I had a little accident Nothing too serious Take a look at this place, take a look at this mess Nothing too serious If you close your eyes it may go away Nothing too serious We could do it again some other day - Icehouse, "Nothing Too Serious" That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane- Lenny Bruce is not afraid Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn- World serves its own needs, regardless of your needs... It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. - R.E.M., "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) =============================================================================== September 31, 2001. 11:45 p.m. - Near the docks The zombie shuffled slowly through the wreckage left from the Marine attack. Glancing around, the zombie looked for any sign of life. It wasn't picky *any* living thing would do. "Well anything that would be able to destroy this zombie body and be a suitable host for the likes of me," thought Shadow. It sighed as it poked through the wreckage a little more before deciding to give up. "My life SUCKS!" The zombie shouted... or would have shouted if its jawbone hadn't decided at that moment to fall off. Shadow bent down and picked up the jawbone. After a few failed attempts to attach it to his face, Shadow made a sound that could be interpreted as a disgusted sigh, and tossed the jawbone over its shoulder into the rubble. Shadow turned and ambled off towards Coltrane Park. "Maybe I can find something *alive* there." Shadow thought to himself. =============================================================================== New Haven ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- when all is quiet, you know you've reached ... Scene 2 - 4: The Eye of the Storm by Jennifer Gatlin Started by Thomas Wilde and James Howard =============================================================================== September 31, 2001. 11:45 p.m. - Inside New Haven Maximum Security Prison "We're going to get out of here." Charlie said with a determined look on his face. Charlie pulled Alicia close to him as he gazed over the remaining citizens of New Haven. Karen came up and stood next to Charlie. They all watched Casey entertaining a small group of children. Aria and her fellow nurses, Roni and Kelly, had attached themselves to Archbishop Luccini, Father Bruno, and Father Edgewood and were at the moment attempting to make the gentlemen rest. There was a mellow tune playing over the PA system, giving off a feeling of safety, security. Pastor Isaiah turned to Charlie, "Getting out of here is the last thing we should do Charlie." "Why is that? It's my responsibility to get these people to safety, I took an oath to serve and protect..." Charlie started to protest. Pastor Isaiah raised his hand, "I didn't mean for you to abandon these people Charlie. It's just that this ... ummm ... problem in New Haven, is not contained to New Haven any longer. There have been reports already worldwide of strange creatures rising from the oceans, coming out of the skies and causing mass destruction. Pastor Jeremiah, Pastor Jebidiah and myself were sent here by the church to destroy the source of the problem. We suspect it is here in New Haven somewhere." Charlie stood quietly for a moment, absorbing the news. Snuggling closer to Charlie, Alicia sighed, she had been hoping that their ordeal had been coming to an end, but now it appeared that it was just beginning. "Do..." Charlie started when he was interrupted by a small man in a very tattered lab coat. "The gate is open, open, OPEN! We're going to die, die! They're hungry and they are going to eat us all. The gate is open!" The man came up and to the group and grabbed at Karen as if to shake her. Michael tried to stop the guy from getting to Karen, but she was quicker than Michael. Karen slapped the guy before he could get a hold of her, knocking his glasses askew. Blinking rapidly for a moment the man appeared to regain control of his senses, for the moment at least. He looked around at the group and looked slightly embarrassed. "Thank you, sorry about that." "What was that all about?" Karen asked angrily. "What was what all about?" Karen said, "You know the whole thing about the gate and that we were all going to die." "And don't forget that not only were we going to die, but we were going to be eaten as well." Michael added. Karen glared over at him and he just shrugged, "What, he said it, I didn't." "Oh, oh yes that..." the man trailed off and stared into space momentarily. It appeared that he was about ready to lose it again, but thankfully he was able to stay in control of himself, "My name is Deke Voight." There was a long pause. Karen stifled a sigh of frustration. "Well bully for you, your name is Deke Voight. Well Mr. Voight would you kindly tell us what you were babbling about." "Ah yes. Ummm. Well, I work at, or should I say worked at Rascombe Industries and my colleagues and I were working on an experiment to open a dimensional gate