---Chapter 3
Back at Jax’s home, everyone had a scrounged dinner and then split up between that house and Grummage’s to sleep for the night. In the morning, everyone began hurrying about their business to get ready to leave for the next world. Grummage was putting together a Sission-beam cutter as quickly as he could, while Soleeryn put a splint on Raggsy’s tail so that it would heal straight, and made Patch sit still so that she could tend his wounds. Dansei did not wish to be dressed as a Special Police officer any more, so Jax lent him some of his own clothes. A bright red t-shirt with a swirl of black and white on the front of it caught his fancy, along with a pair of pale tan canvas pants.
“Eww, I never wore those anyway,” Jax said, tossing him the clothes from his shelf. “You can keep them.”
Then he paused and looked at Dansei curiously. “By the way, how come your uniform didn’t disappear along with the rest of the Special Police and their things?”
The Ninja gave a small smile. “I do not know, but it must have been a miracle from the heavens. Otherwise I would have been even more conspicuous in the capital building and they might have arrested me as a madman.”
Jax snorted with amusement at the thought and left to check on Iax for the fifth time that morning.
Lenny was suppose to be helping Grummage build the cutter, but he was mostly sitting on a chair with his arms crossed, staring out of a crack between the drapes on the window. The drapes had to be pulled during the day, so that no light could get in to injure Grummage’s sensitive skin.
Grummage looked up at him and away, snorted, shifted in his chair as he fastened components in a rectangular plastic box, made little muttering noises and finally said, “what’s wrong with you? You make me nervous, staring off into space like that.”
“What?” Lenny jumped, turning his head to look at the electronics. “Oh, sorry. I was just--well, staring off into space. I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“No, I really mean it.” Grummage looked up at him firmly. “What is wrong with you? You’ve said almost nothing since coming out of that capital building.”
“It’s my cybernetics.” Lenny shook his head and sighed. “Jax told you that they weren’t...well, working quite right. The train was struck with lightening on one planet and it’s given me a bit of a shaking-up. Nothing too bad at first: I just couldn’t use certain components. I don’t know if you realize, but my cybernetic implants aren’t just upgrades. I pretty much need the cybernetics to be working correctly to survive. Then, when I tried to hack a computer in the capital building...something went wrong. A security feature I didn’t expect gave me a shock and only Dansei pulling me away kept it from killing me. That shock reacted with the first problem and now--”
His mouth tightened in a straight line. “I feel like I’m falling apart.”
“Man, that’s terrible. You should get help,” Grummage urged sympathetically.
“I know.” Lenny closed his eyes. “But Jax is set on rescuing Leaflow next and I did promise Leaflow that we would save him. Or at least promised his duplicate that we would. The only person I trust to help me is Dr. Devi. He’s the one who built the implants, so he is the most qualified. But we’ll have to free him on my world before he can help me. And I don’t want to delay Jax helping Leaflow.”
“Explain it to Jax. He’s only unreasonable most of the time. And not when one of his friends is at stake.” Grummage went back to working on the Sissionbeam-cutter as he gave this friendly advice. “Meanwhile, let’s get this puppy built. Because you can’t save either Dr. Devi or Leaflow without it.”
Realizing the truth of this statement, Lenny began to apply himself to the work. Working with the inventor, he realized that Grummage was, indeed, a genius. He had just designed a tool to work with something that most people on his world would not even believe existed and done it in a very short space of time. Not only that, but he had jumped right into building the cutter, working out any of the kinks as he went.
The tool was to be built into a box about twice as big as the Di-jump, being almost a foot and a half long front to end. It was to have a small screen on front that would display a sort of graph, which indicated how powerful the Sission beams in its range were. It would also have two knobs for 'homing in’ on the beams, and a button which would sever any of the beams in range when pushed. That was the one large minus of the machine, which Grummage could not figure out a way to cure in such a short time. It had to be near the target to be used, as it only had a range of about five feet and could only be used where Sission beams were strongly concentrated. Good enough for using to free a Power Core, but only if they stood still and let it happen.
The cutter was finished a little after mid-day, the top clipping soundly into place on the electronic-filled bottom, with a switch on the side for powering it up.
“Grummage, what are the Di-jump, Jax’s teleportation unit and this powered by?” Lenny asked as they fit the last pieces together.
“The Sission beams themselves provide the energy.” The inventor gave his machine a paternal pat with one white hand. “As you should have noticed when we were building it. Anyway, let’s go tell the others that it’s done.”
Everyone was ready to go by that time, waiting impatiently for the Sissionbeam-cutter to be finished so that they could take it with them.
“Sure you don’t want to come with us, man?” Jax asked Grummage, taking the cutter from him.
“I’m sure,” The inventor said dryly, with a shake of his head. Hearing of their adventures had not made him want to experience them any better first-hand and he was still afraid of using Sission beams himself.
