Gatekeepers21: The Dimensional Cycle

"Gaining Experience" by: Writer2Bpoet

Disclaimer: Don't own the original characters or premise of Gatekeepers21 (which is too bad for me). But if I did, I would make sure that there was much, much more than just the two series segments. However, I can do what little I can to further the enjoyment of the series with my very own creations.

Author's Notes: I do apologize profusely for being unable to produce further chapters sooner being trapped within the confines of one of the many stupidly titled 'universities' that plague our existence (damn necessary evils). However, my now being on Spring Break does allow me ample time to catch up on a few projects. Also, special thanks for the input and encouraging feedback from: RVD and Sorceress of Blades. ---------------------------------------------

Chris stood at the entrance of the parkway; well, he more leaned against the carved, stone plaque sign at the entrance than stand. Glancing at his watch, he wondered at how long it would take to get to the park from the base. He looked up the street in time to see a brunette on a moped come down and brake in front of him.
Her hair was died in green with some blue streaks today. Angelina usually changed her hair color every week or so. She would always say that she was still trying to find her "individual style". Her casually clothing was stylish in its simplicity, not to mention a bit revealing in few spots. She took off her helmet, and looked levelly at Chris for a moment. "This had better be good," she said with her almost New Yorker accent, "I had to postpone the system upgrades for this little jaunt."
Chris shrugged. "Nick could as easily take care of those-"
"If he were around. He went home for the weekend. Jeez, don't you ever pay attention to the notices that are posted?"
"Only when marked with priority alerts," Chris tried joking a bit, but Angelina wasn't smiling. He sighed, "You know, you could always get Andrew to help."
Angelina's face flushed slightly but it could have been anger, "You want me to turn over my computer core systems over to a Hacker? Are you mad?!"
"It was only a suggestion, Angie, no need to go postal. Look, do you have it?"
Angelina "Angie" Gibbins opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but stopped, and turned to open her pack. She reached in and took out a strange looking device that looked like it expanded open to sit upraised on some sort of tripod. "Here," Angie just looked frustrated right now, "take it. And Christa says that if it so much as dents, she'll have your head on a platter."
"I'll take extra care of it. And, thanks." Chris took the device in one hand, picked up his pack with the other, and half-jogged into the park. The hum of the moped sputtered to life, and then faded into the distance. Chris had to make a note to himself to talk to Andrew about Angie. Maybe she did have something for him; Chris shook his head. Maybe it was none of his business.
He came around a curve in the foliage, and saw Julia sitting on a bench on an open patio. They were far enough inside the park that there would not be any prying eyes. She stood as she saw him approaching.
"Alright, what did you need me to come here for, anyway? Certainly not a study group."
Chris didn't answer her immediately. He set the device on the ground, hit a series of buttons on its side, so that it open up, and raised itself off the ground slightly, while extending several antennae-like structures. And he put his backpack to one side near the bench. "Okay, let me start by thanking you for coming." Julia started to say something, but Chris stopped her, "No, I mean it. That also means you are as trusting as you are curious, and those are good qualities.."
"I'll take that as a compliment, but what I wanted to say was 'why'?"
"That's easy. You have a certain distinguishing trait that I want to test out." He looked at her, and figured 'what the heck?' "Okay, to put it all simply, I am among a select number of people around the world, in the ballpark of a few thousand, that have the ability to use Gates."
"Gates? You say that word like it has importance."
"Yes, well, Gates are transdimensional openings in space-time, as close as we can figure, that allow use to unleash a variety of attacks to help us defend the general public from the Invaders."
Julia looked at him, blinked for a moment, and then started to crack up into laughter. "Oh my God, you almost had me there for a moment!" Her laughs died, and as he regained her composure, she looked at Chris and found his face was dead serious. "What? You actually believed all of that stuff that you just told me?"
"Yeah, because it is all true. Here, I'll show you," he turned so that he was facing a tree, and extending his arm forward, he concentrated. A series of green concentric rings appeared in his eyes as energy started to rush though his body. "Gate: Open," was what he said in a clear voice, and the same two green rings appeared in front of his hand, and a charge of energy appeared in front of his hand. He kept it small, like the blast of a staff weapon from one of the Stargate shows he had watched about a year before. The blast fired, and a dull thud rang through the air, as a patch of tree bark flew into the air. A smell of charred burning filled the air.
"Yeah, just like that."
Angelina stood with wide-open eyes, almost unable to comprehend what had just happened. She stepped forward even as Chris lowered his arm; small tendrils of smoke still snaked through the air. The damage was superficial and didn't appear to harm the tree in any lasting manner, but if turned on a person (even if this was just a sampling of the potential energy) the same blast would have severely stunned or maybe even killed.
