CHAPTER FOUR
The Stephen Strange Research Center
The Stephen Strange Research Center is a deceptivly ordinary looking if somewhat larger than normal Victorian Era mansion on 42nd Street in Manhattan. There is virtually nothing to indicate to the casual observer that this is one of the premier centers of occult research in this sector of the multiverse. Normally the Research Center does not allow anyone under the age of twenty-six to enter the building, much less poke around in its stacks. When Juggernaut and Power Pack show up at their front door, it caused quite a stir among the librarians.
"May I help you, sir?" an oily voiced librarian inquired as he blocked the corridor leading from the entry alcove to the rest of the facility.
Cain towered over the man in the tan and red robe and cowl of the library staff. "Out of the way, poindexter, I'm in a hurry."
"Well," the librarian said slowly. "We might allow you to enter, Juggernaut -- yes we know all about you, Mr. Marko -- but as for this gaggle of unruly, loud street urchins ... out of the question."
"Hey," Jack whispered to Franklin. "I think that scarey looking guy just insulted us."
"Scarey looking is right. I knew there was a reason mommy and daddy said stay away from the Zone...," Katie said. "Its fulla scarey guys!" Franklin nodded in agreement, never taking his eyes off the librarian. Alex and Allison quietly put themselves between the younger children and the librarian and the shadowy hall behind him.
"Look poindexter," Cain said in a tone of voice that said he was used to dealing with people who could not see the big picture. "I'm flattered that you know who I am. Because of that you probably have some idea of what I could do if you piss me off. Now recently I have had need of some very specific information, and it has come to my attention that you mighthave this information..."
"Be that as it may ... " the librarian tried to interrupt Cain.
It was obvious to the children that Juggernaut was slowly becoming angry. He reached out and snatched the front of the librarian's robe and pulled him off his feet and eye to eye with the Juggernaut. "Okay, look. You have just about worn out my patience. These kids are my research assistants. We're coming in, we're going to look for the information I need, and then we'll leave. You and the other eggheads play nice and it'll all be over soon."
Juggernaut let go of the librarian's robe and he collapsed into a heap on the floor.
Another librarian, nearly as big as Juggernaut, replaced his colleague. The new comer's robe was black with silver trim, and covered him head to toe. With the cowl pulled up to hide his head and face there was no way to get a hint of what the librarian looked like. For nearly a minute the two stood toe to toe without speaking, then Juggernaut growled:
"If you want to have a Stephen Strange Research Center when the sun goes down you had better get out of my way ... if not ..."
If the implied threat affected the huge librarian, he did not show it in any outward manner. Just as it appeared that Cain Marko might make good on his threat, another figure emerged from the shadows of the main building. This was a matronly woman with long flowing white hair and dressed in the armor of a Valkyrie. An aura of peace and tranquility surrounded her as she walked up to the librarian and the Juggernaut.
"WOW!" Jack said. "That's Freya, Odin's wife. We met her and a lot of the Aesir during INFERNO last month," Jack whispered to Allison. "She's really cool."
"My Lord Scribe," Freya started.
"My Lady?" the librarian bowed his head to her ever so slightly while keeping an eye on Cain.
"I know these mortal children. I know them to be talented and well behaved. I am certain that they can be trusted not to abuse the library if you will let them in. Also I happen to know that Mr. Marko's need is direct and immediate."
The huge librarian bowed his head and stepped aside. "As My Lady wishes," he said in a voice that was not all together human.
Cain marched past him and then faultered as he came abreast of Freya. "I ... er ... umm. Thank you for your help."
"May you find what you search after," Freya said, and as Power Pack came forward, the goddess smiled. "Katie, and Franklin. We have missed you and the rest of Power Pack in Asgaard, and I know one of Volstog's daughters who has especially missed you, Katie."
"I miss Broomhilda too," Katie said wistfully. "If only it were not so hard to find the Rainbow Bridge..."
"Do not fret," Freya said as she began to vanish. "You will find it again one day ..." And as Freya's last words echoed across the dimensional barrier, tears came to Katie's eyes. She really missed her Aesir friend.