“But you be careful out there, Jaxxy. I wouldn’t have anyone to argue with if you never came back.”
“Watch yourself here, Grummage. Not all the danger is on other worlds.”
They also said their farewells to Iax, who was safely installed in his own home again, before marching out of in a variegated group and starting the long walk back to the park where the train had been left.
Winding through the city streets, they took a last look at the blue skies and buildings free of corruption. It might be some time before they saw those sights again, depending on how long it took them to free the Power Cores on other worlds.
Back in the park, the grass seemed a brighter green than when they had left it. As Jackal commented wryly, “guess we’ll be missing all this before long. Though I never thought I would say that when we first landed in this city.”
“Sometime,” Lenny told him, “you’ll have to explain how it is that you knew of dimension traveling before we reached your world.”
Jackal turned away with a dark expression, saying nothing.
As Jax had promised, the ‘Historical Monument’ sign on the train had protected it from most forms of vandalism. The only thing different about it since they had left was a smear of mud that had been put on one window, spelling out in bubbly letters ‘Hotcho’.
Amber pointed it out with a stamp of her foot and a frown, to which Jax replied “oops,” and wiped it off with the sleeve of his long, felt coat.
Inside, everything was still in its place. It was, Lenny reflected, strangely like coming home to step into the passenger car. There was the seats that they slept on every night, with blankets laying crumpled on the cushions where they had been left. There was the workbench with Patch’s box of gold sitting on it, all the tools and the other items they had left behind. Even the crumbs on the floor seemed familiar.
Jax and Amber set off immediately to reinstall the Di-jump in the cab, where it had been stationed before. Lenny drifted after them, intending to talk to Jax about going to his world next instead of Leaflow’s.
Glitch.
He still felt like there was something wrong with his head. Inside the train engine, he found the other two fitting the Di-jump into place while Jax said excitedly, “look, I can flip through all of the different channels! Now we’re getting nearby worlds, further off ones and some so distant that they barely register. This world has escaped the ring of nine!”
“Can we still find our way back to all of our home worlds?” Amber asked, biting her lower lip as she looked down at it.
“I think they’ll still be the closest ones,” Jax said with a nod. “It would make the most sense if they were close together before being shut off from the rest.”
“Um, Jax, by the way--” Lenny started to say.
But Jax did not let him get any further, looking up to hold out a slim finger in a threatening manner.
“No arguing, Len. You need a doctor. We’re taking you to Dr. Devi and we are going to free him with the S.B.C. so that he can help you. You got me a doctor when I was sick, so I’m not going to let you be squeamish now.”
“Oh.” Lenny blinked. “But that’s just what I was going to ask you for.”
“Good, showing an ounce of sense for once.” Jax nodded, going back to his work.
Relieved of all his immediate anxiety, Lenny headed back to the passenger car. Some of the crew had stayed there, lounging on the seats or poking at things on the work bench. Soleeryn had gone into the caboose to check on their supplies, including the water tank. With nothing to do until the Di-jump was in place, Lenny leaned against the bench and stared outside. Everything was still a little misty in his vision, getting worse towards the edges. When he tried to flip his optic display on, he was quickly repulsed by the amount of blue, crackling static that covered his sight. Putting a hand to his forehead, he blinked hard to clear the mist away.
Glitch.
Suddenly one of his hands flipped up against his arm, exposing the metal cannon-barrel inside. With a look around to make sure that no one had seen it, he forced it back into place. He hadn’t meant for it to come open.
“Prepare to jump!” Amber’s voice called back from the engine, making everyone startle. Soleeryn bustled in from the caboose, grasping the metal rod above her head. Everyone but the Ninja lined up along it, Raggsy standing nearest Lenny.
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“So how much like Jax’s world is yours?”
“You’ll see in a moment.”
“We’re ready!” Patch called ahead when everyone was in place. Once again, Dansei would not hold on to the bar, but sat on a bench with one foot touching the metal support leg, a cheeky grin on his face.
Lenny braced himself for the shock, but he was still not ready for the intensity when it came. It echoed through his mind like a cracking egg shell and made his vision blur more then the world outside the train. It was not until everything had faded from darkness to the light of his world that he could see anything clearly again. The first sensation he got was one of fitting into place.
It was not that the light was easier to bare, or the air easier to breath. He just felt at home, as if he were an electronic chip that had been slid into its place on the board. He felt, instinctively, that this was where he had been born. Looking out of the coach’s window, he saw that they had landed on the sidewalk by Alter Street, about three streets over from where his old apartment building stood.
Lenny realized that they would have cleared out his suite by now. All of his electronic gear, his hologram fishes and computers...gone. For a moment, Lenny indulged in a feeling of sheer regret that he had ever left his home. Depression filled him in a wave and he had to fight to make it go away. Pulling himself together, he blinked his eyes opened and realized that he might have lost a home, but he had gained a few friends in return. Friends that he didn’t have to hide himself from so that they would not see the mechanical side of his life.
