Unreal Estate
OVA 1 BETA RELEASE 0.9A
A Original Anime-Flavored Series by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne
(All characters copyright... ME! YES, ME! AHAHAHA! MINE, ALL
MINE! If you even consider claiming that these were YOUR
characters I'd probably have you thrown into a small cell
where you'd be forced to eat your own braincase to live.)
/* WARNING - PUBLIC BETA, NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
This is a work in progress, and should be considered to be
in a state of dynamic flux. Please feel free to mail or
post commentary, criticisms, ideas, suggestions, etc.
Additional information about the series concept available
upon request. */
-=-
Wow! He isn't doing Ranma! Who'dve known?
This is an experiment into doing something... non-rooted in
any particular series. I will admit to being inspired by El
Hazard, but in my continuing quest to defy dramatic law, I figured
I'd try my own spin on the Transdimensional Teenager schtick.
Thanks go out to Jeff, John, Jenny and Stoner for assisting in
the creative process. Feel free to send me compliments, snotty
remarks, critiques, suggestions or boxes of pocky to
twoflowr@glue.umd.edu.
-=-
"'It is a land that lies a shadow's thickness away from our
own. Within its borderless borders lie beasts and wonders
beyond our imagination; men with enchanted machines with the
powers of flight, powers of mind over matter, or powers of war
with infinitely destrucive capability. A land where the
spirit and matter are united into art. A land of duality. It
is known to some as... Earth.' This according, supposedly, to
the Creator himself. Sadly, modern science recognizes this to
only be a fantastic myth created by authors and entertainers;
such a strange land could never truly exist in a reasonable
universe. We must keep our heads out of the clouds and ground
ourselves in reality, to avoid such childish concepts."
- Speech given at the Pallikar Center of Learning,
in the city-state of Pallikar.
*
In the supposedly nonexistant land of Earth, in a totally
unreal land called the United States of America, in a low crime /
high rent zone of Maryland, outside the suburban town of
Hindenburg, many people who couldn't exist in a reasonable universe
were busy preparing for a school dance. Possibly.
This dance, despite not existing to modern science, was one of
the pinnacle events of the school semester for St. Helen's School
for Girls. This is because :
A) It's the only dance of the semester,
B) School uniforms weren't required,
C) There would be boys there.
Of course, these boys would be shipped in from other private
schools for boys, but that was for the best; no parent would want
his or her daughter mixing in with some lower class french fry
pushing going-nowhere waste of oxygen. Either way, it was a chance
for the girls to relax after midterms, and enjoy some social
company.
For all of them except the gangs, of course.
No, the Warhawks of St. Helen's School for Girls had more
important things to worry about than some pathetic attempt to mix
with the genetically damaged members of society known as Males.
There was an initiation rite to go through.
"Alright, we've covered the oath, the ritual spanking, and the
cash deposit for the trust fund," Tiffany listed, checking things
off on her clipboard. "What's left?"
Brittany was hoping 'what's left' would be nothing. She had
been going through the pedantic little ritual of becoming the next
leader of the Warhawks for most of the day, running errands,
humiliating herself (but not in public ways, wouldn't want to hurt
your family's social status, darling), and generally doing stupid
things. She had worked long and hard for this, however... some
blackmail here, a bribe there, dramatically incriminating yet quite
false evidence planted here...
Originally, Brittany had gotten her start in Student
Government. Inheriting the organizational and leadership genes
from her mother, wealthy CEO executive of Lyrcon Inc (ask about our
sales brochures), she was a natural at politics. But nobody really
respected the Student Government in this private school. So, she
went with organized crime. On the whole, it was easier than
politics; both had similar aims, but at least crime was more honest
about them.
"Can I stop hopping on one foot yet?" Brittany asked, trying
to look as annoyed as a bouncing teenager can. "I'm gonna pull a
muscle if this keeps up."
"I don't know. Ladies?" Tiffany asked. There was a general
consensus of nodding, and Brittany wobbled to a halt.
"I think the last thing on the list is the round of Truth or
Dare," Brittany said. She was dreading this; she had put several
of the girls where they were today by deposing them on the
heirarchical ladder. But it was the final step to taking her
rightful place as leader of this school.
