---Chapter 15
The shock of travel was much stronger than a regular dimension jump. It felt as if they had been forcefully taken apart, hastily crammed through the barrier and stuck back together with little thought for their feelings on the matter. Amber opened her eyes gasping from the sensation. Beside her, their shoulders still touching, stood Jax. He looked wan and a little ashamed of himself, especially when he glanced down at his hands and saw that the Di-jump was gone.
“Jax, what happened? Where are we?”
He blinked at her. “I pushed the 'Panic’ button.”
Amber gazed around and saw that they were standing in a bedroom. It looked faintly familiar, though she could not place it. It was evidently in a more technologically advanced dimension than her home world. The posters on the wall were glossy and brightly colored, there was an electronic-readout clock on the wall and the clothes laying scattered on the bed were of a (to her) futuristic make.
“But where did the panic button take us?” she asked.
“It’s a teleporter, run on Sission beams,” he explained, “like the Telestorage in my coat. It is programmed to take me directly back home, always. We’re in my bedroom in my house, on my home world!”
For a moment the impact of this did not register. Then Amber’s face turned anxious. “Oh, Jax! What are we going to do now? We don’t have the Di-jump here and the others are still held captive there.”
“Well, gee,” Jax said sullenly, kicking at his brightly-colored carpet. “Maybe you would have preferred if I got shot, instead?”
For a moment the girl did not know what to say. They both stared down at the ground tensely. Finally Amber shook her head. “Of course not. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about what is happening to Lenny and the others now that we’re gone. And without the Di-jump we can’t get back to them.”
Jax shrugged, moving towards the window. “I know. Don’t sweat it. I really shouldn’t have hit the panic button. It would have been better to get out my taser or something, maybe. But, gosh, he was going to plug me in the head with that gun. And not everything is lost. We’ve got Grummage here! He can build us another Di-jump so that we can get back. Then we’ll have two and can get through the dimensions faster--”
He broke off suddenly, gazing out of the window. “Um, Amber?”
“What is it?” She moved over to join him, looking out of the fine pane of glass.
“Look at that!”He pointed up at the sky.
Amber followed his finger and stared at the color of the heavens in surprise, which soon turned to fear. “It’s purple again!”
Though not as dark or definite as it had been before, the sky did have a lavender hue. Looking around, they saw a few bushes or trees that were tinted with it on the leaves, as well.
“That can only mean one thing.” Jax turned to meet her gaze. “EX-2 has recently found another Power Core for my world. We took too long defeating the others!”
“And we’re here all alone.” Amber felt a sinking sensation as the full knowledge of their position took hold. “Whoever the Power Core is, we have to face them on our own. We don’t even know if Lenny and the others are still alive, back in Jackal’s dimension.”
Jax started pacing up and down the room, his hands folded behind his back. “Don’t give up hope on them too soon. They’re tough and resourceful. I’m sure that Len thought up some plan to use our escape to his advantage. Think, he’s an electronics nerd, he’s smart! And we’re not entirely alone here. There’s Grummage and Iax to help us if we need it.”
He paused to glance out of the window again. “Thankfully, it doesn’t look like EX-2 has much of a hold here, yet. He’s just sending out feelers again. The thing that bothers me is, how will we find the Power Core? Len has the compass--”
“No, wait a minute,” Amber interrupted, plunging a hand into her pocket. “He let me borrow it. I have it with me.”
She held it out on the palm of her hand for him to see. The needle was a tarnished gold, pointing away into the city. “But what about all of the police men, or whatever creatures the Power Core’s made? How will we get through them alone, without the hourglass?”
Jax’s face hardened into determined lines beneath his mop of yellow hair. “We’ll just have to give it our best shot!”
Amber looked down at the needle, her face still showing worry rather than hope. “And what about the new Di-jump? Should we have Grummage start work on it before we follow the needle?”
“Of course.” Jax nodded, heading for the door. “He’ll understand everything. Once we’ve defeated the Power Core, the new Di-jump might be almost ready for us to take back to our friends.”
“That quickly?”
He stopped and looked back at her with his pointy grin. “Oh, come on, don’t turn into a wet blanket now! Everything is possible if you believe it is. And we’re so cool, we wouldn’t believe anything else!”
Amber wasn’t so sure about that, but his nonchalance did give her heart. There was no use in being negative. If they tried their hardest, they might accomplish something worthwhile. It was just like building a steam engine.
They explored the rest of the house only to find that Iax was out, having taken his car from the driveway. Afterwards they crossed over to Grummage’s house, where he lived alone.
