The Four Faces Of Rath
Author's note: This next chapter was revised and edited from Chapters 28 ("Follow The Phoenix") and 29 ("Michael Times Two & Other Miracles") of "The Night The Dreams Died." At this point in the saga, the two different casts, one from Antar and one from earth, are coming together, and their stories will be temporarily intertwined. To the degree possible, however, each story will still be told from the POV of the appropriate cast.
Michael & The Amazing Bike
Chapter 65
LXV
Unknown to Michael or to anyone else on the Antarian mothership at that time, the fifteen people who had been in the house that had just been blown up had not died. However, as smoke and flames rose all around them, they stood silently, wondering themselves whether or not they were still alive.
"Max?"
"Yeah?"
"Are we… are we still…" Liz stammered. "I can't see you."
"I've still got you in my arms, Liz."
"I know. But… what just happened to us?"
"I don't know."
Max looked around. He could see the bombed out, fiery remains of the house. He could see the flames. But he couldn't see any of the other members of their group.
"Michael! Are you there?"
"I'm right here, Max. I've got Maria. She's still with me."
Max called out the name of each of the remaining twelve people who had been with them, making sure that everyone was present and accounted for.
"We need to figure out what's going on here and where we're going. Angie Lee?"
"I'm here, Michael."
"I'm assuming you're still the reason we can't see each other."
"Yeah."
"Okay… and no one else can see us either?"
"Right."
"How did we just survive that… you know… thing… just now? Did you do something?"
Angie Lee looked at the scene around her. It looked more like the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust than anything she recognized.
"I didn't do anything… except cover us with a mind warp shield to keep anyone from seeing us."
"Could your mind warp shield have protected us?"
"I… I don't know. I don't think so. I wouldn't have expected it to."
"What was that bright light right before the explosions," Diane Casey asked. "I saw a bright light."
"Yeah, she's right," Alex agreed. "I saw it, too. I thought it was part of the explosion, but since she mentioned it, I do remember seeing a bright light right before the explosions."
"I don't think it had anything to do with my mind warp," Angie Lee said. "It was like something else… maybe it's what protected us."
"Then let's take advantage of it and get out of here," Michael said. "I don't care what it was… a mind warp or divine intervention… I'll take it! Max and I'll lead. The rest of you… just hold on till we get there… wherever there is."
The group walked away from the now-destroyed home… occasionally passing a still-standing home then more that had been destroyed. The Mesaliko Reservation, it seemed, no longer existed… certainly not as the place of quaint and peaceful little homes that it had once been. It was now a charred and destroyed battleground. Michael wondered how in the name of all that was holy the perpetrators of this desecration would explain this to the country… to the people… to their superiors… TO THE PRESIDENT! Did even the president know about it? Michael wondered. How high did this go? Would it even matter? If no one was left to testify against the perpetrators of this massacre… they could make up any lies that seemed convenient to them… and they would undoubtedly be exonerated of any and all wrongdoing. Michael steeled his resolve. He was determined that he would survive to tell the world what had happened here… even if it killed him.
"Hey, Max, listen… Do you hear something," Michael asked.
Max listened. "Sounds like a car coming."
Max led the group off the road and onto a grassy shoulder. Then they stopped and watched.
"Everyone stay quiet," Max cautioned. "They can't see us, so there's no need to panic. Just stay still and be quiet till they're past."
The group watched in silence as a Humvee approached. It was going much slower than they would have expected, barely more than walking speed. It slowed more… then it stopped. Judge Lewis jumped out and looked at the ground excitedly.
"See! I told you those were shoe prints! And I told you they were new! They go off into the grass right here."
Culpepper got out of the Humvee and looked closely at the slight traces of shoe prints on the hard dirt road. They weren't very obvious. It might even have been debatable whether or not they were really shoe prints at all. But they did seem to turn off into the grass in this area.
"What's your point, Judge? You think there are more aliens?"
"Maybe…" Judge Lewis said skeptically… "But I'm more inclined to think it's the ones we already know."