"Alright. Ashley, you first," Tiffany said, pointing with her
ballpoint.
"Got it," Ashley nodded. "Truth or Dare, Brittany. What're
you planning on doing with the Warhawks when you finish this?"
Ah, good. A rational thinker, Brittany inwardly smiled. I
could use her. "It's very simple, Ashley. I'll be stepping up the
extortion campaigns, to ensure the Warhawk's grip on the school.
Also, I'll be implementing a Clandestine Investigations group, to
keep better track of the faculty. If things get sticky I have
contingency plans to prevent the Warhawks from even seeing
detention. Rest assured, your future is safe in my hands."
Not bad, not bad. Speech down to the letter, and they
swallowed it.
Clarissa stepped up. "Truth or Dare, Brittany. Have you ever
kissed a guy?"
Brittany frowned. Juveniles. "Yes, Clarissa. Shame you
didn't ask WHO, or you'd have something to giggle about."
Clarissa pouted, and stepped back. She didn't like that.
The others asked their questions, and Brittany answered them
all; she had nothing to hide except what she had to hide, and her
enemies were more concerned about trying to embarass her than
expose her, asking more questions about males. Which she answered,
much to their disappointment at her spotless record of non-scandal.
"My turn," Tiffany grinned. "Truth or Dare, Brittany. And as
master of ceremonies here, I'll declare this whole rite over when
you answer. Remember, lying automatically nullifies the entire
process..."
Brittany frowned. Where was Tiffany going with this?
"Tell us all about your pink lunchbox," Tiffany asked,
smiling. Smugly. Oh so smugly.
"My what?" Brittany asked, resisting the urge to sweat.
Strong girls don't perspire.
"You know, the one with all the--"
"DARE!" Brittany blurted. Damn! Tiffany had just been
waiting to play that trump card, wasn't she? How'd she find out?
NOBODY knew!
"Oh boy!" Ashley grinned. "Dare! Dare! I love dares!"
The other girls cheered and smiled. They were not nice
smiles.
*
"Whoa! WAIT! WAAAIT!" Justin shouted, waving his arms
wildly, almost knocking out a few students with his book bag in the
process. Almost.
The yellow school bus pulled away, ignoring the boy's unheard
pleas to stop. Justin sighed. He'd be late for dinner again, at
this rate.
Justin prefered the bus, on the whole. When he walked, things
had a tendency of delaying him. Just yesterday, a truck carrying
life chickens crashed and overturned over the street home, and he
had to dodge a dozen enraged (and alive) oven roasters. A week
back it was the water main. Before that was the tuna fish mishap.
Of course, not all the delaying elements were bad. There was
the one hundred dollar bill he found, which he used to buy a bike,
which was promptly stolen by a bicycle messenger who was down on
his luck and just as promptly destroyed in a militant bike-
messenger turf war while he was parked to get doughnuts, and the
cops burst into Justin's house having peiced together the bike and
finding the serial number, and...
Okay, bad example. But they weren't ALL bad. And he did use
the change from that one hundred dollar bill to go to the movies
with Ido, and he DID find a gold ring in his popcorn which the
owner paid quite a reward for until it turned out it was just some
other guy who wanted the gold because of an ongoing feud with
another family, and...
Justin muttered, and hiked his winter coat on tighter. Best
not just think about these things, he thought.
"Yo! JC!" Ido shouted, running to catch up with him.
Justin grinned. If anybody could perk up his spirits, Ido
could. Justin was one of Ido's only friends, and vice versa;
Justin because he was so totally normal looking that most people
looked him by, Ido because he was so weird looking that they tried
not to look at him at all.
"Two things," Ido said, wandering up to him and twirling,
showing off his leather jacket. "One. You think the new patch for
Beethoven is as cool as the Skinny Puppy one? I was worried 'cuz
I made it as big as the one I made for Tori Amos, but..."
Well, at least Justin knew who Beethoven was. A few patches
out of the fifty others Ido sported to proclaim his fanboydom was
a good score.
"I like the germanic script with flames around the letters,"
Justin commented truthfully. "Beats the one you had for Bach."
"I swear, I wish those two were alive today, dude," Ido said,
finishing his model's twirl. "I bet they'd have some wicked
concerts with the new stuff like lasers and fog machines."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Justin smiled.
