadron. “I’ll call in tomorrow. I don’t know when.”

 

“Right, Mark,” said Janie. “Good night.”

 

“Good night, Janie,” said Hadron. He put the earpiece on the receiver gently.

 

He had to get dinner, and then look at what he needed for tomorrow. He had left parts
for a scanner in his go bag. It wasn’t long range, but he could build another one out
of bought parts if he needed it.

 

He wondered why they had called the company as he walked out of the hotel room.
He locked up before knocking on Harry’s door. Ghostbusting was not something most
rational people looked on without derision.

 

They should have turned down the credit the Mark gave them for the save in the city.
Then he wouldn’t be dealing with people across the ocean from his home.

 

Harry seemed to be enjoying himself.

 

“Hey, Mark,” said Harry. “Nothing looks bad for tomorrow, but if we stay and do a
complete survey, we might have a problem.”

 

“Reading?,” asked Hadron.

 

Harry nodded. He had a talent for fortune telling with cards. He wasn’t hundred
percent yet, but he was close most of the time. If they were going to have problems
in their line of work, then they might need to have lamps and weapons shipped from
home.

 

Milton would love the extra money he could charge for an active job.

 

“Yep,” said Harry. “What are we going to do?”

 

“We’re getting dinner, then I have to look over the request paperwork we were sent,
then I’m turning in,” said Hadron. “Do a reading tomorrow after we meet the rep and
see if anything changed.”

 

“After that?,” asked Harry.

 

“We figure out how to get our gear and light some monster up,” said Hadron. “That’s
what we do.”

 

They rode the elevator down to the lobby.

 

//316765

 

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 2

1987-

Marty taxied the jet to a rented hangar off the main runways at Tel Aviv airport. He
put the headphones on their hook before shutting everything down. He leaned back
in his seat.

 

He had learned to fly a little when he was ten. Then he had taken refresher courses
after he had taken Watson down, and got Barry back. He hadn’t expected to fly
around the world without most of his partners to look at some anomaly out in the
desert for his adopted father.

 

“That was enjoyable,” said Ren. “Flying in a plane is better when you can see
everything.”

 

“It’s more comfortable than a griffin,” said Marty. “Let’s get our bags and go through
Customs. We can look at Barry’s problem area tomorrow. The satellite pictures were
out in the desert somewhere.”

 

“Have you been to Israel before?,” asked Ren.

 

“I don’t think I have had the chance,” said Marty. “I don’t know if Barry had someone
on the ground to help us either.”

 

“We’ll figure things out,” said Ren. “I have to call Corona to let her know we’re
down.”

 

“Finch said to call if there was an emergency,” said Marty. “She’s taking the kids on
a walkabout.”

 

“Walkabout?,” asked Ren.

 

“That’s what she said, but I think she is making the kids run laps in the woods around
the compound,” said Marty. “So I can’t talk to her for a few hours, and Barry is
experimenting on something and won’t pick up the phone until he’s done in the lab.”

 

“So my check in will have to cover both of us,” said Ren. “If there is a problem,
Corona can fly up to the place and let Barry and Finch know.”

 

“Looks like,” said Marty. He unstrapped his safety harness and stood. “Let’s see what
we can do before we head out to the desert. Barry probably wants us to go out there
and sleep in a tent now that we are on the ground.”

 

“I would like a hotel,” said Ren. “I would like to go over the pictures again before we
endanger ourselves.”

 

“No problem,” said Marty. “I wish Finch and Corona were here. They are our
powerhouses.”

 

“But they aren’t very good at mysteries unless we want to make someone talk,” said
Ren. “I don’t see that with some occurrence.”

 

Marty nodded. His wife was many things, but she wasn’t a detective unless beating
people senseless for information was what was needed. She did that very well indeed.

 

Corona was even worse unless you wanted the beaten person set on fire. She was
excellent at that.

 

Marty grabbed his go bag and jacket and led the way to the exit door in the middle
of the jet. Cog might have been big help, but he didn’t want to leave Chicago for
another country.

 

Being a ball of metal and a hundred mechanical tentacles made him suspicious of
anybody who might come into contact with him. He didn’t want to fend off any
attention he might gather from the Israelis while they were on the job.

 

Marty pulled on his jacket as he opened the door to the let the steps down. He pulled
on sunglasses as he stepped down to the tarmac.

 

Ren had his carrier bag slung on a strap at his hip, and a briefcase for his suits. He
straightened his jacket, and the vest underneath as he stepped out in the afternoon
sun.

 

“You’re going to overheat in that,” said Marty.

 

“The black suit is the tradition of the detective on the job,” said Ren. “Besides it is
air-conditioned.”

 

“How did you do that?,” asked Marty.

 

“I hypnotized it into being cooler than the surrounding air,” said Ren.

 

Marty smiled as he shook his head. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Hypnotizing
clothing was in his friend’s capacity, and need for comfort.

 

He wasn’t a hardbitten private shamus like Mike Hammer. He was a genteel layabout
like Nick Charles.

 

He had the wife and kid, all he needed was the dog that was smarter than he was.

 

Marty ran his hand through his hair as they walked toward the terminal. They had to
get through customs, then find a hotel and rent a car. The jet hadn’t had room for a
car on it like the big one parked under the national forest.

 

It had been parked for almost twenty years. Barry was still getting replacement parts
for it to bring back up to state of the art so they could start using it as a mobile base
again.

 

The small jet was a replacement for the one the Scouts had lost when the original
team had been decimated at Idaville.

 

Ren maintained his silence. He didn’t like to speculate about what a problem could
be before they actually started looking at it. He had apprenticed under a master
detective and earned his independence in the eight years he had been with the new
Scouts.

 

He was teaching his son his methods as well as he could.

 

Corona was teaching him how to control the flames he had inherited from her.
Burning down someone’s property was not something she wanted Bond to do by
accident. She wanted him to be sure first.

 

“Have your children inherited your powers, Marty?,” asked Ren.

 

“Nope,” said Morgan. “It might have skipped a generation, or no one else might ever
get them.”

 

“You don’t seem bothered by it,” said Ren.

 

“Finch wants them to be trained like her,” Marty said. “Adding in what I can do
would just cause a lot of problems for all of them. I think it’s better if I sit back and
watch for strange animals around the Hub instead of trying to push for them to make
an animal that will help them get into trouble.”

 

“What if they are making animals without you?,” asked Ren.

 

“My wife doesn’t need me to bring out the whupping stick,” said Marty.

 

Ren silently agreed with that. Finch was one of the most dangerous people around
with her hands. Disciplining children should be child’s play for her.

 

“And if they get bit, it will teach them a lesson about bringing things to life that don’t
like them,” said Marty. “It’s the circle of life in action.”

 

“I think you are way too relaxed about the thought your family could be eaten by
made up lions,” said Ren.

 

“Naw,” said Marty. “Finch can handle that.”

 

Ren nodded. He had seen Finch in action himself. She could handle a mountain lion.

He didn’t want to see the animal she couldn’t handle.

 

They pushed into the terminal and made their way through Customs. Marty presented
his passport and opened his bag which was full of folded t-shirts, cargo pants,
underwear and socks.

 

Ren presented a folder that said it was a passport, opened his briefcase which scared
the inspector, and was let through with a lot of talk.

 

“What do you have in your bag?,” asked Marty.

 

“My library,” said Ren.

 

Marty shrugged as they walked across the terminal. He was used to his friend saying
things that couldn’t be true but probably were.

 

He turned toward signs that promised rentals for the tourist on the go. He led the way
to the counter. There were a few minutes of talk as he and Ren compared Barry’s
pictures to a real map and decided they needed a jeep of some kind to get to where
they had to go. The counter lady advised them to get extra water and gas cans if they
were going out in the desert.

 

Tel Aviv was a long way from the target, but Marty didn’t know of any airports that
far south that would take the Scout jet. Driving seemed their best option at the
moment.

 

If they had to fly back, he had a couple of things that would do that for him when he
summoned them.

 

“Do we get hotel here?,” asked Ren. “Or start south?”

 

“Let’s get rooms here before we start looking around,” said Marty. “I have been in the
air for hours. I want to rest my butt.”

 

“I’ll call Corona as soon as we check in,” said Ren. “Then I can do my review.”

 

“I’m taking a nap,” said Marty. “Then I am going to get some food in me, then maybe
I’m going to hit the night tourist spots before I get some sleep. We can take the jeep
out early in the morning and look around.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” said Ren.

 

“We might have come to town over nothing,” said Marty. “If we did, we just get back
on the plane and head home.”

 

“We’re here for something,” said Ren. “Barry wouldn’t have sent us to look around
if nothing was going on.”

 

“We might not be the experts needed for this,” said Marty. “We might need to call up
the Lamplighters and let them do their thing.”

 

“How did that go in New York?,” asked Ren.

 

“We almost lost the city,” said Marty. He checked the key ring against the car in front
of him. A driver from the rental car company got out and left the door open for him.
“But we worked things out.”

 

Ren paused at the matter of fact way Marty put things. He walked around to the other
side and got in the passenger seat.

 

“You almost lost the city?,” said Ren.

 

“Yep, but the Mark showed up with his adoptees and a few other guys pitched in and
we closed things and saved the city from being turned into more of a hell than it is
right now,” said Marty. He got behind the wheel.

 

“What did you tell Finch about this?,” asked Ren.

 

“Another day at the office,” said Marty. He smiled. “What she doesn’t know keeps
my bones from being broken.”

 

“You’re way too confident,” said Ren. “Barry will tell her at some point. You will be
in so much trouble.”

 

“Trouble deferred is trouble avoided,” said Marty. “Where’s the closest hotel?”

 

“We should turn left,” said Ren. “There are a few along the water we can check in.”

 

“All right,” said Marty. “If things get bad overnight, I expect Barry will try to call us
through the plane. I’ll have to leave him a message about the hotel phone to call.”

 

“Message through the plane?,” asked Ren.

 

“Sometimes he forgets that not everybody likes to sleep in their vehicle and move out
when the rooster crows,” said Marty.

 

“Because of his prosthesis?,” asked Ren.

 

“Naw,” said Marty. “He was always like that, even when I was a kid. Do you know
how many times I have heard the sun’s up, time to go?”

 

“You counted how many times he said it?,” asked Ren.

 

“Yep,” said Marty.

 

“You can keep that to yourself because you are confirming it was a good idea that
Corona and I live in San Francisco,” said Ren.

 

“How do you afford that?,” said Marty.

 

“Afford what?,” asked Ren.

 

“The rent and stuff,” said Marty.

 

“I don’t have to pay rent and utilities where I live,” said Ren.

 

“You hypnotized something to be your house, didn’t you?,” asked Marty.

 

“I do not know what you are talking about,” said Ren.

 

“I’m talking about you seizing something that isn’t a house and making it into a
house, and fooling everyone around you,” said Marty. “And I know you are capable
of doing that. I have seen you do it.”

 

“Corona would never accept anything that wasn’t a real house,” said Ren. “I am hurt
that you would think such a thing.”

 

“I want to see this house when we get done with this,” said Marty. “I know you’re
hiding something.”

 

“Again you stab me in the heart,” said Ren. “I think I will never talk to you again.”

 

Marty glanced at his friend as he pulled to a stop in front of the hotel. He knew he
was right. He wondered what Ren had turned into a fake house for his family to avoid
San Fran’s climbing prices.

 

“I will find out,” said Marty. “You might have to come up with something for me to
get away from the kids.”

 

“I think making Finch angry is not worth it,” said Ren.

 

Marty smiled at that. They had thought they were rescuing her from Watson Security
when they first met. Instead they were rescuing Watson’s personnel from her, and
they didn’t rescue all of them at that.

 

They went in and checked into separate rooms. Marty took time to leave a message
that he was down. Then he lay on the bed and went instantly asleep.

 

He woke up with sun going down. He took out a note pad and wrote a note for Ren.
He put that in the crack at the bottom of his friend’s door before he headed out of the
hotel.

 

He couldn’t remember being in Tel Aviv. He had spent time traveling with the
Scouts, and then roaming the United States on his own, and then traveling with the
new Scouts. He couldn’t remember any mysteries, or problems, bringing him to the
Middle East.

 

He considered that lucky.

 

He didn’t think the other Scouts had traveled much from their homes except Ren. Cog

was a special case. He had settled in Chicago and preferred to stay there unless he
was helping out with support.

 

Crashing on Earth had put him in the position of not wanting to do anything other
than what he preferred. He helped out but complained about everything.

 

But for a non-combatant, he could be just as dangerous as the rest of them in his own
way.

 

Marty didn’t push unless he thought the world was going to end and he needed all
hands with no exceptions. He personally picked Cog up when that happened and
dropped him off when the emergency was over.

 

He thought Cog’s people were territorial and didn’t like to venture too far away from
their homes. It made it weird that Cog would even go into space to wind up on Earth.

 

Marty looked for a place to eat and watch the street. He wanted to stay out of trouble,
but had never given up the habit of people watching. Once he was done, he would
walk around for a bit before heading back to his hotel.

 

He hoped the local criminals left him alone. He didn’t want to be hauled in for
feeding some clown to a wood chipper.

 

He especially didn’t want to ask Barry to bail him out for feeding some clown to a
wood chipper.

 

He would never hear the end of the jokes that would be spoken at the wrong times.

 

Marty watched the street and enjoyed his food. He paid with his card before heading
along the street. He created a hound dog to walk beside him as he went.

 

They talked about things as they roamed the capitol. A few times the dog went on
alert and then relaxed.

 

Marty made it back to his hotel and settled in for the night.
 

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 3

1987

Mark Hadron looked out the window as the sun came up. He got ready for the new
day before pulling out the equipment case from his go bag. It was the smallest they
had been able to make their sensor with the electronics they had access to. He
supposed it was a wonder that it actually worked.

 

He made his check in call to let Milton and Janie know that they were getting
breakfast and meeting the rep from the Israelis after breakfast. He had to make sure
Harry was ready to go first.

 

He didn’t let them know about Harry’s prediction, but did inquire if it was possible
to airdrop some carbines and lamps if they needed it. Janie said she would make a
note so Milton could look into it.

 

After he hung up, he admitted he would feel better with the familiar blue flame close
at hand. Surveys of turbulence shouldn’t be dangerous, but he had already seen three
cases where the survey stirred up something that didn’t like humans knowing it was
there.

 

Burning those monsters down had solved some heinous crimes for the locals when
they were done.

 

Hadron had been glad to get out of the charnel houses when they were done.

 

He locked up his room after storing his bag back under the bed. He walked across the
hall and knocked on the door to Harry’s room. He listened but didn’t hear any
movement. He knocked louder.

 

“What you want?,” asked Harry through the door.

 

“It’s time to go to work,” said Hadron. “I’m going down to breakfast. Get ready.”

 

Hadron walked down to the elevator and headed down. He sniffed the air and
followed it to a bar of food and coffee. He got a plate of buns and a cup of coffee. He
sat down at the table in the small café. He checked his watch as he ate.

 

Harry was going to miss breakfast if he didn’t get a move on.

 

He wondered how much they would have to do on the first day. He planned to figure
out the area of the survey and a route to cover it before they went out. Tomorrow they
could actually see the scene.

 

If the area was close enough, and small enough, they could probably handle it today,
and fly back the next day. Milton would not like the end of the revenue stream.

 

Harry arrived with hat pushed back and case in hand. He put the case down and
grabbed some food before settling at Hadron’s table. He had twice as much as his
friend and dug in like a wolf.

 

“You got ten minutes before the rep is supposed to arrive,” said Hadron, sipping his
coffee. It was a little stronger than he usually got but he could live with that.

 

“I’ll be finished before then,” said Harry. “You learn to eat fast if you want to get
away from the table before a squabble breaks out.”

 

“I can believe it,” said Hadron.

 

Harry seemed to have as big a family as Columbo and Hadron couldn’t keep all of
them straight in his head. He just shook his head at a story and kept moving. He had
met some of them and they were as quirky as Harry said. He had no doubt that his
friend’s ability ran strong in his family.

 

A man in a short sleeved shirt came into the lobby, glancing around. A smile cut
through his beard as he spotted the Lamplighters at their table. He turned to approach
their table.

 

“Mark Hadron, Harrison Cho,” said the stranger. “I’m Ishmael Levram, the
representative from the Department of Psychic Studies and Research. I’m here to
show you the survey area, and talk about your technology.”

 

“We’ll call you Ishmael,” said Harry.

 

“That’s what everyone says,” said the representative. He smiled, but it was easy to see
he wasn’t a fan of Moby Dick at this point in his life.

 

“What do you need to know about the technology?,” asked Hadron. He wasn’t
planning to sell anything. And he doubted Milton would agree to an end to their
monopoly.

 

As long as they were the only ones using the lamps and carbines, then there was no
worry that someone would do something stupid like collect blue flame until it
exploded into a giant demon and started killing people.

 

“I’m interested in how it works, and how you can detect turbulence,” said Levram.

“The region has had several problems that were stopped by chance. I want something
preventative for the future.”

