🚀 go-pugleaf

                              RADIAN & SHADEBEAM
                                  Episode 27
                             (Timeline, part one)
                           "Countdown to Weirdness"
                                      by
                         Gary W. 'free at last!' Olson

                                    -<=*=>-

24:00:00

     It was over, and destiny had failed to come to pass.  The circle did
not close here, though it had been seen to by some.
     Where did those visions go, Akane wondered.  They flowed backwards
through time, touching those minds that knew to see.  And when they didn't
come to pass...how could they have ever existed?
     She was no stranger to paradox -- she had lived a lifetime in one, once.
But the realm nocturnae had held sway over Earth, then, and it didn't play by
any rules, except the ones travelers projected upon it.  This was a different
realm, the realm physical.
     "There he is," Shadebeam said, bringing her out of her pondering.  She
was indicating a tall, broad-shouldered man in obviously borrowed clothing who
was, at the moment, helping to tend to the injuries that a woman in camoflage
had sustained.
     <<Akane, I have intercepted a transmission indicating that the National
Guard has been dispatched to the area,>> HAL said, his words flowing like
blue crystals through their minds.  Akane took a breath (which, she noted, was
still fresh and minty, due to Cool Mint's intervention), winced as pain shot
through her ribs, and headed for Spectrum.
     He looked up as they approached.  Akane had expected to see anger on his
face, or at least defiance.  She hadn't expected the almost pained look that
was in his eyes.
     "Hey," he said, uncertainly.
     "You dropped this," Akane told him.  Her hand produced a small Mickey
Mouse toy doll from her suit sleeve.  "It was the only thing the lemurs
didn't take."
     Spectrum blinked.  "Lemurs?"
     "Surprised me, too," Akane said.  She paused.  "This has something to
do with that comment about looking at the moon you made earlier."
     He didn't answer.  He didn't have to.
     She took his hand, and pressed the doll into his palm, before letting go.
     "Ma'am," he said, just as she started to turn.  Akane looked back at him.
"About what I said, during our battle..."
     "You don't have to explain," Akane replied.  "At least, not to me."
     "What happened, ma'am?"
     "Akane."
     "Hm?"
     "Call me Akane."
     "Okay," Spectrum said.  "What happened, Akane?"
     "I'd rather not talk about it."
     "Dohw!"
     "It's...complicated," Akane said.  "And, as it's been turning out, a
lot more twisted than I had believed.  But you'll see me in a courtroom
someday, Spectrum."  She paused, again.  "I won't run forever."
     He nodded.  "You said something about the Magestrix, during our fight.
I remember them from the tv broadcasts, but very little time was devoted to
them."
     "When I became the Dark Goddess, they decided I was a threat to the
stability of the galaxy, and their interests," Akane told him.  "Their
solution to the Earth question was surgical excission -- destroy the planet,
destroy the problem.  I'm sure you're familiar with the logic."
     "The logic, perhaps," Spectrum said, a tired sound evident in his
voice.  "But not the motive."
     "The Magestrix is a galactic guild of mages, shamen, and other magic-
based entities," Akane explained.  "Most of their members are freelancers who
take jobs contracted through the Guild.  But there's a core group of full-
time Guild employees, the Magestrix Apparati, headed by the Guildmaster,
Tamarchek, that wield considerable clout in political and economic circles.
They're not evil, per se, but they act in a very Machiavellian fashion.
They're interested in preserving their power base."
     "And just suppose I were to go out to their headquarters and explain to
them that that's not a reasonable way to act?" Spectrum asked.
     "I'd take an army or two with you," Radian replied.  "The Guildspire on
planet Ono Polono Kimono is heavily fortified -- you wouldn't be the first
one who decided to pay them an unwelcome visit."
     "Have you been there?" Spectrum asked.
     "No," Akane said.  "I got the information from the minds of Ian and
Chelsa, when I was the Dark Goddess.  They were high up in the Apparati at
the time."
     "Hey," Shadebeam interrupted.  "We gonna leave, or what?"
     -Yeah,- Andro telepurred, from the backpack.  -Let's get out of here so
I can get out of this pack.  My legs are getting cramped.-
     "I have to go," Akane told Spectrum.  "I've got a lot of searching to
do, through some unfamiliar territory."
     "If only you had someone to guide you..." Spectrum started.
     "This..." a sublimely heroic voice declared, "is a job for...ZEN
NAVIGATOR!"
     "Yaaaa!" Akane, Shadebeam, and Spectrum declared, all turning to see
the source of the voice, standing approximately one yard to Akane's left
(and Spectrum's right).
     He was tall...taller than Spectrum, and a bit thinner.  He was dressed
mostly in black, including a long black cloak, black hat, black sunglasses,
black 'I was a teenage lobotomy' shirt, black jeans, black boots, and had
a wide smile and an annoyingly cheerful expression.  Behind him, parked near
a cluster of trees, was a psychadaelic VW minibus.
     "Oh, hi, Zen," Shadebeam said, with a certain lack of zeal.  "How...
nice of you to show up."
     "Hello, Shadebeam!" Zen told her.  "I'm pleased to encounter you again!"
     Spectrum looked at her.  "You *know* this guy?"
     Shadebeam shrugged.  "I attract strange people.  So, what brings you
here, Zen?  Looking for Poughskeepsie?"
     "No," Zen said.  "I am here to assist you in your quest!"
     "But you don't know what our quest is!" Akane protested.
     "You are looking for the One-Shoed Man!" Zen told her.
     Akane and Shadebeam blinked, in unison.  "How did you know?" Akane asked.
     "Through my Amazing Zen Awareness, of course!" Zen told them.  "That, and
I told myself about it when I met myself on Planet Texas last Thursday."
     "We might as well take him up on it," Shadebeam said.  "We're totally
dry on leads, and Zen has a knack for getting to his destination...eventually."
     "Okay, we'll do it," Akane said.  "We've got twenty-four hours safe
passage...and I don't think we'll be followed."
     "I'm willing to let the law judge my actions," Spectrum told her.  Akane
smiled, a bit sadly, and started for the minibus, along with Zen and
Shadebeam.  "Good luck," Spectrum added.
     "You too," Akane said, without turning around.  Spectrum looked down
at the Mickey Mouse toy in his hand, and then back up at Akane, as she got
into the minibus.