"How goes the Luckiest Man Alive? Find any more ancient
artifacts from the Spanish Conquistadors?"
"Look, that gold cross was a fluke, alright?" Justin said.
"Just because some major archaelogical site was under my locker
doesn't mean I'm lucky. I mean, anybody could have gotten that
locker last year."
"Not anybody did. But I sidetrack from the issue, mon.
Dance. Tonight. St. Helen's. We crashin'?" Ido asked.
"Crashing?" Justin asked, blinking. "I've been meaning to get
my driver's liscense, but--"
"No, no, dude, GATE CRASHING. You know, jumping the
turnstyle? Sneak in the back, jack?"
"Oh. Well, um, if it's a party for girls, I really don't
wanna dress in drag or anything--"
"Hello? Houston to Justin Case? Girls need boys to dance
with," Ido said. "'sides, these are rich girls. They're, like,
cultured and stuff. Maybe I could find someone to discuss
Confucanism with."
"I don't know, Ido. I mean, I have the history test to study
for--"
"Just do what you always do and fill in the scantron dots
randomly."
"Hey, I only did that... a few times!"
"Worked, didn't it?"
"Well--"
"Social events of this magnitude don't spawn every day," Ido
warned. "C'mon. It'll do you some good. It'll be fun."
*
"This blows," Ido confirmed.
Justin nodded, busy playing with his napkin and not looking
anybody directly in the eye.
"It's just all these rich white snobs. What a bore," Ido
said. "I tried to strike up a conversation about Marxist ideals
and they totally dissed me. You think it's my breath?"
Justin sighed. Ido never really understood why he was
unpopular. It wasn't his fault, really, it was just his nature to
dress in black leather and shave one side of his head and dye his
hair black; a pointless task, since he's japanese to begin with,
but he goes on about symbolism of change of man and stuff if you
ask. The talks are also deterring to his social skills; it would
take a member of Mensa to even parley in smalltalk with him once he
gets on a heavy topic.
Justin Case never really minded Ido's appearance, because Ido
was basically a great guy, and Justin was basically a friendly guy.
He didn't see much point in being unfriendly. It wasn't a nice
thing to be.
But dances scared him. Girls scared him, generally, because
they were a big unknown to him. Ido seemed to have no problems,
despite women having problems with him, something Justin always
admired. His end of it, that is.
"Maybe we ought to just head back," Justin suggested. "I'm
sure there's something good on TV tonight."
"Naw, man. We can't quit that easily," Ido said, rubbing his
hands together. "The spirits of a thousand samurai within me won't
let me fold a challenge!"
"Ido, your father's a gas station clerk. There never were any
samurai in your family."
"Well, I bet some of them wanted to be. That counts."
*
If Brittany was annoyed before, she was seething now.
Of all the stupid, immature little... ARGH! But it was
getting off easy, she had to admit. It was either this pointless
little act or she'd have to reveal the truth about her old
lunchbox. A fate worse than death.
"I'm going to the party, Charlotte," Brittany announced to the
maid. "Tell mother I'll be back late tonight."
The maid looked started at being addressed correctly --
Brittany usually avoided the hired help -- but tried to take it in
stride. She nodded, and went back to looking busy.
"BRIiiiitttanneeeeeee!!!!" the shrill voice of the brat
squealed. Brittany's hairs stood on end at the sound, which was
akin to Barney dragging his claws across a chalkboard.
Penny Kirkland, the younger of the two siblings, hopped down
the stairs in a rabbitlike manner, golden pigtails bouncing along
with her. "Waiwai! Britannie, a party? Can I go? Huh huh please
can I?"
"No, it's a party for big kids, not little girlies like you,"
Brittany muttered, pulling her winter coat on.
"I am NOT a little girlie!" Penny pouted.
"Yes, you are. And no funny following me, got it?"
Brittany, as usual, didn't bother continuing the conversation
with Penny because she had big kid stuff to do. Penny didn't mind.
She could just sneak out and follow her, after all. It was fun to
annoy her big sister because she made it so easy!
*
"So basically, when Orwell said 'The long awaited bullet was
finally entering his brain,' I doubt that he meant it was a REAL
bullet. It was more metaphorical," Ido continued. "Like, it was
the end of his free will or something. He had been totally
brainwashed. Cool, huh?"
