Mirracon

Lexia swallowed heavily, trying to persuade a sudden feeling of nausea to abate. As Alice and Paul had vanished, she'd finally pinned down the memory of what this setup was.

"Did..." JJ began, disbelief evident in his voice. "That did just happen?"

"It did." Taylor's answer was grim.

Now that they were alone, she and the three other remaining members of the patrol came out from behind their respective areas of cover to inspect the mirrors. Lexia opened her mouth to warn the rest of the patrol not to step into the circle just as Taylor moved to do just that.

"Don't!" But the warning died on Lexia's lips as Shawn grabbed Taylor and stopped her, just as a pair of translucent, glassy hands stretched forth from the nearest mirror, clearly trying to grab her.

"Lex?" JJ looked concerned. "You OK?"

Lexia nodded automatically. "'M fine."

JJ wasn't to be put off. "You don't look fine."

"Stay out of the circle -- don't want anyone else pulling a Lewis Carroll," Taylor ordered.

"We've got to go after them," said Lexia, hoping that she didn't sound as desperate as she felt.

Taylor looked mildly stunned. "And we will -- but ever heard the phrase 'look before you leap'?"

"Sure." Lexia took an exaggerated look around at the warehouse and made a move to step forwards. "I've looked..."

JJ choked. "Lex -- what're you doing?!" he hissed.

"Cadet Collins, wait!" Taylor commanded. In spite of herself, Lexia froze. "What makes you think it should be you?"

"Because I've worked out what this setup is," Lexia answered.

"Which is?" prompted Taylor.

"Mirracon," said Lexia.

"Frax's insurance policy," supplied Shawn.

Somehow, Lexia wasn't surprised that he knew. The grouchy Guardian had definitely known a split second before the Cyclobots' arrival that something was going to happen. More to the point, he also knew not to step into the circle.

"Is that right?" Taylor queried.

Lexia nodded. "That's why it has to be me."

Taylor frowned. "Why?"

"Because the Cyclobots are coming back," said Lexia, "and you're going to need people who can fight better than I can here."

Taylor opened her mouth to say something in reply but Shawn got in first with another warning: "They're coming!"

Taylor groaned. "Go for it, Lexia."

"Want me to come with?" JJ asked.

Lexia started to answer with a negative, but the Cyclobots had already started to re-materialise. "C'mon." She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the circle.

JJ made a stunned 'eep' sound. Then made another as translucent hands reached out from the nearest mirror and grabbed him. Lexia didn't have a chance to worry about him as a second pair of hands snagged hold of her and she found herself being yanked off her feet and pulled towards the mirror, then through it.

It was like suddenly being immersed in liquid. It was cloying and sticky and suffocating. She couldn't breathe. She wanted to scream. Then everything faded to a merciful black.

~*~

Pink.

That was Lexia's first thought as she came round.

Wherever this place was, it was very, very pink. She had landed on pink earth. Looking up, she could see a sky that seemed to be almost fuchsia coloured. There was a stand of trees nearby whose trunks were a dark magenta colour while their leaves tended from the same colour to a pink so pale as to almost be white. The effect was unsettling to say the least.

"Really not a fan of this colour," muttered a voice nearby.

Lexia looked to see JJ shaking his head and blinking a little bit. "Me either, she agreed.

She slowly clambered to her feet and took another look around. More pink. Pink rocks, pink grass, pink plants... The sound of a cheerful whistling caught her ear. Looking back at the stand of trees, her eyes fell on a small songbird of some description whose plumage seemed to be every single shade of pink under the (pink) sun -- even its eyes, beak and feet were pink.

Lexia slowly shook her head. "This is not my idea of a good time."

"So where are we?" JJ asked, getting to his feet.

"Mirracon's world," Lexia answered, taking another look around.

"Which means?"

Lexia offered him a slightly sheepish smile. "That part I don't know -- just know that Alice is here somewhere and we have to find her."

Another look around at her surroundings yielded a path -- pink bricks, naturally -- that seemed to start about a yard away from where she was standing.

JJ lifted his eyebrows. "I thought it was supposed to be the yellow brick road, not the 'so-pink-to-almost-be-neon' brick road," he observed.

Lexia offered a wry look. "Any better ideas?"

"Nope."

They started down the path.

If either of them had been hoping that the colour scenery might change as they walked, Lexia quickly realised they were doomed to be disappointed. The shade changed, from delicate rose to salmon, to a rich magenta, to the eye-hurting, day-glow pink of the bricks she was walking along, but it was still, at the end of the day, a completely pink landscape.

"Y'know," JJ commented, "This actually looks kinda like the East Hills Nature Reserve."

"Yeah," Lexia grinned, "if you covered East Hills in pink paint, sure."

JJ chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah."

They walked on in silence for a few yards more. Lexia noted that the path now started to twist and wind its way up a slope -- a pink hill, just what she always wanted to climb.

"You knew the set up," JJ observed.

Lexia sighed. "Kind of." She didn't need to look in his direction to know he was looking confused. "It's complicated."