His parents Frummage and Lilana, Jax explained, had both died in a hovercar accident two years ago, leaving him a small inheritance and the house to live on. Grummage made enough to stay comfortable by fixing computers and other electronics for a small fee, which he mostly put back into more electronics for himself.
The young genius answered their knock, rushing them into the house with a mixture of anxiety and joy.
“Jax! Man, it’s great to see you again. How are you? Is everything okay? We noticed that the purple stuff was starting to come back already. Does that mean you failed? Iax went to go talk to the city council about it, but I don’t think they’ll be able to do anything. What brings you here?”
Jax answered this characteristic torrent of words with one of his own, so that the whole situation was explained quicker than Amber would have thought possible. Grummage told them that there had not yet been any police men or other purple creations bothering them, just the oddly tinted sky and a few other signs of reconquering. When they asked him, he agreed to start work on another Di-jump, though he warned that it might take him some time to finish it.
“And you’d better be careful, if you’re going to go looking for this new Power Core by yourselves.” He shook his head, long nose pointing back and forth. “Sheesh, I hate to think of what it might do to you if you’re caught. Shouldn’t you wait for reinforcements, or something? At least get some help from the city council. Or I could come with you!”
Jax put up a forestalling hand. “No. Thanks buddy, but no. We’ll be just fine. I don’t want to try to get help from the council only to find that they’re involved again. I just hope that Iax is okay...but there is one other thing you could do for us.”
“Yeah? Anything.”
“Do you still have that Hyperblast hand-cannon that my father loaned you for inspection? The one he kept from the army?”
“Oh, that.” Grummage looked sick. “I never could bring myself to look at that thing. It was nice of him and all, since it has interesting circuits in it, but, well...it killed people once. It’s up in the attic. Do you want it?”
“Yeah.” Jax nodded firmly. “Thanks. I’ll give it back to the old man later.”
Grummage hurried away, his black cloak flapping behind him.
“Your father was in an army?” Amber asked once he was gone.
“Yeah,” the young man repeated, “he rose in rank and became an administrator, eventually. That’s why he’s so strict and military about some things, even though he’s been retired for awhile now.”
Grummage came running back down the stairs and into the living room, holding a paper-wrapped object gingerly in one hand. When Jax unwrapped it, Amber saw that it was shaped like a small, silver pistol with a stubby nose. The barrel was about twice as wide as her own pistol’s, though the hand-cannon was shorter altogether. Jax smiled grimly and stuck it in his coat, where it disappeared.
“Thank, pal. Now we’ll be on our way. Good luck with the Di-jump.”
“Good luck to you, too. And Jax...don’t get yourself killed.”
“Who, me?” Jax gave him a grin as they left the house. Out on the sidewalk, he threw down his hoverboard and hopped on the front of it.
“Get on.”
“But I don’t know how to ride a hoverboard.” Amber looked at it doubtfully. “What if we have an upset?”
“It’s easy to ride. Just step on the back, hold on to me and lean like I do in the curves,” Jax laughed at her, “Twisia used to ride with me all the time.”
Amber got up behind him and put an arm around his waist, feeling the soft roughness of his felt long-coat. “Alright. But don’t go too fast at first.”
“‘Course not. Now, give me a reading from the compass.”
The needle pointed them in, towards the center of the city. Like a foolish knight going out to face a dragon, Jax toed the hoverboard forward until it was shooting down the sidewalk at a swift pace. Curves, crosswalks and building edges were no trouble for him. This was his home territory and one of his favorite games.
“Wanna jump the library steps?” he called back to Amber as a huge library with multiple sets of cement steps leading up to the door came into view. The steps were built like a pyramid, with one set leading up each of the sides to the building front.
“No!” Amber cried, clutching at him desperately.
But it was too late. With a chuckle of glee Jax shot the hoverboard up the steps on one side, angling it so that there was hardly any bumping in between steps because of the air cushion. A moment later they shot off the other side, flying through the air before slamming down to the cement walk again.
Amber gasped and let loose a fist to shake over his shoulder in his face. “If you ever do that again--!”
“You’ll what? Punch me? Do that and we’ll both fall!” Jax laughed, leaning forward so that they shot down the sidewalk even faster. Not long after that they came to a crosswalk with traffic going through it, so that they were forced to slow down. Opposite them, a pair of hoverboarders zipped past on their own sidewalk, intent on some mission. They were dressed in dark, padded clothes and wore helmets so that their faces were difficult to see.
“Hey, who were those two?” Jax turned his head to watch them go. “Huh, I didn’t recognize them. Maybe some new gang’s in town. Wonder if my brood know about it?”
Amber was still panting for breath as she shook her head in mock despair. “Always fun and games. Don’t you know we’re on a serious mission?”
