---Chapter 1
Some tales tell what might have been, or what could be. The outlines of the future or past are seen through a thin gauze of action and adventure, characters and wit. Many worlds, shown in shades of light or dark as it may be. Other stories tell of how the bridges between these worlds are destroyed, ripped away to be blocked off forever or replaced with new bridges in a different form. This is one of those stories.
---
Lenny sat at the computer, a cord running from inside his left wrist to the console. Words, images and fragments of videos flicked by as he jumped from one screen to the other. He blinked and a column came up, which he scanned quickly before flicking his eyes to the side and sending it to wait in a queue. He couldn’t find the information he was looking for.
Behind him, Grummage sat at a table, writing and sketching furiously as he spoke to himself.
“Sission beams are made up of a range of photonic waves at a frequency unseen in other applications. Invisible...no theory discovered them before because there was no evidence of their working on anything terrestrially.” Grummage paused, running the pen through a line to erase it. “I discovered them by a series of experiments meant to prove Lesshon’s theory of Time Manipulability inaccurate in his postulation of proton activity in an aetherous atmosphere.”
Every once in awhile, Lenny would insert a comment verbally. “If a Sission beam is photonic, how can it travel so far, instantaneously?”
“They travel by unilateral byways. That is, they only affect the world as we perceive it on one side; they exist in their own vacuum parallel to the universal bondage, whereon time is shrunk to a different scale.”
“And your Di-jump has enough resistance to snare it in a converted currant cycle?” Lenny pursued.
“Using a Ptolomy’s end-gate system--”
Jax, leaning impatiently against the wall nearby, shot Amber an exasperated look, “I can’t understand them at all when they go on like this, can you?”
Amber was sitting on one of the couches in Jax’s living room, where they were all gathered. She shook her head, but her eyes were fixed on the speakers with interest. “Not everything. But I do get a certain feel for it, since I’ve studied Thomas Gank’s work, as well as the writings of Gregory Simpkin-Hazard. I’m sure I could understand them if just a few things were explained in detail.”
“As long as it makes a Sissionbeam-cutter, I guess I should be happy,” the traveler snorted, flexing his hands in their fingerless gloves. “But everyone knows I’m not actually going to be until we start to rescue Iax!”
After having found the broken bottle and knife in the kitchen, both smeared in purple blood, they had decided to start their campaign against the Power Cores. First to rescue Iax, then to stop the purple corruption from further devastating the nine worlds in its grip. But before they could actually begin to do anything, there were three things they needed.
One, something to set free any Power Cores that did not want to continue in slavery to the Central power, such as their companion Leaflow.
Two, a way to destroy the Power Cores who refused to be set free.
And third, to find out where Iax and the other inhabitants of Jax’s home city were being taken when they were arrested, so that they could be set free.
To address the first problem, Grummage had come up with the idea of building a Sissionbeam-cutter, that is, an electronic device which could sever the flow of the Sission beams going between the Central Power and the Power Core.
His reasoning was that the lines of power captured by the center power must connect to the Power Cores, enabling it to control each world. The Power Cores became a sort of anchor, holding the lines in place. Grummage thought that if they broke the connections to the anchor it would force the Central Power to give up its grip on the world, at least for a time. Then, if they either brought the Power Core out of that world or destroyed them, it would take the Central Power even more time to find a new anchor and form a bond with them, if the power could even capture the world again.
While Grummage began to write up the plans for a Sissionbeam-cutter, Lenny had connected himself directly to Jax’s home computer and was searching for the information they needed to find and free Iax, as well as track down the Power Core of this world.
The other three that had come with them were looking on with varying amounts of interest.
“Perhaps you should take the carriage and go pick up our companions now,” Soleeryn suggested to Jax, “it has been some time since we left them and they will want to know about the new developments. Though you will have to be careful...we don’t know if the Cruel agents in this world are on the lookout for you in particular.”