Culpepper laughed. "Only if they're ghosts! I assure you that's the only way they're ever coming back, Judge!"
"Laugh if you want, Culpepper. I know these kids better than you do. I know enough not to believe anything before I see bodies."
"There won't be any bodies to see, Judge. They're dead! They were burned up! Take my word for it. You don't get hit with four hellfire missiles and just walk away! Maybe you're seeing ghosts. Corporal, get the Judge the number for Ghostbusters. Maybe he should call them."
The driver and Culpepper both enjoyed the joke, but Judge Lewis wasn't paying any attention. He stepped onto the grass and looked around. Max and all those with him stood totally still, not ten feet away from Judge Lewis. If they ran, he would see the movement in the grass… but if they stayed and he came any closer he might actually find them. For a moment, Max was unsure. Maybe Judge Lewis would not venture too far from the road.
Judge Lewis stepped forward, taking several more steps into the grass. Somehow Isabel managed to stand totally still, though Judge Lewis was now standing right in her face. She could even smell his breath. She closed her eyes momentarily and hoped she wouldn't sneeze.
As fate or bad luck would have it, Judge Lewis decided to take one more step, and Isabel was forced to back up to keep him from running into her. As she stepped back, Judge Lewis' eyes grew large, and he pointed at the grass…
"They're here! They're here! I saw the grass move!"
He turned around quickly to look for Culpepper, but instead of Culpepper, he saw something he had not expected to see… Amy… standing between him and Culpepper. It took Judge Lewis a mere split second to notice that Amy's feet appeared to be floating just above the ground. Momentarily shocked, Judge Lewis' first impulse was to scream at Culpepper and the Corporal who was driving the Humvee to shoot her… and the Corporal, who was even more shocked than the judge by what he was seeing, did, without hesitation.
It had no effect. Either Amy was capable of taking a bullet in the chest now and not even flinching or she really was… a ghost.
For a moment, Judge Lewis seemed to turn pale. Then he looked at Culpepper again. Culpepper was still staring at Amy's feet, which weren't touching the ground. Judge Lewis turned back around and came face to face with Liz standing behind him. Her feet, too, seemed to be floating just above the ground. Whirling around, he saw Max and Michael… then the others… all staring… silently… accusingly… at the three men… all with their feet floating just above the ground.
Culpepper stood paralyzed as though in a trance, and no words seemed to come out of his mouth. The excitable Corporal, however, decided to empty his pistol into the apparitions… with predictable results… no effect.
Judge Lewis turned around to face Amy… then turned back to face the others. The more he looked at the "ghosts," the more he began to think. He waved his hand at Amy, but it went right through her. Culpepper almost fainted, and the Corporal gasped loudly, turning even paler than he had been before.
"No… No… This isn't right," Judge Lewis said, swiping at the apparition again. "This isn't right I tell you! Ghosts don't leave footprints. Ghosts don't make the grass lay down under their feet. Suddenly and without warning, Judge Lewis reached out in the direction of the place where the grass had moved before and made contact with something. He held on tight. It was an arm.
"Ow! You're hurting me!" Maria cried out, as Judge Lewis twisted her arm. "Let go!"
"Not on your life," Judge Lewis growled back. "You're gonna be my ticket."
"She said let her go," a new voice said behind the judge. Judge Lewis whirled back around to look. It was Jim Valenti who had spoken… and beside him was Amy… again.
"Oh! So the 'ghosts' can talk!" Judge Lewis sneered, looking over at Culpepper as though expecting an apology from the agent to be forthcoming, and in the process, twisting Maria's arm even further. That was a mistake. The moment he turned his eyes away, Amy leveled a crashing fist on his head that sent the judge sprawling to the ground. By now, Angie Lee had dropped the invisibility shield… as well as the special effects. The fake ghosts had all disappeared, and the real people all became visible again.