 

“We can’t give you anything like that,” said Hadron. “We can do the survey and point
out where you might have problems in the future. We can’t give you equipment

without some kind of binding agreement in place. Plus we’re not sure anyone else can
make the lamps, sensors, and carbines right now. They seem to run on mind power
at the very least.”

 

“Mind power?,” asked Levram.

 

“I can demonstrate right here before we go out on the survey,” said Hadron. He
opened his case. He pulled out a box of electronics and a dish antenna to plug into
one end. “This is the clerk.”

 

He pointed the sensor at the clerk and pushed the button. A small black and white
screen gave a zero back. He pointed at Harry and got back a two. He knew that was
because of his friend’s fortune telling ability. He pointed at Levram and he paused
when the Israeli came back with a three.

 

“Borderline superhuman,” said Hadron. “What can you do? Talk to birds? Surround
yourself with sand?”

 

“No,” said Levram. “But I have always had a knack with technology.”

 

“Really?,” said Hadron. He put the box back in the case after powering the machine
down. “How good a knack?”

 

“I could rebuild your sensor to be easier to carry and have more range while using
less battery power,” said Levram.

 

“Really?,” said Hadron. “This technology can be horribly abused in a lot of ways.
Why should we trust you with this?”

 

“I can’t really justify my standing,” said Levram. “But I would like to see if I can use
this to protect Israel from things coming out of the woodwork.”

 

“You would need a mobile team to protect the whole country,” said Harry. He
finished his meal. “How many people are in your department?”

 

“Me,” said Levram. “Of course, I answer to people above me, but I’m the only one
in my department right now.”

 

“If we gave your our gear, you would be dead the first time you took something on,”
said Hadron. “There’s no way that you could take anything over a five, or six, by
yourself. Crenshaw is an eight, and you would be dead in the first five seconds if he
showed up here.”

 

“I was hoping that we could work out something where I can set up sensors so I could
pinpoint problems and solve them without the actual weapons,” said Levram.

 

“The sensors tend to set off whatever you are looking for,” said Hadron. “You would
have agitated monsters exposing themselves to civilians and killing them just because
they were spotted.”

 

“I think we should get back to the original problem,” said Harry. “Why did you need
a survey in the first place?”

 

Hadron couldn’t help his face telling them he was getting ready to walk away. One
of the uses for his sensors would be locating superhumans who didn’t want to be
located. Some of them should be located because they were thieves and murderers,
but most were just people trying to mind their business.

 

Why should he give any country the ability to round up any superhuman who didn’t
want to work for them?

 

The world already knew some governments were doing just that.

 

“There is some kind of problem in the south,” said Levram. “We have observers
marking a storm that hasn’t moved. At some point, something has to be done. The
department has been asked to look into it, which is why I called your business.”

 

“So you are wondering if some kind of monster or ghost is there?,” said Harry. He
pushed his hat back.

 

“I have ruled out other energy being present with my own equipment,” said Levram.

 

“I think we can do that,” said Harry. “I have to say this could go bad by the end of the
week.”

 

“How bad?,” said Levram.

 

Harry made an explosion with his hands.

 

“That doesn’t look good,” said Levram.

 

“It’s in the future,” said Harry. “And we can change that if we work hard enough.”

 

“Do you have a shop?,” asked Hadron. “We might need carbines and lamps.”

 

“I would be glad to show you the workshop,” said Levram. “I have requisitioned 
everything that I could.”

 

“Everything?,” said Harry.

 

“Yes,” said Levram. “Some things have shown to be valuable in some of the cases I
have dealt with for the ministry.”

 

“Let’s look at the area,” said Hadron. “Then we’re going to need access if I think we
can handle it on our own. If we can’t, we’ll have to get Milton and Dyson here.”

 

“I will arrange a plane to fly them here from New York if that will solve the
problem,” said Levram.

 

“Can you do that?,” asked Hadron.

 

“I have tons of surplus in my budget,” said Levram. “Mostly I use it for replacement
parts. Chartering a plane and getting it here on top of your fees will be fine.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “Let’s look at the problem in person. Then we can decide
on what we want to do.”

 

“I have arranged for a flight to the scene,” said Levram. “I have an observation point
buried out there so we can set up there until we decide what to do.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “Let’s go ahead and do this.”

 

“My car is outside,” said Levram. “The heli is at the airport. We can fly down in a few
minutes.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “You finished, Harry?”

 

“Almost,” said Harry. “How long have you been with the government, Ishmael.”

 

“A few years,” said Levram. “I earned my position after my conscription. I have been
the department since it was created. I was told that other governments have the same
thing but I have only worked with the British.”

 

“Haven’t seen any American unit,” said Harry.

 

“We might depend a lot more on the Mark than people think,” said Hadron.

 

“Or they have one guy who’s glad that someone is doing stuff that he would normally
be responsible for,” said Harry. “Where’s that report on the bridge troll? Lamplighters
blew it up. I still need a report.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “Hurry up. I have a bad feeling about this.”

 

“You’ve always got a bad feeling,” said Harry. “You need to relax a lot more, maybe
take Janie out on the town.”

 

“Why would I do that?,” asked Hadron.

 

“Because she’s interested in you,” said Harry. “Everybody sees it.”

 

“I would rather not,” said Hadron. The tone of his voice said he didn’t want to talk
about it.

 

“Okay,” said Harry. “It’s just one future, but it’s something for you to consider. You
don’t want to be alone if something happens to the rest of us. You’ll need her to keep
steady.”

 

“If you were to drop dead, I would be fine,” said Hadron.

 

“All right,” said Harry. He shook his head in disbelief.

 

“Shall we?,” said Levram.

 

“I think so unless my friend has more romantic advice for me to dismiss,” said
Hadron.

 

“I’m good,” said Harry. “Let me grab some more of these cookies to take with us.”

 

Levram seemed amused. He stood and walked across the lobby. Hadron grabbed the
equipment boxes and followed. Harry hurried to catch up with the two of them,
putting cookies packed in bags in his jacket pocket.

 

Levram went to a Audi with government plates. He gestured for his guests to take
seats as he got behind the wheel. The three of them rolled to the airport for their
flight.

//321293

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 4

1987-

Marty and Ren loaded up the rented Jeep with supplies from the plane. Then they
headed south. The local news pointed Ren to the area but none of the reporters had
an idea of what was going on down there.

 

Ren had an idea but he didn’t like what it meant if he was right.

 

“This might be a bigger problem than what we thought,” said the detective, consulting
the map. “We might need help before this is done.”

 

“We can call Barry when we reach where we can see things,” said Marty. “This might
just be weird weather.”

 

“We know this isn’t weird weather,” said Ren. “This is being caused by someone. I
can already see the patterns in the air.”

 

“Can you stop them?,” asked Marty.

 

“I don’t know,” said Ren. “My speciality doesn’t lend itself to mystical dueling. I
have seen something like that when I was younger. The Professor said it was a failure
on his part since he had not been able to gather the evidence needed and had to resort
to a petty trick.”

 

Marty nodded. He had met the Professor once with the Scouts, and when Bond was
born. The old man and Barry had got along splendidly as the younger generation
looked on. Evidence gathering methods had been the thing for a long time that night.

 

Marty wondered sometimes about his parents. Barry had been a good father before
he had been reduced to a brain in a jar despite the constant danger. He didn’t have a
clue how he had come into his adopted father’s custody.

 

He had never asked Ren about his parents.

 

“How did you start working with the Professor?,” asked Marty.

 

“I was sold to him,” said Ren. “How did you start working with Barry?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Marty. “I just always have as long as I can remember.”

 

“You don’t remember how you came to be with the Scouts?,” said Ren.

 

“No,” said Marty. “Jim always said that they found me during one of their cases. They
said they didn’t know what happened to my folks.”

 

“I could look into it for you,” said Ren. “It’s part of what I do.”

 

“It has been a long time,” said Marty. “That would be a mystery that might be out of
reach.”

 

“We’ll see,” said Ren.

 

Marty smiled. His friend loved breaking mysteries. The longer away it was, the more
he loved it.

 

He could take it, or leave it.

 

He drove on in silence. He wished Finch was with them. He felt more confident when
she was close.

 

“Yes,” said Ren. “We are looking at something unnatural. I think I am going to call
Corona in case we need someone to come looking for us.”

 

“I don’t have a problem with that,” said Marty. “Tell her to leave Bond with Finch.”

 

“All right,” said Ren. “She’ll love visiting the desert.”

 

“That will be one of us then,” said Marty. He followed the road south, keeping an eye
on the other drivers. Any one of them could do something stupid that he might have
to use his power to fix.

 

“Don’t worry,” said Ren. “We might not have to do anything at all. This might be a
natural event.”

 

“Like the Bermuda Triangle?,” said Marty.

 

“I wouldn’t go that far, but yes,” said Ren.

 

Marty wondered if Corona could fly there from the States. He had never asked what
her range was. He just knew she was fast in the air.

 

She might have to catch an airplane flight to reach them.

 

They drove south quietly. Ren took readings with a coin on a string. He frowned at
each one.

 

A cloud appeared on the horizon. Marty pulled off the side of the road. He got out of
the car and looked into the distance. He frowned at the storm floating in front of
them.

 

Ren got out on the other side. He held up his coin on a string. It dropped straight
down at first. Then it rotated in the still air violently. Ren put the coin away.

 

“Whatever is going on is kicking a lot of loose energy into the air,” said Ren.

 

“Better call Corona,” said Marty. “We’ll have to do something, but we might need
someone to rescue us if things goes sideways.”

 

“Solving this would be good for this part of the world,” said Ren. “I would like it even
better if we don’t get killed doing it.”

 

“I know,” said Marty. “Finch will kill me if something like that happens.”

 

Ren gave him a look before shaking his head.

 

“Where do you think we should try to set up?,” asked Marty.

 

“We can let luck decide for us,” said Ren. He swung the coin on its string over his
head. He gave his wrist a flick and released. The coin flew up and away. “Follow that
dowsing coin.”

 

“Really,” said Marty. He created a bird to follow the flying currency. Its sharp eyes
should keep the thing in sight until it lands.

 

They got back in the jeep. The vehicle rolled toward the cloud, keeping an eye on the
bird. Fighting a stationary tornado was a new one on them. A stop at the next town
might give them some cover to think about how they were going to pierce the storm
and look for the source.

 

They certainly needed some way to get close without risking the rental. Marty had
dealt with high winds and knew they could lose the Jeep if he turned the wrong way.
He doubted the extra insurance he had asked for would cover a magic tornado lifting
the vehicle up and throwing it across the desert.

 

He didn’t have anything close to dealing with the phenomenon other than his dragon
scaled up to carry him above the cloud and swirling sand. He wouldn’t know what
creature could stop the wind without killing itself.

 

“I can’t see your bird any more,” said Ren.

 

“It must still be in the air,” said Marty. “Look for a flare. That’s where the bird will
land to mark the spot where your thing hit the ground.”

 

“Do you think your bird can fly into that?,” said Ren. He nodded at the swirl of air
ahead.

 

“I don’t see why not,” said Marty. “It’s living flame. It should be able to stay in the
air in a long glide forever.”

 

“There is a helicopter,” said Ren. He pointed at a small chopper headed into the
desert. “Should we go after that?”

 

“All right,” said Marty. “Keep an eye on where the bird lands.”

 

Marty pulled off the road and headed across the country. The helicopter would set
down long before he could catch up to it. He had a general direction and thought it
was heading for a spot at the edge of the bad weather.

 

Maybe the local government had decided to figure out what was going on.

 

Marty wondered if Barry knew someone he could call to ask for information. He
should have thought about whether there were masks operating in the area that he
could check for assistance.

 

“There’s the flare from your bird,” said Ren. He pointed at the small column of flame
in the air. “It’s just on the other side of that helicopter.”

 

“Let’s drive over and see what’s going on,” said Marty. “An unmarked heli could
mean anything. Once we have that sorted out, we can try to find your coin on a
string.”

 

“Whatever is out there has to be causing the storm,” said Ren. “If we have the right
tools, we can disperse the cloud and settle things to normal.”

 

“Don’t get too excited about having another mystery to solve,” said Marty. “This
could just be something that is once in a lifetime caused by the desert.”

 

“How likely is that?,” said Ren.

 

“I have only seen it a couple of times,” said Marty. “We didn’t find the source
other than something was in the ground. Once we ripped that up, the whirlwind
broke apart.”

 

“So this could be the same thing,” said Ren. “What if we’re wrong?”

 

“The first explanation is it’s something natural and something we can interfere with
it at some level,” said Marty. “The second explanation is someone caused this and no
one knows how to stop it yet.”

 

“And we’re going to be the ones to try to stop it if it’s unnatural?,” said Ren. “I can
see that.”

 

“Don’t worry,” said Marty. “Finch can punch a storm out.”

 

“Okay,” said Ren. “We both know that isn’t true.”

 

“Have you ever seen her try?,” asked Marty. He smiled.

 

“I haven’t actually,” said Ren. “I choose to disbelieve the statement until I see it with
my own eyes.”

 

“Just pretend to be surprised when she does it,” said Marty. “That way I won’t have
to tell her I told her secret to you.”

 

“If she can punch out a storm like that with her bare hands, I will be the most amazed
detective that you ever saw,” said Ren.

 

“Do you want to put money down?,” asked Marty.

 

“No, because we will have to do something about this without Finch,” said Ren. “I
just don’t know what yet.”

 

“Something will present itself,” said Marty. “We’re homing in on that heli. We should
be able to see a pad with glasses in a few minutes. I don’t know how long it will take
to drive across the desert to it.”

 

“I think there is a camp, Marty,” said Ren. He pointed to a set of tents under the flag
of Israel in the distance. “Maybe explanation two is the right one.”

 

“We’ll know if they start shooting at us,” said Marty. He smiled at the sour grimace
on his friend’s face.

 

“I think that’s the last thing we want,” said Ren.

 

“I see some security,” said Marty. “Let’s see what happens when we roll up to the
checkpoint. Be ready to hypnotize the car.”

 

“I am,” said Ren. He placed one hand on the dashboard as the Jeep sped toward
the camp. He placed the lines of work in the dashboard to wait for him to activate
them at the right time.

 

A group of soldiers approached. They held their rifles pointed down, but ready to
bring up in case of trouble. They frowned at the two strangers rolling to a stop beside
them.

 

“How’s it going?,” said Marty. “Is there a problem?”

 

“Go back to the road,” said the sergeant in charge. He pointed back the way they had
come. “There’s nothing for tourists here.”

 

“Have you seen my bird?,” Marty asked. “About yay big, kind of red and orange.”

 

“No,” said the sergeant. “What kind of bird is that?”

 

“My wife calls it a fire chicken,” said Marty. “They don’t get along.”

 

“Are you having some kind of problem we can help you with?,” asked Ren. “There’s
a lot of armed men for a sandstorm.”

 

“I think you should turn around and go back the way you came,” said the sergeant.
“You can hunt your bird after we’re done.”

 

“What if he attacks and pecks you?,” asked Marty.

 

“We will shoot it?,” asked the sergeant.

 

“I wouldn’t do that,” said Marty. “That will make it angrier.”

 

“Excuse me,” said a man with a beard and short sleeve shirt. “What is going on
here?”

 

“The sergeant is helping me with my fire chicken,” said Marty Morgan. “I’m Marty
Morgan. This is Ren.”

 

“The famous Marty Morgan?,” asked the bearded newcomer. “The Hazard Scout
Marty Morgan?”

 

“I’ll give you an autograph if you want,” said Marty.

 

“Come inside,” said the chief. “Sergeant, have someone park the jeep out of the way
in case the storm turns and comes this way.”

 

“Yes, sir,” said the sergeant. “Are you sure that is wise?”

 

“The Scouts have been solving weird problems for a while now,” said the chief. “I
think they can help us with this.”

 

“We would be glad to do that,” said Marty. He got out of the jeep. “It’s a rental. I
need to turn it back in when we’re done driving around.”

 

“We will do our best, sir,” said the sergeant. He didn’t look pleased about the
development.

 

Ren got out the other side, pulling on his bag. He walked around the car, keeping his
hands in plain sight. It was too easy to be shot by accident in a situation like this.

 

“I’m Ishmael Levram,” said the bearded man. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

 

“The pleasure is all ours,” said Marty. “Having problems?”

 

“Yes,” said Levram. “That’s why I hired consultants to help me figure this out.”

 

He led the way into the tent. Marty paused to let his eyes adjust to the change in
lighting. He saw two familiar men going over charts with some technicians.

 

“Hadron?,” said Marty. “Mark Hadron?”

 

“Morgan?,” said one of the men. “What are you doing here?”

 

“What are you doing here?,” asked Marty. “It’s a long way from New York.”

 

“Ishmael hired us to do a survey,” said Harry Cho. “I didn’t expect to see the Hazard
Scouts out here.”

 

“Barry said he wanted to know what was going on,” said Marty. “This is Ren. Ren,
this is Mark Hadron and Harry Cho, the guys who saved New York.”

 

“Pleasure to meet you,” said Ren.

 

“The Mark saved New York,” said Hadron. “We do need help, Marty. I was about
to ask Ishmael to get the others on a plane with our gear. The sensor readings here
are higher than the World Trade.”