"You're boring," Ashley said, and left.
Ido shrugged. He was quick on the rebound, and wandered off
to forcably socialize with the upper crust. Justin stopped him
before he could make any further forays into friendly chat.
"Maybe we should go do something else tonight," Justin
suggested. "I mean, I could go study, or we could rent a movie or
something..."
Ido pondered this. "Yeah, I guess. This just isn't my scene.
It's not even my neighborhood."
Justin nodded. "I don't even go up this far on my paper
route. Typically these folks by bigger name papers than the
Hindenburg Gazette, anyway. It's a shame, it's so much easier to
toss onto the porch of a huge mansion than a dinky town house."
Ido ponders this, as well. "You ever seen a mansion?"
"Well, pictures. Television. And a few when the bus takes
wrong turns."
"How about INSIDE one?" Ido grinned.
Across the dance floor, Ashley returned to the rest of the
Warhawks. They were the only girls there still in school uniforms
of brown vests and black skirts, since uniforms were statement of
power and authority, according to their soon to be new leader
Brittany. Mostly they were just loitering around in positions that
conveyed strength and a 'Watch it, dude' sort of attitude.
"Check out the spaz over there in the leather," Ashley said,
pointing to Ido, who was acting kind of like a pinball between the
flippers of the crowd. "Is he a nutball or something? I thought
orientals didn't dress like that."
Tiffany smiled. "Y'know, I think we've found our victim. Has
Brittany arrived? She's late."
"I'm right here," Brittany said, hanging her coat by the door.
"Alright. Who?"
"Him," Tiffany said, pointing to Ido, and grinning.
Brittany gaped. "Kiss HIM? That's my dare?"
"Problem, Brittany?"
"No, of course not. I've already proven I'd do anything for
the Warhawks," Brittany reiterated. "Let's get this over with--"
"Tiff, he's leaving," Ashley said, pointing to the door.
"Well, don't just stand there, Brittany," Tiffany said. "Go
follow him."
*
"I think it's back here somewhere," Ido said, half-dragging
Justin through the darkened forest.
"Are you sure you know where you're going, Ido?" he asked,
avoiding hitting any solid wooden objects.
"More or less," Ido shrugged. "Pop said the family used to
own property back here, this BIG house. Mansion-like, back when we
were rich. Not we we, I mean, like us we back in time. Ma's side
of the family. Then the government bought it to make into a toxic
waste dump or something."
"Toxic waste??"
"Hey, relax. I doubt any government would waste land like
that."
"Umm, Ido, this isn't Japan. No land shortage," Justin
reminded.
"I know. I'm being optimistic about society or something,
bud. It's not on the map, but I figure maybe there are ruins or
something. Pop was pretty sure about the place, I mean, he's
talked about it every now and then how, like, one day he'd make
enough money to re-buy it and fix it up 'n stuff."
"You sure he wasn't lying?" Justin asked. The chances of
there being a grand mansion out in the middle of the sticks were
slim.
"Dude. Dad doesn't lie," Ido said seriously.
"Oh... Ido, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you--"
"No 'fense," Ido shrugged. "If it's here it's here and if it
ain't oh well. But if it's like, more than a legend, I'm sure
there'll be something cool to do th... whoa."
Both boys stopped.
He was right; embedded in the deepest woods behind the school
was a two story mansion. All the trimmings were present; white
pillars, marble steps, paved driveway. It was even in a decent
state of repair, despite the cobwebs showing its unoccupied status.
It stuck out like a live eel in a bowl of spaghetti; a pristine
southern mansion smack dab in the middle of Nowhere, USA.
If Justin was asked at school today to write about what he was
going to do this evening, finding the Missing Link of Archetechture
was not going to be on the list. But then again, neither were half
the situations Justin got into with unnerving frequency. This fact
failed to put a damper on his shock, mind you.
"How could anybody have had this lying around without finding
it until now?" Justin asked. "I mean, the girl's school is right
here... to have the building here and have it only be found by us,
here and know, is--"
"Luck?" Ido grinned. "See? You ARE handy to have around for
more reasons than your cheerful demeanor and pleasant conversation.