Culpepper started to go for his gun, but Jim got there quicker. The Corporal got to his own gun and tried to fire it, but he had already emptied his clip on the fake ghosts that Angie Lee had conjured up. With Culpepper's gun now in Jim's hand, the two men could do nothing but watch.
Judge Lewis had lost his grip on Maria's arm as soon as Amy's fist had crashed down on his head sending him sprawling to the ground. Now she was on top of him, and everything that had been pent up inside her finally came flowing out like the waters behind a burst dam. If Judge Lewis had actually been the BIG DOG that he always claimed to be, his fur would have been flying right now in all directions. What actually was flying was pieces of his clothes… and possibly skin. Since Amy had the judge down on the ground behind the Humvee, Culpepper and the corporal could not actually see what was happening to the him anymore, but his shrill, terrified howls and the rapidly flying pieces of cloth -and what appeared to be skin- made them wince more than once.
"Shouldn't you lend some help there?" Culpepper asked Jim pointedly."
"She doesn't look to me like she needs it," Jim replied matter-of-factly.
"I meant HIM, Culpepper barked with a tone of exasperation. "You are the sheriff!"
"NOW you remember that," Jim said. "Well, you must also know then that I have no authority on the Reservation. I'm not the sheriff here. Gray Hawk's people have their own laws."
"Well, then, shouldn't YOU stop her," Culpepper barked at Gray Hawk.
"I will do what I can," Gray Hawk said slowly. "I will have to convene a Council first, of course." Gray Hawk looked around at the burned out homes and sighed dramatically… "There do not appear to be enough Mesaliko present now on the reservation for a Council. When there are, I will bring this matter up… if it is important at that time."
Culpepper winced again.
A couple of minutes after it had started, another Humvee approached the group. In it were several soldiers armed with AK-47's, a lieutenant, and a higher ranking officer, the second-in-command to General Hawkins. The higher ranking officer looked at what was happening, as the Humvee came to a stop, then he stepped out of the vehicle. Jim still had Culpepper's pistol in his hand, aimed at Culpepper and the Corporal, but he knew it would be no match for four soldiers with AK-47's. He waited to see what would happen, but he didn't lower the gun in his hand.
"What's going on here, Barker," the higher-ranking officer asked, calling Culpepper by his real name.
"Well, if you'd just open your eyes and look," Culpepper snapped back testily, with frustration and more than a little bit of fear obvious in his voice, "we're being attacked by our prisoners. Now that you're here, I'm sure you'll want to do something about it other than just WATCH!"
The General's second-in-command seemed to smile slightly. "You seem to have a problem, Barker."
"Are you just gonna talk about it or are you gonna do something," Culpepper snapped gruffly.
"I'm thinking," the officer answered. Culpepper's mouth seemed to drop open.
The officer motioned toward the soldiers in the Humvee, and they pointed their rifles at Jim, Max, and the others.
"Give me the gun," the officer said to Jim. Jim hesitated… then handed the officer the pistol.
"This looks like your gun, Barker."
"It IS my gun, Edmonds! You KNOW it's mine! Give it back to me."
"Do you let all your prisoners hold your gun, Barker… or do they have to ask nicely?"
"Just give me my gun, Edmonds… or I'll have the General relieve you of command for insubordination."
"Insubordination… to you, Barker?" The General's second-in-command raised his eyebrows. "You're just a special agent. You're not even an officer!"
"With special connections," Culpepper reminded him.
"Maybe not anymore… We'll see," the officer said matter-of-factly. Then he motioned to Jim and the others.
"All of you… down on the ground… hands behind your backs." He looked at one of the soldiers holding an AK-47. "Do we have enough handcuffs?"
"If we don't, there's some rope in the back," the soldier said.
The officer nodded. "Handcuff 'em." Then he handed Culpepper back his gun.
Culpepper promptly aimed it at Angie Lee on the ground. The moment he did, Gray Hawk hit him from the side, sending him reeling into one of the soldiers. Culpepper hadn't even seen Gray Hawk get up. He simply seemed to rise off the ground and strike all in one swift motion. A second soldier hit Gray Hawk on the head with the butt of his gun, and Gray Hawk went down, momentarily addled but not unconscious. The soldier hurried to get the handcuffs on him before he could recover enough to fight again.