Jack put his arm over Katie's shoulder protectively. "Don't worry, Katie," he whispered encouragement to her, "we will go back someday."
"I wish WE could dimension walk like Freya," Julie said.
The mortal children are acutely aware that they are the center of attention as they walk into the main research room. There are a lot of high power occult types there, which is a side effect of breaching the trans-dimensional barriers in 1998. All kids on Earth II have latent telepathic ability, that kind of sixth sense that warns of danger, but it is usually lost in the chaos of adolescence. Right now, that sense of danger is very strong as the children follow Juggernaut into the dim bowls of the occult library. Alex looked around apprehensively at the many cowl shrouded figures, some of which were only vaguely humanoid in shape and as large or larger than Juggernaut. He nudged Allison and whispered "I think we had better get in, get what we can about Cytorrak and the jewel and then get the flock outa here."
"Yes," Allison said, "I agree, get what we can and get the flock outa Dodge."
Jack leaned over to Franklin and said: "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Franklin: "Yeah, me too."
"You two sound like STAR WARS!" Katie whispered nervously. Jack grinned at her and gives her the "A-OK" sign.
In the reference room, Allison, Alex and Julie begin their research amid several seemingly elderly men in various exotic robes and turbans. There are even some who are totally wrapped up in their robes, a brief accidental glance convinces Julie that she doesn't really want to be curious about the alien shapes concealed beneath the thick folds of cloth. Cain and the younger kids have taken over a wide sofa in the entrance foyer, with, surprisingly enough, Cain 'baby-sitting' the younger members of Power Pack.
"Good," Alex mutters as he sits down in front of one of the computers and begins to tap on the keys.
What is it?" asked Julie.
"This is UNEX, an operating system I'm familiar with," Alex said. "It'll speed things up some. This is an old Xerox Sigma-9 ... probably linked to an elderly Cray XM-P in the basement ... hah! Those were the "super" computers in the 1980s."
"And now?" Julie asked.
"My CompuPal has more 'oomph' than the Sigma-9," Alex bragged. "And the Digitalics minicomputer at school is MUCH more powerful than the old XM-P."
"Okay," Allison said. "Let's get organized. You call off stuff and Julie and I will try to find it. Just like school, except with ghost monsters!"
For fifteen minutes, Alex scrolled through literally thousands of references to Cytorrak, its Jewel and Korean mythology in general. "There is too much data here," Alex muttered. "JACK!" Alex yelled. He was immediately sorry he had. Every eye and sensory device on every creature turned toward him.
"You screamed, Mon Capitan?" Jack appeared at his side.
Alex was still looking around the room at the various occult creatures, thankfully most of which had returned to their own studies. "Jack," Alex whispered. "I need a DVD disk, they'll probably sell them at the front desk." Alex dug in his pocket and pulled out a $5. "Buy one. And the change is mine."
"Okay," Jack said and was gone.
"What was that all about," Julie hissed in his ear. "Are you TRYING to get us in trouble?"
"No," Alex said sheepishly, "It's just that I forgot where we were. There is much more here than we will be able to analyze without Friday's help."
Jack returned with the disk, "That guy tried to cheat me," Jack complained. "Thought I didn't know how much a DVD cost."
"It's okay Jack," Alex said. "We just wanna get out with the data. Julie. I need you to scan some of these old hard copy texts."
Julie smiled, "Okay," she said. "I'll start scanning data from the ancient volumes of forgotten lore. "Nevermore"
"Okay, Ms.. Poe. Just be sure the data files are clear so Friday will be able to absorb them."
While the big kids have been busy, so have the little kids, with Juggernaut. They discuss many things, among them, Cain's past battles with the X-Man and Spiderman. Franklin hearing Cain mutter something about that two-bit Son Of a Bitch, Prof. X, remarks that he'd always though that Charles Xavier was a GOOD man. Katie asked unhappily how anyone could hate his own brother so much. Juggernaut, actually ashamed that he's upset Katie so much asks her how she'd like it if there was a kid in THEIR house who could read minds, who got good grades, could do anything better than everyone else. Everyone always liked Charles better ...