But the world around him was not perfect. The sky had developed the ghastly tint of purple which signaled the advance of the corruption, while the purple smears were attacking lamp posts, pavement and structures nearby.
Looking out at the city of Belltoh which he had so long called home, Lenny recognized one problem in their plan. The train was hugely out of place here, and was sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk. It would not be so easy to explain it away with a ‘Historical’ sign this time.
“Wow, I forgot how this place is really...somber. And majestic, in a weird sort of way,” Jax remarked, running in through the front door of the passenger train, “but I’ve just realized a problem.”
“We’re sitting on the sidewalk of a busy street, in a steam train,” Lenny finished for him grimly, “I know.”
The rest of their companions had been leaning over to look out of the windows, taking in the dark, smooth pavement, shining skyscrapers and streamer trailing Stato-drive vehicles. Now Raggsy straightened up and held out a claw. “Er, um, I have an idea. Though I don’t know how you’ll all take it, if’n ya know what I mean.”
“What is it?”
“Why don’t some of us stay behind here to free Dr. Devi, while the others take the train into another world, where it won’t stick out so much? We can agree on an amount of time to be gone, then come back with the train and pick you up. Easy.”
“Except for one thing,” Amber reminded him, joining them, “the Di-jump has to cool off between uses, remember? We could be gone for hours, maybe days if things go wrong in the other world. Good idea in theory, Raggsy, but it won’t work in reality.”
Everyone stood around for a minute, looking awkward and trying to think of a better idea. Patch raised his hand and opened his mouth, then shut it again with a shake of his head. Too weary to think hard on the problem, Lenny leaned against the wall and shut his eyes. All this because of him. He wished that it could just be over and done, with them on their way to free Leaflow and the rest of the worlds from the corruption.
“There is only one thing to do,” Jax declared finally, seeing what state Lenny was in, “we take the Di-jump and our most precious possessions and leave the train. Sorry, Amber. But it might be okay when we return. And if it’s not...well, it’s better that we aren’t in it.”
Amber frowned, turned red, stomped around the room a few times and seemed about to put up a fuss. Eventually she too looked at Lenny and let out a long sigh.
“Alright. We’ll do it. I just hope nothing bad happens to Sophia.”
A concerted breath of relief seemed to go through the room. They all got busy picking up things to take with them and in a few minutes were ready to depart. By now cars were starting to pull over on the side of the road and a crowd to gather around the train. Glancing out of the windows, Lenny saw people of the sort he recognized. Silver or black suits, with bright stripes down the hem if you were feeling cocky. Sometimes a vest on a man, or a woman with a short skirt, plain in color and pattern. All different shades of hair from watery pale like his own to black so rich that it was tinted with blue, but usually very straight and simply styled.
“Come on, out the back of the caboose,” Amber called when they were ready, leading the way. “It’s furthest from the crowd.”
They dashed between train cars, hurrying through the caboose and jumping off of the platform at the other side. There was a narrow side-street nearby that Lenny pointed them down, while behind them voices were raised in inquiry and surprise.
“Who were those people?”
“Hey, come back!”
“What is going on here?”
“Maybe they know something about the purple invasion!”
“Someone should go after them.”
But, evidently, no one was brave enough to follow. Lenny reflected that they most likely had called the police instead of giving pursuit themselves, a standard procedure on his world.
“We’ve got to get to Devi’s place as soon as possible,” he told his companions, “or else we’re going to run into trouble out here.”
“And how do we navigate to this place?” Patch asked, settling his box of loot more firmly under one arm.
“Let me think.” Lenny closed his eyes for a moment, envisioning the streets around his old home and towards Main Street, where Dr. Devi’s lab was located. After seeing it clearly in his mind, he nodded once. “Alright, this way. It will be a little bit of a walk, but I think we can keep to back streets most of the way.”
He led the way across one open road, through a dim, corruption-infested alley and out onto a street lined in seedy shops at the bottom of the skyscrapers. They passed a few other pedestrians on their way and got strange looks from them, but no one stopped them.
Glitch.
Lenny stumbled, catching himself against a lamp post. The world narrowed for a moment, gray fuzz pressing in around him. He took a deep breath and forced it back, straightening up again.
“Let me take your arm, Len,” Jax suggested, coming up next to him. But Lenny waved him away.
“I’m fine for now. We’ve got to keep moving.”
He started down the sidewalk again, hearing crackling in the back of his head, trying hard to ignore it. Behind him he heard Soleeryn say, “I wish that I could do something for him.”
It sounded like Dansei’s voice which replied, “he is not fully human. Herbal measures would not be enough.”