Culpepper walked back over to Angie Lee and pointed the gun at her again. "I killed you once… or I thought I did. Maybe the second time will be a charm."
The General's second-in-command grabbed Culpepper's hand and pushed it away.
"What do you think you're doing, Barker?"
"She's dangerous, Edmonds! She'll have you seeing things that aren't there when you don't expect it."
"That's my problem, Barker… and the General's. He may want to find out what makes her tick… if what you say is true."
"If? What do you mean, IF, Edmonds? Of course it's true. You'll live to regret it if you don't kill her now."
"And you WON'T live to regret it if you DO kill her now against my orders, Culpepper," Edmonds threatened. Culpepper grudgingly lowered his gun.
"What do we do about this one…" the soldier asked, motioning toward Amy, who had still not been pulled off of the pitifully howling, battered, and now mostly naked Judge Lewis. Out of sight as they were behind the first Humvee, and with Judge Lewis howling continuously like a tomcat being pulled through a knothole by its tail, Amy hadn't even been aware of the arrival of the additional soldiers.
"Handcuff her, too."
The soldiers looked at each other, silently wondering which one was going to do it.
"What about him," the soldier asked, motioning toward the judge.
"Take him to the base medic. He looks like he's gonna need it."
The soldiers carefully handcuffed Amy, who used her last free arm movement to remove most of what was left of Judge Lewis' hair from his left armpit.
"All right… There are a couple more Humvees on the way," the officer said. "When they get here, you guys are getting in and we're all going back to the base."
When the other vehicles arrived, the fifteen handcuffed prisoners and Judge Lewis were stuffed into five Humvees, including the one Culpepper and the judge had arrived in originally. Then Culpepper's driver was ordered by the General's second-in-command, against Culpepper's wishes, to follow the convoy and return to the base with the prisoners in his vehicle. Still fuming, Culpepper, who had to stay behind, dropped his objections for the moment, but he never planned to allow any of the prisoners to return to the base… even knowing that they would "disappear" once they got there. Culpepper didn't want these prisoners to merely "disappear." "Disappeared" prisoners could talk… and sometimes they escaped, as he had seen some of these do once already. He wanted them dead… and he had an idea how that might still be accomplished. Unfortunately, it might mean sacrificing "a few" soldiers… and the General's second-in-command. Culpepper smiled.
The Humvees drove off through the reservation, heading over the hills rather than out the official entrance, and as they drove away, Culpepper made a two-way radio call…
"Cobra Leader, this is Culpepper. Come in."
"Cobra Leader here."
"There's a convoy of five Humvees leaving the Reservation… It's heading over the hills from the Reservation bearing south-southeast. The vehicles were commandeered by the terrorists that were holed up on the reservation. They've killed the drivers. The intended target of the terrorists is Area 51. They intend to use our official vehicles to gain entrance and sabotage sensitive areas of national security. I've been ordered to stop this convoy before it reaches the base…"
"They'll never get there," Cobra Leader replied resolutely. "Trust me."
"The whole nation is counting on you, Cobra Leader. Don't fail us! Culpepper out."
Culpepper pressed the button, turning off his two-way radio. Then he looked at the Humvees disappearing in the distance over the hill… and he smiled. Three minutes later, as the Humvees headed out across the desert, the General's second-in-command spotted something far ahead of the convoy but approaching fast.
"What do you make those out to be," the officer asked the driver.
"I don't know, sir. I believe they're helicopters… looks like maybe some of our Cobras."
"Why would more Cobras be coming out here now?" the officer asked, more to himself than to the driver, who obviously wouldn't know.
"I don't know, sir… but they're headed directly towards us."
"Yes… they are, aren't they," the General's second-in-command said slowly, beginning to have a bad feeling, as he started to put the pieces together. "Driver, stop the vehicle! Get out! Everybody get out! NOW!"