 

“So Israel could be ripped up?,” asked Marty.

 

“Like a sheet of paper,” said Hadron. “We didn’t bring anything with us because
we didn’t think it would be this bad.”

 

“It’s magical in nature,” said Ren. “I have a marker to point us in the right direction.”

 

“Ren and I can go into the wind and find the source of it,” said Marty. “Maybe shut
it down.”

 

“Maybe get flayed alive,” said Ishmael. “There is no doubt the sand propelled by the
wind is capable of skinning people if they were in the middle of that.”

 

“We need access to your workshop, Ishmael,” said Hadron, eyeing the sensor. “We
need to build lamps and carbines. This thing is not going to wait for Milt and Dyson
to get here.”

 

“All right,” said Levram. “It’s south of Tel Aviv. We can fly back, build what you
need, and fly back.”

 

“I don’t think we have time for that,” said Cho. The wind picked up to underscore his
words. “It looks like we have to do things with what we have here.”

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 5

1987-

“I don’t think we have anything we can use,” said Hadron. He looked around the
forward base. “All I see are screens and computers.”

 

“We can break a couple monitors open for parts,” said Cho. “The main problem is we
don’t have any storage if that storm is caused by turbulence.”

 

“We might have a problem,” said Ishmael. He checked the reports coming in from the
small radar he had set up to monitor the dust cloud outside his tent headquarters. “The
storm is coming our way.”

 

“How fast?,” asked Marty. He had a dragon he could call up, but he doubted he could
carry everyone to safety.

 

“A few meters per second,” said Ishmael. “It will hit the tents before we can get the
heli into the air.”

 

“Get cover,” said Marty. “Under desks.”

 

He went to the door of the tent. He waved the soldiers inside. He didn’t know how
many were out there, but he didn’t want them to be flayed alive in the face of what
they were facing. He looked for any stragglers before closing the tent flap and zipping
it tight.

 

“The wind is going to hit the tents and try to bury us,” said Marty. He started pushing
one of the tables towards the others. “We need a temporary cover to let the sand flow
over us without killing us.”

 

“Turn some of the desks up,” said Ishmael. “Use the gear as a brace. We will have to
dig in to avoid the brunt.”

 

In a few minutes, the group had built a shelter with desks and tables as shields. The
desktops and monitors were placed to block the anticipated wind, but it was a better
than even chance they would fly away on impact. A hound appeared to dig into the
ground so sand was piled around them while they were in a pit under the tables.

 

The tent flew away, pulling the tent poles with it. Sand blasted their cover. Some of
the furniture started to shift to fall on top of them. A small gorilla caught the desks
and held them in place the few minutes they needed.

 

The wind retreated from their position. Marty waited at the bottom of the pit for the
all clear before he thought about exposing his head.

 

“Is everyone all right?,” asked Ishmael.

 

A chorus told him that most of the group had come through the attack unscathed. He
just needed to fight clear of the pit and figure out the next move. And now that he
knew something intelligent was behind things, he could use that to get cooperation
from the other parts of his government to do some thing about things.

 

Marty got to his feet, shaking off the sand that had covered him. He looked around
at the damage of the destroyed base. Everything light hit by the wind had been thrown
for yards. The makeshift cover from the furniture had saved their lives.

 

“Where’s Ren?,” he asked. A visual search said his friend was not half-buried with
them.

 

“I don’t see him,” said Ishmael. “Could he be buried?”

 

“The wind took him,” said Hadron. He shook the sand out of his hair. “We’re going
to have to go in there and get him back.”

 

“Into the storm?,” said the bureaucrat. He looked at the whirling wind at the edge of
their camp.

 

“Yeah,” said Hadron. “We need access to your shop, Ishmael. Then we’re going to
try to solve your problem.”

 

“The vehicles look down,” said Ishmael. He started out of the pit. “We’re going to
need fast transport.”

 

“I got that covered,” said Marty. “What are we doing?”

 

“Harry and I are going to put together lamps so we can cut our way through that
cloud,” said Hadron. “Then we’re going to see what’s behind this, and where your
friend went.”

 

“You think there is something intelligent behind this?,” asked Ishmael.

“I would be surprised if there isn’t,” said Hadron. “We won’t know what’s going on
unless we go in and look for ourselves.”

 

“I’m for that,” said Marty. “I don’t want to explain to Corona how I lost her
husband.”

 

“So let’s do the plan,” said Hadron. “The first step is to let Milton and Dyson know
that we have some kind of thing behind this. Then we get back to the workshop to get
some kind of gear together. Then we come back and disperse this.”

 

“All right,” said Marty. “You’re going to have to hang on tight.”

 

“We‘re ready,” said Cho. “Let’s get this over with. I told you things would get bad
but I didn’t think it would start this soon.”

 

“Something changed,” said Hadron. “Maybe whatever is behind this sensed Ren and
took him because he was a threat.”

 

“He is kind of a magician like Scry,” said Marty. “That might be why he was
targeted.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “That makes sense. So the cloud either needs magicians to
work, or there is a magician inside of it that doesn’t like rivals. That means we have
something we can deal with once we’re properly armed. Let’s get started.”

 

Marty raised his hand and a dragon expanded out of the air. It looked down on the
group with yellow eyes. A flap of its emerald wings sent sand into the air.

 

“That’s impressive,” said Ishmael.

 

“I’ve been working on Daisy for a while,” said Marty. “Climb aboard.”

 

Ishmael gave orders for the soldiers to leave everything and fall back. No one else
needed to be hurt if the cloud decided to rip into them. They could salvage their gear
and vehicles later after everything was dealt with by the Lamplighters.

 

“Next stop is Tel Aviv,” said Marty. Daisy lifted him up so he could perch on her
head. “You’re going to have to give me directions when we get closer.”

 

“It’s not in the city proper,” said Ishmael. “The ministry didn’t want me to work on
my things where something could go wrong and blow down a city block.”

 

“That’s some foresight,” said Cho. He smiled as he clutched his hat to his head. Daisy
had allowed him and Hadron to climb on her shoulders. “How are you doing this?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Marty. “I’m going to say practice. I used to only be able to
summon small animals, then I worked up to bigger animals, then imaginary animals.”

 

“Could be tapping the turbulence somehow,” said Hadron. “Internal wants, external
energy.”

 

“As long as it does what I want it to do,” said Marty. “It doesn’t matter how it works.”

 

“It could kill you,” said Hadron.

 

“That will make my wife very mad,” said Marty. “Let’s go, Daisy. Up, up and away.”

 

The dragon flapped its wings and leaped into the air. Within moments, they were high
in the air with the passengers clinging on tight. Marty smiled as he rode on the head
of the beast.

 

“This is a lot more exciting than what I usually do,” said Ishmael.

 

“Another day at the office for us,” said Cho. He smiled at the Israeli.

 

“The cloud expanded,” said Hadron. “That’s why it took Ren.”

 

“Corona won’t like that,” said Marty. “I have to start bringing everybody to these
things. I didn’t think the cloud would be magic.”

 

“We’ll get him back,” said Hadron. “It’s the only way to shrink the cloud, and that’s
what we need to do.”

 

The dragon soared through the sky. Ishmael called ahead to prevent problems. There
were some vigilantes operating in Israel, and they were wanted, so cutting through
the confusion so they could get to his workshop without having to deal with the Air
Force seemed the best way.

 

“Land next to the gray building on the right,” said Ishmael. He pointed at the clear
space below.

 

The dragon descended, gliding in a circle to cut speed. It thumped down and folded
its wings. Hadron and Cho staggered away from the landing. Ishmael slid down the
side of the beast and jogged toward a warehouse across from the gray building he had
used as a landmark.

 

“Good job, Daisy,” said Marty. “Hold on because we have to fly back.”

 

The dragon nodded. It settled down in a circle to wait for its passengers to return.
Marty climbed down and followed the others to the brick building. Ishmael let them
in with a swipe of his identification, and the press of his thumb.

 

“You said you have electronics here?,” asked Hadron.

 

“I have a general collection downstairs,” said Ishmael. “I don’t always know exactly
what I might need, so I keep a lot of general parts for building something mission
particular.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “Let’s get to work, Harry. We might not be able to build full
lamps, but we should be able to get some rifles out of this.”

 

“Got you,” said Cho. He pushed his hat back. “Let’s see what we got to play with
here.”

 

The two of them searched the shelves, bringing the parts they needed to a work table.
It took them minutes to put together a pair of rifles made from calculators, tubing, and
wiring. They hooked the rifles to boxes that should work the same as their lamps but
they wouldn’t be able to measure things while they were going about their business.
Hadron hooked his sensor to the rifle he planned to use so he had an idea of what
spirit needed to be extinguished first.

 

“Don’t try to use these once we’re done,” Hadron told Levram. “Throw them in the
ocean, or bury them somewhere you know people won’t dig them up.”

 

“Dangerous?,” asked Levram.

 

“If I said you could lose the city, would that be the best explanation?,” asked Hadron.

 

“I see,” said Ishmael. “And we’re going to be using these?”

 

“Harry and I are going to try to cut a path,” said Hadron. He nodded at his partner.
“Marty is going to come in after us to make sure we don’t get killed by whatever is
there. If we can get Ren back, that will shrink the cloud. I am sure of that.”

 

“That will make Corona happy,” said Marty.

 

“The source?,” asked Levram.

 

“Either we destroy it, or we find out enough to destroy it on a second try after we can
get Milt and Dyson here with better equipment,” said Hadron. “We’re going to have
to lance this before it gets big enough to wreck the entire region.”

 

“I will write you a check when this is over,” said Ishmael. “This expertise is what I
needed to get things done.”

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “We have to get back to the cloud and see what we can do.”

 

“I have to call Barry and let him know what’s going on,” said Marty.

 

“We have to call Janie so she can get the guys to get ready,” said Harry.

 

“I have two phones we can use,” said Levram. “I mainly use them to request
supplies.”

 

“Do you have pictures of the area before the cloud materialized?,” asked Hadron. “I
would like to look at those while the guys are leaving their messages.”

 

“I have some I requested from the American intelligence agencies,” said Ishmael. “I
asked for them when I saw the radar readings.”

 

Levram retrieved the pictures from a file cabinet on the other side of the room. The
murmur of Harry and Morgan talking on the phone drifted to Hadron but he was
already thinking about other things.

 

The Lamplighter went over the pictures with a glass from the desk. He frowned at
what he saw. He checked each picture, laying them next to each other. He frowned
as he straightened.

 

“The guys are getting ready,” said Harry. “It will be hours before they can get here.”

 

“I asked Barry to pick them up,” said Marty. “He was going to need to refuel before
he could cross the Atlantic, so I asked him to get your guys too.”

 

“I will tell Airport Security to pass them when they arrive,” said Ishmael.

 

“This is a manmade thing,” said Hadron. “So when we go in, we have to look for Ren,
and the guy behind this.”

 

“Are you sure?,” asked Ishmael.

 

“There was a guy almost center of where the cloud would be,” said Hadron. “He
didn’t leave according to these photos.”

 

“So he caused this cloud with a power?,” asked Marty.

 

“Or he took advantage of the nearby turbulence to boost himself up,” said Hadron.
“Whichever one it is, we’re going to have to take him if he tries to stop us from
getting Ren back.”

 

“I better arm myself,” said Ishmael. “Are you sure we can handle this without the
others?”

 

“We don’t have to fight it out,” said Hadron. “We just have to complicate his plan
enough so he can’t get it done before the others get here. Then we can try for a full
push on him and clear him out of wherever he hid in the sandstorm.”

 

“Corona and Barry will be here,” said Marty. “That will increase our firepower.”

 

“I have a feeling that it is essential that we get Ren back before we do anything else,”
said Hadron. “If Ren can be used to expand the effect of the cloud, it will eventually
reach parts of the country essential to life.”

 

“Which will reduce the greener lands to more desert,” said Ishmael.

 

“At the very least,” said Harry. “We are talking about what happens when a giant belt
sander meets human beings without protection.”

 

“Let’s go,” said Marty. “Daisy can get us back. Then we can do what we have to do
to stop this.”

 

“And after that, you’re going to have to get rid of this makeshift equipment in such
a way it doesn’t hurt anybody when it blows up,” said Hadron.

 

“You have my word,” said Levram. He held up a hand.

 

“Let’s see what we can do,” said Hadron. “At least we’re here ahead of whatever
disaster might have resulted if we weren’t here.”

 

Marty led them back to where Daisy waited. The dragon perked up and lifted her
upper body, spreading her wings and giving them a testing flap to ready for flight.

 

“We’re going back to where we were so we can stop the cloud,” said Marty. He patted
Daisy on the head.

 

The humans climbed aboard so their living aircraft could take flight.

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 6

1987

Ren opened his eyes to a voice asking if he was all right, and sand rubbing
everywhere. He should have stayed home. He could be eating flapjacks with Corona
and Bond instead of being trapped wherever he was at the moment.

 

He was in a cylinder of light. Signs had been engraved in a platform under him
and in the ceiling above him. He touched the transparent wall with the sleeve of
his coat. Smoke rolled off the cuff as he watched it.

 

“If you try to jump through the cage wall, you will be burned badly,” said the voice
again.

 

Ren examined the rest of the room he was trapped in.

 

His cylinder stood in a triangle facing two other cylinders. An old man dressed in the
style of ancient China and a man dressed in what the detective thought of as butler
tuxedo took up one of the cylinders. The old man was bald, wrinkled beyond belief,
and calm about being trapped. His servant stood at parade rest behind him, as
impassive as any butler born.

 

Ren wasn’t sure the butler was human.

 

The other cylinder held a woman with dark hair and green eyes. She wore a t-shirt,
shorts, and sandals. A rune covered the back of her hand.

 

“How do you do?,” asked Ren. He looked down and didn’t see his bag. He looked
around the room and spotted it on the floor next to his cell.

 

“Caught by the storm?,” asked the woman.

 

“Yes,” said Ren. “My friend and I were looking at the cloud when it expanded.
I think I took a hit. My name is Ren.”

 

“I’m Al-a-Din,” said the old man. He gestured at his servant. “This is Hakim.”

 

“I’m Rachel Rosenbaum,” said the woman. “The cells prevent the use of magic.”

 

“That is unfortunate,” said Ren. He checked the pockets of his coat. He smiled when
he felt his tool kit in his jacket. “Is that why we’re in these magical cells?”

 

“We think the person who put us in these is draining our ability to cast magic to
do whatever he is doing,” said Rachel.

 

“He’s in control of a giant sandstorm,” said Ren. He pulled out his tool kit. “We
were examining it when it caught me. My friend was not taken, so he might be
working on a way to get here and do something to stop the cloud.”

 

“Is he a magician?,” asked Rachel.

 

“No,” said Ren. He smiled. “He’s an adventurer.”

 

“What good is that going to do us?,” said Rachel.

 

“He will act as a distraction while I think of a way to get us out of here,” said Ren.

 

“I would love to see that,” said Rachel. She threw up her hands.

 

“How will you get us out of here?,” asked Al-a-Din. He leaned forward as much as
he could to watch Ren work.

 

“I plan to open my cylinder, and then yours,” said Ren. He looked through his tool
kit until he found a pair of pliers. “Then we shall look around to see what we can do
about the man behind the giant cloud.”

 

He dug at the material in the floor of his holding tank. He found a loose stone and
worried it until it popped loose. He placed the stone out of the way. He needed to
pull a few more before he could make the burning light wall fail.

 

He worked on the stones as carefully as he could. The last thing he needed was
to trigger an alarm. Any capable mage would see what he was doing at a glance.
Then reinforcement would happen and his chance would be gone.

 

He frowned at the way the floor tried to grow over his attempt to fracture it. He
pulled out a rod from his tool kit. He yanked one of the stones from the sign. He
sank the rod into the floor to keep it from closing the wound he had made.

 

“That’s interesting,” said Ren. He took out two more of the rods. He would have
enchanted them, but his reserve of magical energy had been eaten by his cell.

 

“What’s interesting?,” asked the old man.

 

“The enchantment on the bottom of our tanks heals when we do things to them,” said
Ren. He pulled another piece of stone out of the way. He drove a rod down inside of
the wound. “I wonder how much I have to destroy before the wall cuts off.”

 

“Perhaps as much as half,” said Hakim. “The wall is fading. You should perhaps
hurry. I don’t think we’ll be alone long. The storm king will want to question you
about your capabilities soon enough.”

 

“I don’t think what I have will be that useful to him,” said Ren. He extracted one
more piece of the floor and saw the beams stop above the bottom of the cylinder.
“I was taught things to help me solve mysteries.”

 

“Anything is useful in more than one way,” said the old man. “There are two exits
that I have seen. One is behind you. The other is to your right. I don’t know if either
leads outside.”

 

Ren put away his tool kit and covered his head as he rolled through the gap in his
cell. He stood up. That worked better than he thought it would. He looked around for
a switch to turn off the other cylinders.

 

“You might want to leave,” said the old man. “That will cause some trouble for
the enemy.”