the night that all of this started." Another long pause. "And..." Karen prompted impatiently. "Well, the experiment was a success, but there was a small problem. Something crashed into the building causing a shock to the gate and it sort of, kind of got..." Deke trailed off again. "Got what?" Karen asked, getting steadily more frustrated with this little man. "Umm ... it got stuck open." Everyone stared at Deke in silence for a moment. Alicia stirred at Charlie's side and spoke up. "Let me get this straight, you opened a gate to another dimension that had hungry monsters in it and then you *sort of* got the gate stuck *open*?" "Well yes, that's what happened." "And you wanted to open this gate why?" Asked Karen. "Well to see if we could create one of course." Deke said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Karen and Alicia began to move towards him as if they were going to beat the crap out of him. Deke began to back away from them. Michael started to step between Deke and the advancing women, but after looking at their faces decided he would leave poor Deke to his own devices. "Ok so we have to close this gate. It can be done right?" Charlie said brightly, oblivious to the fact that his sister and girlfriend were about to commit assault. "Yes, yes. I can give you some instructions on how to turn on the emergency shut off." Deke said quickly. With that said Karen and Alicia stopped. "Deke you mentioned that an accident caused this gate to be stuck open, what was this accident?" Pastor Isaiah asked. "A giant fish threw a bus into the building." "Ah I see. Well this gate must be closed, but I'm afraid that it probably is not the source that we are seeking since it was opened *after* the strange occurrences started." "Well we were headed to Kramer's Antiques before we ran into those tremblers. I think he may have some information as to what this source might be." Karen said. "But sis, Kramer's is the opposite direction from the Rascombe Building and I really think we should get this gate closed." "Yes Charlie I agree, that's why I'm going to go to Kramer's while you go to the Rascombe Building." "Well I was thinking you and Alicia could stay here where it is safe." "I don't think so, I'm going with you." Alicia said angrily. "That's right Charlie and I can take care of myself as well, I *am* a cop too, remember." "Maybe I can help, my brothers and I would like to speak with this Kramer as well. So how about if we escort your sister?" Pastor Isaiah asked. Charlie nodded, "Ok then, I don't really like letting you go off by yourself sis, but I guess you're right. Alicia, I really think you should stay here." "Charlie I think I've been doing a pretty good job of taking care of myself. So I am coming with you whether you want me to or not." "I'll come with you guys too, I did save Alicia at the hospital." Michael said. "Well ok, I guess if there's no talking you out of it then let's get going." Charlie said. =============================================================================== September 31, 2001. 11:59 p.m. - Inside Kramer's Antiques "Boss? Boss, you ok?" Johnny was gently shaking Kramer. Legion raised an eyebrow and gave Ned a questioning glance. Ned just shrugged, he was *really* drunk at this point. Kramer sat up, rubbing his head. "Oh dear, did I pass out again. I really do need to stop doing that." "Did I hear you mention The Five will reunite?" Legion asked warily. "Did I? I may have." Kramer stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants. Then he reached reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a very ornate pocket watch. "Not that you will need to worry about that right now Legion." "Why is that Kramer?" Legion asked suspiciously. Still looking at the watch in his hand Kramer said, "Do you know what time it is?" Legion looked baffled. "Time? Why should I care what ti..." Legion stopped and stared at Kramer for a moment. Then he smacked his forehead. "You did it to me *again*!" "Did what to you again, Legion?" Kramer asked innocently. Ned looked at Legion glaring at Kramer. "Ok I give, what did Kramer do to you again?" Kramer answered for Legion. "Well you see Ned, Legion here can only be summoned to this plane under very specific circumstances. First the summoning ceremony has to be done at midnight on September 30th, but it has to be following a previous summoning that uses a time keeping device capable of keeping track of 13 hours rather than the standard 12. Somehow the combination of both of these ceremonies takes the 13th hour from the time keeping device from the previous ceremony and reverses it to 31, thus creating an extra day September 31st. On this day and this day only can Legion destroy mankind." Ned nodded and pondered momentarily, "Oh I see what has happened. Legion has run out of time." "Precisely." Kramer said cheerfully. At this point Legion said to Kramer, "I'll see you next September 31st, and don't think you can do this to me again." Legion then jumped up into the sky