"And I don't think time is something we're exactly short on here," JJ returned.

"True. Hey, y'know Dante could have gotten a whole new ring of hell out of this place."

"Don't try and change the subject," JJ answered, sounding faintly hurt. "I'm here with you. I just want to know what's going on."

"Sorry. It's..." Lexia glanced at JJ. "It's hard to explain." She turned her attention back to the path. "You know I'm one of the Vengeance Rangers?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well...I've only been a Ranger for a month."

"Uh-huh." JJ nodded slowly. "And before that, you were...what? An ordinary high school senior?"

"Second grader." JJ made a weird noise. Half groan half yelp. "What?" she asked, puzzled.

"JJ Haynes hits a new all time low in the dating game," JJ replied. "I'm wanting to ask out a seven year old."

Lexia blushed at the frank admission. "If it's any help to you, I'm not seven any more."

She felt him turn an assessing gaze on her. "I can see that."

Lexia's blush deepened and there were a few awkward moments of silence between them. In that time the path went from a gentle slope to a near vertical climb and both suddenly found they needed their breath for the climb. Finally, they reached the crest of the hill.

"I don't believe this..." JJ mumbled.

Lexia looked around in shock and mounting annoyance.

They'd ended up exactly where they'd started.

There was the stand of trees -- and if she'd been in any doubt as to whether or not it was the same one, she recalled that the foremost tree in the stand had a forked branch at about the height of her head with a little knothole just beneath it. That had been where the songbird had been perching... Was perching.

And there was the flattened grass where she'd initially landed.

And the start of the path.

"You have got to be kidding me here!" Lexia yelled crossly. "Who designed this place? M. C. Escher and Martha Stewart's lovechild?"

There was a slightly sinister sounding laugh from directly behind her. "That would be me."

Lexia spun around and found herself facing a grey coloured, humanoid shaped being. His body was shaped in an approximation of a muscular human, but where a human body would be rounded, his was flattened, giving the impression that his body wasn't made of flesh but rock. On top of that, his head was small -- tiny in fact -- with almost absurdly large eyes. A second glance revealed that his eyes were just being magnified by a pair of outlandish, gold-rimmed goggles.

"Who the hell are you?" JJ asked.

"Mirracon, I presume," said Lexia coldly.

The being smiled. "I do believe I'm known."

"What do you want?"

Mirracon laughed that sinister snicker. "You know what I want and you two aren't him." He snickered again. "But no matter. You'll do well as a nice diversion while I await the real...player of this game."

"Why wait?" she shot back. "We're here -- and we'll beat you, you oversized Garden Gnome!"

"Ooh -- I'm just quaking in my boots," Mirracon drawled, waving his hands in a mock surrender gesture.

Lexia growled. "Pissing me off is a bad idea."

"Oooh -- what're you going to do, girlie? Throw a hissy fit?" Mirracon laughed. "I'm sooo scared. Not!"

"You know, you should be," JJ offered. It's a bad idea to piss of an explosives expert."

"Name your challenge," Lexia snarled, ignoring JJ's comment.

Still snickering, Mirracon waved his hands in an expansive gesture. "The challenge is simple. Your friend is trapped at the centre of my maze. If you can get to her and free her before my timer runs out, you win."

Lexia glanced over her shoulder at where the stand of trees had been. In its place was a large, imposing wall of pink stone that presumably marked the boundary of the maze.

"That's not so hard," snorted JJ.

Mirracon laughed again. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll have a whole new definition of 'hard'. You have until the sands run out." So saying, he produced a giant hourglass and turned it over, starting a steady trickle of pink sand from top to bottom. "Sayonara!"

And before Lexia's amazed gaze, Mirracon vanished.

"What the hell have we just gotten into?" Lexia wondered.

"Damn good question," JJ replied. She felt him turn another assessing gaze on her. "And what do you know about what's going on?"

Without answering the question, Lexia turned and headed towards the wall. If this was a maze, there had to be some way into it. I am not climbing a ten-foot wall if I don't have to. She frowned. The section of wall she was now stood in front of was completely blank. "What do you reckon? Left or right?"

"Left," JJ recommended. "And stop avoiding the subject -- you're leaving me in the dark again."

Lexia glanced over her shoulder at him. "And you think I'm not?" she answered. "I don't know what's going on. I don't understand what's happening or why it's happening."

"And yet you do know something," JJ said.

"C'mon -- we have a time limit," Lexia replied, heading left.

"You can't just shut me out of this -- I'm here, in case you hadn't noticed."

Slowly, Lexia turned to face JJ, who hadn't moved. "I know you're here. I know that I need to explain. I know that right now you're not sure what's weirding you out more, the fact that this place is like it is or the fact that six weeks ago I was a seven year old girl who had to fight her older brother to claim sole possession of her Barbie dolls. But this isn't something I can explain in words of one syllable or less. I don't get it. It's like I'm looking at a page in a book and every second word's been erased. Things happen and another couple of words appear but..."

She found herself being cut off by a pair of strong arms as they wrapped themselves around her in a hug.