Maybe we'll find some more Spanish Conquistador stuff inside."
"You really enjoy the mishaps I get into, don't you, Ido?"
"Hell yeah! Better than cable. Don't you like 'em?"
"Well... occasionally," Justin said. "I just wish they could
happen to someone else, for a change."
*
Brittany grumbled and muttered and spat and cursed. It was
unladylike, but nobody was around to see.
She wasn't expecting this Ido whacko to tear off into the
forest like that, with the geeky looking guy in tow. But the
Warhawks had laid down the line; he was the kissing victim or she
couldn't get this over with.
So, she plowed on, getting the occasonal snag on her mostly
scratchy wool school uniform, paying no attention to the various
snaps of twigs. She assumed they were all hers, after all. But
when she paused to make sure her uniform wasn't getting too much
damage, the crackling continued. She whirled around.
"Hieeee," Penny giggled.
"ARGH! You? Didn't I tell you to stay home?" Brittany asked.
"Ano, weren't you using that, um, reversible psycho thing?"
Penny asked cutely. "Hee hee. It's okay! I wanna play with you."
Brittany considered shouting the tyke back home... but no.
She had a task to do, it'd take too long. "Alright. Follow me,
but come QUIETLY. And jeez, stop bouncing! It's adorable."
"That's 'cuz I'm cuter than you," Penny said, bouncing along
behind her older sister. She liked this game.
*
Ido pushed the door open with surprising ease.
The mansion was dusty. The mansion was old. The mansion had
cobwebs. But it was still an impressive bit of shelter.
"Scope it, man... chandeliers... light fixtures...
everything's here," Ido said. "Nobody looted it or tore it down.
What're the odds we're the only people who've been here since my
ancestors had this joint?"
"Slim," Justin said. "But knowing me... probable. Did your
dad ever say what was in here? Any artifacts? Umm... I could use
the money."
Ido chuckled. "See, Justin? Our adventures aren't ALL bad.
I'm sure we'll find some cool junk in here. Okay, pop quiz. You
are a character in a movie with a spooky mansion. Where is all the
neat monster lab stuff or the ancient treasure?"
"Basement," Justin said.
"Right. Down we go."
Moments after the two descended, Penny and Brittany entered
the open door.
"Ano... sis... this place is scary," Penny said, clutching at
Brittany's arms. "Aren't you scared?"
Brittany looked around. "They need a maid," she concluded,
and proceeded in exactly the wrong direction : upstairs.
"This place is safe, right? Why're we here?" Penny asked.
"Just a game me and the big kids are playing that you little
kids wouldn't understand."
"But I'm great at games! Can I help?"
"No. This is only a game old, silly girls force sensible
girls to play for their own amusement," Brittany muttered. "Now
where'd the whacko go off to?"
*
"Nothing," Ido sighed. "This is the least interesting
basement I have ever seen in my life."
Justin nodded. There really wasn't much to look at; a few
empty racks of wine (no classic vintages from the Napoleonic era),
an old iron furnace which hadn't worked in years, and a small
civilized colony of mice that were occupying anything under ankle
level. Most of them scurried away before the boys could figure out
if they were a new mutant strain of talking rats or something.
"Well, sometimes the magic works, sometimes the magic
doesn't," Ido shrugged.
"I don't think it's magic, Ido. I don't even think I'm lucky.
Things just sometimes work out," Justin said.
"No way, man. Things work out way too often for it to be
anything but magic."
"Magic doesn't exist, though."
"Oh? We didn't think the moons of Jupiter existed until
Galieo proved us wrong," Ido said. "Folks didn't even understand
viruses until some dead German guy came up with the idea of tiny
monsters in your blood. (Well, he wasn't dead at the time he had
the idea, I just mean he's a stiff now...) And I won't even START
on computers."
"But all that's science stuff."
"Any science highly advanced enough is indistinguishable from
technology, pud. We're finding out cool junk about the universe
every day. Could be magic is around us all the time, but we don't
see it or chalk it up to fate, or luck, or Murphy's Law."
"Gosh," Justin said. "I hadn't thought of it that way."
"Actually, neither had I. I just made all that stuff up.
Wicked, eh?" Ido grinned, resuming his search of the room. "This
is why, like, I do great on essay tests."