disappearing into the dark clouds above. Johnny and Ned stared up at the sky where Legion had gone, both slightly confused as to what had just transpired. Chuckling lightly to himself, Kramer put the pocket watch away. He walked up to Johnny and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Now Mr. Basquain, we really need to talk about you dying again. It is becoming to be a bit of a problem." =============================================================================== Date and time unknown - Somewhere in the middle of Kansas "Mr. President, I think we have a problem. " The driver said into the intercom. "Problem what kind of problem?" Patsy said impatiently. Just then both the passenger doors were opened and peering in on either side were uniformed men with guns. "Come with us Mr. President." One of the men said pointing his gun at Patsy. "Go on Mr. President it's ok, they're with me." General Neimann said. Patsy proceeded to get out of the limo. Stilletto and R.E.D. Ink started to get out as well. "No you two stay here." General Neimann said and got out of the limo. "Watch them and make sure they don't get out until we get ready to leave." "Wait." Stilletto said. Neimann stopped. "Yes what do you want?" "I just have to know are you Canadian?" "Close, I'm French Canadian. And the President has a lot to answer for. Now if you'll excuse me I have a flight to catch." Neimann walked over to the waiting helicopter and climbed in next to Patsy. Patsy looked over at him. still looking groggy from being so rudely awakened. "Aren't R.E.D. and Stilletto coming with us?" "Not enough room in the helicopter sir. They'll be going to the secret facility in that truck over though." "Oh ok then, guess I'll get back to napping then." =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 12:20 a.m. - Inside New Haven Maximum-Security Prison Father Bruno was pacing around, while trying to avoid Nurse Roni's efforts to get him to rest. "We shouldn't have let them go off without us. They are doing our job." Archbishop Luccini looked up at Father Bruno from his nest of blanket and pillows that Nurse Kelly had made up for him. "What's gotten you so worked up Father Bruno? You really should try to rest a little bit." "Rest?! How can you rest at a time like this. Those, those gun-toting priests are out there doing *our* job, and we're sitting here being babied by these nurses!" Father Edgewood came running up to them at that moment with Aria following close behind him. "Archbishop Luccini, Father Bruno, I have some information about a possible source of this madness." "Excellent, now we can show those young priests that we know what we're doing," Father Bruno said excitely, "Tell us what you have found out." "I have heard some very interesting stories about the founder of this city, his name was Stephan Carroll, and a numerous mentionings of strange things going on at the site of his house." Archbishop Luccini looked up quickly at the mention of the name. "Do you know something about Stephan Carroll?" "I seem to recall seeing a file for Stephan Carroll during my work with the Vatican Operations Group. I had forgotten he was the founder of New Haven or I would have brought it with me. I believe Fater Edgewood is onto to something here. It would be a very good idea to go to Mr. Carroll's house." "Oh no you don't." Aria said. "You three are staying right here and getting some rest." "My dear woman we are currently on a mission and do not have time to rest." Father Bruno said brusquely and began to get ready to leave. "At least take us with you, please." The three nurses said. Archbishop Luccini got up out of the blankets that he was currently in. "No we can't take you with us, it is going to be dangerous. Besides these people could use your medical expertise as well." "Well at least let me come along with you, I know where Stephan Carroll's house is." Aria said. Archbishop Luccini saw that there was no point in arguing with her and decided that it might be good to have a guide who knew the town along. "All right my child, you may come with us." Archbishop Luccini, Father Bruno, and Father Edgewood said a prayer and then headed out into the early morning darkness of New Haven. They didn't notice Casey trotting happily along behind them. =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 12:50 a.m. - Outside Coltrane Park Karen was not happy at all about having to be *escorted* by the three priests. Not that she had anything against them, it was just frustrating that Charlie did not seem to think she could take care of herself. It has always been like that though, ever since they were kids Charlie has always seemed to think that he needed to take care of her. She sighed to herself and thought that it was just Charlie's way of showing he cared. "Have you noticed how quiet it is?" Pastor Isaiah said, startling Karen out of her musings. "Hmm, oh yeah, I guess it has been quiet. I didn't even think about how odd it was that we've been out here for over a