 

“Let me think of a way to cut your cylinders off first,” said Ren. He picked up
his bag and draped it over his shoulder. “If I can get you three out of those things,
that will cut the cloud off. Marty will have an easier time breaching this place to
help us.”

 

“All of this was formed from a magic command of the sand,” said Rachel. “You
would need something to punch through both of the caps.”

 

“I don’t really have anything that can do that,” said Ren. “I do have a pocket knife
that I can pass one of you so you can work on freeing yourselves while I look
around.”

 

“Give it to Al-a-Din,” said Rachel. “Hakim is more powerful than I am in the right
circumstances.”

 

Ren took out his tool kit and picked out the pliers, a chisel, and a small hammer. He
pushed them through the wall of the cell. The metal smoked as the magical laser wall
ate at them. Hakim waved his hand over the metal to cool the tools off.

 

“I’m going to look around and see if there is a way to let Marty in,” said Ren. “I
will come back and get you people out of this.”

 

“Take your time,” said Rachel.

 

“We’ll be able to free ourselves soon enough,” said the old man. He waved Ren
away as Hakim dug into the bottom of their cell. He shoved the rocks out on the floor
with his feet.

 

Ren decided to take the door to the right. It seemed to lead deeper into the facility.
Maybe he could talk their captor down. He thought his chances were poor to do that.
He had come to some conclusions with the information he had, and things looked bad
at the moment.

 

He was obviously dealing with a magician capable of shaping stone. He had seized
a spot in Southern Israel that gave him control of the local area. The captured
magicians had been drained to help power his sandstorm.

 

The only question was what was he trying do with his magical storm.

 

Ren had a few ideas and none of them were conducive to a peaceful resolution.
And he would have to do something to hold the magician in place until the others
were free, or Marty arrived to save the day.

 

And he was sure that Marty would track him down. The Animal had waited ten
years, but had finally hunted down the killers of his former family and freed his
adopted father. He would try to find Ren, one way or the other.

 

The detective skulked along until he found what looked like a wide open space
turned into living quarters. He looked around for another exit in case he had to retreat.
He didn’t have a lot of magical power, but he should be able to distract the brain
behind this long enough for others to take a hand.

 

How long would he have to hold? He doubted he would be able to do that for long.
Still, he had a few tricks that should be useful.

 

“How did you get out of your battery?,” said a voice to Ren’s right.

 

Ren raised an eyebrow at the man confronting him. The man had wrapped himself
in a cotton tunic, with sandals and a pharaoh’s wimple. Gold bracelets covered his
arms. He held a hooked staff in one hand.

 

“How do you do?,” asked Ren. “My name is Ren. I am here to talk to you about
my accommodations. There is a need to improve them if you want me to stay here.”

 

“I’m afraid my plan doesn’t call for your comfort,” said the sand king. “I have been
designated by Amenophis to gather as much of the sand to me as I can and hold
this position until he orders me to action. You will have to go back to your cell until
I receive that word.”

 

“I expect that you will trouble long before Amenophis will be able to order you
into action,” said Ren. “You’ve attracted too much attention. The Israelis know
you are here and plan to root you out.”

 

“Do you really think that is possible?,” said the sand king. He made a gesture with
his staff. “I have control over a wide expanse of the desert. They will not be able to
do anything to stop me once I start the cloud moving.”

 

Ren didn’t like that. As long as the cloud was in the desert, it was mostly harmless.
People and animals could avoid it, buildings were out of the way, water was confined
to oasis that could be dug out after a storm.

 

If the storm was diverted into a metropolis, the toll would be outstanding. Anything
living caught on the street would be flayed alive. Anything loose would be turned
into dangerous projectiles. Even cars could be thrown around in a high enough wind.

 

“I see you understand the implications,” said the sand king. “And there is nothing
anyone can do to stop me.”

 

“I’m willing to try,” said Ren.

 

“Do you really think you can stop me?,” said the sand king. “I don’t think you have
any spells that can touch me.”

 

“I have one thing,” said Ren. He raised a hand. Light blasted across the room,
blinding his opponent. He fled the room back toward the cell room.

That didn’t go as well as I thought it would.

 

He paused in the cell room. He looked around and spotted the other exit. He dashed
toward that, waving at the others. He didn’t take the time to explain what was going
on. He was sure they would understand as soon as the other man appeared.

 

He just had to buy time so Marty could find him, or the others to escape and shake off
the drain. He didn’t know how long that would take and knew his own power was at
low ebb. He didn’t have enough to hypnotize a door yet.

 

He found a long tunnel on the other side of the exit door. He ran down its length. If
there was a door leading outside, he might be able to do enough to get through the
storm.

 

On the other hand, if he didn’t have enough power, this might be his last stand and
being thrown outside could flay him alive.

 

At least he wouldn’t have to deal with Corona being angry at him for being trapped
like a rat.

 

The sides of the tunnel narrowed. Dust fell to the floor. The roof shook.

 

“I don’t have time to do this,” said the sand king. He advanced down the tunnel
from the other end. “You are going to be contained, then I will make sure that you
can’t escape again.”

 

“I don’t think so,” said Ren. “I think as long as I am free, I am a stick in the spokes
of whatever Amenophis planned. So I think I will remain free to do whatever I want.”

 

“You don’t have the power to do that,” said the sand king. He pointed his staff at Ren.
The end of the exit tunnel wrapped around the detective. “Get out of that.”

 

“Give me a second, and I will,” said Ren. He smiled to show his good cheer.

 

“I think I won’t give you that chance,” said the sand king. He gestured with his staff

and the hand moved down the wall, dragging Ren with it.

 

He dragged the detective back into the cell room. He paused. His captives glared
at him, but they seemed to be hiding something. He gestured the hand to carry his
captive to the third space. He ejected the rods and urged the platform to heal
completely.

 

“I don’t know what you three think is going to happen, but Amenophis will be here
soon,” said the sand king. “Your position will be worse then.”

 

“What makes you think you will still be here?,” asked Rachel. “Your plan is
crumbling around you.”

 

“Whatever happens, I will use you to power my creation,” said the sand king. “Not
even the Mark will be able to stop the destruction ahead.”

 

“I think you are wrong,” said Ren. He smiled again. “I think you are overestimating
what you can do.”

 

“What makes you say that?,” asked the sand king. He looked up. “What is going on
up there?”

 

He placed Ren in his cell and fled toward his living quarters. He couldn’t hide his
alarm.

 

“What do you think is going on?,” asked Rachel.

 

Ala-a-Din and Hakim stepped out of their cell.

 

“My friend is back to help us out,” said Ren.

 

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 7

1987-

“We need to fly a few more miles that way,” shouted Hadron. He pointed in the
direction he wanted to move. “We’re close to the center.”

 

“The cloud has shrunken,” said Ishmael. “Observations are saying that it contracted
while we were getting the equipment together.”

 

“We can’t worry about that,” said Hadron. “Ren might have done something, but the
thing is still going to try to stop us from dispersing it.”

 

“Concentrated beam?,” asked Cho.

 

“Yeah,” said Hadron. “We can’t fire more than fifteen seconds, but that might be
enough to punch a hole in the center of this and cause it to collapse.”

 

“Got it,” said Cho. “Give me the high sign when you are ready.”

 

Hadron watched the scanner. The energy in the cloud had dipped, but not completely
gone out. Then it had dipped even more. He couldn’t see a passage in the ground
but he was sure that whatever was causing this was underground. The scanner would
have shown any person, and most monsters, capable of shoving the sand like they
were witnessing.

 

They were going to have to dig the problem out after they set part of it on fire.

 

“Can you hover here, Morgan?,” asked Hadron.

 

“Can we hover for the nice man, Daisy?,” Marty asked his dragon.

 

Daisy made a noise that said yes, they could hover for a bit. She flapped her wings
to hold them in place in the air.

 

“Shoot, Harry,” said Hadron. He aimed down into the storm and lit it up. The blue
flame wasn’t as hot as he liked it, but it was burning the cloud into submission.

 

Cho fired down into the cloud as close as he could to where Hadron had targeted. The
second blast helped create a clear circle in the center of the whirlwind. Cracks
appeared in the sand below.

 

“Take us down,” said Hadron. “We have to find what we’re looking for before the
sand comes back at us.”

 

Marty tapped Daisy on the head and she dove to a landing inside the cleared circles.
Hadron and Cho corrected their direction of fire to push against the moving walls
they had created. The dragon landed with a thump.

 

“We need to find the door to where we want to go,” said Hadron. “It should be to my
right.”

 

“Looks sealed,” said Ishmael. He pulled out a pack from his belt of tools. “We’re
going to have to make our own door.”

 

“Do it,” said Hadron. “We won’t be able to hold this back for long.”

 

Ishmael opened the pack. He took out a brick of explosives and jabbed in a detonator.
He pushed the button and fled from the area of effect. He had picked a spot where
Daisy and the Lamplighters wouldn’t be affected. He smiled when the sand dropped
down into an opening.

 

“Take off, Daisy,” said Marty. He dismounted. “Get ready to scoop us up if the sky
clears.”

 

Hadron dropped down the hole first. He swung his cannon both ways before
marching along the tunnel. Ishmael and Marty dropped down next, then Cho. Harry
kept an eye on their back as they moved toward the source of energy.

Someone had been digging out smooth tunnels from the looks of things.

 

Hadron paused when he stepped into what looked like a throne room. He swung the
scanner around, pointing the cannon wherever it indicated. He didn’t see a
mastermind.

 

“I don’t see Ren,” said Marty. “Which way do we go?”

 

“That way,” said Hadron.

 

“All right,” said Marty. “Let me turn loose something to break open this cracker box.”

 

“I don’t think so,” said a relic from another age. “I still have work to do. You’re
going to have to go in a cell until I am done. Amenophis will decide what to do
with you when your use as batteries is done.”

 

“I think you should wear some clothes, bud,” said Harry. He tipped back his fedora.
“And while you are looking for a suit, we’re going to need our friend back and for
you to stop your cloud.”

 

“Who do you think you are?,” said the sand king. He raised his hands. “I control the
flow of the Earth. You can’t stop it.”

 

“Light him up,” said Hadron.

 

Hadron and Cho fired their cannons at the sand king. A wall of earth blocked the twin
streams. Marty ran along the side to try to get around.

 

Ishmael didn’t know what he should be doing, but he needed to help out. If the
Lamplighters fell, his country would go back to being in danger from the magician
in front of him.

 

He had a pistol and had been trained. He felt bullets wouldn’t go through the wall.
How could he use it to end this fight. He moved to one side. He shot once at the
minion of Amenophis. The sand blocked the bullet as soon as it came within reach.

He frowned. How fast could the wall block his bullets?

 

He decided to empty the magazine to see what would happen. He pulled the trigger
until the slide locked back when the gun was empty. The wall exploded to knock his
projectiles out of the air to protect its master.

 

Hadron moved forward. He frowned at the way the wall kept him from wrecking
it. The blue flame dispersed magic, but the cannon wasn’t powerful enough to
disperse everything like he wanted. Even with Harry helping him, they were barely
holding on.

 

“I think you should give up,” said an old man dressed like a Chinese peasant. “Now
that we are free, your scheme is over.”

 

“The old man is right,” said a woman in t-shirt and shorts. “You are done. And
Amenophis will be done as soon as we’re through with you.”

 

The sand king half-turned and flung a battering ram at the new arrivals. The woman
stepped in the way and raised her arm. A shield of light stopped the sand on contact.
The ram broke down into a pile at her feet.

 

“Hakim?,” asked the old man. “Please counterattack.”

 

The butler pushed the air with his hand. All the loose sand in front of him blasted
at the sand king who fought to divert it from his body. The carrying wind was enough
to fling him into the air. He caught himself with soft earth before crashing to the
ground.

 

“You attacked us out of the shadows when we couldn’t defend ourselves,” said the
woman. “Now that the ground is more even, how do you like it?”

 

She chopped the air with her hand, cloaking herself in protective armor. A helm
covered her face last. She pulled a blade as she marched forward.

 

“Do you really think we can take Amenophis?,” Cho asked. He pointed his rifle
vaguely at the sand king.

 

“Ask me that if he does show up,” said Hadron. “It looks like the magicians are going
to take care of the rest of this for us. We need to find Ren and be ready to move out
if Amenophis does show up.”

 

“I have no objections,” said Ishmael. He had one full magazine for his pistol. He
exchanged that for the empty as he moved away from the magic combat. The last
thing he wanted was to catch a stray curse.

 

Hadron waved the others to pull back before he did. The sand king and the armored
woman traded physical spells across the room. He paused as Hakim punched the
enemy through a sandy wall.

 

“The old man is well known,” said Ishamael. “The government leaves him alone
because of his butler.”

 

“I wonder why,” said Cho.

 

“All right,” said Hadron. “We’re letting them fight. We need to get Ren and pull back.
If our side wins, your sandstorm is done. If he wins, we get the others and come back
to burn as much of this down as we can with real guns and equipment.”

 

“I agree completely,” said Ishmael. “The door out is that way.”

 

Hadron pointed his cannon down the tunnel they had used. He frowned at the reading
he got from the attached scanner. Someone was already in the tunnel. He opened up
with blue flame to deal with whomever was there.

 

He paused when he saw the flame hit something down there and stopped pushing
forward.

 

“Time’s up!,” shouted Hadron. “Amenophis is here!”

 

“Where’s Marty?,” asked Cho. “We don’t have the weapons for this.”

 

“Hakim?,” said the old man. “I think we need an exit strategy for our young friends.”

 

The butler grew upwards, smashing through the ceiling with his giant body. He
grabbed a helicopter out of the air and crashed it into the ground. He looked around
for anyone else to challenge his physical power.

 

The exit tunnel collapsed on Amenophis and whomever else he had brought with him.
Hadron saw the shield take a hit before it vanished under the earth. Maybe they could
have taken him in a straight fight, but he doubted it.

 

People had been chasing Amenophis for years and he always walked away. Just
driving him off and breaking his minion had to be a win today.

 

Daisy swooped down and landed inside the newly renovated bad guy base. She
looked around for Marty. At least he was still alive.

 

“Everybody on the dragon!,” shouted Hadron. “We have to back up and regroup.”

 

Hadron pushed Ishmael and Cho in front of him toward the giant lizard. He waved
at the old man to run, wondering if he had to go over and lift the guy up and carry him
out of danger.

 

The woman pointed her sword at the hole the sand king had plunged through. Dozens
of blades punched through the wall. The helmet hid her expression so it wasn’t clear
if she had actually hit with her finishing move.

 

Daisy looked around with her dish eyes. She growled at Hadron as he reached for
her foreleg.

 

Marty and Ren appeared out of the other door. The Animal waved at the dragon as
he ran toward her. His friend trailed behind at a slower pace.

 

“We’re leaving?,” Marty asked.

 

“As fast as we can,” said Hadron. He looked at the two places he expected his
enemies to pop out. The sand king showed himself as everyone else boarded the
dragon. He lit the magician up with the blue flame. He threw the cannon away when
smoke poured out of the device. “We have to go before the gun blows up.” 

 

“You heard the man, Daisy,” said Marty. He started climbing the arm to the dragon’s
shoulder. “Let’s go before we get caught in an explosion.”

 

The group pulled themselves together and Daisy lifted up. She flew through the
hole in the roof and headed for a clear sky. She headed south.

 

“What are we waiting to happen?,” said the woman. Her armor faded away.

 

“My weapon was cobbled together make believe,” said Hadron. He watched the
hole fade away behind them. “And it is going up. I don’t know how much
damage it will cause when it goes up.”

 

Hakim landed beside Al-a-Din. He raised a hand in a warding gesture.

 

A column of blue flame erupted from the hole. Sand and wind blew outward from
the explosion. A network of veins collapsed under the pressure.

 

Hakim diverted everything he could as Daisy carried them to safety.

 

“I think you should power down the semi-flamer,” said Hadron. “Then I think we
should take it apart before it blows up on us.”

 

Cho held his hat to his head as he nodded at the thought.

[csyphrett]

Desert Storms 8

1987-

Mark Hadron stood in the desert of southern Israel. He looked at the crater he had dug
with his device. Ishmael Levram stood at his side. They both held devices to check
the surrounding area.

 

“No bodies,” said Levram. “No radiation from the blast. So we had a partial success
here.”

 

“The turbulence is high,” said Hadron. “There might be an influx of spirits and other
things coming into the area after how I stirred everything up. I guess we’ll have to
check it periodically. Milt will make the arrangements when we’re sure that’s what
we want to do.”

 

“That was a good demonstration of what could go wrong with the equipment,” said
Levram.

 

“Our real throwers would not have blown up like that,” said Hadron. “Unless we
meant for them to do that.”

 

“However you look at it, you ruined whatever Amenophis had planned to do,” said
Levram. “If we had his body, I would be happy to declare him dead. Since we don’t,
I am going to say he escaped somehow.”

 

“He’ll probably want to pay us back for what happened,” said Hadron. “Just one more
thing to look out for in the future.”

 

“Pay me back is more likely,” said Ishmael. He smiled. “I would like to talk to him
about the plan he hoped to enact. Then I would like to shoot him in the face.”