“Yeah, I guess I should go get them. I’m just dreading what I’ll find in the restaurant. Ratperson bloated, pirate drunk, Ninja throwing knives at the waitresses...”
“Oh, it won’t be that bad.” Amber gave him a look askance. “Just go get them and stop whining.”
“Alright, alright!” Jax tossed up his hands, stomping towards the door. He opened it and was about to step out when he stopped abruptly, head turning as if scanning the yard.
“Um, guys...”
Hearing the tone in his voice, Lenny jerked around in the computer chair. “What is it?”
“The lawn is full of police men.”
“What!” Lenny disconnected himself from the computer with a snap and jumped to his feet, hand folding back onto his wrist. In a few strides he was across the room, along with the two women. They all peered out of the door and saw that Jax’s statement was nearly accurate in its literal sense. There was about five uniformed figures positioned around the yard, all pointing rifles at the entrance of the house. Their clothes were midnight-black, marked with purple badges and purple letters on their caps reading ‘Special’.
A sixth officer, standing near a squad car hovering at the curb, was just raising a megaphone to his mouth.
“This is the Special Police! Your house is surrounded! Come out with your hands up.”
Jax slammed the door, spinning around to look at his friends. “What are we going to do? They’ve got us surrounded and their coming to take us away, like Iax!”
Grummage had not risen from his chair. He stared back at Jax, his face a shade paler than usual, if that were possible. Then, without a word, he threw himself off of the chair, under the table.
“You’ve got one more chance before we come in. Come out with your hands up!"
At that moment a sound like fireworks going off filled the air outside, followed by a loud explosion. The door clattered and window rattled with the impact. Glass tinkled to the pavement out on the road.
“What the---?” Lenny dashed over to the window, peering out of the drawn blinds. Smoke was pouring upwards from the police car, which was minus a windshield and looked scorched inside. A few bright sparks were still flickering through the air over it. All of the police men had changed their attention to it and the one who had been standing next to it was laying on the ground, clutching at his legs.
“Something happened to the car,” Lenny exclaimed quietly, “someone has blown it up!”
“Now might be our chance to escape,” Soleeryn pointed out.
As they were speaking, there was a faint creaking noise from the kitchen, followed by the sound of feet softly hitting the floor. They all whipped around in that direction as a figure came striding into the room. He was dressed in the shining black and lavender of a special police, considerably rumpled and even torn. But when he looked up, it was Dansei’s round, pleasant face under the hat.
His expression was not cheerful now. There was a hard, quick look in his eyes and a snap to his voice when he spoke that had not been there before.
“Quickly, quietly follow me, everyone, please. We must leave here while the distraction lasts. I know a way through the surrounding forces.”
“Dansei!” Amber looked at him in grateful surprise. “But where are the others, Raggsy, Patch...?”
“They have been caught by our enemies.” The Ninja’s tone was hard. “I only escaped by using the trick of running the wrong way and looking like an enemy too. But do not fear, we will find our friends again. Come, before it is too late.”
He beckoned towards the kitchen, where a window was standing open. Jax fished Grummage out from under the table in passing, while Lenny hurried to catch up with their guide. “Are you the one who blew up the police car?”
“Yes. A Shinobi always carries gunpowder mixtures with him for many applications. But no more questions right now! You must all follow me exactly if you wish to get free of the surrounding enemies.”
His heart beginning to pound with repressed excitement, Lenny watched Dansei slip out of the window onto the ground outside. He helped Amber and Soleeryn out after the Ninja, waiting for Jax and Grummage before coming last himself. There was beginning to be noises of pounding and shouting from the front of the house, where the police were getting over their fright. Hearing the door start to give in, Lenny hopped out of the open pane onto the damp earth outside.
They were in a rear section of the yard now, where hedges ran on each side, board fences divided up the houses and a wooden tool shed stood looking dilapidated. Crouching down, they went single file from beside the house to a space behind a section of fence. There Dansei stopped for a moment to listen, before signaling them to follow again and scurrying towards the hedge. There was a low spot he wiggled through on his belly, urging the others to follow with hissed words from the other side. They all slunk through as quickly as possible, Lenny getting a mouth full of churned-up earth as he passed through.
