[LNH] Adventures Beyond Comprehension #10: 'Wrath'

[Saxon Brenton]

	Carolyn Forge in:
	Adventures Beyond Comprehension #10
	Wrath
	By Jesse N. Willey

	I was drifting off to sleep on Rick's shoulder.    The whole
bedroom vanished.    I was on a beach.   The waves were crashing down
in rapid storm-like conditions.    A red haired farmer in a straw hat
and overalls walked up behind me.    In our past meetings he'd
introduced himself as `The Grim Seeder' but I had a few guesses about
his real identity.  Our last encounters cost me something dear and
caused me to gain something else.  I'm still unsure if it was an even
trade.

	But that's life.

	"What do you want?" I asked.
	"Only to help," he said.
	"Like you did last time?"
	"Change is inevitable.   I only seek to smooth the transitions,"
he said.

	I've always hated these mystic types.   They were always so
intentionally vague.   They never give a straight answer on anything.
Santa Claus must have had a wonderful time asking them what they'd
want for Christmas.

	"What is it this time?"
	"There is no quest.  I come with information.   The question is...
Do you want it?" he asked.
	"Why wouldn't I?"
	"The truth does not always set you free.   Look at what it did
for Galileo," Grim Seeder said.
	"No riddles... what's this about?"

	He tipped his hat gently.

	"I'm afraid I cannot say.  One of the burdens of a being a
celestial being such as myself is knowing that knowledge is
meaningless compared to experience.   It is better to nudge things
along and hope they play out for the best," he said.

	I turned around to walk away.

	"Wait!  This information--it's about who killed your mothers.
It's not who you think.  It wasn't Kult," he said.
	"What?"
	"It's true--I swear it."
	"If that's true--who did?" I asked.
	"There are things beyond my knowledge--or my experience.   You
must find this for yourself," he said.

	He handed me a piece of paper.   It had an address that I looked
down at it.

	"But that's--- that's impossible."
	"Improbable--but it is where you will find your first answers."

	_________________________________________________________________

	As usual, Rick wasn't there when I got up.  He thinks I don't
know about his nightly wanderings.   He waits until he's absolutely
sure I'm asleep before flying out to the window to help people.   It's
sweet, so I humor him.  There are times-- not many-- when I want to go
with him.  Saving the world is a rush.

	The piece of paper was still in my hand.   I grabbed my
communication card off the nightstand and pressed the third button to
the left and a partially nude red head filled the screen.

	"Angelica, can you have Ellie down here in an hour... and meet me
at Teenfactor's old headquarters," I said.
	"So you know?  About time," she said.
	"About what?"
	"Nothing.  I'll clue in you when we get there.  Oh--and bring the
suit," Angelica said.

	The suit.   My old Aero Lass costume.   A part of my past I
thought long gone.  Of course, when you're dating a costumed
individual you can't go around completely unprotected.  So I had it
dug out, upgraded it, and tweaked it a bit.  Or as I said-- maybe I
just missed it.
	________________________________________________________________

	I hadn't been back to this side of town since the disaster.
Unlike Rick, I don't wallow in self-defeat.   I didn't see any reason
to come out this way.   When I got there, I was shocked.   It was
there.   Just as it was. It was like going back to a high school
reunion.  The shapes and colors were the same but the building that
had once seemed like a fortress now seemed so small.   Of course, I
skipped high school.   So all I know about high school reunions is
from that John Cousack movie Rick made me watch.

	"How is this possible?" I asked.

	The door opened.  Angelica walked out.

	"Thanks to my brother.  The molecular blueprint of the city he
used for the reconstruction was a few days out of date.  Any buildings
that were damaged in your battle with Kult were rebuilt too," Angelica
said.
	"Will the old files be accessible?" I asked.
	"Oh yeah, certainly.   Everything is exactly as it was.   The
echoes even remembered whether or not you left the toilet seat up."

	I walked toward the entrance.  I pressed my thumb up against the
doorbell and the door opened. I ran through the corridors--just as they
were years ago--until I got to the main computer room.

	It was a truly highly advanced feat of engineering for a military
super computer in nineteen ninety nine.  Now I could do more on a
pocket calculator.   I was surprised to see one of my old machines
after all this time.   I started typing in the information.   It
seemed to take forever though it was only a fraction of a second.

	"So... yes... the security logs.  Let's see who left and came back
that night," I said to no one.  "Terrence and I didn't leave at all--
Elaine, Pearly White, even the reserve members checked in except..."

	Only one name appeared when I did the search.  I was shocked.  I
was truly shocked.  I shouldn't have been.   I should have seen it
coming.  In instead my face contorted to a hybrid of surprise and a
snarl.

	"Electra--you are dead."

	______________________________________________________

	I got back into the car.   I inserted the communication card into
the dashboard where the car's navigation panel was.   I told it to
call Rick.   As I pulled out of the parking space his smiling face
filled the screen.

	"What's up honey?  I'm flying over New York City right now.  I'm
helping out some of the local supers with a case.   You want me to
pick up dinner from Nathan's on the way home?" he asked.
	"No.  I'm fine."
	"You don't sound fine."

	I've known Rick since I was six years old.  He knows me better
than anyone alive.   There was absolutely no use in hiding it.