half an hour now and nothing has chased us down yet." Karen thought back to when that hadn't seemed an odd thing, was it really only 3 days ago when her life had seemed incredibly dull. "Oh appears that I spoke too soon." Pastor Isaiah said, pointing to a zombie standing in the middle of the road. The zombie was facing them and waving its arms in the air, Karen could swear it was trying to get their attention. Pastor Isaiah put his hand on Karen's shoulder, "You stay here Karen, while my brothers and I go take care of this abomination from hell." Karen began to protest that she could take care of herself, but the three priests had already rushed the lone zombie and blown it to bits. She sighed and shrugged to herself, figuring there was no point in arguing the point. She waited until Isaiah signaled that all was clear. Karen followed after the three priests without a second glance at the remains of the zombie. If she had looked back she would have seen the zombie begin to twitch. Long after they were out of sight, the zombie rose, minus two arms. The zombie sighed and thought, "Stupid idiots couldn't even hit my head. How pathetic is that? Three against one and they couldn't even kill me." Muttering to itself, the zombie continued onto the park. So lost in thoughts of gloom and doom the zombie did not hear the cheery sound of a dog collar jangling. From the direction that Karen and the priests had arrived, Casey came bounding up. He stopped briefly to sniff at the zombie arms. Deciding they weren't anything good to eat, Casey trotted off towards the park. =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 12:15 a.m. - Inside Kramer's Antiques Johnny hung his head, "I'm sorry boss, I guess I was distracted. You see there was this girl..." Kramer raised a hand to stop Johnny from going on, "Say no more my boy. All is forgiven for now at least. I have an important task for you, please be sure not to get distracted again." "You can trust me boss. What is it that you need me to do?" Kramer wandered off into the back room and began to rummage around. A moment later he came back out carrying a large case. He set the case on the table and opened it up, revealing a bomb with a timer. Johnny looked at Kramer quizzically. "What would you like me to do with this?" "My brother Landon had closed up a certain tunnel many years ago and it has somehow been reopened. So far nothing has escaped...yet." "This would be bad I take it." Kramer and Ned both just looked at Johnny. "Umm... right. Ok, you can count on me boss." Johnny reached over to close the case. "Oh, Johnny, I would like to take this moment to point out that this bomb has a timer. This timer can be set for any amount of time you wish to set it for, so please utilize it. I really would hate to see you use up another life." Johnny blushed and closed the case. "Sure thing boss." He turned to leave when Ned grabbed his arm. "Yes Ned?" "Here take this, you may find it a little warmer than what you are wearing now." Ned handed Johnny a blue jumpsuit that had NICE embroidered on the sleeve. Johnny glanced down and himself and noticed he was still only wearing the small piece of cloth Ned tossed him earlier. He mumbled a thanks of some sorts and put the jumpsuit on. "Is there anything else before I go?" Kramer and Ned shook there heads no. Johnny spun and stormed off down the street. Once he was out of sight Kramer and Ned burst into laughter. "That's the best NICE has to offer?" Ned asked. "Currently, yes." =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 2:00 a.m. - Inside the Rascombe Building Alicia and Michael stared at the gate in frustration. It shimmered softly, showing an alien landscape that for the moment was devoid of any life. Which was probably a good thing since according to Deke the inhabitants in that dimension had very sharp teeth and large appetites. The frustration that Alicia and Michael were feeling was coming from the fact that after spending about an hour or so following Deke's instructions the gate refused to close. Charlie was currently studying the notes that they had received from the scientist. Alicia reached over and grabbed them from Charlie. "Hey I was looking at those." "Charlie, you've already gone through them again and again. We've done them and they are not working!" "Maybe we missed something." "No Charlie we didn't miss anything." Alicia looked at the paper in her hand. "Let's see first thing we needed was the red jewel. Ok easy enough, what he left out was that this red jewel was encased in ice and inside of a shark tank. We're not even going to get into *why* there is a shark tank in this place. Then we have number two, get the blue jewel. Now that was the lovely little jewel that was split into two. One half of it was in that painting that was hanging in the lobby and the second half was in the storage room in a box that required that small key we found in the manager's office that you insisted on picking it up because it was shining." Alicia paused for