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A/N: Hello? Is there anybody still out there? I saw some tumbleweeds drifting across the reviews page earlier, and there's this strange, hollow echo in the last couple of chapters. I'm scared... Talk to me! Anybody... please?

Chapter Nine: Bursts of brilliance

Harper woke up feeling bad. Really bad, even for him. He was shaking uncontrollably, freezing cold and hurting like he'd been in a plane crash. At first he had no idea where he was. Then he realised that he was lying in a bed next to somebody. What the hell had happened here? There was something vaguely pink about his memories. That guy... he'd given him something. And then... there endeth the memory, and Harper felt strangely happy about that. He'd been drugged, but why? That weird DJ guy was still sleeping beside him. Well, at least most of his clothes were firmly in place, so whatever had happened couldn't have been that bad. But oh, he felt like shit. Felt like crying, for no real reason. He tried to get up out of bed, but it was too cold. He couldn't stop shivering. Some more memories started coming back to him. Hands, touching him. That could't be good. Realisation started to sneak up on him. This guy was obviously some kind of pervert... and Harper had been taken advantage of. Not fully, so to speak, but certainly enough to freak him out. He had to get out of here.

Ignoring the shakes and the aching muscles, he climbed out of bed. He found his shoes and his jacket easily, but getting them on took a bit more time. Especially tying the laces with finger that refused to keep still. He was just about to sneak out the door when he heard a voice behind him:

"Going already?"

He spun around and stared at Viper, who was sitting up in the bed.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Harper almost shouted.

"I just wanted to help you relax, you seemed a bit tense. Why, did you not enjoy yourself?"

"I can't remember! But I feel like hell now! And I wanna know what you did to me!"

"I gave you some Uforya. What you feel now is called 'the Plunge'. You'll be absolutely fine in about twenty minutes."

"Oh yeah? But you were... messing with me while I was out! Don't think I don't know! You're some kind of weirdo!"

Harper pointed his finger at Viper, all the time ready to bolt out the door. But the DJ didn't even leave the bed, he just yawned and said:

"Not much. You looked so cute all pinked up. I couldn't help it. But I was good, I didn't do anything indecent to you."

"Ew! I should hope not! You could've told me though... that you're... k'now..."

Viper just shrugged. Indecent or not, Harper just wanted to get away from him. But he had said that he might be able to fix it so Harper could get to talk to Milon. It was about time to call in that favour.

"So, do you know where Milon is or not?" Harper said, rather grouchily.

"Milon is at EterniVision. I work at EterniDisks. Come with me and I'm sure we can fix something..."

Okay! That was more like it! Harper waited by the door for what seemed like an eternity while Viper got dressed. Finally they were out the door, down the stairs and out onto the streets once again. A short Shuttle ride later, Harper found himself at the massive gates of EterniCorps. Completely unaware of the fact that both Tyr and Beka had already been to the very same place, he walked through the gates, following Viper up the broad driveway towards the nearest building.

"This is EterniVision. They're security mad. You're going to have to get a visitor's pass at the reception desk," Viper explained as they entered through the big glass doors after having left their fingerprints in the console by the entrance.

"Sure..."

Harper looked around. The lobby was enormous. All shiny glass and metal. A few plants to give the place a less sterile feeling. Behind the large wooden desk sat a blonde woman with glasses. She looked bored. When Viper walked over to her, she almost instantly frowned.

"Hello. This is my friend Harper. I need a general visitor's pass made out for him..."

"Why don't you get it at EterniDisks?" the receptionist asked.

"Well, because your security guards are such narky fucks mainly. And I want to be able to walk across the tunnel without all the hassle."

The woman just gave him a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, but nevertheless she took out a small plastic card and ran it through the computer. Suddenly, there was a pinging sound and the doors opened on of one of the lifts across the room. Harper turned his head and looked, eyes widening when he recognised Pitch. Before either Viper or the secretary had any time to react, he'd sprinted over to the actor.

"Hey! Remember me!"

Pitch nodded at him with a hint of a smile.

"Sure do. Harper, isn't it? How's it going?"

"Not so great. Kinda stranded here. This machine I built just had some ideas of its own... and I've lost Beka and Tyr... all in all, not so great. Maybe you can help me?"

Pitch wasn't looking at Harper any more, he was staring over his shoulder with a hateful look in his eyes. Harper turned around to see Viper give Pitch a false smile.

"What are you doing here?" Pitch said in a dark tone.

"What am I doing here," Viper aped, "I'm only the guy who brought your dear old friend out here!"

Pitch looked at Harper again with a frown.

"What are you doing with a scumbag like him?"

"Well... I didn't know... he was a... scumbag."

