🚀 go-pugleaf

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

    ADAM DOUGLAS: YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (PART 3 -- FINALE)

      By Robotech_Master, otherwise known as Chris Meadows


    After a couple of days of hard riding,  Adam  Douglas  pulled
into  the  driveway of the ranch house as evening fell.  Adam was
weary, but he was finally home.  Just a  few  more  minutes,  and
he'd  be  talking with his father.  It might be hard, some of the
things that would be said, but it didn't matter.  At least he was
here.  At last he was here.  At last, he was home.
    Adam pulled the bike up in front of  the  house  and  climbed
off, walking up to the door.  "Dad?" he yelled.  "Dad, I'm home!"
The house was silent.  And then he noticed the  envelope  stapled
to the door.  The envelope with his name on it.
    With trembling hands, Adam took the envelope down, opened it.
Inside  was a letter.  Adam recognized the neat, even handwriting
on it as his father's.  It was dated a couple of days before.


Adam,

I'm sorry I won't be here when you arrive, but honor demands I be
elsewhere.   I've  left  this  letter,  because  I know you'll be
coming here, sooner or later.

I'm not leaving because I'm ashamed of you.  I  don't  blame  you
for  what  you  did--son,  I  could  forgive you anything.  But I
cannot be so easy on myself.  I feel that what happened is mostly
my fault.  You see, I should have told you about your mother when
you were old enough to understand. If I could have  softened  the
blow  then,  perhaps you wouldn't have reacted the way you did to
remembering it now.

I have gone to offer my services to the Teen Team, to  give  them
the kind of training that they need to help them work together as
a unit.  I feel that in this way I might be able to make  up  for
that  part  of  what  they've  been  through that I am indirectly
responsible for.  I'm not sure when I'll return, but it  probably
won't be soon.

Don't be ashamed of who or what you are, son.  Be  proud  of  the
training  I've  given you.  Remember that I still love you, and I
always will, no matter what you do.

Once again, I'm  sorry  I  can't  be  here,  but  I  know  you'll
understand.  I hope to see you again soon.  Goodbye, son.

Love,
      Fairbanks Douglas

P.S.  The key is under the doormat, same as always.