a moment to catch her breath. "Ok so now we got the 2 jewels, it says here all we need to do is place them into the *labeled* spots on the console and then the gate will close. That's it, nothing more. So why isn't it working." Michael patted Alicia on the shoulder, "There, there. I'm sure we'll figure out how to close the gate." Alicia pulled away from Michael and began to pace around the room. Something caught her eye and she stopped pacing. Alicia stood there for a while just staring at a switch on the wall. "I don't believe it, the little twerp, just wait until I get my hands on him." "What what is it honey?" Charlie asked, running over to Alicia. "Just look at that!" She said pointing to a switch on the wall, above it was a sign that read, "Emergency closure of dimensional gate switch". Alicia pulled the switch and the gate flickered for a few moments and then went out. "Ok let's go, I'm sick of this place." =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 2:11 a.m. - Kramer's Antiques "This is it?" Drachmov asked staring up at the sign that read "Kramer's Antiques". "Yes, this is where Roderick Kramer settled down after the Great Mage Wars." Maple said. Alice walked up beside Maple and took his hand. Stoika looked at the shop disdainfully, " I would have expected a little more vrom a great sorcerer." "Retired sorcerer you mean." The four looked at the doorway and saw Kramer standing there. "Why don't you come in and join us for tea?" "Us?" Maple asked as they stepped into the ruined antique shop. "Yes, I'd like to introduce you to Ahzgahzganahznergal, Under-Fiend of the Second Circle." "Call me Ned." "Ned, this here is Maple, him and I used to work together many years ago. Hiding behind Maple there is my sweet little sister Alice, it's been a long time hasn't it Alice?" Alice didn't say anything and ignored the surprised stares she was receiving from Maple, Drachmov, and Stroika. "I don't believe that I have had the pleasure of meeting the remaining two members of your party Maple." "I am Drachmov, nice to meet you sir." Drachmov and Kramer shook hands. Stroika held out her hand and Kramer took it and kissed it lightly, "And what is your name?" Stroika giggled and introduced herself, "I am Stoika, pleased to meet you." "It is always a pleasure to meet one as lovely as you." Kramer replied. "Well down to business, what can I help you with?" "Kramer we need your help to help stop this madness from spreading even further." Maple said. Kramer pondered for a few moments, sipped some tea, and pondered some more. He sighed before replying, "I'm very sorry Maple, but I'm afraid that my answer will have to be no." "No, what do you mean no." "It means that I can't help you Maple." "Can't or won't?" Maple challenged. "Well I guess a little of both. I have chosen to sit this battle out, due to balances." "Balances?" "Yes, everything in the universe is balanced. Such as you can't have a top without a bottom, a front without a back, tea without biscuits. Well if I join the fight I'm afraid that my power might balance things out too much. And I'm sure that your goal is to try to stop the end of the world, unless I'm mistaken and you do want to destroy the world." "No of course not. We need your help Kramer. I don't care about these balances, which quite frankly don't make any sense at all." "Well I'm terribly sorry about that Maple, but all I *can* offer you would be advise, maybe a magical bauble or two, but other than that my decision has been made." "Fine if that's the way you feel about it, then I will do this on my own. Thanks for nothing." Maple got up and stormed out of the shop. Alice followed quickly behind him. Kramer sighed and shook his head. "Are you sure that there isn't any way we can talk you into helping us?" Drachmov asked. "I am offering to help, just not in the manner Maple wishes me to help I'm afraid. I'm sure once he thinks about it he'll realize it is for the best. I have faith that the four of you will do just fine without me. Now off with you both, you should catch up to Maple before he gets himself into trouble." Drachmov bowed to Kramer and left. Stroika lingered a moment in the doorway, "It was very nice meeting you Kramer, maybe I will stop by to see you later." "I would like that." Kramer said and waved to Stroika as she left. "You wanted to go with them didn't you?" Ned asked after Stroika left. "Yes, I guess I did, but unfortunately I can't." "Was it that balances thing you were talking about? I haven't heard of anything like that before." "No Ned, that was something I just made up. I just can't and for the moment would like to leave it at that." Ned saw the look on Kramer's face and figured that it wouldn't be a good idea to push for an answer, at least for now. =============================================================================== October 1, 2001. 