"That sounds like my big brother, Alex," Katie said innocently. "He can do anything. He gets good grades and he's smarter than anyone else ... except Daddy of course."
Juggernaut scowled toward the boy hunched over the computer terminal. "Yeah," he mutters, "That snot nose sure looks a lot like my nose in the air brother, Charles." But like with Jack, Cain was slowly changing his opinion of Alex -- and after all, the boy was helping him.
Katie, after listening to accounts of buildings smashed and skyscrapers toppled, feels quite an affinity for Cain. She tries to cheer him up by telling him: "I broke a Snark spaceship once, back when I was still Energizer." She pats his arm, "And anyway, I still like you. But don't you have ANY friends?"
Juggernaut scowled. "Not really," he said. "Except for Black Tom Cassidy, and his niece Theresa Siryn Rourke. THEY are my friends. In fact this whole SNAFU started because I wanted to get Tom a birthday gift."
"What is a SNAFU?" Katie asked.
"Situation Normal: All Pha---" Juggernaut started. "Uhh -- Err. Well, lets say part of that is not something kids should say."
"Hah!" Jack grinned, "I know what it means! But lets get back to the story you were starting. The birthday gift was the Jewel?"
"Yeah. This birthday gift was the Jewel of Cytorrak that I had seen in Korea during the Eugenics War. Tom really, really loves gems of all kinds. I think he likes the bright pure colors. And the Jewel of Cytorrak, a ruby, bigger than I've ever seen. It was a real beauty."
"I like bright shinny things too," Franklin said in a small voice.
"Yeah," Jack added. "You should see Franklin's collection of clearie marbles, red, yellow, green, blue and a lot of other colors."
"Like I said, Tom likes gemstones, so I took a little side trip to Korea and -- well -- I kinda borrowed the Jewel of Cytorrak from the temple it was in..."
"You STOLE it?" Katie and Franklin asked together.
"Yes, I guess I did." Cain blushed in embarrassment. "Everything seemed to go well at the party, we were all having a really good time, and then I gave the Jewel to Tom. He was really happy with it, but as soon as he touched the Jewel, the power of the Juggernaut was divided between the two of us."
"TWO Juggernauts," Jack said in awe. "That must really have been cool -- even if each of you were only had half the power of the original."
"It was then that Spiderman and the X-Men showed up to crash the party," Cain continued. "Tom was just beginning to get the feel of his new Juggernaut abilities which Tom also enjoyed a lot., and in the heat of battle Rogue managed to suck out all my power by touching me. The shock was so great that I was unconscious for awhile.
"Yeah," Jack said. "I saw that fight on the TV news last year, you were great! Tom too," Jack said.
"Yeah, until I took and threw the Jewel into orbit, I've been getting weaker ever since."
"Maybe if you put the Jewel back ..." Katie began.
"Har Haw, Hee HEE!" Cain laughed, "We'd need a spaceship to do THAT!" he said, much too loudly.
"As a matter of fact ..." Jack began.
"Shhhh! Jack," Katie and Franklin hissed at him, anticipating his next words.
"...We do have a spaceship," Jack whispers. Juggernaut was not sure if he should believe this or not, there are so many things happening at once.
"C'mon you guys," Alex said. The senior member of Power Pack had aquired an eclectic following of watcher type occult beings and magic users, all appearently interested in whether this group of mortal children would be able to get out of the research center alive or not.
Julie and Allison had taken to standing back to back against the onslaught of the various creatures that reached out to the girls with long boney fingers, claws, and tentacles. A bewildering cacophony of grunts, wheezes, glottal clicks and snarles came from the pack. Suddenly a giant hand closed around one of the stalkers. The hand belonged to Cain Marko. The snared creature let out a sound like a dog's whimper and the rest of the pack instantly disappeared.
"I think it's time we bid a fond farewell to the Stephen Strange Research Center," Allison said softly.
A librarian, Alex was sure it was the man who they had first encountered, stepped out of a pool of inky shadow and waved a hand at the huge double iron-bound oaken doors leading back to the 21st century.