    Adam Douglas sat down on the porch, the letter in his  hands,
the  closest  to  crying he'd been since remembering his mother's
demise.  He looked down at the letter,  rereading  it,  and  only
looked up when a familiar voice said, "It's never easy, is it?"
    "No," Adam sighed.  "No, it isn't."  An angry retort died  on
his  tongue.   What  was  the  use?  Anger never solved anything.
"Hello, Dog."
    Dog padded over to Adam and sat down beside  him.   "Want  to
talk about it?"
    Adam shook his head, folding up the letter.  "What I'd REALLY
like to talk about is why you're here.  Both of you."
    Dog cocked his head.  "Both?  Oh.  I guess that means  you've
talked to Wolf."
    "Yeah.  He was just a BIT more direct than you  were--but  he
still  didn't tell me anything worth knowing.  Just that he and I
were both hunters, "predators."  I got the impression  he  wanted
me to join him on the dark side of the Force or something."
    Dog looked distinctly nervous (though how  a  Great  Pyrenees
could convey nervousness in a facial expression is rather hard to
imagine).  "Well, that's not QUITE how I would have put it..."
    "Just what is  this  mysterious  'potential'  I  have?"  Adam
asked.  "You've  both  approached me about it, but neither one of
you has said just what the hell (TM) it is."
    "I...don't think you're ready to  hear  it  yet,"  Dog  said,
looking away.
    Adam had a sudden sinking feeling.  "It's  magic,  isn't  it?
You're gonna tell me I have it in me to become a mage."
    Dog stood up and hopped off the porch.  "Come on.   Let's  go
for a walk.  I'll explain some things to you as we go."
    "Okay..."  Somewhat ill at ease, Adam got up and walked  with
Dog  out past the house, toward the pastures where the stock was.
Adam waved to the ranchhands who  were  around,  and  they  waved
back.   They knew him.  But Adam would have expected trouble from
the stock dogs, who generally went into a frenzy at the slightest
sign  of a strange dog intruding.  To his surprise, the dogs made
no trouble, didn't even bark.  In  fact,  those  that  they  came
across acted downright deferential to Dog.
    Adam and Dog crested a small hill,  and  Dog  nodded  at  the
view.   "Look  at  that.   It's nature, free and clear.  No urban
intrusions here."
    "I kind of like urban areas, actually," Adam replied.
    "They have their place," Dog admitted,  sitting  down.   "But
you can't deny the beauty of the land."
    "It is beautiful, yes, but more than a little boring after  a
while.  What's  the point of all this?"  After standing a moment,
Adam sat down next to Dog.
    "There are spirits  here,"  Dog  said.   "There  are  spirits
everywhere,  spirits  you  can  call  upon  for  favors,  just as
primitive peoples have been doing since the dawn of time."
    Adam shook his head.  "If this is magic we're talking  about,
forget  it.   I'm  staying  away.   It  was a mage that killed my
mother, and got me into this whole mess in the first  place.   If
you  think I'm going to become a mage, you've got another thought
coming."
    Dog snapped his head around and looked Adam in the eye.  "No.
Not a mage."
    Adam was  momentarily  confused.   "But--you  said  you  were
magic,  and  I  have  a  potential,  and  you  were talking about
spirits--"
    "You do have potential for magic, but it is not for  hermetic
magic."
    "Well, what, then?"  Adam  asked,  curious  despite  himself.
"What other kind is there?"
    Dog continued to look Adam in the eye and said, "A shaman."
    "Oh,  yeah,  shaman,  mage,  same  difference,"   Adam   said
sullenly.
    "There's a  WORLD  of  difference,"  Dog  replied.   "Mages--
hermetic    magicians--draw   their   knowledge   from   spells--
mathematical  formulae  for  controlling  the  energies  of   the
universe.   Now,  while  this  is  a perfectly legitimate form of
magic, shamans work in a completely different way."
    "Yeah, I know how shamans work.  I got  to  see  one  working
real up-close and personal.  Kids dying, blood everywhere..."
    "I know.  I was there," Dog said quietly.  "I didn't want  to
bring  it  up,  but I was with you that day.  And believe me, the
atrocities I saw there made my blood boil."
    "I didn't see you doing anything about it," Adam  said.   "In
fact,  I  didn't  see  you  at  all.   Though I did see..."  Adam
stopped.
    "Who?  Who did you see?" Dog asked urgently.
    "I saw Wolf..." Adam breathed,  mystified  and  more  than  a
little  scared.   He  hadn't  REALLY seen Wolf back then, had he?
Only...now that he thought about it, he HAD.  It  was  as  though
his  memories  had been edited somehow--what he hadn't remembered
seeing before, he now recalled as  plain  as  day.   "I  mean,  I
didn't  SEE  him  then...but  I  remember seeing him now. I don't
understand..."
    "Yes, he was there," Dog said.  "I was there, too, but not so
you  could  see  me, even in your memories.  You had a dream last
night, didn't you?"
    "Yes...I did."  Adam described it, and Dog nodded.
    "Then you see the truth of it.  You  couldn't  see  me,  only
Wolf,  because it was that part of you closest to him that was in
control, and  he  was  influencing  you.   I  was  trying  to  do
something, trying to reach you, but Wolf's influence over you was
just  too  strong.   In  the  end,  it  was  only  the   Sorcerer
Superfluous who could put an end to it."
    "Influence?  I don't understand," Adam said.   It  seemed  he
was saying those latter three words a lot lately.
    "Yes, influence.  We generally can't directly meddle  in  the
affairs  of mortals, you see, just like the Ceaseless can only be
harmed by other Ceaseless  or  by  mortals.   It's  part  of  The
Rules."
    "The who?"
    "No, they're a rock band led by Pete Townshend.  I'm  talking
about The Rules."
    "Um, whatever.  Why did I only see you in  the  last  vision,
and not in any of the others?" Adam asked.
    "Because I was trying my damnedest to stop you  from  pulling
that  trigger."   Dog  looked  away.   "It didn't look like I was
going to succeed. Thank the powers that be that Scholarman showed
up  when he did.  It gave me this chance to approach you, to give
you awareness of us.  Now it will not be  so  easy  for  Wolf  to
affect  you.   Or  myself, either, for that matter.  Now that you
can see us, you will be on your guard."
    "Wait a minute.  You're saying that you and  Wolf  have  been
controlling me?" Adam asked, standing up.  "I don't want any part
of either of you, then.  I don't  want  anyone  messing  with  my
head.  It's messed up enough already."  He turned to walk off.
    "No, not controlling you, INFLUENCING you," Dog  hastened  to
explain.  "Don't  misunderstand.  Wolf wasn't controlling you, he
was...coloring your thinking.  It affected your judgement.  I was
trying to stop him from doing that."
    Adam looked over his shoulder.  "I don't care!  I don't  want
anything  to  do  with  either of you.  I'm NOT going to become a
shaman!  I hate magic!"
    "All right," Dog said.
    Adam stopped in midstep.  "What?!"  He turned around to  look
at Dog.
    "I said, 'all right.'  I'm  not  here  to  force  you  to  do
anything  against  your will.  Neither of us is.  The fact is, we
CAN'T, not directly, and not indirectly either now that  you  can
see us.  We never could.  It's against The Rules."
    "But you said that Wolf was--"
    "Influencing you--not controlling you.  You could always have
chosen to walk away."
    Adam snorted.  "Oh, yeah, like I could  have  done  that  the
state of mind I was in.  Thanks to your friend Wolf."
    "Brother," Dog corrected.
    "Whatever."  Adam kept walking, and Dog had to trot  to  keep
up.
    "The point is, the choice is up to you.  If you say no,  I'll
respect that, and so will Wolf."
    Adam turned.  "Oh, yeah?  Well, what's the catch?"
    "The 'catch' is, my friend, that we're going to keep  showing
up  to try to change your mind, kind of like the little devil and
angel figures  that  buzz  around  the  guy's  head  in  the  old
cartoons," Dog said.
    "You mean like bad pennies," Adam growled.
    "Well, yes, if you want to put it THAT way..." Dog allowed.
    Adam sighed.  "Well, I guess I'm stuck with you, then.  Can I
offer you anything?  Water, rawhide chew-toy, Ken-L-Rations?"
    Dog laughed.  "No,  no  thanks.   I'd  best  be  getting  on,
actually.  We will meet again, though.
    "Uh, right.  Say hi to your brother for me."
    "YOU say hi to him for ME," Dog suggested.  "I believe you'll
meet him again before too long."
    "Oh, great," Adam muttered  unenthusiastically.   "Well,  see
ya."
    Dog nodded, then turned back.  With one  last  bark,  he  ran
over  the  small hill they'd sat on, and was soon gone from view.
Adam somehow knew that if he were to  run  to  the  top  of  that
ridge, Dog would be nowhere in sight.