	"I just have to deal with something."
	"Need any help?  I'm just about wrapped up here."
	"I can handle Electra on my own."
	"Electra? What?  Why--" he said.

	I clicked the screen off.  He's not Terrence.   He wouldn't
understand.  I don't think he should ever have to.

	______________________________________________________

	There are a lot back roads on the way to Lurray Caverns.  There
was a small, poorly painted series of structures that were part of
`Yogi's Campground'.   It was a small chain that opened across the
country in the late sixties or early seventies hoping the Hanna-
Barbera character would lure families there instead of the state
parks.

	For awhile it worked.  They had better restrooms, a laundry mat,
a snack bar and a minimart.  All with a giant Yogi Bear statue on top.
While the place was in a state of disrepair they still got visitors.
I flew by the minimart and spotted a camper.   The top of his head was
in wrapped in tinfoil.  Where Dalton goes, Electra usually follows.  I
swooped down and grabbed him.

	"Where is she?"
	"Geez Electra, nice that you've finally come around--but I'm not
into that roleplaying stuff..." he said. "... at least the kind that you
don't need a dice bag for."
	"I'm Carolyn.  Where is she?"
	"Cut that out.  It isn't fun anymore.   Can I just take a ten for
an escape roll?"

	Electra is right.  He is extremely aggravating.  I grabbed him
tightly by the collar of his `Property of Colbert Nation' t-shirt and
then flew up about ten stories up in the air.

	"Where is she?"
	"Oh--uh it really is you Carolyn.  Sorry about that.   I--Uh--uh--I
don't know," Dalton said.

	I loosened my grip.

	"Where is she?"
	"I don't know."

	I dropped him.   He made a loud oomph as he belly flopped onto
thick branch of a tree.   I aimed my blaster at the base of the tree
itself.  He coughed.

	"Come on, tell me," I said.
	"Um--- Two doors over.  The Laundry mat."

	I turned around and flew toward the Laundry mat.   My fists were
blazing with energy.   The glass of the window shattered.    She ran
out as the building exploded.    She blindly hurled lightning bolts
into the sky.

	"Damn it!  Can't a gal get her underwear cleaned without being
threatened by super powered psychopaths?!" she said.

	Then she saw me.   The look on her face was priceless.   I
blasted down at her feet.  She jumped and struck me with a lightning
bolt square on.  The suit took it.   Electra started to herd the few
people in the building away from the combat.   My next shot was placed
right at the based of the statue.   She didn't notice.   The massive
mound of plexiglass and wood came plunging down.   She tried to dodge
but wasn't able to.  One of her lightning bolt blasted it into smaller
chunks.   The blow wasn't fatal, but she was pinned beneath it.

	I landed.   I turned off the blasters.   I walked over to her and
kicked in her the face.

	"Why'd you do it?" I asked.
	"What are you talking about?"
	"You know what I'm talking about.   Caron Forge and Marie Joy.
You killed them.  Why?  What did Kult offer you?" I asked.
	"What?  I didn't--" she said.

	I kicked her again.

	"I'll ask you again.  Why?"
	"I didn't..."

	I stared at the statue again. I did some quick geometry in my
head and then I blasted Yogi in the face.   Chunks of wood flew in
just the right way to miss any major organs.  She'd bleed but she
wouldn't die.  At least not if she talked.

	"Why?"
	"I just said I didn't..."

	I pulled her out of the wreckage.  I threw her hard against the
image Boo-Boo painted on the brick wall.  I heard the snap of her
ribs.  She deserved it.  Her lies were meaningless when weighed
against the evidence.   All the evidence pointed toward her.  All of
it.   Her guilt was undeniable and no force on earth could convince me
otherwise.

	A man slowly walked out of the laundry mat.

	"She didn't do it." He said.

	No force but that.   The man was wearing coveralls and a straw
hat.   He had a piece of the hay between his teeth.   It was the same
mysterious man who put me on this quest in the beginning--The Grim
Seeder.

	"What? Then why bring me here?" I said.
	"I can only give clues.   It's not my fault if you followed the
wrong ones," he said.

	And just like that--poof--gone.

	There was the soft hum of Rick making a slow landing.  I'd know
the sound anywhere.

	"Everything all right here?" he asked.

	The barley conscious Electra garbled out a cry and shot me in the
face with a electric bolt.   Off pure instinct I chucked a piece of
wood at her and her head hit the brick wall again.

	"Everything is fine."

	___________________________________________________________

	Seconds later, the ambulance arrived.  I think one of the other
laundry mat patrons used their cell phone to call for help.  You were
lucky.   I guess I was too.   I didn't want to kill you.  If you had
been guilty, you wouldn't have deserved to die.  It is too easy an
escape.

	Seeing you dragged away on that stretcher as Rick tried to sedate
me, I realized, you were right.   We aren't all that different.   I
try to deny it, but the same anger that drives you does exist in me.
How do you do it?   How can someone with that much rage survive, let
alone thrive?

	Does any of what I am exist in you?

	Electra--can you please forgive me?

	The End

_____________________________________________________________________
Carolyn Forge and Electra created by Tom Russell Jnr.   Grim Seeder,
Rick Henkerton, Angelica Weinstein and Dalton Asters created by Jesse
N. Willey.

_________________________________________________________________
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