                                    -<=*=>-

23:51:12

     "What do you see, Atkinson?" Karina Selanova asked, as she peered out
the windshield of the van, which was cleverly hidden behind standard, government
issue phony foliage.
     "They are talking to Spectrum, sir," Atkinson replied.  "And some fop
dressed in black.  I watched him exit that psychadaelic VW minibus and walk
over to them, virtually unnoticed, except by me."
     "Psycha--he doesn't *look* like a deadhead," Sutherland commented.
     "He's not," Karina said.  "He just buys his minibuses from them."
     "Do you know him, sir?" Atkinson asked.
     "He's Zen Navigator," Karina said.  "One of our sub-agents encountered
him a few years ago, while trying to track a fugitive.  Zen guided him to the
fugitive, who was in a petting zoo twenty miles away."
     "Doesn't sound too..."
     "He apparently took him there via Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Alpha Centauri,"
Karina said.
     "Hmmm."
     "That sub-agent now is in charge of watering plants at headquarters,"
Karina said.  "Anything more mind-taxing causes him to whimper."  She opened
the door, and started to get out.
     "Sir, what are you doing?" Sutherland asked.
     "Zen Navigator, we have learned, is impossible to track," Karina said.
"And we can't afford to lose Radian and Shadebeam again.  I'm getting on that
minibus.  You're to track my signal as best as you can, and signal me when
you're ready to move in.  I'll then signal you back, to give you the go ahead."
     "Understood, sir," Atkinson said.  Karina slipped out, and moved towards
the minibus, keeping an eye on Radian all the while.  They were distracted
by Zen's presence, it seemed.
     The rear door of the minibus was unlocked, and Karina slipped inside,
forcing herself to not stop and look, aghast, at the disarray that confronted
her.  Instead, she wedged herself under a countertop and dragged some of the
mess (which included, but was not limited to, pizza boxes, old copies of the
'New Yorker,' an empty box of industrial-strength bubble gum, and something
that was either a lava lamp or a radioactive thermos.
     There was the sound of a door opening, and of people getting in.
     "Hey, this is cleaner than last time I saw this thing," Shadebeam's
voice cracked.  There was the sound of an engine starting.
     "I call front!" Akane declared.
     "Hey, no fair!" Shadebeam protested.
     "Is everyone ready to go?" Zen asked.
     "Yes," Radian and Shadebeam answered.
     There was a lurch, as the minibus started into motion.  Karina reached
up and squeezed the earring in her right earlobe.  There was a small beep,
informing her that the homing signal was now on.

