Last time, with the combined efforts of Will, her friends, along with Jill and her team, the demons were all destroyed. Only The Dadga Khan escaped, swearing to kill The Guardians and take Cornelia as his mate. After introducing the new Ramblers to Will and the other, Violet and Martin agreed to share information on the demons and the time/space distortions that were affecting the many worlds. On with the show!
Chapter 18: Data X-Change
"Just how are you going to get in touch with your dimension?" asked Taranee, "I've found that it's not easy to communicate between universes." "It is easy with this," said Violet as she pulled out form her bag what looked like a large PDA. "This device can send a signal to the Bureau computers where my brother, Klaus is waiting to send a signal back. It's a little something Virgil made a while back."
"Where is Virgil anyway?" asked Martin as Violet fiddled with the PDA controls for better reception. "His cyber eyes exploded," said Laura, "He'll be out of action for at least another 4 days." "They blew up again?" asked Irma. "Yep," said Fay, "Because someone played a stupid joke on him." "I said I was sorry," said Michael, "What more do you want?"
"I want you to realize," said Jill, "That Virgil is a recovering alcoholic who has a short temper for stupidity in his comrades." "Well I have a short temper for bossy women," said Michael, "And there's a limit to the amount of abuse I'm willing to take. I said I was sorry over and over, yet neither you nor Fay nor anyone else will drop it. Right now I'm like a racecar that's in the red, and it's dangerous to have a racecar that's in the red. I could blow."
"You can blow?" asked Laura, "You can blow? Well let me tell you something you ass! You think you've got a short fuse! I'm like a mushroom-cloud laying mother-f#ck#r that's about to hit critical mass with the slightest prodding! I am super-fly TNT ready to explode! I am the Guns of the Naverone! So don't go around thinking you're the only one who gets angry easily!" "I've forgotten just how scary she can be," said Irma.
"Everyone just shut up!" yelled Hay Lin, "We're all on the same side here, so let's at least try to get along, okay?" "Remember what Max always says about arguments," said Jill, "'If you want to kill each other, do it on your own f#ck$ng time. The mission comes first.'" Laura and Michael glared at each other for a minute. "Truce?" asked Laura as she held out her hand. "Truce," said Michael as she shook Laura's hand, "Until the mission is over."
"Now that that is over with," said Violet, "I'll try to get in touch with home," she then activated the transmitter on the PDA, "Klaus, Klaus, can you hear me?" There was a crackle of static lasting ten seconds before Klaus's voice was heard form the device, "I read you, Violet. I take it that you all made it to the source of the distortions?"
"Not exactly," said Violet, "I'm sending you some data collected, have the Bureau computers figure out what happened. I'm also sending you data on distortions that have occurred in other dimensions." Violet then hooked up Martin's laptop to the PDA and started the data transfer. "I'll transfer this to the computer core at once," said Klaus, "But what's happening on your end?"
While Klaus uploaded the data to the Bureau computer core, Violet informed him on what Will and the others told her, especially on The Dadga Khan's threat to mate with Cornelia. Fortunately, Klaus had recently read several books on demon behavior, so he knew the answer.
"This Dadga Khan," said Klaus, "From what you told me is an extremely powerful creature that needs to transfer its mind into a new body every 6,000 years, or else it'll cease to exist. The creature needs a young virgin to impregnate." "But why Cornelia?" asked Will, "Irma's a virgin as well, why not her?" "Why do I have the feeling I've been insulted?" asked Irma.
"It could be for a number of reasons," said Klaus, "The demon might have chosen Cornelia because her reproductive system is most ready for ovulation. It could be her genetic background or some other biological factor. There are thousands of reasons why the demon picked Cornelia."
"Maybe it just likes blonds," said Nigel. "You're not helping," said Caleb. "Whatever the reason," said Klaus, "You can't let the demon impregnate Cornelia. Once the demon has transferred its mind into the unborn child, and the gestation period is completed, which can last from nine months to as little as nine minutes, the child will devour the mother from the inside out."
"That's just wrong on so many levels," said Taranee. "So we'll just wait until the demon dies," said Matt, "It did say its time was running out." "We can't wait," said Laura, "The time/space distortions will destroy our worlds in a matter of months. We need to stop whatever they're doing now before there's any collateral damage."
"Another thing," said Guts, "It would be pointless to hide. The Dadga Khan is a kind of creature that won't stop, can't stop after what it wants. There would be no place in all of existence that you could hide Cornelia and keep her safe. I should know, I've been hunted by demons for over 400 years."
"Right," said Michael, "Demon mating with Cornelia is something we don't want, I get that." "We can't hide and wait," said Fay, "So how do we stop this?" "I'm getting to that," said Klaus, "There are only two ways to save Cornelia. First, kill The Dadga Khan."
"Now you're talking my kind of turkey," said an eager Fay, "So how do we kill it?" "I don't know," said Klaus, "I need to research this level of demon more thoroughly."
"What's the other way to save Cornelia?" asked Hay Lin. "That one is both simpler and more difficult at the same time," said Klaus, "In all incidences and legends where a human female virgin is sought after by a demon, the girl is saved by being deflowered by her one true love. At least, in the cases where the girl lives."
It got so quiet that you could hear crickets chirping. "Well Caleb," said Nigel, "You've got a man's work ahead of you." "That might be a problem," said Caleb, "Cornelia and I both feel that we should wait until marriage. It's a matter of values."
"Well let me put it to you this way, Corney," said Irma, "It's either your values or your life. So what's it gonna be?" "I can solve this dilemma," said Ed, "Here we have North H.Q. I'll tell them to let you two have a room alone for, oh, say twenty or thirty minutes, and we can have this whole mess put behind us."
"This isn't how I imagined us making love for the first time," said Cornelia to Caleb as the followed Ed into the building, "But I guess you can't have every thing you want." Ed came out alone five minutes later, "They've got a room where they can be alone," he said, "And in thirty minutes or so this whole mess will be over with."
Cornelia came storming out after about eight minutes, a look of distaste on her face. "That was quick," said Irma, "How was it?" "Shut up!" snapped Cornelia, "Just leave me alone!" "Was it that bad?" asked Will. "It wasn't anything," said Cornelia, "He can't get it up, if you know what I mean."
Caleb then came running out of the building. "I'm sorry Cornelia," he said, "But I just can't perform under pressure." "You're under pressure!" snapped Cornelia, "You're under pressure! It's my life that's at stake here and you can't get your grove on!"
"Maybe he's not her one true love," said Leon. Cornelia then walked up to Leon and slapped him across the face. "Don't you ever say that again!" shouted Cornelia, "I love Caleb with all my heart, and he loves me equally." She then walked back to Caleb, "I'm the one who should be sorry, I'm sorry to press you so."
"We're both sorry," said Caleb, "We both have the same values. It'll be alright my love," he embraced Cornelia, "We'll find another way to keep that monster away from you, I promise." "The only other way to stop The Dadga Khan," said Violet, "Is to kill it." "Then we're just going to have to kill it then," said Jill, "It's that simple."
The end of chapter 18. Next chapter, Max, Steve, Julie and Tyler arrive with assistance from an unexpected source. Please review and I'll see you next time!