 

“He probably hoped to get control of the ley lines running out here and use that to
boost up to what he really wanted,” said Hadron. “There’s no telling if the geomancer
would have kept the boosted power, or not. I’m going to say not.”

 

“So this turbulence,” said Ishmael. “How bad do you think it will be?”

 

“No telling at the moment,” said Hadron. He put away his scanner. “We’ll figure out
a list of things you should look out for until things calm down. High on the list will
be animal mutilations of any sort.”

 

“Why animal mutilations?,” asked Ishmael.

 

“The spirits will be hungry, but they won’t eat a whole carcass of anything they kill,”
said the Lamplighter. “So you have to be aware of any report that shows animals are
missing body parts and the rest is discarded.”

 

“Understood,” said Levram. “And if such a thing is going on?”

 

“It will get worse before it gets better,” said Hadron.

 

“Al-a-Din suggested that he might be able to keep an eye on things,” said Ishmael.

 

“That’s fine, but he isn’t going to pay us to sooth over any problems,” said Hadron.

 

“Is money everything?,” asked Ishmael.

 

“It is if you’re poor,” said Hadron. “Is the woman going to help you? You seem to
need it.”

 

“I haven’t asked her,” said Ishmael. “I don’t quite understand what she did. I don’t
know if having someone with an unknown potential on staff would be good for the
department.”

 

“You only have you,” said Hadron. “You have to be kidding me.”

 

“I will need approval to hire her,” said Ishmael. “Do you think that I should?”

 

“I think you need some type of magician-slash-superhuman on staff other than Al-a-
Din who might drop dead at any second from the looks of him,” said Hadron. “Hire
her, but pay our bill first.”

 

“All right,” said Ishmael. “I will be glad to see what she has to say.”

 

“She might want the government to back her up if she wants to take on Amenophis
after this,” said Hadron.

 

“What does it look like, Mark?,” asked Harry. He shuffled his cards in his hands, his
hat on the back of his head. “Janie says Milt and Dyson are still having problems with
their case.”

 

“We might have to set up a lookout with Ishmael to make sure nothing bad happens,”
said Hadron. He frowned at the group in front of him. “There could be a spirit jump
here that might flatten out in the next few years.”

 

“Mister Hadron,” said Ishmael. “Suggests that I should hire you, Al-a-Din and Miss
Rosenbaum, to assist me if an emergency happens.”

 

“You want to hire us?,” asked Rachel. “What makes you think we want to work for
you?”

 

“Because he will need someone who knows what they are doing,” said Hadron. “We
can’t hold his hand forever. He needs experts who can deal with things on the ground
instead of waiting for us to fly in from the States to save the day.”

 

“And Mark hates the desert,” said Harry. He hid his smile from his friend.

 

“That was going to be my next point,” said Hadron. “Thanks for jumping in with
that.”

 

“You’re welcome,” said Harry.

 

“The Scouts will gladly help out,” said Morgan. “But we have the same problem as
the Lamplighters. We’re based in Cali, and the flight time is crazy. Plus we might be
anywhere doing anything against anyone at any time.”

 

“Barry likes us to look into things when we can,” said Ren.

 

“So you’re going to pay the old man and me to solve mysteries and save the day?,”
said Rachel. She frowned at the bearded bureaucrat.

 

“Yes,” said Ishmael. “I know Al-a-Din has spent a long time protecting the region so
this is basically just asking him to do what he is already doing for money, but I will
need help if Mister Hadron is right.”

 

“I can’t bind myself to working for a government,” said the old man. “So many have
come and gone here that I no longer have an interest in listening to nationalists.”

 

“And he is made grumpy dealing with bureaucrats,” said Hakim.

 

“I think I will be the only one you will be working with, and I will be in the field with
the both of you,” said Ishmael.

 

“And what will your head say to this?,” asked Rachel.

 

“I do not know what the ministry will say, but since I am the head of the department,
I think I can hire the both of you as contractors and turn you loose on any problem
that comes under my purview,” said Ishmael. “I have not been audited, but all of my
records are up to date and I will be able to go into my budget review with a clear
conscience.”

 

“I think you two should look into it,” said Morgan. He smiled. “You don’t want to get
into trouble and not have someone to call to get you out. The Israelis might be able
to give you a look out into bigger problems in the region.”

 

“And you can’t fix anything wrong if you are on the outside looking in,” said Hadron.
“Harry and I have to go, Ishmael. We’ll send you a report with our bill. We’ll also put
you on as a priority customer if the turbulence starts bringing things out here. Harry
and I have to get our stuff and head back to the Big Apple.”

 

“We’ll give you a lift, Mark,” said Morgan. “We’re heading that way ourselves. I
have to call Barry to tell him that I did all the hard work of dispersing that major
menace of a cloud. And I blew up Amenophis with my mad skills.”

 

“That’s exactly what I want to hear,” said Hadron. “We’ll put the work contract in
with the rest of the paperwork, Ishmael. It was good to meet you, and everything.”

 

“The future looks good for you, Ish,” said Harry. “Thanks for having us visit.”

 

“I will be glad to call you the next time I need some out of country help,” said
Ishmael. “Thanks for your help, Mister Morgan.”

 

“De nada,” said Morgan. “Barry will call if he has questions we can’t answer.”

 

“I will be ready with anything I can say,” said Ishmael. “The ministry might not want
me to share anything I might have discovered with your help.”

 

“I think Barry has some kind of dispensation,” said Morgan. “I will ask when we get
home.”

 

“How did he get that?,” asked Ishmael.

 

Morgan shrugged.

 

Barry Nicklaus had been around for a long time before he had been captured by
Watson Security. There was no telling which governments owed him for what was
done. Marty had run across old friends in some places where there should not be
people.

 

There was no telling what he had done for Israel and what he was owed by the
government.

 

“Thanks for the ride home, Marty,” said Hadron. “I don’t know what would have
happened if you guys hadn’t shown up. We might have lost Israel without you.”

 

“No problem,” said Morgan. “It means getting back to my kids that much sooner.”

 

“We’ll have to load up,” said Hadron. “Good luck, Ishmael.”

 

“We have to report our rental as being destroyed,” said Ren. “The rental agency won’t
like that.”

 

“I forgot about that,” said Marty. “Let’s take care of that while Mark and Harry get
their stuff from their hotel.”

 

Daisy lifted her head as the men approached. She stared at Marty. How could he
expect her to carry all this weight when an emergency had not been declared? She
wanted to laze in the sun more than flying.

 

“We’re heading home,” said Morgan. “Don’t make me talk to the wife.”

 

Daisy grumbled but readied to jump into the air. She put up with the four men
climbing on her. She flapped her wings and took to the air.

 

Ishmael watched them go. He looked back at the hole in the ground. He decided that
he would leave the scar in the ground. The desert would reclaim that soon enough.

 

“How many people are in your department, Mister Levram?,” asked Rachel.

 

“Just me,” said Ishmael. “I gather information and investigate things. Some things I
can deal with easily, and some things I have to get help to solve the problem.”

 

“Just you?,” said Rachel. “Where is the rest of your government?”

 

“My department is a last ditch thing,” said Ishmael. “Unless I do something that is
newsworthy, they don’t know I exist except at the funding hearings.”

 

“I would like to consider working with you,” said Rachel. “I have been doing things
on my own. I am not sure if I have been successful in my efforts. Maybe I need
someone objective to tell me what happened after I was done.”

 

“I would appreciate it,” said Ishmael. “I’m afraid the job comes with a lot of
paperwork. I will have a ream to fill out over this.”

 

“Then you have hired me at the right time,” said Rachel. “I have never seen a form
I have not been able to not fill out.”

 

“Hakim thinks I should form more connections,” said Al-a-Din. “Perhaps working
with younger people will give me a better perspective.”

 

“Really?,” asked Ishmael.

 

“No,” said the old man. “He just thinks that the two of you will blow up the countries
around us doing something you should not be doing.”

 

“All right,” said Ishmael. “I haven’t really considered that, but maybe you’re right.”

 

“I think I will walk into town to get a drink,” said the old man. “Is there something
you want from me before I go?”

 

“This is a phone,” said Ishmael. “I will call when I am able to get you clearance. You
will have to fill out forms for your identification.”

 

Al-a-Din gestured for Hakim to take the device. The butler slid it inside his jacket.

 

“Come along, Hakim,” said the Old Man. “Let’s see what adventure we can find.”

 

“Yes, sir,” said the servant, shaking his head.

 

“You’re going to spend some time bailing them out of trouble,” said Rachel.

 

“That is a concern for the future,” said Ishmael. He handed her a phone. “This is your
phone. The agency number and my phone number are already programmed in. I will
expedite your paperwork when you have it filled out so you can start receiving pay
while I write my report on this. Amenophis will probably try to do something in
retaliation. If you see anything strange, call me and I will do what I can.”

 

“Have you run into many strange things?,” asked Rachel. She put the phone in her
pocket.

 

“I have seen some things,” said Ishmael. “You can go through the files when you
come onboard.”

 

“That seems like a lot of work,” said Rachel.

 

“I have to justify what I do,” said Ishmael. “As my assistant, you will have to come
up to speed and show me things I can do better than what we did already.”

 

“All right,” said Rachel. “What’s next?”

 

“I have to fill out the reports, get you and Al-a-Din your work clearances, set up a
post here in case Hadron is right, and warn the ministry that the area might be tainted
for a bit until it straightens out,” said Ishmael. “You have to come in and fill out the
packet for new hires.”

 

“Let me get cleaned up,” said Rachel. “Then we’ll see about all this.”
 

[csyphrett]

5000 BC- The Murmur tries to summon the Destroyer and is opposed by Nobody,
Cain, Memphis, Al-a-Din, The King and Mr. Multiverse in the Destroyer. The line
of Kings is created by the Destroyer. The creature that would be known as Mr.
Multiverse was created to stop the Destroyer in the Will of the Universe.

 

1670- Bill Crenshaw is killed by a pirate hunter known as El Rey (The reincarnated
King) in Crenshaw.

 

1885- Bertram Chandler, the current King, deals with a river problem for a town in
King of the Wild West.
 
1925- Bobby Benson is born.

 

1935- Bobby Benson takes over from Cain in the Heir. He becomes the Mark.

 

1938- Sir Laurence Fletcher starts the Commando X program with its first recruit,
James Rafferty. The mission is to investigate smuggler Mick Brown for the Secret
Service. 

 

1940- Frank Flanagan decides to become the Protector in the Shield. The Mark brings
the USS Armand in to NYC Harbor after it was struck by a torpedo. Barry Nicklaus
sets a record for highest a human has been in the air. The Promethan saves people
from a fire. 

 

1941- Frank Saxon becomes the Rocket and helps defeat Doctor Rainey Sybil in
Flight of the Rocket Man

 

1945- Roscoe Burly musters out of the Army, and joins the Middleton Police
Department.

 

1954- Timmy Strangehold is born.

 

1955- Barney Strife takes over for Joe Carlson as Herocles in Inherit the Monsters.
Tooty Strangehold is born.

 

1956- Enemies of The Mark wound him and kill his friends and fellow spark bearers.
He lethally retaliates against them. Will Williams and Ann Baker were killed. The
Mark’s human side was wounded. Barberossa, Dr. Rainey Sybil, the Butterfly, Koal,
and the Spine were all killed by The Mark in the End of the Light.

 

1959- Marty Morgan is born

 

1960- Jim and Darby Strangehold die in an accident. Their children go to live with
their only living relative, Dr. Dale Strangehold.

 

1964- The Hazard Scouts help the Park Service with an animal enrager.

 

1965- Doctor Dale Strangehold helps Sgt. Roscoe Burly and the Middleton Police
Department deal with a monster in Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective.

 

1969- The Mark helps his alternate Earth counterpart, Captain Spark in Across the
Divide. The Hazard Scouts are decimated by an unknown enemy in Showdown in a 
Small Town. Only Marty Morgan, the Animal Boy survives.  

 

1973- Eleanor Benson is born.

 

1974- Carrie Benson is born.

 

1976- Cassie Troy cements her prophetic abilities by stopping a summoned monster
in a church for the life of her friend, Hector, in Cassie’s Knife. She is abetted by
Nobody. 

 

1977- Money Benson is born.

 

1979- Marty Morgan leads Corona, Cog, Finch and Ren against Watson Security and
their superpowered minions, The Squad, and rescues Barry Nicklaus and Cortez from
imprisonment in Revenge of the Scouts. 

 

1981- Bond Tamagochi is born

 

1982- Mark Morgan is born

 

1984- Melinda Morgan is born.

 

1986- The Mark meets Eleanor, Carrie, and Money. He introduces them to Spiffy, and
Cassie Troy in the Sisters. Mark Hadron develops his lamp and begins to gather the
original Lamplighters in Light the Lamp.

 

1987- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money find out about the other Marks and are adopted by
the Mark. The Lamplighters are credited with saving New York by the Mark in the
Vault. The Shooting Stars are blasted into space. The Lamplighters and Hazard
Scouts team up with Ishmael Levram to save Israel from a whirlwind in Desert
Storms.

 

1988- Sam Starn becomes the second Captain to take after his sister.

 

1990- Eleanor, Carrie, and Money help the Robot Rangers fight a building come to
life in Tokyo in the Robot Ranger Rescue.

 

1992- Pablo Estevez introduces his trainee, Henry Harkness, to his mentors and
Cassie Troy at the Good Eats Diner in the Four Musketeers. The Morgans and Bond
take Stella Marston Scouting in the Woods

 

1995- Shirou Morita becomes M-37 after touching an orb left over from the
Apartment Man’s attack on Tokyo in M-37. Stephen Scry loses his identity and goes
on the run from the Sons of Set.

 

1996- Dr. Yamada tests a radioactive coat for M-37 in Testing for M-37

 

1997- M-37 responds to an earthquake in M-37's First Flight.

 

1999- Darla Huitt is born. Moshe Levram is born.

 

2000- Stephen Scry and Memphis confronts Steven Scry at Last Stop, Nevada in
Meet Yourself. Tanner Lerner is born. Sara Levram is born.

 

2002- Lynette Harkness is born to Henry and Martha June Harkness in Happy
Birthday.

 

2010- Jason Parley gains the sword of the King during a bust of cultists and their
summoned monster in Return of the King. Al-a-Din and his butler deal with a
bombing in Master and Servant. Memphis helps Moshe and Sara Levram against the
Dog Maker in Duel in the Desert. Tanner Lerner and Darla Huitt gain their powers
from a meteor in Ink Buttons.

 

2014- The Lamplighters are decimated. Three are killed. Mark Hadron lost an eye and
had a hand punctured.

 

2015- Jane Hillsmeirer talked to Mark Hadron about restarting the Lamplighters in
The Hermit. Jason Parley, the modern King, threatened a deal of nonagression with
the local mobster in A Parley. Denver McGinty picks up Kisara, Princess of the Genn,
on the side of the road and drops her off in New York City in Girl on the Road. The
basis for Lamplighters West is formed when four women ask Mark Hadron for help
dealing with Crenshaw the ghost pirate in Splinter Cell. Marcel Hobart is the first
new recruit for the new Lamplighters in the Interview. Rangifer Tarandus, The
Reindeer, evades the Black Wolves while trying to save a town in Norway in Special
Delivery. Patty Page, Kathy Baker, Lin Qi, Jean Lopez form the Lamplighters West
and take on Crenshaw with the help of Mark Hadron in Blue Flames in San
Francisco. Roland Givens is embedded with seven spirits by Amenophis and the Sons
of Set despite interference from Tanner Lerner and Lynette Harkness in Button
Pushing. Bobby Iger and Maria Garcia-Lopez join the Lamplighters after a talk with
Harry Cho in Recruited. Ken Aioki is hired to be a Lamplighter in the Last Spot. 

 

2017- The Mark is killed by the Queen of Genn in Make Your Mark. Lynette
Harkness helps fight the invasion in her training suit in New Girl. Marty Morgan dies
leading the Hazard Scouts, the Lamplighters, M-37, the Robot Rangers, and others
against the Queen of Genn in The Scouts Hold the Line. Tanner Lerner and Darla
Huitt take part in the battle for New York in Push All the Buttons. The Fairy Man and
his princess help the magicians close the door on the Queen of Genn in Going Home.
The Shooting Stars return from space in Stars in the Sky.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading. I just hit the third of the way mark so I am happy

CES

[csyphrett]

Cape Fear

1975-

1

Wes Wesolowski knew he was going to die. He was in his car, driving for his life,
hoping that he was wrong about the car that was behind him. He needed to get
somewhere that he could hide until he could write his story and present his evidence
to save his life.

 

As a reporter, he had covered a lot of stories. This was the first one that could get him
killed. He should have given the story to McKay so he could get killed.

 

The car sped up and hit him from behind. He steered away from the impact. If they
knocked him off the road, he was as good as dead. He had to find a place where he
could lose them and then get back to the paper.

 

Once the story was out with evidence to back it up, he would be in the clear.

 

There might be some reprisals. Big time criminals didn’t like reporters poking into
their business. It was the nature of the beast. He had dealt with some of them over the
years. They didn’t even want to be treated badly as they waited for their sentencing.