"I'm sorry," JJ murmured, his voice almost rumbling in her ear.

Lexia shivered. It felt nice to be held like this. For a brief moment, the whole mess of confusion, half remembered information, fear and dread vanished in a feeling of safety and security, at least for a little while.

All too soon, JJ released her from the hug and stepped back. "You OK?" he asked gently.

Lexia sighed. "Yeah -- just...this is all...a mess. A huge great big mess. Alice is stuck in the middle of a maze we don't know how to get into...and if we don't find her, we get stuck here too."

"What about Paul?" JJ asked. "He must be here too."

"If it was the real Paul, he'll be here and we'll find him too," Lexia replied.

"The real Paul?"

"As opposed to a fake one."

"I guessed that," said JJ dryly. "Tell you what, how 'bout you explain while we look for the way into this place?"

"Anxiety's catching, huh?"

JJ shrugged, smiling a little wryly. "Something like that."

Lexia smiled back. By a common consent, they started to head to the left in search of the entry to the maze. Barely a couple of yards further round, though, they found the entrance: A pair of ten-foot high, old fashioned looking gates.

Lexia looked at the tall, wrought iron-and-wood gates. Imposing was the term that immediately sprang to mind. For a wonder -- given everything else in this world -- they weren't actually pink but a dull rust colour.

"Is it me," JJ asked, "or do those look more revolting because they're not pink?"

"It's not just you," Lexia agreed. "Don't tell me we've got used to the colour scheme!"

"OK, I won't." JJ frowned. "I also won't tell you that there don't seem to be any handles or anything to get them to open."

"It's very rude to stare!"

Lexia jumped.

Looking round, she half expected to see Mirracon again, but of the grey mutant there was no sign. Nor, unfortunately, was there sign of anyone else.

"Did you hear that?" JJ asked.

"Yep." Lexia sighed. "And we can't both be hearing things."

"Not very bright, are they?" observed a second voice. This one was British accented and sneering.

Lexia slowly swung her attention back to the gates -- which seemed to be where the second voice, at least, was coming from. For the first time, she spotted that atop either gatepost was sat a stone gargoyle. Naturally, both ornaments were carved from pink coloured stone -- the actual tone being a dirty, faded pink, rather than the vibrant colour of the path bricks. Both had been carved crouching with elbows out for balance, so that they both appeared to be all sharp angles. Predators waiting to prey on the unwary.

"I said, it's very rude to stare!" First voice again, harsh and uncomplimentary.

What was more disconcerting was the fact that Lexia actually saw the left hand gargoyle's stone mouth move to make the words. She blinked and elbowed JJ. Couldn't be...

"You can see the thought process -- it really is quite painful."

There was no arguing with what her eyes were showing her. The right hand gargoyle was talking.

"You talk?" said JJ, bemused.

Lexia had to stifle a giggle as the gargoyles exchanged haughty looks.

"Of course we talk," said Left.

"Why wouldn't we talk?" asked Right.

"It...um..." JJ shook his head. "Never mind."

"Oooh -- decisive," snarked Right, his British accent lending itself to underlining the sarcasm.

"I hope you're not aiming to set anyone free this side of hell freezing over," said Left.

Lexia opened her mouth to reply.

"They're in for a long wait," said Right.

"Long like eternity," finished Left.

"Sure -- if we have to listen to you two all day," Lexia shot back. "And who died and put you in charge anyway?"

Neither gargoyle had a response to that.

Lexia glared at them. "We have a job to do. How do we get into this maze?"

"Feisty," observed Left.

"Not too bright," agreed Right, "but definitely feisty."

JJ opened his mouth to complain. Lexia just shook her head -- it wasn't worth rising to their bait.

Both gargoyles all but pouted at her for spoiling their fun and then intoned: "Knock, and the doors will open."

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," JJ murmured, shaking his head.

"What, stupider than a completely pink world?" Lexia asked. "Stupider than talking to two pink stone gargoyles?"

"Good point."

Lexia stepped forward and gave the timbers of the gates a firm rap with her knuckles. There was a moment's pause, then there was a rattle and a groan and a shriek from hinges obviously stiff from lack of use and slowly, but surely, the gates started to swing outwards. Hastily, Lexia skipped back a couple of paces to avoid being hit.

"Well, whaddya know," JJ murmured.

"See?" said Left smugly.

Lexia gave him a jaundiced glare.

"But what do we know?" queried Right, rolling his eyes heavenwards. "We're just the gateposts."

With a slam, the gates finished opening. Lexia and JJ stepped forwards into the maze. As an after thought, just as she crossed the threshold, she glanced up at the two gargoyles.

"Thanks," she said. "I think."

"You'd better have your wits about you," Left warned as she started down the first path -- the one that led off to the left.

"Both of you," added Right. "We see a lot of people go into this maze."

"But we've yet to see anyone come out," finished Left.

"Now they tell us," JJ murmured.

Lexia glanced at him. "Well, there's always a first time. Besides," she added wryly. "What choice do we have?"


TO BE CONTINUED...