    Adam Douglas went back to the house and threw his stuff  down
in  his  room,  not  bothering  to  unpack his camping gear.  His
thoughts were taken up by what Dog had told him.  Him?  A shaman?
He  just  couldn't  picture it.  The very idea of himself dancing
around in Indian regalia was almost too ridiculous to imagine.
    Of course, he knew that not  all  shamans  would  follow  the
Indian  ways  just  as  not  all  mages  went around dressed like
Merlin, so he wouldn't necessarily have to.   But  it  was  still
hard to think about.  How could he become one of those people who
had been responsible for his mother's death?  He  knew  logically
that  it  wasn't  magic  itself that had been responsible but the
individual mage, but still, the  emotional  connection  that  had
been  there  for  so long was hard to shake.  How could he become
like that twisted individual who'd slaughtered all those children
before  changing  into that...thing he'd fought?  It couldn't be,
it just COULDN'T--or else Fate was playing a cosmic joke on  him,
perhaps  to  get  back  at him for Scholarman's intervention.  It
haunted Adam Douglas's mind a great deal over the next few days.
    Adam spent a couple of  weeks  or  so  at  the  ranch  house,
resting  up.  The  ranch hands didn't bother him; they were well-
accustomed to running the operation on their own.  Besides,  Adam
wasn't sure what to do now.
    He'd turned on the TV once only to find the ALU  hearings  on
C-SPAN,  CNN,  TONN,  *and*  Court  TV,  Robotech  on  the Sci-Fi
Channel, and a Magic:  The Gathering card auction on  QVC.   He'd
turned  it  off  again, and hadn't touched it since.  He'd walked
into his father's library to find  something  to  read,  but  the
first  books he'd seen happened to be Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
series.  While he'd read these before and liked them,  back  when
he'd  only  vaguely mistrusted magic, they kind of turned him off
of reading at the moment.   So  he  was  left  with  pretty  much
nothing to do but hang around and think.
    Until he woke up one morning and got what was pretty much the
biggest surprise of his entire life.


               WILL ADAM DOUGLAS BECOME A SHAMAN?

WHO AND WHAT EXACTLY ARE DOG AND WOLF (NOT RESPECTIVELY, MIND YOU)?

WHY DOES ADAM HAVE THIS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR MAGIC?  IS IT A COSMIC JOKE?
                  OR JUST A WHIM OF THE AUTHOR?

  WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ADAM DOUGLAS'S ENTIRE LIFE?


YOU MAY HAVE TO WAIT A BIT TO FIND OUT, BUT FIND OUT YOU WILL, SOONER OR
                         LATER, ONLY ON

                           SUPERGUY!!!

--
Chris Meadows/Robotech_Master // chm173s@nic.smsu.edu // GEEK CODE V2.0:
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b++(++++) D+ B-- e+$ u+(**) h+(*) f+ !r-- n+(----)@ y?