 

He checked his mirror again. The other car was coming up for another ram. He
weaved side to side so they couldn’t get a clear shot. He had to stay on the road. If he
was knocked off here, he would drop into a valley and have to be carried out with a
basket from above.

 

He couldn’t let them have the records he had stolen. If they got them back, all of his
proof would be gone. His story would be dead.

 

He rocked in his seat as his car took another hit. How many more could he take before
the tires gave out. That would be just as bad as anything else that might happen.

 

Another hit and he lost control. He saw the guard rail coming up and tried to turn to
catch it with the side of his car. He took another hit and his Pontiac was airborne. He
tried to steer on the way down but he hit something and the car flipped and rolled
towards the bottom of the valley.

 

He had worn his seat belt and it cut into his hips and legs as the car carried him to his
crash. He felt blood on his face and his suit was ripped up. He had to get out of the
car and get away from there before the guys who pushed him off the road came down
and finished him off.

 

All they had to do was shoot into the car and that would be the end of it for him.

 

If they only wanted to stop him, shooting the car until it caught fire with him inside
of it was the best thing for them to do. He had to get out and find cover. Then he
could think of patching his wounds and getting things to his desk to write up for his
editor.

 

He realized he was upside-down. That was bad for him because it made it easier to
shoot at the gas tank. And it made it harder for him to undo the seatbelt so he could
flee.

 

He worked at the buckle until the belt snapped loose and he could drop down to the
roof of his car. He cut himself squeezing through the window. He lay on the ground
for a minute to catch his breath.

 

He had to get away from the car. If they started shooting at it, he could be caught in
the blast. If they started shooting at him and hit him, he could be wounded bad
enough that he couldn’t escape.

 

Then he would be one more missing reporter that was lost somewhere while doing
a story.

 

He should have asked McKay to cover this. He didn’t care if McKay got shot and set
on fire.

 

Wes dragged himself away from the car. His legs didn’t work right for the moment.
He pulled himself along with his hands. He reached another downslope to a mass of
trees. He pulled himself to a roll that carried him to the trees.

 

He reached the trees and hit painfully against the wooden sentinels. He took a
moment to catch his breath again. He had to get into the trees to get cover from the
other car on the mountain. He could see the lights up there.

 

Everything hurt. Blood was everywhere. He felt the world sliding to the side. He had
to keep going until he got help to get him to the paper.

 

He had never hurt this much before. He could see being in the hospital after he got
this story cleared. Maybe he could write a story about the hospital while he was stuck
in it.

 

He should have taken another road to get away.

 

He dragged himself deeper in the woods. He had to get away from the road. He had
to protect what he had taken. He had to try to keep going.

 

Wes knew he had no chance of reaching a rescuer. He was going to die on the
mountain. They were going to find the files. Maybe they would set his body on fire
to hide the evidence.

 

He hated losing like that.

 

Wes struggled along. He couldn’t wait on them to find him. He was going to die,
but he was going to make them work for it. He tried to smile at that, but the
pain turned it into grimace.

 

He heard a sound like a whistling above him. He wondered where it was coming
from. He put it out of his mind. If it wasn’t help, then it was useless.

 

The ground exploded to his right. Trees jumped into the air. His hand caught fire.

He rolled as more pain flooded his system. He glanced over and saw a fire burning
in the trees. Had they shot a rocket at him? Is that what had caused the explosion?

 

He rubbed his hand. The pain there eclipsed everything else he was suffering. He
looked down at it. He saw that he had acquired some kind of burn mark that looked
like four diamonds.

 

He rubbed it to clear some of the ash and blood off of it. He blinked as the diamonds
lit up. He thought that he was about to pass out because he was hallucinating.

 

His body stretched out into a ribbon. He floated above the fiery crater. He tried to
look at himself but he couldn’t see his hands. What was going on?

 

He found his clothes and stolen files laying on the ground. He frowned that he was
running around naked and apparently floating above the ground. The pain was gone.

 

He tried to frown but he couldn’t feel his face. He tried to feel around with his hands,
but he couldn’t tell where his hands were.

 

What was going on?

 

Wes decided that he had to get out of there and figure things out later. He had to get
to the paper to write up his story if he could use the typewriter.

 

He floated to his belongings and gathered them up. He flew down the mountain side
to the city below. He wondered how fast he was going.

 

He had so many questions but he had no way to work on that yet. If he could get to
a doctor, maybe then he could worry about not feeling normal. He was glad that the
pain had faded away with the change of shape.

 

Maybe there was someone he could ask about this. Maybe there was someone like
the Mark who knew what happened to him.

 

If the Hazard Scouts were still around, Mr. Robot had been the expert on strange stuff
like this. And they were based in California. He could have called and arranged for
an appointment.

 

He looked behind him. The fire in the trees still burned from what he could see. He
didn’t see anyone checking out the explosion. A secondary blast answered the first.

 

He frowned at the realization that his car had finally gone up in a fireball.

 

He was going to get the blame for the fire. He couldn’t believe it. He paused to
consider going back up to the top of the mountain in his new body and doing
something.

 

He wasn’t quite sure what that something was.

 

He found a payphone. He could call the paper if he could still talk. He could report
the fire and his attempted murder, even if he didn’t know who had actually did
the deed.

 

He returned to normal as he searched his clothes for change to make his call. He
looked around. No one was around to see him bent over his clothes in the buff.
He quickly pulled on his clothes before someone came along.

 

He frowned at the blood and dirt on everything. He felt better. Maybe turning into
a blob had healed up the injuries to him. He winced as he moved. He hadn’t healed
up as much as he thought.

 

Maybe he was going to die from internal injuries, but he was able to keep moving
at the moment.

 

He put change in the payphone and called the night editor for the paper. He had to
give a verbal breakdown for the fire story so it could be written up before the
deadline. Then he had to work on his bigger story.

 

“Clancy,” said the night editor. He didn’t have much to do, but when he did, his slow
talk turned to a fast clip. “What’s your story?”

 

“Clancy, this is Wes,” said the reporter. He looked around for a location. “A fire has
started up in the mountains. An explosion on the ground started it. I don’t know what
that was. Also my car was pushed off Old Pine Road through the guard rail before the fire. My car exploded when the fire reached it from the looks of things. I need to call the fire department and see what they can do.”

 

"Where are you, Wes?,” said Clancy. The scribbling of a pen, or pencil, came over
the line.

 

“I am at a pay phone at the corner of Burnes and Winchester,” said Wes. He
had to look around for street signs. “The fire is on the mountain where Old Pine
Road is. It’s in the trees below the road. You can see it from where I am.”

 

“What happened?,” said Clancy. “I’ll chop anything too outlandish.”

 

“I was pushed off the road down the side of the mountain,” said Wes. “Guys started
shooting at me. I got into some trees. There was a boom, and then there was a fire.
And then my car went up.”

 

“That is a lot of outlandish,” said Clancy.

 

“I know,” said Wes. “They were chasing me over some files I have. I was going to
bring them in so I could work on the Delveccio story. I didn’t think they would try
to kill me over it.”

 

“Delveccio is connected, Wes,” said Clancy. “Everyone knows it. I’m surprised he
hasn’t had you killed before this. He’s definitely going to want to kill you if you have
some kind of evidence against him.”

 

“I have been chasing this story for a long time,” said Wes. “I’m sure I can prove
something with what I have. I’m coming in to write everything up.”

 

“Don’t come here,” said Clancy. “This is the first place they will look for you if they
think you’re alive and got away. Don’t go home either. Pick a random place and go
there until some of this blows over. Thanks, Bel. All right. Some of your reporting is
not so outlandish after all.”

 

“What do you mean?,” asked Wes.

 

“The Observatory reported a meteor impact out your way,” said Clancy. “There’s
your explosion.”

 

“I almost got killed by a meteor?,” asked Wes. He couldn’t believe that. “There
was nothing left as far as I could see.”

 

“You lucked out,” said Clancy. “I am going to call the police and tell them about your
car, and tell them that you called in. Are you hurt?”

 

“A little,” said Wes. “I have had worse from my old man.”

 

“Don’t come here, don’t go home,” said Clancy. “Find some place you can hunker
down until things quiet. Delveccio might have some of the cops on the payroll. Don’t
tell them anything until you have your story written. I’ll talk to Fleming and see if the
paper can do something for you.”

 

“So I’m in the cold until I can get things done,” said Wes.

 

“If they are waiting for you here, you’ll be picked up before you can get to your
desk,” said Clancy. “Remember Marsden.”

 

“I remember,” said Wes. “Fire trucks are visible, Clancy. It looks like they’ll be
finding my car in a minute.”

 

“I’ll have Rewrite go over things before the press starts up,” said Clancy. “I will not
put anything in about you, your car crash, or your presence. You’re going to have to
explain things to Fleming in the morning. Until then, hide out. If you really have the
goods, be ready to protect your source from the police.”

 

“I can do that,” said Wes. He was the source, and he had committed burglary to
get what he had. “Thanks, Clancy.”

 

“Don’t thank me yet,” said the editor. “Fleming will want to know what you got, and
how to use it. Make sure you have the real thing to justify driving you off the road
and down a cliff.”

 

“I’ll have to hire an expert, won’t I?,” said Wes.

 

“If you want your story to go, yes,” said Clancy. “You’ll need a third party to back
up your conclusion. And that’s if Delveccio doesn’t kill you first.”

 

“I don’t know any finance guys,” said Wes. “All right. I’ll work on that to get the
backup for the story.”

 

“Fleming and Golding will want to talk to you,” said Clancy. “I’ll let them know
what is going on.”

 

“Thanks, Clancy,” said Wes. “I’ll call back when I have something for you.”

 

“All right,” said Clancy. “Stay out of trouble until we can get things sorted.”

 

He hung up the phone.

 

Wes put the receiver on its hook. He hated to be reminded of Marsden. He had been
the first to go after Delveccio.

 

They had found his body anchored to a buoy off the coast. Parts of it were missing
because someone had taken a knife to him. He had been on his way to the paper after
finding something. He had never made it.

 

Wes didn’t want that for himself.

[csyphrett]

Cape Fear

2

1975-

Wes decided he could hold out at the Capriano Hotel for the next few hours. He just
needed a place where he could wash up and think about getting new clothes without
having the police called on him.

 

Some of the police worked for Delveccio.

 

So he was on the east side of the city. The Capriano was on the west, near the beach.
How did he get there without a car?

 

Could he become the monster again and fly there? Was that part real? He decided it
had to be since he had to pull his clothes on after reaching the streets. He didn’t relish
flying around naked.

 

He wondered if there was something he could use for clothing when he transformed.
Maybe there was something out there he could cover himself with when he
transformed but he had never heard of such a miracle substance. He decided to think
about that when he got to the hotel and found an empty room he could hide in until
he could figure out what he was going to write with the material he had stolen.

 

Maybe he could call around and find something he could use. There had to be other
heroes with clothing problems out there. How did they handle things?

 

He touched the four diamonds on his hand and changed into his two dimensional
other self. He pulled himself out of his clothes and wrapped part of flat body around
them and his files. He took to the air and headed toward the beach.

 

Wes swam through the air. He was glad it was nightfall hiding him, but he really
needed clothes he could wear in his flat form. He reached the hotel roof in plenty of
time. He also didn’t want his power running out while he was doing something
extremely dangerous.

 

Maybe some kind of rubber suit that stretched when he stretched and returned to
normal when returned to normal would be the way to go.

 

How did he get something like that?

 

He pulled on his clothes on the roof and went to the fire escape. He climbed down
until he reached a window at the end of a hall. He jimmied the lock with his pocket
knife and climbed through the window. He needed to find an empty room without
letting the clerk know he was hanging out on the premises.

 

He might be able to use his power to sneak around and search the register. He could
just sign himself into a room and then sign himself out when he was ready to go.

Being flat would make him hard to see, and he could stretch a lot so he could hide
most of himself while he was getting a room. He nodded to himself. He could do that
instead of his original plan of just taking a room and hoping he wouldn’t be
discovered by housekeeping.

 

And staying under a fake name would help him against Delveccio when the man got
around to looking for him. If they checked the car after the explosion, they knew he
was still out there with the material he had taken.

 

At this point, he wasn’t sure he could admit he had the material.

 

He paused as he entered the stairwell. He sat down on the steps. Did he actually have
any proof of wrongdoing since he had taken the evidence from someone’s home? Had
he poisoned the well with his actions?

 

Was he going to end up like Marsden?

 

He still had to get a room, and get some rest. Then he could puzzle out the rest when
he was fresh and ready to go.

 

At least every time he transformed back, he felt better. Maybe turning into a flying
ribbon was healing up the damage from the car crash faster. He liked that. At one
point, he couldn’t walk, and now he could. He still had some pain, but it was nothing
like what he had felt right before he had been struck by that meteor.

 

He worked his way down to the lobby of the hotel and cracked the door open to look
out. He saw the desk clerk sitting behind the desk, book in hand. He needed to sign
in while the guy was distracted.

 

How did he do that?

 

The clerk was bound to see him even if he was flat against the floor.

 

Why were things always tougher than they had to be.

 

Wes looked at the clerk. The man refused to move under the intense gaze. His nose
was in his book.

 

He touched the diamonds on his hand and slipped out of the stairwell. He reached out
and took a better look at the clerk. The man was sleeping. That made things easier.

 

He grabbed the registration book and slipped back into the stairwell. He looked for
an empty room to match the keys on the pegboard behind the clerk. He filled in a fake
name and an address for one of those rooms with a tentacle formed from a corner of
his body. He snuck the book back and grabbed the room key. He waited for the
transformation to wear off before putting himself back together and heading up to his
new room.

 

So he had two goals. The first was to get out from under Delveccio’s sights and
publish his story with the checked over information as a basis. Either that was enough
to spur the police into taking a better look at the mob boss, or it wasn’t. In any case,
he would have to look for reprisals for the rest of his life.

 

No gangster sat there and took it while a reporter pried into their affairs and wrote
stories about them. Examples needed to be made like Marsden.

 

The second thing was to get some flexible clothing for the weird other form he had.
Once he had that, he could try to use the flying flatworm to keep digging into any
mobster that happened to set up in town.

 

A mask to cover his face would be helpful if his power ran out and someone saw him
doing the type of extracurricular digging that got reporters news prizes, and papers
sued for slander.

 

He doubted he would step out in public like the old Scouts, or the Mark. It was rough
enough to be a reporter. Being a reporter and a masked man seemed a little too much.
He wanted to write his stories and blend in as much as possible. Throwing down with
someone like Doctor Sybil was not something he was ready to try.

 

It was good thing the Doctor was dead and buried on Mars. Everyone knew he was
there. No one knew which mountain he was buried under.

 

Wes had no desire to look for the body either. Sybil had fought against the Mark
during the war, trying to carve out his own empire in the middle of what Hitler was
trying to do. The fact that he almost killed the Mark, and had killed some of the other
heroes of those years earned him no pity from the reporter.

 

And he had succeeded in forcing the Mark out of the public spotlight as a force for
good even if he couldn’t enjoy that victory.

 

Wes took off his clothes and thought about washing them. He decided he could wait
on that until he knew what he was going to do. He did look in the mirror and found
he was covered in bruises and cuts but they looked days old, not what he had earned
in his trip down the mountain.

 

Could the transformations be putting him back together, fixing the injuries he had
taken? It could be. No one knew what powers did to a person. He might have lucked
out and got something that would heal him up if he didn’t die immediately.

 

Maybe he could take a bullet, but decided it was foolish to try to find out how much
of a shot he could take.

 

If he got shot, and healed that up after becoming the flatworm, that was one thing.
Jumping in front of the bullet was just asking for trouble in his opinion.

 

He wondered how heroes found out what they could do. That was something he could
write a story around as long as he didn’t reveal his new power.

 

He decided to shower and get cleaned up. He would have to get clothes from
somewhere else before he could back out in public. He had to plan on how to get
around anyone watching the paper so he could turn in his work.

 

He could write his story anywhere, but he had to show the evidence and turn it in
person. He couldn’t expect the paper to open itself to a lawsuit just on his word. He
had to back up anything he said because the truth was an ultimate defense against
such a lawsuit.

 

Wes settled on the bed and decided to get some rest. He didn’t have a long time
before someone tried to find him. Eventually, Delveccio was going to learn he was
still alive.

 

They would then try to fill out him full of holes.

 

How much could his other form take if someone did shoot at him?

 

Could he heal that up using the tattoo to change?

 

Wes scratched his eyebrow and thought about what he could do. Maybe he should go
on the offensive and do something to Delveccio to persuade him to stop looking for
him. What could he do where he didn’t end up like Marsden?

 

He thought about his new ability to break in some places because he could fly, and
was like a blanket. He could elongate some of the corners to grab things, but he didn’t
seem to have a lot of fine control.

 

He didn’t seem to need to breathe, so what could he do with that?

 

He already had records that he could publish if he could get to the newspaper bullpen.
He could write everything up and then use his stolen files as a check. He could give
copies to the police, but everyone knew they supported Delveccio and would try to
stop him for their mob boss.

