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                FROM THE FILES OF TEAM M.E.C.H.A.

         ADAM DOUGLAS: YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (PART 2)

      By Robotech_Master, otherwise known as Chris Meadows


    As the sun set, Adam Douglas pulled off the road to look  for
a good place to camp.  He'd gotten pretty far for an afternoon of
travel, managing to make it to western  Oklahoma  in  this  time.
"Well,  at least I'm making good time, wherever the hell (TM) I'm
going," Adam muttered.
    A few minutes later, Adam had started setting up his tent.  A
Coleman  gas  lantern provided him with light; Adam was glad he'd
thought to pack camping supplies along  with  the  gasoline  he'd
taken  from  TMHQ.   It cost a lot less money to stay with Mother
Nature than to stay at Hotel Six.
    Off in the distance, a wolf howled.  It  was  answered  by  a
loud  call  from  closeby.   Adam  shivered, and wished that he'd
packed a small handgun,  too,  despite  his  pledge  to  take  no
weapons  from  Team  M.E.C.H.A. HQ.  Even a .22 pistol might have
been useful for keeping wild animals at bay.   All  he  had  that
might pass for a weapon right now was his KBAR survival knife. He
unsheathed it, kept it close at hand for "just in case."
    Once the  tent  was  up,  Adam  built  a  firepit  with  some
convenient  stones,  then  got  a  small  campfire  going  in it.
"That's better.  Now maybe I can relax--"
    Just then, there was a rustling in the  bushes.   As  a  wolf
howled  in the distance, a big black form emerged on the opposite
side of the campfire.  It was a wolf, and a rather large one.   A
pair of gleaming eyes bored out of its dark brow, and as they met
Adam's,  he  saw  something  in  them,  a  kind  of  familiarity.
Something  he'd  also  seen  in the eyes of that strange dog--no,
Dog--who'd accosted him before.
    "'Scuse me," the wolf said.  "Gotta answer that."  It  turned
its  head back toward the woods and emitted a rather loud howl in
answer to the one that had come just before, causing Adam to clap
his hands over his ears. "Okay, now let's get down to business."
    "Don't tell me.  You're 'Wolf,' right?" Adam asked.
    "Smart kid.  You musta been talkin' to my brother."  Adam was
a  little  startled  to  notice how great a resemblance the voice
bore to Jack Nicholson's.  "All right, you know who I am.  Do you
know why I'm here?"
    "No...can't say that I do."  There  was  something...familiar
about  Wolf.  Something that disturbed Adam, though he would have
been hard put to explain exactly  what  it  was.   "But  I  think
you're probably gonna tell me."
    "You bet I am."  Wolf came around the  campfire,  to  address
Adam directly.  He moved with the sinuous grace of a predator, at
once beautiful and deadly.   "You've  got  some  great  potential
inside of you, kid.  I'm here to help you recognize it."
    "What do you mean?" Adam asked.  "Dog said the same thing--"
    "Forget about him.  That goodie two-shoes wouldn't last a day
out here.  You and I both know it."
    "Who are you?  I don't understand any of this," Adam said.
    "I'd think it ought to be easy for you to  understand,"  Wolf
said,  cocking his head.  "After all, we're both hunters, you and
I."
    "What are you getting  at?"  Adam  asked,  shifting  position
nervously. His hand was only a foot or so away from his knife, if
he needed it...
    "I've seen you in action.  Texas...Bob City..."
    "That wasn't me," Adam said.  "It was something...something I
couldn't control."
    "It was the hunting instinct of  the  predator,"  Wolf  said.
"Trust  me, I know these things.  You and I follow the same call.
If you'll let me, I can help you rise to greater things,  greater
power..."
    "I--I'll have to think about it."
    "Do that."  Wolf walked over to the  edge  of  the  clearing,
turned  to  look  back.   Adam could feel those amber eyes boring
deep into him.  Wolf raised his muzzle to the  sky  and  let  off
another howl.  Then, bounding into the underbrush, he was gone.
    "Is it just me, or is this  turning  to  be  a  really  weird
week?" Adam asked rhetorically.

    The children.  The children were dying, there was  blood  all
over  the  place.   The  crazed  coyote shaman-turned-wendigo was
dancing around in the carnage.  Adam Douglas  was  charging  him,
converting  his  Cyclone  to power armor.  And in a dim corner of
the warehouse that Adam hadn't seen before, Wolf was there.   His
glowing  amber  eyes  met Adam's for just a moment, and the scene
changed.
    Dallas, Texas.  Adam Douglas was perched in a tree,  sighting
down  the scope of his .50 sniper's rifle.  Deckmaster's head was
just coming into the crosshairs, it was SUCH a  sweet  shot  that
Adam  could barely keep from shouting for joy.  And as his finger
tightened on the trigger, as somewhere behind him Summer  swooped
in  like an avenging angel to block the shot, he suddenly noticed
Wolf in the background, behind Deckmaster.  His eyes gleamed, and
he  licked  his  chops.  Adam's finger continued to tighten...and
the scene changed again.
    The rain-slicked streets  of  Bob  City.   Adam,  in  Cyclone
mecha,  faced  off  with  Mike's Bahamode.  Sarah Conner, Lincoln
Douglas, and Robert stood behind  him.   As  Mike  began  to  run
toward  him, and Adam brought his chain gun into firing position,
Adam saw Wolf again, standing on the sidewalk. His eyes  followed
Adam's  gun  as  it  began to fire, and the scene changed a third
time.
    Bob City, near the old prison.  Adam was once again lining up
a  shot  on a mage, one whose identity he didn't know, nor did he
care.  It would be a fatal shot, and  it  was  destined  to  take
place.  As the bullet entered the chamber, Adam looked away for a
moment.  And in that moment, he  saw  Wolf  once  more,  standing
there,  and  heard  his howl of exhilaration.  And Dog was there,
too, looking away.

    Adam Douglas woke  up  in  a  cold  sweat.   It  had  been  a
particularly  vivid dream, bringing back memories that Adam would
have preferred to try to forget.  What did it all mean?  Adam was
pretty  sure  that  he  hadn't seen a wolf back when the acts had
been committed--he would have remembered it,  wouldn't  he?   And
yet,  something  about  those  dreams--the  level  of detail, the
crystal clarity--told him that the dreams were TRUE.
    But it was time to get going.   If  he  wanted  to  get  home
within the next couple of days, he'd need to make good time.
    Home?
    With a start, Adam Douglas realized that this was  where  his
subconscious  had been leading him.  He'd been going west because
that was the direction in which his home lay--the way to  Garrett
Falls, Nevada. That was where his father, Fairbanks Douglas would
be.  Fairbanks would know what to do.  He always did.
    And so Adam quickly broke camp, packing  his  things  on  the
back  of  the motorcycle, and got on it.  Taking one last look at
the forest in which he'd stayed the night, he kicked the starter,
revved  the  motor,  and  roared  off.  He didn't see the pair of
amber eyes watching him from the underbrush...


       WHO IS WOLF?  WHAT IS HIS TRUE RELATIONSHIP TO DOG?

                 WHAT IS ADAM'S GREAT POTENTIAL?

                    WHY THE FLASHBACK DREAM?

IS THE AUTHOR WORKING UP TO SOMETHING, OR IS HE JUST TRYING TO FAKE HIS
                    WAY THROUGH THIS STORY?


      SOME OF THIS, AND SOME OTHER STUFF, COMING UP SOON ON

                            SUPERGUY

                     (Use only as directed)

--
Chris Meadows/Robotech_Master // chm173s@nic.smsu.edu // GEEK CODE V2.0:
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