No one in the Humvees had time to react to the officer's order. As they started to move, the air itself seemed to open up in front of them between the Humvees and the approaching helicopters. There was a tremendous BOOM, blowing out all the windows in the Humvees, as something shot out of a rift and the rift closed back up again. The object headed straight for the convoy. It looked like… but the officer's mind refused to believe it… a rider on a motorbike… coming right out of a hole in the sky.
Michael touched down on the ground in a puff of smoke and flying grass, and within mere seconds, he had closed the gap and pulled up beside the convoy. Everyone could see now that it was a motorbike… but… what kind of motorbike comes out of the sky… or makes a sonic boom? Certainly nothing that anyone present had ever seen. It was sleek and aerodynamic, and though it lacked wings, it almost looked like it could fly… in fact, apparently, it just had.
The mysterious helmeted rider, dressed in a sleek black fabric that might have been some kind of leather, dismounted and looked at the Humvees. Since most of the soldiers had dropped their weapons when the boom had thrown them out of their vehicles, the newcomer seemed to enjoy a certain advantage at the moment. Apparently just realizing this, several of the soldiers scrambled for their weapons, and as they did, the newcomer started to raise one hand. The soldiers hesitated… Was he surrendering?
"OH! OW! DAMN!"
The soldiers began dropping their guns like hot potatoes. The barrels of the guns started to melt and closed up like straws that had had the air suddenly sucked out of them. Then the stranger's hand began to glow brighter and brighter. Sensing immediate danger, the soldiers nearest to the closest Humvee scattered, putting distance between themselves and the vehicle's gas tanks, but the stranger did not target the vehicle. Instead, he released a blast from the palm of his hand that left a ten-foot-wide, five-foot-deep crater in front of the scattering soldiers. It appeared to have been done as a sign… some kind of demonstration of his powers… a warning that he was not to be trifled with or challenged. It worked.
After surveying the scene, the rider calmly removed his helmet. As he did, two gasps came from inside the second Humvee.
"It's you," Max said, looking at Michael then back at the stranger again.
"Can't be," Michael replied, shaking his head. "It's got to be a trick!"
Max jumped out of the Humvee, and Michael followed him. Alex, who had been riding in the third Humvee, behind the one Max and Michael were in, was already out and heading toward the newcomer, too. Inexplicably, both Alex and Liz, who because of her legs could not leave the vehicle she was in on her own, were smiling broadly.
"Don't they even know when they should be afraid," Michael wondered to himself, turning back and looking at the newcomer again. Michael walked up to the strange sky rider, and the two of them stood there, face to face. They were the same height. They had the same hair, the same eyes, the same build… though the newcomer might have been a few years older.
The newcomer smiled… then nodded slightly, with a look of satisfaction and relief on his face…
"I thought you guys looked like you needed some help down here.
"Yeah," Michael said, nodding in return but still suspicious. "You thought right. I guess I owe you."
The newcomer shrugged. "It was nothing that you wouldn't have done yourself."
"How would you know…" Michael started to ask reflexively, but he had already guessed the answer.
"Michael," Alex said, strolling confidently up to the newcomer with a huge smile on his face. "Meet our Michael."
"I just did," the newcomer said, smiling.
Alex turned to Max and Michael of his group… "Remember when Liz and I were in the hospital and they thought we were in a coma…? Oh, wait… you wouldn't know about that, would you!" Alex suddenly remembered that Max and Michael had still been missing and were presumed to be dead when that had happened.
"Well, I remember it," Kyle said, walking up and looking at the newcomer. So does Dad… and Mom."
Within seconds, the newcomer was surrounded by the other members of the group and having to hold his hands up to stop them from asking any more questions… for the moment. In time, he would answer all their questions.
"There were some helicopters headed this way," Edmonds said, finally screwing up enough courage to approach the newcomer, too. "What happened to them?"