 

He didn’t know what he could do next. He had to keep moving if he didn’t want to
be taken in. Even though he had a room under a fake name, eventually someone
would turn him in and goons would be on his neck.

 

He thought he could get to the paper if he could get across the city to the newspaper
without changing back in the middle of the flight. He could use the roof access to get
down to the bullpen and his desk.

 

The only problem was would there be someone waiting to take him away once he
tried to type everything up and finish his story. He would have to be ready to call up
his flat body to do things before he could be exposed in the public.

 

He didn’t like the nudity aspect of things either. Turning back in the middle of doing
things could be embarrassing or problematic depending on what he was doing at the
time. He didn’t want to be naked in the middle of breaking into Delveccio’s house.

 

Wes could get a typewriter and write his story in his stolen room. Then all he had to
do was submit the story with copies of his evidence. Then he could just watch out for
the goons because they would be looking for him to retaliate.

 

They couldn’t let him live to testify on the authenticity of the records he stole. He
wasn’t a member of the police. It didn’t matter how the record fell into his hands as
far as proving things against Delveccio.

 

He would face jail for burglary while the mobster faced jail for money crimes.

And if they went to the same prison after their trials, Wes would be dead in a matter
of days unless he used his ability to escape.

 

He gazed up at the ceiling and wondered how long could he stay in the hotel before
he was reported to Delveccio, and someone showed up to kill him. How long would
it take for him to write his story? How long did his transformation last? What was
going on with that? Would it kill him?

 

The meteor strike Clancy told him about had to be the explanation for his new ability.
It didn’t tell him how long he had to live if the ability went rogue on him.

 

He needed to push for someone other than the city police to investigate his claims. He
needed to find a better place to hide. He needed a place only he could get in and out
of with his new flattening power.

 

He needed not to wind up like Marsden.

 

Wes decided that if he wanted to keep using the flat body, he needed to talk to an
expert who could point him to something he could use. He couldn’t call Mr. Robot
since the murder of the Hazard Scouts.

 

Who else could he call?

 

Flanagan Solutions might be the people to call about a sizechanging suit. There were
rumors that they had come up with clothes to handle powers since the war. They
might be able to give him something he could use.

 

At the worst, they could direct him to another company he could use to get the thing
he needed if he wanted to keep using his power.

 

He made a note to check into them. If he could get them to help him out, that would
make things that much easier for him.

 

He wondered if there was a story behind the company. There were rumors that the
first Rocket was connected to them, and some guy in armor in New York. How many
other heroes did they help out over the years?

 

He could do a set of stories based on that if he could turn anything up. He could
follow links to everyone to whom they had provided equipment. If they helped him,
he could write it from an insider’s perspective.

 

He doubted they would want this business in a spotlight. He had heard rumors but
Flanagan kept their problems to themselves.

 

There had to be a connection to the Rocket. Why didn’t they use that to get more
business for their company?

 

He decided that was some of the questions he could try to answer while he was
writing their story.

 

A noise came from the hall. Wes glanced at the door. Maybe laying on a bed in sight
of the door was a bad idea. He slid off the top of the bed and slipped into the shadow
of the mattress. He waited for someone to break in his door. The sound of someone
retreating from his door caused him to breathe again.

 

What would he have done if it was someone looking for him? He would have had to
use his flat body to attack. How effective would that be against someone with a gun?

 

Wes frowned. Maybe he should try to leave town. Maybe that would throw Delveccio
off enough that he could start his career over in some other city.

 

He couldn’t count on that. They had run him off a road and then shot at him when he

tried to get away from the crash. A small forest fire starting hadn’t stopped them from
trying to kill him.

 

If the explosion from the meteor and his body change hadn’t happened, he would be
dead because his legs had stopped working.

 

Now he was hunkered down, but eventually he would have to move. He wasn’t
looking forward to that. Either way, he couldn’t call Clancy from the room. The lines
could be checked, and that would lead anyone with the knowhow back to the hotel,
and then the false registration.

 

He could expect gunmen to show him the bottom of the ocean after that.

 

He could call from a phone booth across town. He could return to his new room with
a typewriter. He could write the story and get everything done before Delveccio could
stop him. The rest would have to play out in the court.

 

He might be just as much as a fugitive as Delveccio, but he would be alive and on the
run with some worry of killers trying to track him down to settle the score.

 

He should have went into some other line of work. You didn’t worry about people
trying to kill you when you worked in a factory.

 

Wes closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. The next day would be busy.

 

[csyphrett]

Cape Fear 3

1975-

Wes woke up. He had to get his clothes out of the bathroom and figure out what he
wanted to do.

 

He decided that he should avoid the paper’s office. If someone was looking for him,
that was where they would try to get a line on him. He was better off not letting them
find him so easily.

 

So he needed a typewriter to turn his story into something that could close some of
the trouble off.

 

Where could he get one? Did he dare go out and find one to bring back to the hotel?
Should he be wandering around in the daytime at all? How many people would

Delveccio spare to find and kill him?

 

He decided that he should wait until nightfall and get a typewriter then. He could type
the story up and hand it in to Clancy, or wait until the next day and just hand it in to
the day desk.

 

Delveccio might not know he survived the fire. Why give him a free pass of
information by walking around where his minions watched everyone going about
their business?

 

Wes looked out the window. He could wait until nightfall. His flat form made it
possible for him to sneak around even if he had to do it naked. He needed to research
on clothing if he wanted to keep using the form to break into places and steal
evidence.

 

He wished he had paper to write down his thoughts. Then he could turn his thoughts
into something that could be polished into a respectable story. He made a mental note
to get some and a pen when he went out again.

 

He put out the do not disturb sign on the door. He didn’t want the maids to see his
bloody suit before he could get a replacement and throw it away. One call to the cops
might be enough for Delveccio to home in on him.

 

That was in the records too.

 

He decided to try to make any kind of connection he could before trying to turn his
story in. Once he had everything in hand, then he would fly over to the paper and
drop the thing in Clancy’s tray.

 

Wes wondered if he should have let things go. There were other stories he could have
dug into. There were other menaces out there threatening the public. He had turned
this into a crusade, and crusades got reporters killed.

 

He decided he was in until he could do something to stop Delveccio. The mob boss
would want him dead as a doornail after the theft of his records from his accountant.
There was nothing he could do about that except hide until someone other than the
local police took the gangster out of the picture.

 

Once Delveccio was gone, Wes could turn his attention on the other criminal
masterminds making Northern California a terrible place to live.

 

He decided to be sneakier with his new body so he didn’t have to hide in a hotel room
and hope that he wasn’t going to be murdered.

 

He could use less excitement in his line of work.

 

How did other heroes operate to keep their masked faces separate from their real faces
so their enemies didn’t track them down and try to kill them. He knew what had
happened to the Hazard Scouts, and the Mark, and knew that keeping things separate
wasn’t a guarantee of safety.

 

He figured his example should be someone like the Rocket. He flew around, he
helped out, no one knew who he was.

 

And the Rocket still flew across California. An interview with him would go in a file
of other interviews with other reporters, but a talk about costumes might net Wes
something to wear in his other form. Then he could worry about other issues involved
with being a flying flatworm.

 

And he didn’t exactly have a plan to keep living now that he was hidden from his
hunters.

 

The Rocket might be able to give him tips about keeping his real face separate from
his masked face. That would be worth an interview in itself.

 

He had no idea how he could arrange a talk with the old vigilante.

 

He laughed at himself. He was too far away from talking to someone who had been
flying the skies under his own power for thirty years. He might as well get on a plane
and fly to New York in hopes of attracting the attention of the Mark.

 

He might as well try to fly to the moon the next chance he got.

 

Wes looked out the window and put his list of things to do in the front of his mind.
As soon as he had a typewriter, he had to write his story to turn in before the deadline.
Then he had to make sure he had pieces of the records ready as evidence.

 

The main thing was keeping out of sight while the underworld looked for him.

 

Delveccio would kill to get those records back. He had to get the story out while
keeping his head from anyone trying to cut it off.

 

Once everything was out in the open, he could go back to reporting on how the police
handled things. He had no illusions that the police would pursue the mobster with due
diligence.

 

Just reporting on their corruption was enough to have them try to retaliate against
you. The reporter had put abuses out on the wire and attracted the attention of others
to the problem.

 

Some things had changed, but not enough to give Wes confidence that the beat cop
that picked him up would not hold him for Delveccio’s men to put a bullet in him
inside the police station. It was better being out in the open and avoiding Delveccio
as much as possible.

 

He wanted to believe in the police, but he was in the camp that vigilantes at least tried
to protect you from problems. They very rarely made your situation worse just from
standing around.

 

Wes liked the idea of helping people from the shadows. He doubted he would be
taken seriously thanks to his power of turning into a frightened flying carpet.

 

Wes nodded when he saw the sun going down. It was time for him to call Clancy, and
get a typewriter. Then he could work on his story and turn it in. It might not get
Delveccio off his back, but it would give him something else to think about in the
immediate future.

 

He pulled on his ragged suit. He needed to get new clothes and throw the old one
away. It looked like someone had thrown a bucket of blood on it with knives cutting
it.

 

It belonged to a slasher movie villain, not an honest muckraker like himself.

 

He decided that maybe clothes would be needed before the typewriter. Then he could
get one of those and call Clancy. Then he could finally sit down and write his story.

He took the records he had stolen and hid them under the bed frame. He doubted any
hotel maid would move the bed to make it. He went to the window.

 

Now all he had to do was wait until it was dark enough to conceal him and then he
could jump from his window and fly down to the ground. How hard could that be?

He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he jumped and his new ability
didn’t come on. He would hit the street hard enough to be flat.

 

And once he started shopping, he would have to think about staying concealed while
he went about his business. He didn’t want a flood of hitmen following him to his
new home and trying to put holes in him.

 

He nodded when it looked dark enough to him. The stars were out but he should be
a cloud against them and not some inhuman monster. He touched the tattoos on his
hand and jumped. He flattened into his flying form and expanded out of his suit. He
carried the clothes to another hotel across the way and descended that fire escape to
the ground. He got dressed as soon as the effect wore off and started walking.

 

Now his next trick was to break into some place and grab some fresh clothes without
getting caught.

 

Then he could scrounge up a typewriter.

 

He could have made better time flying across the city, but he didn’t need to do that.
It was better if he walked on his target when they were closing and then sneaking in.
Then he could get what he needed and take off. The main problem was any place with
an alarm system. He would have to learn the alarm codes, or smash and grab.

 

His other self gave him a lot of options for exits. He could maybe squeeze through the
cracks of doors if they were wider than he thought. He might not be able to get
through a key hole and didn’t want to test that unless he had to.

 

He definitely didn’t want to try to get through the key hole and turn back to his
normal self. Either he would be squeezed out of the key hole, or cut in half when his
body tried to expand into that tiny space.

 

Finding out was something for emergencies while he was trying to get out of locked
rooms with murderous thugs trying to kill him.

 

Wes found a clothing store on the verge of closing. He transformed and skirted
around the check out counter to slip into the changing room. He hid himself on the
ceiling when he heard someone checking the changing rooms for customers so they
could tell them to pay and get out. He waited until they were gone before dropping
to the floor and condensing into his normal body. He listened as he got dressed again.

He definitely needed some kind of costume that changed when he did. All of this
dressing himself was starting to get on his nerves. Why couldn’t he have got a better
power from the meteor strike.

 

Turning yourself into a flying carpet was okay but he would rather be invisible and
flying. That would be better than being a stretching menace in his opinion. He
wondered if there was someone he could consult other than the Scouts. There had to
be someone out there familiar with the problems involved and capable of coaching
him into using his abilities better than what he was already doing.

 

Was this how villains came into existence? First, they had a power. Then they started
using it to take what they wanted, and then they became full fledged menaces.

Was he becoming a menace with his need to conceal himself, and having to steal until
he could get out of the trouble he was in?

 

Did he want to know the answer to that question?

 

He decided that when he had Delveccio off his case, he would throttle back on
stealing, and doing unethical things that he would call someone else on. Until then,
he had to do what he could to survive and get out of trouble so he didn’t wind up like
Marsden.

 

He didn’t know if his other self would help him survive being cut to pieces and
dropped out in the middle of the ocean. And he didn’t want to find out.

 

The lights went out and he heard the door locking up. He needed to wait before he
tried searching for something to wear. There was always a chance they forgot
something and came back inside the store. When he was sure he was alone, he exited
the changing room and looked around. The place was empty and the alarms were only
on the doors. He could get out without setting them off if he was careful.

 

He expected that he could escape any jail if he wanted to as long as they didn’t know
about his other form. It was better that no one knew about his shopping.

 

No one could press charges if they didn’t know he had been on the job in the first
place.

 

He picked out two suits and everything that went with them. He put his new
belongings in a bag to carry with him. He looked around for another exit other than
the doors.

 

The last thing he needed was to set off the alarms and let someone know that he had
been stealing clothes to replace his rags.

 

He found an air vent he could get into next to the back wall. He worked the screws
out, and used his ability to get inside the metal shaft. He pulled the grate back into
place and turned the screws the best he could with no fingers. He worked his way to
another vent below the air conditioning unit on the roof. He changed back to normal
and had to wait for a few minutes before he could change back and work the screws
loose on this grate and move it out of the way. He put the cover back and flowed back
to his room at the hotel. He stored his new belongings in the closet before thinking
about how he could get a typewriter.

 

[csyphrett]

Cape Fear 5

1975-

Wes wondered how long they had watched the paper to grab him. That took some
patience. He supposed that they had known he had escaped and survived to finish the
job. And they knew he was a reporter. Linking him to either paper would have been
easy to anyone who knew who to call.

 

The fact they had taken Marsden the same way had not escaped his mind. He
wondered about that. He pulled on his clothes off the road and looked around for a
place he could hide until he could sneak away.

 

He didn’t like the fact that they waited for him. He thought they had known he was
going to be at the paper. If they had, someone had told them he was going to be there.

Could Clancy have sold him out?

 

He thought about it as he marched across the countryside. Had Clancy sold him out?
Had he sold out Marsden?

 

There was a way to test the theory. It was simple and direct. If he was right, he didn’t
know what he would do about it. He wasn’t much of a vigilante. Dropping people off
a building seemed too much like work.

 

He wondered if Clancy had put any extra money in his bank. That should be easy to
check with his skills.

 

Everything was starting to be computerized. Banks were investing millions to switch
their old record books to networks that could be reviewed instantly. He doubted they
could keep someone like him out.

 

All he needed was where Clancy banked, and what his file number was. Then he
could just ask at the bank for the account statement. He doubted he could steal the
passbook from Clancy since he didn’t know where the editor kept it.

 

But he did know that Clancy kept his checkbook at the paper in his desk. All he had
to do was get inside and get a check from it. The rest would follow from that simple
move.

 

He paused as he contemplated what he was thinking. He had made a bad move
breaking into Delveccio’s place and stealing his ledgers for the evidence he needed.
Now he was thinking about doing the same thing to one of his managers on the
suspicion that the guy had tried to get him killed because he was a mole.

 

He had no proof that Clancy had done anything. He might be letting paranoia run
away with him.

 

Did his new condition lend itself to being paranoid? He might be cracking up.

And what did he do if Clancy was crooked?

 

First he had to know for himself. He could look at the bank records. He could call
Clancy and tell him he was free to move, and wait to see what happened. He could
tell Clancy that he was at his place, and wait to see if goons showed up.

 

He liked that. It was simple. And if they showed up, he knew Clancy was involved.

He didn’t know what he would do if he did confirm things. He wasn’t particularly
violent, so he didn’t want to beat the editor while he was calm and thinking. That
might change if he got angry enough.

 

The first thing was proving his suspicions. He might be wrong. It might still be bad
luck that goons showed up the same time as he was arriving to deliver his story. They
might have been watching the building.

 

Wes looked around. A piece of civilization was ahead. If they had a phone, he would
be able to call Clancy and tell him he was okay. He could fly to his place and wait for
the goons to show up to pick him up.

 

He had to figure out where he was before he made any calls. He didn’t want to give
the goons any clue where he had gone when they found the trunk was empty.

He had to fly home and set up before they showed up. He could watch them looking
for him while he thought of his next move. He doubted he could call the police on
anyone. It was a thought.

 

Wes found a road sign that told him he was ten miles out of the city. He nodded. Now
all he needed to do was make the phone call and see what happened. He also had to
consider that the phones at the paper were bugged. He didn’t know what to do about
that, but it could clear Clancy if he could find them in the phones, or buried anywhere
else in the office.

 

Once he called, he would know in a few hours if someone was handing Delveccio
information from the paper.

 

He didn’t know if Clancy was involved, but barring someone else knowing about him
getting to the paper and a hidden mike, it was the only explanation for what had
happened. He could test that too.

 

He just needed Clancy to pretend to call from a phone not at the paper.

How hard could that be?

 

Would Clancy figure out he was being tested with this scheme? That was the spot he
didn’t know. It all depended on how stupid they thought he was.

 

They would think he was really stupid if he fell for the same scheme again.

 

So he had three real options. Delveccio had someone other than Clancy in the
newsroom giving him information. Or, Clancy had sold him out with a phone call. Or,
they had watched the building until he had shown up and took him to do the things
they wanted to get the stolen records back.