Not fully human. Lenny squared his shoulders and kept moving. It was the thing he had dreaded hearing all his younger life, the thing which could get him jailed, or worse, if anyone on the streets overheard it. Cyber-upgraded. Electronically enhanced. Not fully human.
Glitch.
He didn’t stumble this time, just kept moving in a straight line. Time blurred into a fog as he kept going stoically forward, until he found himself standing in front of the cobalt-blue door that had opened so often for him in the past.
It was made of synthetic wood with a fake grain, dyed a deep-sea color. The last time he had been there, it was locked. Just inside, there had been a smear of purple on the door post.
Now the door had a jagged crack of corruption running across it from the handle, at an angle, almost to the bottom corner. The center of the smear was rotted out, darkness pulsing at its edges. He could almost feel the coldness of it from where he stood. Near the door, the sidewalk was cracked and had strange, creeping plants of a lavender hue curling out of it, reaching flabby tendrils across the pavement.
Lenny glanced behind him and counted heads. Everyone was still there, Jax holding the Sissionbeam-cutter cradled under one arm. Jackal held his rifle in almost the same position, while Raggsy was peeking around the top of the ‘provision’ sack, which he had refilled before they left. Patch was squinting up at the top of the building suspiciously, Dansei kneeling to look at the plants growing from the sidewalk. Soleeryn and Amber stood close together, whispering around their heavy hair to each other. They were trying to decide if they could help Lenny themselves or not, if Dr. Devi failed them in some way.
“Are you going to knock?” Jax asked, hefting their new weapon, “or should we just go in? I mean, this guy is supposed to be the Power Core of this world. What if his creations attack us, or--”
“They wouldn’t,” Lenny cut him off, “he’s my friend, remember? Leaflow’s creations did not hurt us and neither would Devi’s. I just hope that he can answer the door. I don’t know what it is like, being a Power Core and fighting against the Central Power all the time. Last time I was here, he would not answer the door at all.”
“Just knock and see.” Jackal swirled the tip of his gun at the door suggestively.
“Alright.” Lenny turned back and raised his hand, hoping that its compartment would not pop open again at this awkward moment. Careful not to touch the corroding stain, he rapped firmly on the fake wood.
For a long minute there was silence inside. Lenny was just about to repeat his blows when there was a slight clicking sound beside him and a familiar voice spoke quite near. “Yes, who is it?”
“Doctor!” Lenny turned his head, but saw only a microphone receiver set into the wall at shoulder-height beside the door. It had not been there when he worked in the lab.
“Dr. Devi, it’s me, Lenny Staff. I need to talk to you.”
“Lenny Staff,” the doctor’s voice was heavy and slow as he repeated the words. It was just as grave and educated as Lenny remembered, but there seemed to be a richness lacking from it. Perhaps it was only the microphone: they always flattened a person’s voice oddly, no matter how high-quality they were.
“I was your assistant--”
The voice interrupted him, “I know. Of course. I simply...had not expected to see you again. Who is with you?”
Lenny looked over his shoulder again, as if it would give him a different answer or a new way of looking at the group. “Just some friends.”
There was a long pause in which Dr. Devi said nothing and Lenny began to wonder if he had shut off his microphone and walked away. He was just about to knock on the door once again when the voice came back through the speaker.
“I’ll open the door. Your ‘friends’ may come into the hall, but no further. You come into the lab alone, Lenny. I’m...feeling ill and do not wish to see many people at once.”
“Okay, doctor. I’ll be right in.”
The door opened by itself, swinging inwards by the operation of a little piston fastened to the wall. Inside, a long, white-tiled hall led up to a heavy door at the end.
A smaller door to the side led into the storage bay, where Lenny had often spent days sorting and stacking supplies. Streaks of purple ate into the walls and even the floor, while mossy, fungus-like things grew in the corners. It looked abandoned, like a hospital that had fallen out of use. Lenny beckoned behind him, striding into the hall with echoing footsteps. Inside, he turned back to whisper to Jax, “give me the S.B.C. I’ll need it. That’s probably why the doctor says he is ill: because he is fighting the corruption in his mind.”
“Are you sure about this?” Jax gave the weapon to him reluctantly. “One of us should come with you, just in case.”
“He said to go in alone.” Lenny blinked as a jag of blue lightening went across his vision. “Everything will work out fine. Though I might be gone for a little while. Sorry to leave you in such a lurch.”
Jax did not say anything in reply. A poignant answer in itself, coming from him. Tucking the boxy Sissionbeam-cutter under one arm, Lenny gave a nod to all of his companions and turned away, walking towards the door at the end of the hall. When he reached it, the door opened itself a crack, just wide enough for him to slip through, then shut firmly behind him.
Jax exchanged glances with everyone else in the hall, shrugged impatiently and began pacing up and down. Everyone else made themselves as comfortable as possible, either sitting on the floor or leaning against the wall as suited them. They had a long wait ahead of them.