On the other side, they were in a neighbor’s yard. Here a broken hover car was half covered in weeds and vines, falling apart in the back section. There was also a sad tire-swing on a low branch of a tree, and a table that had once been of clear glass. Dansei crawled on hands and knees behind the car, everyone else following him. The back of the yard was fenced with wooden planks, two of which he grasped and easily snapped off near the bottom. They were so rotten that they did not make a loud noise when coming apart, just a hollow thump.
After writhing through this hole, they found themselves standing between the fence and a low hedge, beyond which ran the back street. A taxicab stood hovering on the side of the road, huge, red scroll-work on the side advertising the company name 'Huggy’s Taxi service’.
“Get into it!” Dansei ordered, turning back to block up their exit hole with the broken pieces of board. Lenny jumped over and opened the back door of the cab, gesturing for the others to enter. Everyone crammed inside, barely finding space on the slick faux leather chair. There were cup holders to each side that did not make it any easier, as well as a sign dangling down on the back of the front seat which read ‘a proud user of Galaxy Gas’. They hardly threw a glance at the heavy-faced diver until Jax said, “hey, Griwik!
“I don’t know what sort of trouble you’re in now, Jax,” the driver grumbled, hunching forward in his seat. “Whatever it is, I want to be as little involved as possible.”
“but how did you get to be here then?”
“I was just driving along my beat near the capitol building when this little guy in a police uniform flags me down.” The driver flinched as Dansei jumped into the passenger seat, snapping an order to get moving. Griwik went on complaining as soon as they were moving down the street. “This guy, here, see. I thought it would all be aboveboard, since he’s wearing a uniform. But next thing I know, he’s asking me where you live, telling me to avoid the cops and park behind your house!”
“It’s a good thing he found you instead of someone who didn’t know where I live.” Jax gave a little whistle. “But you don’t understand, Griwik. It’s Iax they’ve captured now, the ‘Special Police’ have. You know Pops wouldn’t be up to any pranks with me.”
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“That’s true.” The driver swerved onto a main road, gathering speed. He still did not look happy, using a giant turkey-red handkerchief to wipe his damp brow every few seconds.
Lenny would have enjoyed analyzing the differences between this hovercar and the ones from his own home, if the circumstances had not been so dire. It rode higher than the ones in his home world, bumping and shuddering more as it moved along the street. But there was a speed and visceral feeling to it that his own car had lacked.
“Now tell us what happened to the others,” Amber was urging Dansei, leaning on the back of his chair.
“There is not much to say.” The Ninja spread his hands out to either side in a shrug, “we were eating lunch peacefully, when four members of the Special Police entered and tried to capture us. We defeated them and I took this uniform. We all decided that it would be best to find you four as soon as possible, to warn you that the Special Police are working for our enemies: their blood is purple.”
“So they are the corrupt creatures themselves.” Jax slammed a fist into his open hand. “They’ve all been created by the Power Core of this world!”
Dansei nodded, continuing his explanation. “We left the restaurant and set out in the direction you had taken. But by then the police were already after us. There was a chase through the city. We were eventually cornered and surrounded. As I said, I was able to escape by using a trick. But after a brief fight, our three friends were taken captive.”
“Were they hurt badly?” Amber pressed anxiously.
“Not from what I could see,” the Ninja assured her, “they were put in a vehicle such as this one but a little larger, soon after. I followed it as closely as I could and discovered where they were taken. After that I thought it would be best to find you and warn you.”
“That was the best thing to do. We’re lucky you came then, or else we might have been captured as well. Thanks for getting us out of there.” Lenny leaned forward to tell him.
“Where are our companions being kept?” Soleeryn wanted to know. Her pale dress was stained from crawling on the ground and there were shiny leaves stuck in her long, dark hair. But her odd eyes showed only sharp interest in the matter at hand.