"Yes," the librarian said. "I think that would be best. Some of the watchers are impatient, and they might take it into their heads to cause something to happen worth watching, after all, it is not every day they get to observe such -- er -- tastey human morsels as yourselves."
All six members of Power Pack broke and ran for the outside world. "Discretion is the better part of valour," Alex said as he crossed the threashold back into the normal world of 2008 Manhattan.
A half hour later, getting off the MetroLink at 78th Street and Central Park West, Allison remarked that it was odd that a group of kids traveling with the Juggernaut did not seem to attract much attention from the public at large. A few kids paused to stare, but none of the adults paid any attention to them.
"That's one of the advantages of being Juggernaut," Marko bragged. "People don't seem to notice me unless I want them to. Normally, most people don't even see me."
"But WE can see you..." Katie started.
"Yeah," Cain said slowly. "I don't know exactly why. Ask Professor Poindexter over there," Cain said indicating Alex.
"Uhh --" Alex groaned, thinking fast.
"Whatza matter hotshot? No answers?"
Something inside Alex snapped and he turned on the Juggernaut. "Look, Mr. Marco, I'm sorry that you've had trouble with people before, but that's no reason to blame me! I've never done anything to you. And you might want to remember that if anyone is going to help get your fat fanny out of this mess, it'll probably be ME and Power Pack."
Oh jezus! Jack thought. We're gonna have to fight this bozo. I hope Allison has the brains to get Franklin and Katie out of the way..."
Cain Marko stood there, silent and towering over the twelve-year-old boy. It had been decades since anyone had dared to speak to him in that fashion. The rage inside him wanted to smash the little punk into a smear of strawberry jam ... but for the first time in many years, another sector of his mind argued that the boy was right. Even though the youngster was too smart for his own good, which in itself caused the pool of rage in him to boil he was trying to help.
Marko took a deep breath and did something he had not done for many years. "You're right, uh ... Alex. I'm sorry."
"Good!" Katie said to Cain, as she leaned back against Allison. "I don't like it when you and Alex are mad at each other."
The Roxie theater at 121 W. 78th Street had been where the Power children had originally planned to go to the movies. But that was before Juggernaut had entered their plans. It had quickly become apparent that they would require the services of Friday if they are to have any hope of recovering the Jewel, which everyone agreed was the logical first step to relieving Cain's problem.
"We'd better do something about mom and lunch too," Julie reminded Alex.
"Yeah," Alex acknowledged. "It's already 11:40."
"I've got it," Jack said. "We call mom, tell her that we are at the Roxie and if we don't go right now, we won't get out in time to be home before dark. THEN we wait till next week for the movie, and use Friday to help Juggernaut get the Jewel back."
Alex and Julie looked at each other. Except for the fibbing the plan did cover all bases. By silent consensus they agreed and Alex said: "Good plan, Jack. Allison, can you stick around for the afternoon?"
"Sure, I had planned to spend the day with you anyway, we might as well do something good at the same time."
"Super," Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he dug the cellphone out of his jacket's breast pocket and dialed the Power's home number. "Hi, mom. It's Alex."
"And let me guess, you're having so much fun, you want to skip lunch," his mother laughed.
"Uhh, yes," Alex said caught off balance by his mother's intuition. "It's just that we're at the Roxie now, and they have a double feature: Godzilla vs The Legion Of Superheroes, and Bahzargon, Beast from the 17th Dimension" The show lasts four hours and thirty five minutes, that won't leave much time to get home before dark."
"All right," mom laughed. "Just be sure that you ARE home before dark."
"Don't worry mom, I want to go to the big party with Allison tonight. Bye mom," Alex said quickly, not wanting to give his mother a chance to comment on the party.
"This is so exciting," Allison said. "I'm going to go on a ride in an alien starship. I can hardly wait to meet Friday."
"Julie," Alex said. "Work your magik."
Julie smiled and winked at Allison. Her Kymellian costume flickered into solid reality around her lithe body. "Molecula to Friday," the girl said in a loud steady voice. "Molecula to Friday. Beam me up Scotty."