“Yeah.” Jax looked around at her with an indecipherable expression. “But don’t you know that some people have to blow off steam once in awhile? Besides, wasn’t going off of the library steps fun?”
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The young woman had to laugh a little, despite the gravity of their situation. “Yes, I suppose it was. After I was scared. In fact, once this is all over I think I’m going to have you buy a hoverboard and bring it back to my world. I’d like to find out how one works. As well as how to ride it.”
“Cool.” The street was clear then and Jax crossed, before asking for another reading on the compass. As they made their way into the big city, Amber found that some of the places they passed looked familiar. In fact, some time later they found themselves pulling up in front of the main gate into the park where they had first entered Jax’s world.
“Crusem City Park.” Jax came to a stop outside the gate, which was open for all visitors. “Home to the best skatepark ever. What reading are we getting now?”
“Straight inside. The needle’s pretty dark now.” Amber frowned. “Seems like an odd place to find the Power Core.”
“Even Power Cores must like hangin’ out in the park sometimes.” Jax shrugged. “Let’s proceed, but on foot and more cautiously. Everyone off!”
They stepped off the hoverboard and he put it away, before they walked quietly into the walled-off area.
After crunching over a graveled path, they crossed a space of grass and went over a low hill. There before them lay the huge skatepark, with all of its cement ramps, half-tubes and rails. In almost a parallel of the first time Amber had seen it, there was only one person hoverboarding in it. Tall and angular, one figure slid up the side of a tube, popped his board in the air and turned around to glide lazily back down. He seemed to have spotted them, for he began making his way by gradual means towards their side of the cement jungle.
The two dimension travelers moved up to the outer edge, watching him come nearer. Looking down at the device in her hand, Amber noted that the needle was inky with closeness to the Power Core.
“This must be it,” She said.
A moment later Jax whispered, “it’s Hotcho.”
The dark-haired young man hovered up in front of them, stepping off his board and flipping it upright with a neat kick of one foot. He looked at them from his odd, angular face and his eyes glittered with corrupted color.
But all he said was, “s’up?”
“Hotcho.” Jax stepped closer to him. “You...you’re the Power Core. Working for EX-2.”
“The master’s anchor?” The young man bobbed his head from one side to the other in what could be taken as an affirmative. “Sure. What of it?”
Jax looked entirely nonplussed. “But...aren’t you taking over the world for him and wrecking things and stuff like that?”
Hotcho shrugged. “I don’t have too do much. EX-2’s a real tuggum, but it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy wielding his power. I made a few new hoverboarders to see what it was like, but they mostly wander around looking for the best pizza joint. My parents – well, they like power. But I’ve never cared. There’s only one thing important EX-2 has told me to do.”
“Which is?”
The tall hoverboardist stepped forward, a switchblade knife suddenly springing open in his empty hand. “Kill you.”
In a small fraction of a second, he had jabbed the blade forward into Jax’s unprotected chest. Jax gasped and clutched at the knife, staggering back as Hotcho let it go. Though she was not the sort to scream, Amber let out a small shriek of horror.
“H-Hotcho...” Jax fell to the grass, Amber dropping to her knees beside him just a moment too late to catch his fall.
“Sorry bro.” Hotcho shrugged again. “I had to do it.”
---
Lenny stared at the place his two companions had been sitting in the moment before with almost as much intentness as his captors. Their eyes came off of the empty iron chairs and met in mid air.
“Where did that coyote and his vixen get off to?” Coggs exclaimed, while Timmy stumbled back and looked at the gun in his hands as if it had become a magic wand unexpectedly.
“I don’t know,” Lenny answered honestly.
“Now, don’t give me any of that!” Coggs glared at him, face turning tomato red as he waved his own pistol in the young man’s face. “Your deep-space creep friends have conjured themselves back to where ever they came from, haven’t they? Gonna report on us so that the purple ickies can eat us up, ain’t they? Answer me!”
“I--” Lenny was interrupted by another of the bandits hurrying into the kitchen with the bandanna still over his face. Outside, the sound of hoofbeats could be heard approaching the house.
“Chief, it’s Big Boss Kintle. He’s almost here, brought about a dozen of his own men it looks like. What should I do?”
“Invite him in of course!” Coggs snapped, “Bull, take those empty ropes off of the chairs so’s he can’t see that two have escaped. Timmy, go help greet him and bring him in. But make sure that at least six men are still guarding the cellar door. Fred!”
His last words were called after the first man, who was swiftly disappearing through the door out of the kitchen and into what looked like a dim, cozy living room covered in dust. When the door closed behind them, Coggs looked back at Lenny. “We’ll see what the real boss has to say about you. He’s come up from his camp by the creek and now you’d better spit out the truth, if’n you know what’s good for you.”