“In the big gold building. The one this driver has called ‘Capital’.” Dansei explained.
“The capital building, where the city council has its meetings!” Jax exclaimed, “what are they going to do with them there, bring them before the council for being interdimensional travelers?”
“The Power Core must be waiting there for our capture,” Lenny pointed out, “either that or on his way. Our friends will probably be questioned as to your whereabouts and our recent doings.”
“They’d better not hurt Raggsy, or else I’ll...do something they won’t like!” Amber put in fiercely.
All this time they had been speeding along in the taxicab, entering the main part of Crusem city and heading towards the center. Sleek hovercars zipped past on either side, pouring on and off the main street in a shining stream. Pedestrians or kids on hovertoys of various sorts went up and down the sidewalk, peacefully going about their business. Massive buildings of gleaming silver and blue rose on each side, covered in shifting television advertisements. Everywhere was light, color and bustle. High above, a huge blimp-like vehicle passed slowly through the air, turrets and domes shimmering on top like a miniature city or castle.
Then, ahead of them, a building of a new shade came into view. It stood in the center of a giant, cobbled square set with statues and fountains around the edge, all of them dwarfed by its giant scale. It was the capital building, plated gold on the outside like an expensive watch. The structure was pyramidal, but taller then it was square at the base. The top did not run to a point, being cut off flat on top and set with an array of antennas. Down the front, cutting it in half from top to bottom, was a clear glass window like a flowing cascade.
There were signs advertising both Galaxy Gas and Universal Fuel on either side of the main entrance doors.
Dansei had the taxi driver park on the side of the road nearest the open square. Grummage, who was crammed into one corner so tightly that only his long nose appeared to stick out, said, “you know, I hate to be a wet blanket, but what exactly are we going to do here? I mean, we can’t just march in and demand that your companions be set free, can we?”
“We shall use tactics,” Dansei returned, jumping out of the car and gesturing for them to follow. Everyone piled out of the taxicab and Jax paid the driver, making sure that it had been worth his while.
“But next time,” Griwik told him, “leave me out of your shenanigans, okay? The ‘rich guy’ incident was bad enough.”
Jax stuck his tongue out at the driver as he pulled away.
“The 'rich guy’ incident?” Lenny looked at his friend curiously.
“No time to tell you the whole story now.” Jax waved a hand at him airily. “It was just a game me and the gang were playing, anyway.”
They had been standing on the open sidewalk talking, but Dansei soon ushered them off of the sidewalk into an empty lot between buildings, something like a cross between an alleyway and a gravel drive.
“We have to make plans for In-nin, open infiltration. I will go, and one other with me.”
“I know the most about the sort of things you’ll find in there.” Jax pointed out, volunteering. But the Ninja shook his head,
“You are too easy to recognize. They are looking for you. Lenny is a better choice.”
Lenny agreed to come and the Ninja began to outline the way to act when infiltrating, asking Jax questions now and then about the security of the capital building.
---
Patch paced up and down the little room, holding his head in his hands. It was aching from a blow it had received in the skirmish, when a police man had hit it with his black stick. His shoulder hurt a little as well, from the wound he had got on the last planet. But Soleeryn’s ministrations had dulled that to a distant pain. It was the ache in his head he really noticed.
He and his two companions had been captured, taken in a floating carriage to a huge, glittering building in the center of the city. There, they had been marched inside, put in a moving box that took them up higher in the building and locked in a small room. It was not really a jail cell: the floor was polished tiles, the wall had fancy trim and there was a half-circle of red velvet couches on one side. Some sort of reception room, Patch guessed, which had a door that locked tight and a window too far off of the ground to jump from. Or even climb down, with the slickness of the building.
Jackal lay in his shirtsleeves on one of the couches, leather coat folded up under his head as a pillow. He had not been injured in the fight either, but he had confided to them before that he had been given little time for sleep lately, on his own world. With the invasion of the corrupt beings, he had been forced to spend most hours awake in order to fight them off. Now any opportunity for sleep was a good one.