There was a momentary crackle of static from Julie's suit radio and Friday's vaguely electronic voice seemed to come at them from all directions. "I am sorry, Julie, I do not have the ability to beam anyone up."
"I know Friday, I was only kidding. We need your help on something."
"Going on another adventure?" Friday asked.
"Well ..."
"I am already on the way."
"Thank you Friday," Julie said.
"Julie, wait," Katie said upset. "How will Friday find us? We're not at home."
"Umm...?" Julie said.
"Do not worry, Katie, I already have a sensor lock on you, your brothers, Julie and two others. You are on the west side of Grand Central Park, opposite 78th Street. I will be there in three minutes."
"Oh," Katie said in an embarrassed voice. "I remember now."
The weather had turned nasty again and the ground hugging fog from earlier that morning had returned, this time accompanied by a cold drizzle and an icy stiff breeze straight off the Long Island Sound. While they waited for Friday to arrive, the Juggernaut and Power Pack huddled under a MTD bus shelter.
As if we don't have enough trouble, Alex thought as he watched the fog close off visitability at about a meter. Actually, Alex realized, the bad weather was a blessing in disguise. Sure it was cold and wet, but because of that there were less pedestrians out and drivers were totally absorbed with trying to navigate the pea-soup fog. Perfect weather for the landing of an alien smartship in the heart of one of the Earth's most populous islands.
"Shhhh!" Jack suddenly shushed the small talk. "Listen! I can hear Friday." From somewhere out in the steel gray fog which had lifted somewhat locally to allow a visual range of three or four meters came the throbbing, heartbeat like hum of Friday's ion thrusters. As they waited, the sound grew in volume, and then the silver hull of the Kymellian Smartship broke through into the island of relative clear around Power Pack. Because of the possibility of the fog suddenly lifting to reveal the presence of the Kymellian smartship in Grand Central Park, Friday immediately lifted off and within minutes, they are high above earth in an eccentric nearly hyperbolic orbit.
When everyone was settled into one of Friday's beanbag chairs, Alex introduces the Juggernaut and tells Friday about the troubles that Cain is having, and that Power Pack promiced to help him. "This is all the information on Cytorrak we could find," Alex said, giving Friday the optical disk. "We need you to go through this data and summarize it for us," Alex explained.
"To say nothing of actually retrieving the gemstone," Jack added.
"All right, Alex," Friday agreed. "It will take my processors several minutes to sift through the data that you have brought. In the interim I suggest that we might get your newest team member a costume of her own."
"Great," Alex said. "Thank you, Friday."
"My own costume?" Allison said awed. "I don't know what to say. Just this morning I was dreaming of how neat it would be to BE in Power Pack and have my own costume, and now it's all coming true."
"Allison, if you will please stand here," a circular dais about a half meter wide rose a dozen centimeters above Friday's brushed aluminium deck plating. Allison stepped up onto the dais and stood up straight, like her mother was always telling her to do. A bright yellow-white light bathed the young girl and a focused beam of laser red quickly scanned over her entire body from head to toe. When the scan was completed, the yellow-white aura switched off and the dias sank back into the deck.
"The actual first time fabrication will only take a few seconds," Friday said. "Completed. Do you want to try your costume?"
"Can I?" Allison asked.
"Of course, simply think of your desire for your Power Pack costume and say 'costume on'. When you are finished, simply say 'costume off'."
Allison glanced at Alex, who nodded encouragement.
Allison took a deep breath and whispered: "Costume on!" Instantly Allison's street clothes were replaced by a body hugging coverall of metalic green and the trade mark silver boots of a Kymellian exploration uniform.
"It's beautiful!" Julie and Katie said in unison.
"And check out her cool symbol," Alex said, pointing at Allison's chest. On it was her character's crest, a red disk half covering a larger gold disk on an inky black background.
Allison struck a pose like a comic book superhero.
"Welcome to Power Pack, Eclipse," Jack said and formally shook hands with the newest preadolescent superhero.
To Be Continued