 

He doubted he would look the same after they were done with him.

 

He believed he would have wound up at sea like Marsden with more injuries from the
beating he would have taken.

 

He decided to call Clancy from home to make his call more authentic. If anyone
traced the call, they would see the call came from his apartment.

 

He flew home in his flat form. He let himself in with a spare key he had hidden in a
gap behind the outside light. He looked around at the row of tiny cabins pushed
together. He didn’t see anyone watching the place and he was happy about that.

 

Time to go to work, Wes. Once you know one thing, you can ask about others.

 

Stealing the ledgers without telling anyone had been a good idea if there was
someone on the paper telling Delveccio who was investigating him.

 

He hoped he was wrong. He didn’t want Clancy to be calling the mob on him. He
wanted to hand in his story and move on to the next. And he had no idea what he was
going to do if Delveccio’s mob showed up at his place.

 

He would have to have words with Clancy if that happened. He doubted he could
commit violence on the man. It had been a long time since he had tried to hurt
someone intentionally.

 

Maybe he should think about turning the ledgers over to the police, or the Feds. He
doubted the locals would do anything, but maybe he could get someone to look at the
operation and draw some of the heat off himself.

 

He reached for his phone. He needed to make this call before he chickened out. Then
he could make his next move to try to get out from under with his skin intact.

 

If Delveccio’s men showed up, it showed that he couldn’t trust the paper to help him
out of his problem. He would have to think of some way to get the mobster off his
back that didn’t involve being filled with holes and set on fire.

 

He called the newspaper and asked the switchboard to connect him with Clancy’s
desk. The night editor instantly answered the phone.

 

“I had some problems coming in with my story,” said Wes. He moved to keep an eye
out one window while he talked. “I am at my place getting some clothes together. I
am going to have to take off for a while until the heat goes down. I’ll let you know
when I get back in town.”

 

“What do I tell the boss?,” said Clancy. “We were counting on that story.”

 

“I’m going to leave it and the ledgers in the bedroom closet of my house,” said Wes.
He went to the closet and took the clothes out of it and bundled them in a bag to take
back to the hotel. “I’ll leave the door unlocked for you.”

 

He placed the bag next to the door. No one was outside yet. The longer he waited, the
more likely he would run into Delveccio’s stooges. He needed to get somewhere he
could watch the door without being seen.

 

“I have to go, Clancy,” said Wes. “I will call when I am back in town.”

 

He took his bag and flew over to the roof of another set of row houses across the
street. He laid down to keep his outline out of sight as much as possible. He wanted
them to go in without figuring that he was waiting on them to show up.

 

Wes watched his watch as he waited. He planned to give the goons a couple of hours
before he headed back to his borrowed room at the hotel. Either Clancy, or someone
close to him, told Delveccio where he was, or they didn’t. He wasn’t going to wait
around all night to see which it was.

 

He really hoped Clancy showed up to get the story in person. Then he could watch
what happened without any problem. The most likeliest thing to happen if he did
show up, was he left with the box of shoes. The rest would be making sure he went
back to the paper and opened the box.

 

That was the only way to make sure Clancy hadn’t tried to get him killed.

Tracking the leak if he could clear Clancy would be a small problem, but it could be
doable with the right bait.

 

He couldn’t string any inside man along for long before he became suspicious that
someone was suspicious of him. Then he would bail and let know Delveccio know
he was blown.

 

Two cars rolled up outside of his house. He recognized some of the men who got out
and started for the front and back doors of his place. It looked like Clancy had turned
him in.

 

He should have known he couldn’t trust the night editor. What did he do now?

How many other papers did Delveccio have his fingers into? What happened if he
approached someone else with what he had?

 

He needed to think about going full on vigilante. He couldn’t let Delveccio hunt him
across the city. He had to turn things around. He couldn’t run forever.

 

He had to get to his room and stow his baggage. He needed to make sure that his
registration was still legitimate as far as that goes. He had to fix things if it wasn’t.
Then he had to get something to eat and think of how to get out from under.

 

He had not ever thought things would go this way. He had thought reporting was the
way that he could change the world for the better. He had never thought that he would
have to put on a mask to protect himself.

 

He needed to think about how he wanted to go ahead to deal with Delveccio.

He definitely wasn’t going to be able to do anything through the system.

 

He decided that going down there and busting those guys up for breaking into his
place would get him nothing. He might have a small twinge of satisfaction but he
would still have the same problem. He was on the run from a criminal chief who
wanted him dead and he  had no way of fixing that except by doing something like
drowning him in the ocean.

 

He wasn’t ready to do that yet.

 

He needed clothes he could wear when he was flat. He needed another permanent
place to stay. Eventually someone would get wise to the hotel dodge. When that
happened, he was out of a base of operations. And he needed a way to get Delveccio
to confess to his crimes so the mob boss would be off his back.

 

He had no idea on how to do that. He needed ideas and he had no one to talk to about
this. He needed to look into what other masked men did if he wanted to be one
himself.

 

He couldn’t use the newspaper morgue. Clancy would call the mob on him as soon
as he showed his face. He decided that he could use the library to do what he needed
to do.

 

Old papers were kept for a bit, and there was a microfiche reader with older prints
than that. He could read up on other masked men and see what kind of methods he
could use to help himself out.

 

He would have talked to Mister Robot, but the adventurer had been killed with his
team of allies years ago. No one knew what had happened to Animal Boy, or if he
was still around.

 

The Mark had vanished from the spotlight. Wes had no way to call him, or anyone
based out of the East Coast.

 

The closest active hero to him was the Rockets. There had been talk that the second
one was moving east to join a team, but no one knew for sure.

 

He made a note to look for a way to call either one. Maybe they could give him
pointers, or point him in the direction of someone who could help him.

 

That would be better than flailing around waiting to be caught out in the public and
shot dead before he could use the tattoo to heal his wounds with the transformation.

Wes transformed and flew off into the night. He still had things to do.
//344609

[csyphrett]

I just wanted to bump this. I plan to try to finish Cape Fear, and then work on both the Scarab history, and Elle meeting her future husband to fill out things. Only need six hundred k before this is done. I am also still working on Hodgepodge and in the middle of a pokemon tournament there.  There is a prompt list if you want to stop by and add to it. I have a couple of stories I need to add to my website which I haven't worked on in years. I have another ben ten story I need to add to FF.net. Dial H is what I have been putting most of my work in and have almost 270k in it.

 

So I plan to set up a rotation list where I can write everything faster. The website now needs a timeline even though most of the stories are set in the present day or the fifties. I need to load Generations of Strangers (which I wrote years ago on this forum), the Vegas story I wrote here, Doctor Long's Bridge of Death, and Hero X's Rival, and Riverton. Then I need to load Ben Tennyson Studies Magic and part of the One Hundred Phantom Stranger Stories at FF. Net. 

 

I'm sorry about taking so long on things.

CES  

[csyphrett]

Cape Fear 6

1975-

Wes hated that Clancy had betrayed him. He didn’t know what to do about it. He put
the thought away while he tried to map out a successful exposure of Delveccio’s
criminal empire.

 

He decided that he needed to talk to someone for advice. He couldn’t trust anybody
at the paper. They might all be in it with Clancy. Who could he call?

 

He wondered if he could get ahold of either of the Rockets. If he could, maybe they
would have some good advice. Maybe they had some way he could wear something
while he was transformed into a flying carpet.

 

That would be just as good as the advice if it worked.

 

He was tired of running around naked while people shot at him. He wasn’t Ray
Stevens’s Streak.

 

Wes used his power to break into the library. It was amazing how easy that was when
you were flat as a pancake and could stretch down some small holes to the other side
of a vent, or pipe. He kept low to the floor until he found the microfiche reader in an
office at the back of the library. He stepped inside and closed the door.

 

He set the machine up. He frowned at the lack of microfilm in the office for him to
go through. He wondered where the material could be.

 

He decided to use his power when it recharged to break into the office area of the
place. Maybe there was something there waiting for someone like him to find it.

 

He throttled down the excitement of trying to find out something amazing from his
face. He was just doing this as part of his job, and if he could get a story out of it, that
would be the cherry on top.

 

He still had to worry about any possible alarms he might trip wandering around the
place.

 

If only Mister Robot was still around. He had been based in California, and had a
public persona to call. He would have been perfect for passing on the stolen ledgers
to the authorities, and getting Wes out of the jam he was in.

 

He frowned. He needed to think his own way out of his problem, and hope that he
didn’t get killed trying to get out from under. He knew he couldn’t trust anyone in
town, so he needed to get in touch with some kind of lawman outside of town that
would help clean things up. Finding the Rocket and hoping he had a contact was a
little farfetched now that he thought of it.

 

He didn’t trust anyone at the paper. Any one of them could send him right back to
Delveccio with no problem. He needed help from outside the city.

 

There was a television guy he could call for a recommendation. And he lived in San
Diego. Was that far enough away to escape the net?

 

He had to try. His contact list was back at the paper. Did he want to break in there and
steal it back? Did he want to try public access first?

 

He decided to call information and ask for the station number. Maybe someone there
would pass a note to his contact, and he could get the ledgers in front of a camera and
beamed over Southern California in a way that would turn attention on Delveccio
from outside sources.

 

Running for the rest of his life on top of hiding his new power didn’t seem the best
way to keep his secret from the public. And he didn’t want to expose himself to
scrutiny. Ever since the Mark killed the members of his rogues gallery, the public
wasn’t as trusting of people who wore a mask.

 

He knew enough from the court proceedings to know that he would have probably
done the same thing if he was placed in the same position.

 

Wes decided he could use the public phone in the Librarian’s office. It was out of
sight, and he could use the door to block the alarm. No one knew where he was, and
as long as he didn’t attract attention, he could stay in the place until the staff came in
the next morning.

 

He was horrible as a superhuman. He had a power that allowed him to break into
places and fly, but so what? He was on the run and unable to go home because he had
stolen a mobster’s records. He was convinced someone at the paper was telling the
mobster where he was. And he had no idea how to get out of the mess he had made
of all that.

 

His one idea was to call for help and he wasn’t sure how he could do that.

He decided to break into the Librarian’s office and get started. He wasn’t getting
anything done just sitting in this room with a reader that needed things to be read.

 

Wes activated his power and flattened out. He pushed open the door to the reader
room just enough to slip through. He dragged his clothes across the floor to the door
he wanted to enter. He reached through a crack in the bottom to unlock it and turn the
knob so he could slip inside. He closed the door gently and went to the desk set up
for office work for the staff.

 

He checked around until he found a phone book. He shook his head. The number he
wanted to call was out of town, and out of the phone book. He doubted that the local
affiliate would be able to point him in the right direction.

 

And would calling the station put his life in danger just by letting Delveccio know he
was still in town?

 

And it would point at the guy he wanted to call for help if that got leaked also.

 

He sat in the chair provided with the desk after his power wore off and he got dressed.
He thought about what he knew about the broadcaster. He tried to remember the
station where the guy worked. Then all he had to do would be to call an operator and
ask for the number.

 

He picked up the phone. He doubted anyone would be looking for him to call for an
out of town number from a public facility so they could check the number.

 

He dialed for an operator and waited. He gave the station as the target of his request.
A few minutes later, he noted the number down on a pad on the desk. He thanked the
operator before he hung up.

 

He made the second long distance call right away. He needed to try to get this help
so he could get clear of this mess. He had taken his pursuit too far. He should have
known that Delveccio wouldn’t let things go when he did it.

 

“KSAN,” said a bored voice that handled a million calls a day. “How can I help you?”

 

“I would like to talk to Brad Corning,” said Wes. “I’m working on a story around
Idaville, and I need some help.”

 

“Mister Corning isn’t in the station at this time,” said the receptionist. “Would you
like to leave a message?”

 

“Tell him that Wes Wesolowski called, and I have some things that I need looked at
by someone else before I file my story,” said Wes. “I’m willing to share credit for the
story. I’ll try to call back in a few hours.”

 

“This is about a story?,” asked the receptionist.

 

“I work for a paper up here, and I met Brad at a convention,” said Wes. “I don’t know
if he remembers me. I have some things to get done, so I’ll have to call back when I
can.”

 

“I made a note, Mister Wesolowski,” said the receptionist. “Mister Corning usually
comes back to the station before the night broadcast to go over things he needs to
work on for the next day.”

 

“Thank you,” said Wes. “I’ll call back then.”

 

Wes hung up the phone. He sat back in the chair. He had to do something about
having to get dressed every time his change wore off. If he could shake his pursuers
off his trail, he could turn his attention about trying to find a suit he could wear.

 

He hoped he could get Corning to help him with Delveccio. If that happened, the rest
could be managed.

 

He tore off the note with Corning’s work number and put it in his pocket. He didn’t
want to wait on his fellow reporter, but he had no idea on how to hurry things along.
He doubted he could fly down to San Diego.

 

He examined that thought, and wondered if he could fly down to San Diego. He
would have to fly through San Fran, L.A., and smaller cities to get there. Did he want
to try to do anything like that?

 

He could fly down to that city and talk to Corning. He didn’t know how fast he was
in the air, but he could fly as far as his power could carry him, and walk until he
charged up to make another long jump. He could reach a train station and ride down
if he could get out of the city.

 

The more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it. His flight power gave him
enough mobility to get beyond Delveccio’s grip, and reach some kind of public
transportation to get where he needed to be.

 

And he could stow away on the train until he had to get off at the right stop.

His stomach rumbled as he thought about how he wanted to proceed.

 

“The first thing I have to do is get something to eat,” said Wes. “Then I can worry
about getting out of town. The mob will have the train station and airport covered.
I don’t want to have to use my power in front of a crowd.”

 

He thought of the exact steps he would have to take to carry out his plan. He thought
he might be able to do it all without a problem. He had the cover of the night to
help him until the sun came up.

 

He changed form and slipped out of the library. He found a place to get dressed and
found an all night diner. He went and ordered as much food as he could buy. He ate
his fill, astounding the cooks and the small amount of customers sharing the space
with him.

 

He left the diner, made sure he had the proof he needed, and changed form. He lifted
into the air and headed south. He called for as much speed as he could. He thought
he was going as fast as a car, but it was hard for him to be sure in the dark. He should
have checked for the tracks heading south out of town before he got started, but
decided that it was better to just move than get hung up and become a sitting duck for
anyone who wanted to turn him in to the big boss.

 

He landed when his power started to fail. He dressed and hurried down the road. He
kept away from lights as much as possible. He didn’t want anyone to stop to take a
look at him while he was moving.

 

He wondered how far he had come from the diner. He looked back toward town.
The lights were small dots in the distance.

 

If he could keep making these huge jumps, he might be able to reach the area where
he could get a ride without having to worry about being identified.

 

He might be able to fly down to San Diego under his own power if his power held
up. He felt his body burning inside. The more he flew, the more he would have
to eat. He instinctively knew this.

 

He wondered how much he was hurting himself every time he used his power.

He needed to check for doctors who worked on superhumans when he was done
fixing this problem.

 

He walked until he felt charged up, then flew as far as he could in the time allowed,
landed and started walking again. He saw a sign for a town he recognized and
realized he had flown almost to San Francisco in a couple of hours. He could make
it to Los Angeles to catch the train south in a couple more hours if he couldn’t catch
one in the oceanside city.

 

He realized that he could follow the one oh one all the way down to Los Angeles
from San Francisco if he could get directions at the next place with someone who
knew where they were.

 

The rest of his trip would be pretty easy after that.

 

He could fly down to Los Angeles, and then board a train from Union Station,
and arrive in San Diego in the early morning hours, or after the sun came up. All
he would have to do was keep his head down and be alert for anyone who might
want to find him before he wanted to be found.

 

He needed to find a payphone to let Corning that he was on the way down, or at least
was thinking about coming down. He doubted the television reporter wanted him
showing up on his doorstep, but he had to keep going now that he was committed.

At least he was out of town, and away from the manhunt trying to bring him in.

 

He wished he knew what Delveccio was doing to stop him. It would make planning
his next steps easier to do.

 

Wes found a payphone on the outside wall of a closed gas station. He kept an eye on
his surroundings while he called the television station again. Hopefully Corning
would talk to him over the phone.

 

“KSAN,” said the receptionist he had talked to earlier. “How can I help you?”

 

“This is Wes Wesolowski again,” said Wes. “I thought I would try to catch Mister
Corning again before he went home.”

 

“He left a message for you,” said the receptionist. “He said for you to call him on his
office line tomorrow afternoon at two. It’s the station’s phone number with extension
five thirty six.”

 

“All right,” said Wes. “Thanks for helping me out.”

 

“Mister Corning said you helped him out when he was up north, and he remembers
you,” said the receptionist. “He doesn’t always return calls like this.”

 

“Thanks again,” said Wes. “Have a good night.”

 

Wes hung up the phone. He checked his watch. He had sixteen hours to get to San
Diego so he could talk to Corning in person. How far could he get with his power?

He didn’t have to close the whole distance, but he wanted to be close so he could
meet Corning face to face.

 

He took to the air and soared south to Los Angeles.