Raggsy sat on the arm of a different couch, clutching his tail near the end and complaining, “look at that! They broke it. I can feel the break in it. See how it flops over at an angle? A Ratperson’s pride and joy and they break it over at the end. It’ll probably have a crook in it for the rest of my life!”
“Please, will ye stop that moaning?” Patch groaned at him, “it makes me head hurt all the more!”
“But look at my tail!” Raggsy waved it in the air, holding up the last six inches of it indignantly. “Broken over!”
“At least it wasn’t cut off!” The pirate retorted. “And it’s better a broken tail then a cracked head, or a lopped-off hand for that matter. Paw. Claw. Whatever ye call your appendages.”
“I suppose.” Jackal put in with a sigh, turning over to fold his arms behind his head and regard them with reddened eyes. “That a man can’t get a wink of sleep around here?”
Patch turned away, resuming his steady pace up and down next to the door. It was a stout door, made of thick pieces of wood (real or fake) with decorative brackets of metal at each corner. The lock was not of a sort Patch was used to, being some sort of magic number pad instead of an honest keyhole. He had punched at the pad a few times, but all it did was make protesting beeps at him in return. Lenny or Jax would have understood how to use it, be he could not.
At least the Ninja had escaped. Though he did not know him well, Patch was fairly confident that Dansei would be on his way to find their friends. But could he find them? This city of Jax’s was huge, bigger than the largest seaport Patch had ever hit with a pocket full of gold. In a town this size, not everyone would know where anyone else lived. Perhaps he would have the sense to backtrack to the restaurant and wait there for Jax to come for him.
As he was pacing, Patch heard a noise at the door and turned to it. There was a low beeping noise, then the door came open. Standing outside were five men dressed in the uniforms of Special Police. They were heavily armed with the sleek rifles of this world, as well as their short clubs hanging at their sides. The lead one stepped into the room, covered by the others.
“Get up. All of you. The master is ready to see you.”
Jackal heaved himself to his feet, shaking out the jacket and pulling it on without a word. Raggsy cradled his tail in one arm, sliding gingerly to the floor. All of their weapons had been taken away, of course, even the Ratperson’s little sling. There was no way they could resist the guards at this point and hope to live.
“This way.” The officer shoved them out of the door into the encircling group of police. “Hands behind your backs. Both hands, rat thing! Now, march.”
Raggsy whimpered as his tail trailed over the ground close to so many marching boots. They were made to walk down a hallway, back into the floating box which took people to different stories. Patch’s head felt dizzy as the box rose suddenly with them in it, before coming to a stop somewhere higher up in the building. There a tall, pale-blond man was waiting nervously, hands constantly flattening creases in his gray suit. He looked over the prisoners as the police marched them out, nodding as if counting them.
“Three? Just three, hm? There’s supposed to be a lot more altogether. The master won’t be happy that it is only three. But, er, three is better than none, right?”
The officers did not deign to reply. They just stood and let the nervous man inspect the prisoners, before marching them on when he stepped aside. He trailed after them as they went down another hall, through a reception room with a secretary trying very hard not to stare and to the door of another room. This door was even more impressive than the one they had been locked behind. It was stained black, with silver brackets and gold letters across the front reading, ‘Frandek’.
The nervous businessman hurried around the police officers then and typed out a code on the door, opening it and gesturing them through. Patch could not help staring at the room they entered next.
It was longer than it was wide, like some sort of feasting hall, and there was huge plate-glass windows at the end looking over the city. The floor was polished black, the walls an autumn cream and there were leather chairs in the room just as stiff and slick as a sword’s blade. But that was not what made Patch stare. It was the chandelier hanging from the roof, all gold and crystal, the gilded picture frames on the walls, the sparkling doodads on the desk at the far end and the dozen Special Police lined up on each side of the wall.