All three of them were tense as they waited for Kintle to come in. There was a sound of a horse’s whinny, a few strange grunts like a wild animal might make, and then the sound of boots thumping on floorboards once again. The door came open with Timmy in the lead, almost walking backwards so that he could bow the second man in.
He was an imposing figure. Wrapped in a long coat which flapped behind him, with a scarf around his face and only a small space of darkness between it and the brim of his low-pulled hat. He was tall, broad of shoulders and walked with a sense of authority which drifted in the air about him. There was also a sense of shadows hanging around him, as if he swirled with darkness every time he walked, but Lenny could not see any mist when looking straight at him.
Kintle came to a stop in the middle of the room and surveyed the scene. A cold finger of fear touched Lenny when he saw a faint gleam of purple sparkle from under the wide-brimmed hat. This was not only a bandit leader. This was the Power Core! But how could that be, when Coggs evidently feared the corruption and everything it meant?
Kintle spoke in a grating, low voice, “what have we here?”
“A captive, sir.” Coggs gave him a strange salute, but touching the tips of his first two fingers to his forehead just between the brows. “One I highly suspect of causin’ a lot of the trouble we’ve been having, if you know what I mean. To put it frankly, I think he’s an outer space alien sent by the purple evil.”
Kintle sized Lenny up with one cold glance. “You’re right, of course, Coggs. Kill him immediately and any others like him.”
“No, wait!” Lenny held out his hands pleadingly around the ropes, “I’m not the one making the sky like it is, or the darkness creep across the ground. This Kintle is the one at fault. My friends and I are trying to fight it.”
“Isn’t it pitiful when they beg?” Kintle grated, turning to look at the Di-jump on the chair. “Ah, now what have we here?”
He picked it up and turned it over in his gloved hands, inspecting it from every angle. Coggs waved at the unfortunate Timmy. “You heard him, execute the prisoner! And look sharp about it this time.”
Timmy stepped up beside Lenny, cocking his gun. Lenny prepared to use the last of his reserved energy, and part of his own vital life-force if he must, to blast Kintle off the planet with his energy cannon. His right hand popped open, exposing the metal barrel. Timmy started back in fear. At that very moment the sound of a fight broke out somewhere else in the house, further off and lower down.
“Now what?” Kintle dropped the Di-jump and made as if to move towards the door. Coggs jumped over to shove Timmy, shouting for him to see what was going on at the cellar. Bull stood staring stupidly around him, still holding the whip.
As everything seemed frozen in this position, the window over the counter shattered inwards with a deafening tinkle of breaking glass. The rock that had been thrown through it crashed to the ground, soon followed by the curled-up form of an agile man. He leaped to the floor, landing on his feet, and jumped across the room in one light hop-skip.
Kintle started turning towards him, reaching for a pair of pistols belted under his coat. But the man who had come through the window was carrying a long knife, which he held in a stabbing pose. He sprung into the air with a strange cry and slammed it into Kintle’s side, through the thick coat and whatever else lay beneath.
Bull had made a motion as if to intervene, but now started back with his mouth open in dumbfounded shock.
Coggs and Timmy both staggered away, eyes bugging out. There was not simply odd-colored blood coming from the stab wound when the agile figure pulled the knife away. There was a glow of purple light spilling out into the air as if Kintle had a light bulb under his coat. The attacker skipped back from his victim, still holding the knife ready.
Kintle turned slowly, reached back to feel the wound in the rear of his coat. He gave a horrible, gurgling laugh, “not quite good enough.”
His other hand came up suddenly, pistol still held in it. It was a black weapon, marked all over with curling amethyst scrollwork. Lenny saw the light glint off of it as he sat staring wildly at all that was going on.
The pistol’s blast sounded strangely muffled in the confines of the room, where it should have echoed. Kintle’s attacker threw himself to the side at the last moment, dodging out of the way. The bullet ripped into the wall with a tearing noise. For just a moment Lenny saw the attacker’s face and felt a small shock. It was Dansei.
The Ninja jumped forward again as soon as the gun had fired, knocking it aside with a sweep of his hand and jabbing the knife home through the Power Core’s throat.
Kintle dropped the gun, staggered back with a gurgling cry and began to collapse to the floor, more weirdly-tinted light glowing out from him to illuminate the center of the room. At the same time, Dansei fell to his knees, clasping his head in his hands as if at a sharp pain. The Power Core slumped down, clutching at his throat before disintegrated in a flash of purple luminescence.