"And you d-did that..." she gestured generally in the direction of the blast mark, "with your...Gate, is that what you called it?"
Chris nodded. "I find that proper demonstrations do so much more than explanations." Julia had an unasked question on her face. "Yeah, this isn't the first time I've found other people with the potential for opening Gates. You'd probably be around the fifteenth person or so: I haven't really kept track. But the fact is that you, too, can open a Gate."
Julia shook her head. I'm not sure if that can be right. There has never been anything special about me except that my father is among the thousand or so most wealthy individuals in the Western Hemisphere-"
"Just listen to me, and trust me on this one. Besides, I can prove it to you." Chris moved forward towards the small tripod-like device that opened up on the ground moments ago.
"Yeah, I was going to ask about that," Julia tried to sound nonchalant about the whole thing. "What is it? And what does it do?"
Chris smirked. "One of our resident engineers came up with it. It's a Harmonic Amplifier." Chris stopped to look at Julia, who shrugged and gave him a look to keep going. "Invaders produce these radio-like frequencies that only Gatekeepers can hear, we're still unsure why that is, but these frequencies are called IPW signatures. This is how Invader- Hunters like myself can track them and eliminate them."
"This may be a stupid question, but why hunt these Invaders? Well, I mean, apart from the very ominous sounding name of 'Invaders'?"
"No, it's a very valid question, but the truth is that I've never really asked the question myself, so I don't really have an answer. But what I do know is that Invaders are evil and they will never once hesitate to either infest of destroy human life, and so we have to be just as ruthless with them." Julia shrugged but she seemed to get the idea.
"So, why do you have this gizmo, anyway?"
Chris smiled again. "Glad you asked," he said as he adjusted something on a small display, and turned the device on. "It'll take a few minutes as the system warms up, but to be brief, the Amplifier will transmit along a specific frequency, and essentially act as bait."
"Bait?"
"For the Invaders. By transmitting and amplifying IPW signatures, any Invader within say a ten or twenty mile radius will feel compelled to swarm to this location."
Julia coughed in surprise. "Excuse me: 'swarm'? Are you asking for a death wish?"
"In a big city it could be dangerous as there could be hundreds of Invaders within a certain radius, but out here there are relatively small pockets of activity." A piercing tone hummed through the air for a moment and was replaced by an almost thrombic tone that seemed to envelop everything in sight. "Just remember one thing."
"What's that?"
"'Gate: Open'. It's the command you will use to access your Gate power."
"But I don't even know if I can open one of those things!"
"What better time for an experiment?"
That was when they both heard it. A very distinct sound that would be burned into memory for some time to come: the singular radio-like frequency. Chris and Julia both turned in time to see five shapes squeeze out of a series of cracks in the pavement and take on humanoid forms in trench coats.
"Come to our world," the first Invader began. "Come with us to build a new world. You will come or you will die."
"That's new," Chris commented to himself. Julia looked over at him, she was surprised that she was so calm after seeing these men literally crawl out of the ground. Beads of cold sweat were already streaming down her face. "Don't worry. Remember what I told you? Just two simple words."
"But-t..."
"But nothing; it's as easy as breathing." Chris widened his stance, "Gate: Open." A blast of energy extended from his outstretched hand and reduced the lead invader to a cloud of sparkling light, and a BioCrystal. The remaining Invaders hardly reacted, but instead were already opening their mouths, where dozens of guns were protruding.
"Chris?"
"Just try it," he said as if it were the next normal thing in the world. The humming still continued, and a rustling behind the pair announced the arrival of more guests. Chris turned his head ever so slightly to see four more Invaders behind them. Their mouths as well were already beginning to open. "You'd better do something."
The first four Invaders opened fire with hundreds of anti-matter blasts. Julia cringed and let out a small scream. "Shield," Chris called out. The shots were effectively blocked and/or deflected. Julia looked around to find a dome of energy encircling them. "I'm not really sure how long this can hold," Chris stated as simply as saying 'It looks like rain'.
Julia stood up, "Alright, I'll try it! Gate: Open!" Two concentric rings opened up in her eyes even as the two concentric rings opened around her feet. The gray rings glowed in such a way that Julia was cloaked in cold silver tones. In her mind it was almost as if some part of her was unlocked as bits of innate knowledge seemed to take over. Acting more on instinct than anything, she called out in a clear voice, "Medusa!"
With another brief flash of light, which bleached the entire park in whitish-gray, the IPW signatures abruptly ended. Chris blinked a couple of times as sight returned to him. Both Gates closed, and, looking around, Chris found that the two of them were standing amidst a series of very ugly statues: eight to be exact. Chris leaned down to the Amplifier and shut it down.
"So, that's what you can do," he smirked at her.
Julia could, despite what she had just done, only stand there as if frozen as she examined her handy-work. "What now?" she asked as she found her once again.
"Now, you get to meet the folks."