1:30 a.m. - Coltrane Park Shadow wandered around the charred area in the park where he was summoned. It was sure that it felt some signs of life here just a moment ago. Then it spotted a vampire lying in the bushes. "Yes! I can get the vampire to kill me and then I'll take over his body." Shadow moved as quickly as it could to the vampire. Before he got there something jumped onto its back and started tearing up chunks of the zombie. Shadow suddenly found himself free of his zombie prison. Looking down, Shadow saw that he now had two choices for a new body. "Hmm, dog body or vampire body, decisions decisions." Shadow went for the vampire body. After a moment Shadow reopened his eyes and saw the dog sniffing at him. He reached out to push the dog away... or at least that's what he tried to do. This was a bit of a problem considering the vampire body he entered did not seem to have any arms. As a matter of fact this body didn't appear to have a ... well a body. Unbeknownst to Shadow he had just entered the sleeping head of Kevin, the poor unfortunate vampire who had had his head tossed into the bushes hours earlier by Legion. Kevin had worn himself out by shouting for help earlier. Kevin's body had run off with Doug and Adam after Harlukia got fried. Kevin's body had also managed to get itself swallowed by one of the many creatures in the water after it managed to fall of a dock while trying to relocate its head. Shadow would never know any of this though, since any existence of the previous inhabitant was destroyed when Shadow entered it. "Here doggie good, doggie. Come on, come here boy. Want to chomp on the little vampire head?" Shadow called to Casey, thinking a dog body was better than no body. Unfortunately for Shadow, Casey thought he was asking for help. Casey not knowing how to help this really short person decided the best thing to do would be to take him to his master. Casey noticed that this short person appeared to be having some problems walking, so he went over and picked Shadow up gently by the hair. Then Casey trotted off in search for his master. "No you stupid dog. Oh crap. My life really sucks." =============================================================================== Darkness and pain *lots* of pain. Blood, blood everywhere. "Someone help me, help me it hurts so much." Elizabeth opened her eyes and saw a red glowing light over her. She turned her head slowly, confused at her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was Stephan showing her how to hold the rifle when a boar came crashing out of the bushes and charged right into her. There had been blood, then pain, then darkness. Now she was in what appeared to be a *very* dirty hospital room. Standing over her was someone who appeared to look vaguely like her husband looked like her husband. One the table next to hers was something she was unable to identify and she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Her legs were hurting her as well. Did the boar do something to my legs she thought. Elizabeth also noticed that her head hurt and felt, crowded was the only way to explain it. It felt as if there were two voices arguing with each other, or maybe trying to talk to her, she wasn't sure. All she knew is that she would like them to shut up. Elizabeth raised a hand to her head. Elizabeth noticed that the hand that passed in front of her face was not her own. She brought the hand back down to examine it. It was not her hand, she looked down at the rest of herself. She was most definitely not in her body she thought. Elizabeth had always been what polite company calls pleasantly plump, and this body was a lot slimmer and voluptuous then Elizabeth remembered herself as being. "Elizabeth?" The man stooping over her said hopefully. Elizabeth looked at this thing that sounded like her husband. She stared for a long time into that scarred face that was staring back at her with hope shining in his eyes. Elizabeth looked down at the body she was in again and then looked back into the eyes of the man who she had once loved. "Stephan? What have you done?" She asked, voice quivering on the edge of tears. Stephan's face fell, this is not the loving reunion he had envisioned after all of these years of *hard* work. He began to get mad. "Yes indeed Mr. Carroll what have you done?" A childish voice asked in a mocking tone. Stephan turned and saw a ghostly image of a child fade into view. He thought the child looked familiar, before he could recall who it may have been though, more ghostly figures faded into view. The child that spoke took a step closer towards Stephan, staring straight into his eyes. "You have been a very naughty boy Mr. Carroll." Then Stephan Carroll began to feel afraid. =============================================================================== Author's Notes Well there we go, sorry it is so short. I would like to thank Freedom for prereading for me and giving me someone to brainstorm my little bits of ideas into workable (hopefully) story. Hopefully everyone will find this chapter enjoyable and not too confusing. Any feedback can be sent to j_gatlin_99@yahoo.com Jennifer Gatlin 11/20/02