The newcomer shrugged. "If they were near the rift when I came out of hyperspace they probably either crashed or had to set down or return to base for repairs… The bike makes a pretty big bang when it comes out of hyperspace. It would have caused a lot of damage to any helicopters that were too close."
Max smiled. "I can vouch for that. It broke all the windows out of the Humvees… I think it blew the clothes off of a couple of soldiers, too.
The newcomer Michael laughed. "Like the shebbles."
Max looked puzzled, and Michael tried to explain…
"The first time I rode this bike, I came out of hyperspace in the hills of the Chanesio region on Antar. That region is famous for its shebble herding. Shebbles look kind of like a cross between a yak and a buffalo or something, and their abundant hair is harvested by the shebble herders in the region. It comes off pretty easily I found out. When I came out of hyperspace on my bike, a whole field full of shebbles was suddenly left as bald and pink as a newborn baby's butt by the sonic blast… and shebble hair floated down out of the sky for most of the rest of that day. I thought it was pretty funny at the time… but the royal treasury had to reimburse the shebble herders for all their losses." The newcomer smiled at the memory. "It WAS pretty funny, though! Maybe not as funny as Max's hat with the big feather, but…"
"Sounds pretty funny to me," Alex agreed, remembering the hat caper. "I wish I could have seen those shebbles."
"I wish you could have, too," the newcomer Michael said. "You'd have appreciated it."
Alex grinned. "There's somebody else over there who'd like to say hello to you." He motioned toward Liz in the third Humvee. The newcomer smiled and walked over to the Humvee.
"Hello again, Liz."
"Hi!"
"I'm glad to see you and Alex made it back safely and you're both okay."
Liz nodded. "Except that my legs don't work again… not like they did on Antar when we were in those perfect new prefab bodies."
"Yeah, I remember you said that you were paralyzed. Couldn't Max help you?"
Max looked somewhat uncomfortable, and he shook his head. "I tried."
The newcomer pulled out a small device and pushed a button. A second later, everyone had disappeared except him. He smiled and looked around at the empty Humvees with their broken windows. There was nothing but the breeze around him now. It was kind of nice. Michael got back onto his bike and twisted the throttle. The bike shot forward instantly, building speed at an incredible rate. In just under six seconds, the air in front of him split apart and opened, and the bike and its rider rushed into the rift. Then the rift closed back up with a thunderous BOOM, blowing the Humvees through the air like paper toys. On the hill, there was no longer anyone around to care.
"You found them! They're okay then?" Maria exclaimed excitedly.
"Just like Michael said," Max replied. "They're all okay and they're all onboard."
"That's wonderful," Liz said. "I'm so glad!"
"I am, too," another voice said from nearby. The younger Max and Liz turned around to look.
"Rahn!" they both exclaimed at the same time.
"Omigod," Liz said, "We thought something had happened to you!"
"It kind of did," Rahn said. "I went back and found my old ship on the base where Maria said it was… and I flew it to the reservation to rescue you… my friends… but I was shot down."
"You crashed?" the younger Max asked.
"I would have, but the people on this ship saw my ship going down and retrieved it with a magnetic wave beam. I've been here, working with them to save you… but we thought you were killed when the missiles hit the house. How did you escape?"
"Angie Lee covered us with a mind warp shield so we couldn't be seen," Liz said. "We were leaving when a bright light suddenly engulfed us then the missiles hit. We thought we were dead, but something protected us. We aren't sure what."
"The mind warp shield," Varec said.
"So that really was what saved us then?" Max asked.
"I believe the beam we sent to try to retrieve you may have interacted with the mind warp shield in a way that may have protected you from the explosions… but the combined protection also caused the beam to lose you. We thought that you had all been killed in the explosion."
"Well, I'm happy to report that that rumor was not accurate," Max said.
"I am happy, too," Varec concurred.
"Me, too," Rahn added.
"That goes for us all," Max from Antar said, speaking for everyone there. "Come on… there are some people for you to meet… and some things we all have to do."
tbc