                                    -<=*=>-

21:42:14

     Shadebeam stretched, enjoying her second cigarette of the past week,
ignoring the annoyed look that Akane was sending at her.  Zen didn't mind,
and the window beside her was open, letting in the cool, crisp air.
     "Hey, Zen, got any CDs in this tub?" she asked.
     "No, but there's some in the overhead compartment!" Zen told her.
     Shadebeam blinked, and looked up at the ceiling of the minibus.  There
was a thin, almost invisible rectanglular line, that seemed like it could
be a panel of some sort.  But there was no handle.
     "How do I open it?" she asked.
     "Just push on the end of it facing away from the window," Zen told her.
"It's a magnetic lock."
     Shadebeam reached up, and pushed the indicated end up.  There was a click
as the magseal was broken.  Six hundred and twelve CDs immediately poured
out of the opening, burying Shadebeam in a pile of jewel boxes.
     "Agh!" she exclaimed at this sudden development.
     "Did you find them?" Zen asked, not looking away from the road.
     "I think she did," Akane said, barely stifling a giggle.  Andro, resting
on the seat opposite of Shadebeam, clapped his paws politely.
     "Ever thought of putting these things in a safer location?" Shadebeam
asked, as she dug her way out.
     "Yes, I have!" Zen told her.
     "Why haven't you?"
     "The piano at Rick's Place is already occupied!"
     "Ah."
     Shadebeam rummaged through the CDs, looking at various titles.  "Hmmm,
lesse here.  Walking Disaster Area's 'Washed Up Has-Been Salute to E.L.O...'"
She tossed the CD behind her.  "Ramrod's 'Trust the Government, Girl' 12-
inch single, featuring the Read-My-Lips Megamix...chaa, as if..."  She tossed
it behind her, ignoring the startled look that Akane was giving her, and was
rewarded with a crashing sound.  "They Might Be Giants...ehh..."  She tossed
it behind her.  "Fish Karma's 'Sunnyslope'... hey, this is cool.  Put it in."
     She handed the disk to Akane, who slid the CD into the CD player, pressing
the random play button.  As 'Lunch with the Devil' started playing, something
started to bother Shadebeam.
     "Say, Zen," she said.  "How do you plan on finding this guy?  I mean,
he's not like a city that stays put, and you have enough trouble with those."
     "On the contrary!" Zen told her.  "People are far easier to track down
than places, and tend to move about less."
     "Rrrrr," Shadebeam groused.  "208 lines, and I'm already getting a
headache."
     "It has to do with the preconceptions each has about reality," Zen
continued to explain, as the stereo speakers shouted about brimstone in the
dacquiri blender and Satan leaving a lousy tip.  "People have a lot, and
places have very few..."
     -You had to get him talking, didn't you?- Kyoko sighed.
     *Ssh!* China said.  *This could be important.*
     "...which is why maps are almost completely useless.  Two eight-
sided dice, on the other hand..."
     *Or not.*

(continued in part two, following...)

+-------- Gary W. Olson --------+  The Brain: "Remember, I'm not only the
| swede@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu  |    President of Small Club for Men, I'm also
+----- swede@drycas.bitnet -----+    a mouse planning global domination!"
                                   Studio Audience: "Yaaaay!!"   ("Animaniacs")