Harper's voice fell steadily in volume until he was almost whispering. Pitch seemed to accept his answer though, because the angry look was mellowing somewhat. Harper remembered Milon saying one time that Tyr reminded him of Pitch, and Harper could kind of understand that. Although at least with Tyr you knew what would set him off. This guy seemed a lot more unpredictable. On the other hand he didn't seem to have quite as big a bug up his ass as Tyr did.

"Well, he is a lowlife and you'd better take my advice and stay away from him before you wake up one morning with a sore hole."

"Not even if you paid me," Viper sneered at Pitch.

Pitch just gave him a look that could cut steel, and that shut the DJ up. He gave Pitch a final hateful glance, turned around and walked quickly out.

"You should've come an hour ago," Pitch said, "Beka was here. You just missed her."
He started walking towards the lifts again, and Harper had to almost run after him.

"Beka was here? What happened? Where did she go?"

"To look for you, I guess."

"So... why was she here?"

Harper put the question a little hesitantly. He didn't really know what had been going on with Beka and Pitch before, but from the coldness of their goodbyes he would have to say that they didn't seem to get on very well. And Tyr hated Pitch too. Harper couldn't see why, he seemed alright. As the doors of the lift closed around them, Pitch looked down at Harper and gave him a kind of guarded smile.

"I asked her."

"To come here?"

Pitch just nodded. There was something strange going on here, he just couldn't put his finger on what it was. Why did Pitch have to be so secretive?

"So, can you get us back home then?"

"Probably. There are channellers upstairs. But you'd have to find the others first... Shouldn't be a problem though. Beka'll be back."

Harper wondered how he could be so sure about that, but decided not to ask. The rest of the journey up to wherever they were going was spent in a strangely unfamiliar silence.

"I guess you might as well come in and wait..." Pitch said, sounding like it was just a little bit of hassle after all.

Harper walked inside. At least he'd much rather wait here than roaming the streets alone, running into more suspect characters like that Viper guy. Speaking of which:

"You really hate that DJ, don't ya?" Harper said, more for something to say than anything else.

Pitch got something really dark in his eyes, and Harper suddenly wished he hadn't asked.

"Yeah, I do. He used to have this weird obsession with Miles. Pulled some really dirty tricks on him too, when Miles was just nineteen... and too naive I guess to understand the workings of a pervert's brain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really a raging homophobe or anything, it's just that guy..."

Harper almost wanted to back off a bit. He really did look angry, talking about it. To get his mind onto a less volatile topic, Harper said:

"So... Beka's coming here, you said. Any ideas on how to find Tyr?"

"Well..." Pitch smiled like he had just done something bad and liked it, "... he probably won't be coming back here..."

"You mean he was here too? They were both here?"

"Yeah. But I... told him to get lost. Don't have the time for his attitude. Besides, I was kinda busy at the time..."

That sly smile was starting to creep Harper out ever so slightly. He would have much preferred to have run into Milon. At least he was a laugh. After all those horrible things he'd told them about, he was still funny and cheerful. Not sly and creepy. But, Harper supposed that all this was still better than where he'd woken up this morning.

"So, where are those channellers? Can I have a look at them?"

A slight frown and a suspicious look was all he got for his troubles. It was clear that it was going to be hard work to get any favours out of Pitch.

"Okay..." Harper looked around, wanting to get those piercing eyes off him, "So how are things anyway?"

"Alright."

Now with the silent treatment. Harper almost found himself wishing that he hadn't run off on Tyr like that. There were moodswings and then there were moodswings.

"Where is Milon anyway?" Harper said finally.

"Haven't a clue."

Pitch walked off, out into another room. Harper felt a little lost, standing in a stranger's room, in a strange town, not knowing how to get home. He wondered what Tyr and Beka were doing right now. That gave him an idea:

"Hey, Pitch! If I can have a look at those channellers, I bet I can find a way to locate Beka and Tyr! It's just a matter of isolating their individual energy signatures! Shouldn't be too difficult, becuase we know they're different from yours. Because we're from another dimension, on an energy map, we'll stand out like a sore thumb! Am I brilliant or what?"

Pitch looked at him with the most reluctant smile that Harper had ever seen. It made Tyr's smirk seem like a ray of sunshine. Clearly the big guy couldn't quite shield himself from Harper's sudden burst of enthusiasm. Still, it seemed he tried hard to act like a fed up parent to a hyperactive child.

"... Alright. I guess we can go up there, if that'll shut you up..."

There was no real malice in his voice, and Harper smiled at him until he rolled his eyes and headed towards the door. Yeah, Milon had been right, he was a lot like Tyr.