Justin laughed, leaning against the wall. "Well, the magic
didn't work this time, if it was magic. Why don't we--"
"Hmm? What?" Ido asked, turning around. But Justin was no
longer there.
Ido blinked. Maybe things would get cool now.
*
Justin rubbed his eyes, his mind trying to puzzle out how he
got from There to Here.
The Here, in this case, was something out of a Doctor Who
episode. A smallish chamber, almost cavern-like, with a million
and one runic carvings on the walls. Light poured in from no
determinable source, with pillars and light beams jutting out from
wall to wall for no reason. The light formed a web, a lopsided and
skewed grid that pulsed with all the colors of the rainbow,
illuminating the cuneform writing.
"Wow," Justin said, because it was really something to be
saying wow about. "Ido? Ido??"
'Here, dude,' Ido said from somewhere. 'I think you found a
secret passage. What'd you do?'
"I leaned against the wall."
In an instant, Justin was back in the basement.
'WHOA!!!! Trippy!' Ido said, from... somewhere again. 'So
where are you now?'
"Back in the basement."
'Alright. I don't feel like touching any of this, so how
about if, ummm... lesse, how'd they do it in that Brooks movie...
I think if you step away and I revolve the wall again, then we BOTH
revolve in at the same time it'll work. Catch my 411?'
"Um, alright," Justin said, stepping away, not sure how
numbers fit in. The wall spun at a speed that defied physics, and
Ido staggered away.
"Alright," he said, getting his bearings. "Now, on three."
"Whoa, time out," Justin requested politely. "You sure we
WANT to go back in there? I mean... this goes beyond finding some
ancient map to a treasure at Ocean City, like we did last year when
Auntie Mae--"
"You don't wanna check it out?" Ido asked, blinking. "Well...
hey, dude. It's your luck. You don't wanna push it I won't make
ya. But I mean, this is COOL. You positive?"
Justin nodded. "Look, maybe it's time we actively discouraged
this sort of thing from happening. I could get killed one day from
the stuff that happens, you know."
Ido nodded. "Alright. Let's head back."
THE END
"What are you two doing in my basement?"
The two boys spun around faster than you can say 180.
The owner of the voice appeared to be a woman in her late
twenties, with firey red hair and a firey red overcoat, with
matching firey red gloves. She was not on fire; she was in fact
carrying two bags of groceries.
"Umm, ma'am, umm," Justin started in his smooth and casual
manner. "We were just wandering around the forest and, um, we saw
your house, and, um--"
"We thought you might have stuff from the Conquistadors," Ido
finished.
"Yeah. Wait, we did?" Justin asked.
The woman considered this. "Face seems familiar. Is that
you, Justin?"
"Me?" Justin asked.
The woman dropped her shopping bags, grinning widely and doing
a cute hands-clasped-to-the-chest thing. "FINALLY! Man, you sure
do take a long time to get born. Hang on, I'll be ready in a
moment."
With that, she disappeared. This time WITH a burst of flame.
"..." Justin stated.
"Whoa," Ido replied. "Umm. Dude, that chick just burned to
a crisp in front of us. Spontaneous human combustion. And I
thought the tabloids just wanted sales."
"Can we go now?" Justin asked. "Every second we stay is
getting weirder and I have a history test and all and I really
really want to go--"
"That's better," the woman said, reappearing in another blast
of heat and light. She was dressed much differently; sort of a red
Jetsons Space Chick Bikini outfit, with matching cloak. She
frowned in distaste at it. "I would have washed this a few
centuries back if I knew you were coming," she apologized. "Look,
the moths have gotten to it and everything."
"Please don't hurt me," Justin said.
"Eh? Oh, that's right, you don't know," she harem-woman type
said, smacking her forehead. "If you want, I can be a lot more
dramatic about this. I guess my first encounter with you should
have been in the null-entropy room, but I HAD to go out and get
some chips, I mean, it's been a thousand years since I last had a
decent meal in this pit, and... where are you going?"
Ido and Justin stopped dead in their tracks, three steps away
from the basement door and freedom.
"Umm, far away?" Justin suggested.
"No offense, lady, but you freak the hell outta me," Ido said.