A man was sitting at the desk, smoke curling lazily up from between two of his fingers. He was a big man, big like a shoulder of roast beef or a pile of pillows. His face was a pyramidal lump of jowl and flesh, mouth deeply cut into it and eyebrows barely clinging on. His shoulders were a pair of mountains, one on either side of that head. He beckoned for all of them to come closer.
A cigarette smoldered between his sausage fingers. He took a puff of it and swirled it in the air. “Frandek. Report.”
The nervous business man came to the front, rubbing his hands together. “Er, uh, yes. Three of them, sir. This one, that one and the rat fellow. That was all they caught.”
“I can see that.” The chief’s voice was like gravel sliding down a chute. “Alright, you can leave, councilman Frandek. I’ll question them myself.”
“Yes, sir, master Omngox.” Dismissed, Frandek hurried away. The door closed behind him with a final sound. It was then that Patch noticed that among the small treasures on the desk lay a well-made knife, serrated up one side while the other had a sharp blade.
Omngox did not touch it. It just lay there meaningfully. Omngex took another puff of his smoke and flicked it expertly into an ash tray about a yard away on the floor.
“you probably guess who I am,” the man behind the desk remarked, “I am this world’s representative for the Great Power. Frandek is my puppet on the intergalactic council. But I’m much more powerful than the whole council. Much more powerful than anyone else in this dimension. I can alter the whole world at will. Need more police men? I make them. Want to get rid of a few miscreants? Easy. Everything is controlled by the power of my mind.”
He tapped his ponderous head with a pudgy finger. “And the Great Power gives me the energy to do all of this, of course. So, as you can see, there is really no use resisting me. You can destroy hundreds of Special Police and it won’t change a thing. I even know who you three are and where you come from. You might as well confess everything I want to know right now. It will keep things efficient. Time is money, you know.”
“Pardon me,” Jackal drawled lazily, “but you still haven’t told us what you want to know. Haven’t even hinted at it.”
A wreath of smoke had gathered around Omngox’s head. He fixed them with his piggy eyes from deep in the folds of his face. “Where are your friends?”
None of the three travelers said a word. Omngox’s eyes swept over them, fixing on Raggsy in particular. “You, rat thing. How about we start with you? Where are your traveling companions?”
With a wrinkle of his snout, Raggsy showed his teeth in a stubborn snarl. Without shifting an inch, the man behind the desk said, “step on his tail.”
As quick as thought, two of the Special Police grabbed Raggsy on either side, while a third slammed his boot heel down on the Ratperson’s broken tail. Raggsy let out a squeal, struggling to sink his teeth into the hands of his captors. They held him away, while Omngox chuckled under his breath.
Patch couldn’t stand it any more. He did not care if the Special Police shot him in the next instant. With a bound he was up in front of the desk, hardened fist swinging forward in a stout, round blow. It connected with Omngox’s chin, sinking in with a disgusting feel of flabby skin. There was a sharp crack! and the fat man slumped backwards in his chair, knocked out cold.
Jackal spun towards the nearest guards, intending to sell his life dearly. Patch snatched up the dagger, also ready for a fight. But there were no opponents left. In the moment Omngox was knocked out, the Special Police all flickered like dying flames and disappeared.
“‘Ay now, they’re all gone!” The pirate exclaimed in disbelief.
Raggsy had staggered when the police holding him let go and looked around in surprise. But now he nodded sagely. “Dat’s right. They all disappeared on Amber’s planet too, when Lenny punched Mendo Drann. I remember it. They just came back when he woke up again.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure that this one never wakes up.” Patch flicked the knife around so that it was pointing downwards and rounded the desk, sinking it swiftly into the lump on the other side.
Omngox jerked, gasped and clawed at the blade, before falling back, dead. At that moment there was a ripping noise in the sky, as if something were rushing through the air around their heads. The whole world seemed to shake and shiver in front of them, before settling out once again. It was solid, but not exactly the same. Most of the rich decorations in the room had disappeared. Though everything else looked fine, there was a feeling as if the world had just been changed.