The world came apart in blurring waves, more intense than almost any dimension shift Lenny had seen before. There was a sound like thunder from outside, a flash of white light and Lenny was blinking into the new reality, just a little brighter and less corrupted than before.
Coggs, Timmy and Bull had all fled by now. The door hung open behind them. Only a few moments after they had left, when Lenny was trying helplessly to struggle out of his bonds, three men came hurrying into the room. In the lead was Patch, his sword drawn and bloody, while he held a captured pistol in the opposite hand. Raggsy had got hold of a full-sized rifle and held it in both of his delicate paws, one claw on the trigger. Behind them was Leaflow, his trusted blade drawn. The pirate stormed in, his lank hair flapping and face set in an ugly leer. But when he had took in the contents of the room, it softened a little.
“There you are at least, lad.” He came over towards Lenny as if to free him, then stopped still, gesturing at Dansei. “Ahoy, how’d he get here? Blast his hide, I thought he was staying behind!”
“The ropes first, Patch, then I’ll explain everything. Is Jackal with you?”
“He was wounded in the escape and had to stop back there.” The pirate gestured over his shoulder in the vague direction of the living room. “But it’s nothing that Amber’s magic juice can’t heal. By the way, where are they keeping the girl and Jax?”
As Patch cut through the ropes binding him, Lenny told them everything that had been happening. When the ropes were sawed through he stood up, rubbing his elbows gratefully. “Thanks, Patch. Other than Jackal, were any of you hurt? And how bad is he?”
“The rest of us are jus’ fine,” it was Raggsy who answered, aiming his new gun out of the window with evident pride. “Heh, that door just wasn’t strong enough ta hold us all. We broke it down after a few tries and took on the guards. 'fraid some of them escaped, but the rest are dead now.”
“And Jackal?”
“He has a bullet wound, matey, in the leg. Nothing worse, but without the healing potion we’ll have to make sure to bind it up good and firm.” Patch stepped back to poke at Dansei with the tip of his sword. “What’s wrong with him?”
As soon as he was touched he collapsed to the floor, laying sprawled out insensible. Leaflow came over to look down at him, giving him a soft nudge with the toe of his boot.
“His mind is not here,” he remarked after a moment, “it’s with the master.”
As they watched, the Ninja seemed to disintegrate much as Kintle had a few moments before, but without the dramatic burst of light. He simply faded away in bits and specks until there was nothing left laying on the floor.
“Now all of him is with the master,” Leaflow added blandly.
Lenny held his hands out to either side in a sign of puzzlement. “But how did he get here at all?”
Raggsy wrinkled his snout. “I thought that chest smelled awefully strongly of Ninja! He must have stowed away in there to get aboard. Sneaky, slimy no-good.”
“Well, he saved me from a quick death.” Lenny gave a little shiver, remembering Kintle’s cold gaze switched on to him.
After picking up the Di-jump they left the room, looking outside to make sure that no more enemies lurked nearby. But Coggs and his men had fled once they saw what their leader was, taking the horses and setting out for somewhere far away. Any creations that Kintle had made were gone, disappearing like dew with a summer sun on it. The terrible, wounded sky had faded away into a dusty blue like faded jeans, while the prairie was only injured by strange, empty divots where pools of blackness had once rested.
They hurried back to check on Jackal and found him sitting on a cushioned bench in the living room, tearing strips of covering and wads of cotton off of it for his leg. It was a clean wound in his thigh, the bullet having gone straight through without hitting the bone. But it hurt him to walk and was bleeding until they bound it up.
“Thanks,” he said as Lenny helped him up and gave him a shoulder to lean on. But he hesitated a minute to pick up a new, pilfered hat from beside him on the bench (it was just a shade lighter than his old one) and grasp his rifle in the other hand. He leaned on it as he asked “what are we going to do now?”
Lenny took a deep breath. “Get you back to the airship. Then, I don’t know. Jax hit the 'Panic’ button on his Di-jump and none of us know what it was supposed to do. Evidently it made them jump away. But where to? The next dimension over, somewhere specific or somewhere randomly chosen in this one? Jax never told me, or anyone else as far as I know. Did he ever give any of you a hint?”
He looked around at the others, but they all shook their heads. It had seemed like such a whimsical, Jax-type button that no one had thought to ask what happened when you pushed it.
“Well, at least he left his device behind for us, even if it was an accident. That seems to be a hazard with those things,” Jackal grunted as they began moving out the door. It was not until he thought over this statement a few minutes later that Lenny realized Jackal had not just spoken of Jax’s Di-jump, which he had never seen get left behind before. But of all dimension jumping apparatus in general.