"So we're just going to go home and pretend we never came. No
harsh, 'kay?"
"What, you're not ready to go?" she asked. "Ah, jeez. Look,
I've been waiting a LONG time for this, the least you can do is get
your butts down here and go to the previous world like you're
supposed to."
"I have a history test tomorrow," Justin offered lamely.
"Don't worry, you're scheduled to come back right after you
finish. If you finish. I forget if you survived that last bit or
not," Hettra considered. "Anyway, one minute while I find the
portal thingy... I know he packed it in here somewhere..."
With that, the woman opened the secret passage, but not all
the way; the revolving wall stopped dead halfway through. Justin
really regretted using the word 'dead' in the previous metaphor.
'Think we could run?' Ido whispered. 'She isn't looking...'
'Wait, I got an idea,' Justin replied softly, fingering an odd
hunk of broken wood, one of the many fine trinkets available in the
basement of wonders. It was about the right length and weight as
an extra edition of the Hindenburg Gazette...
"Okay, I think this is it," Hettra said, wheeling a strange
tubular looking gizmo made of stone and crystals out. "Either that
or this is my rock tumbler, which would be rather embarassing--"
Justin muttered a silent apology to any higher powers that
happened to be listening, reared back his arm and delivered the
wooden headlines right to the back of Hettra's head. She wobbled
a few times, then fell over, out cold, the stick rebounding and
smacking against a large button on the machine before her.
"He shoots, he scores!" Ido cheered. "Yeeeeeha. Okay, are we
leav... um..."
"What?" Justin asked.
"Dude, don't look now, but there's a glowing portal thingy
behind you," Ido said, pointing. "I think you turned that Takra
thing on."
"Huh?" Justin went, turning around to look, and unfortunately
stepping on a banana that just happened to have fallen out of the
groceries Hettra brought in earlier and falling through the portal,
which proves that both Drama and Prophecy have a weird sense of
humor.
The circle of light flashed, and sucked in much of the air in
the room. Ido thought he saw a look of surprise on Justin's face
before he went to never never land.
Ido smacked his forehead. He SAID not to look! He had two
options now... A) Go home, and hope against hopes that he was
simply hallucinating from a near fatal disease, or B) Follow
Justin.
Hettra grumbled, pulling herself up to a sitting position and
rubbing her head. "Why... that... LITTLE... RRRRRRRRRGGHHHH!!!!!"
Her eyes started glowing the red eyes glow when the person who owns
them is pissed off enough to break cool dudes like Ido in half.
Option B looked remarkably appealing, for some reason. Ido
took a running leap, and hopped into the gateway.
*
The sky was a pleasant shade of blue. Clouds fluttered here
and there; little white puffs, inoffensive, quite nice to look at.
The grass waved in the breezes of spring, and the trees were just
turning green, and two boys were falling, screaming, from the sky.
They barely had enough time to appreciate the wonder and
beauty of nature before landing in a tangled heap.
"Owwwwwwwww," Ido groaned, pulling himself to his elbows. "I
think I broke... everything. Justin? You okay?"
"Yeah, something padded my fall," Justin said, climbing off
the lumpy object he hit. "Where are we? It's still nighttime."
"First guess says that chick just tossed us into some
alternate universe. Second guess," Ido said, "Is that we both
tried some really wicked drug earlier and this is the effect."
"I wish it was the second. Maybe it is," Justin said. "Umm,
Ido? What did I fall on, anyway?"
"Looks like an armored knight and horse, vaguely fearsome in
appearance," Ido said, putting his fingers to the dead man's neck.
"Neck snapped. You're lucky you didn't land on the spiky parts of
his suit."
"I... I killed someone?" Justin gaped.
"Accidental. Blame that chick. It happens. But I would
suggest we run before anybody finds out, mind you," Ido said.
"Run WHERE?"
"Ummmm... there?" Ido said, pointing in a random direction.
"I was thinking of 'away', in general."
"What, towards that army?"
"Army?"
"You're pointing to an army," Justin pointed out.
Ido took a look at his finger, and more importantly, the dozen
men on horseback charging, swords drawn.
"Hey, Justin? You know what I said about liking your luck?"
Ido asked.
"Uh-huh?"
"I take it all back."
THE END, OVA 1