| Meanwhile Thessamar ix'latl is in the middle of explaining why she
is still naked. Apparently she is under a curse that makes it impossible
for her to wear clothes. "I can probably lift the curse, given time," Jarlath
says. "But I'm afraid we have other priorities just at the moment." "I
understand that, and anyway it doesn't bother me that much," Thessamar
replies.
Then she yawns, her eyes close, and she slumps to the floor. Others
are doing the same.
Soon, all are snoring (even the most magic resistent succumb to the
repeated spells cast by that Book).
A Fred and Astra (one who's background hasn't been revealed yet)....are
soon magically levitated to a different part of the pyramid.....
A bit earlier (centuries, minutes, or days...depending on your measure
of time).....
Lord Josh becomes hypnotised by the pulsing of the computer screen.
He has no knowledge of what the computer is doing to his body, which
is basically precisely what the name says. In about five minutes Josh's
body was systematically equalised with that of the on screen heroine. Gradually
the pulsing of the light grew and grew. Suddenly it stopped and the screen
read GAME OVER.
Lady Joshine turned off her computer and went to bed.
The Lady awakes......and starts when she finds herself tied and bound....naked
to her bed!
"Mornin', Sunshine!" an incredibly cheerful voice chirps, "Feeling okay?"
Joshine turns her head to look at a grinning man dressed in jeans and
jean jacket. Unbeknownst to her and her capture, they are about to recite
some lines from a certain Stephen King's mini-epic TV movie.
"Wha....who are you?!" Lady Joshine shouts, "How dare you do this to
a Lady of High Blood!"
"Pleased to meet you, Lloyd." the man smiles, "Hope you guess my name."
"What?" the naked lady blinks, suddenly nonplused by this odd man.
"Just a classical reference." the man giggles a giggle that would sound
right at home coming from behind the bars of an insane asylum.
The giggling suddenly stops and the man's face grows utterly cold.
"They say that wisdom comes though knowledge," he says softly, as if
speaking to himself, "Especially if one knows oneself. "I come from outside
time," he continues, "I'm the king of nowhere....and I don't know myself......"
"At least until I met these three nice ladies living in a big tree!"
he suddenly grins again. "They somehow came across the memories I'd lost
over time after time. After each defeat and destruction....albeit a temporary
thing for me....."
Joshine shudders when she sees that the man's teeth are VERY sharp pointed.
She then blinks again when she look again and sees that they are utterly
normal.....
But they HAD been pointed. She'd swear to it!
"I've gone by many names," he continues in a now friendly voice, "Merlin,
Marlin, Marin Broadcloak....back when I was in an M mode. Back in a place
called Israel I was called..... Legion. Still can't believe I got
stuck in those pigs.....and was stupid enough afterwards to run off a cliff!
"Nowaday.....I'm just plain ol' Randall Flagg." the man smiles zanily,
"Back with all his memories of all things. And ya' all know the ol' saw:
'Knowledge is power!'"
"And as for you," the man then comes up to her and places a hand on
a breast. "You have something I want!"
"You....I'll scream!" Joshine shouts, fearing the utter worst.
"You mean like this?" Flagg smiles, suddenly breaking into ear splitting
female
screams that would do the most dewy eyed lady of a fairy tale justice.
"Nobody is around to hear you," the man smiles, "But frankly what I
want right now is something that somebody named Josh had. You don't
know about it and don't know how to use it anyway....not without practice.
However, this one guy I know back at someplace called Game 3 would just
love to get his hands on Author powers.....I...could just....loan hims
some of my 'juice'....but....that would.....leave too many clues to my
clueless Bosses..."
Flagg looks over Joshine's prone form...and licks his lips....then shakes
his head violently to clear it.
This Demon (for that is what Flagg is) is like many of his evil kin,
a rather randy lot (and like to take woman and such....perferably
against their will).
"Stop that!" he scolds himself, "Getting caught up right now at that
will cost you again, like back during the 2,456th time.....
"Save it for dear, sweet Nadine Cross," he admonishes himself, mastering
himself.
He then frowns. Nadine was going to soon come to Los Vegas....but for
some reason whenever he senses the surrounding lands for those twerps
who allied themselves with Abigail...there was this one annoying thing
(despite having regained so much upon remembering).
"M-O-O-N." he mutters to himself, "That spells moon."
He then curses and makes a yanking motion.....and the world goes grew....then
dark for Lady Joshine.
"Hmm, let's see if that little trick I learned from that one interesting
mage......Tesla, works here and now," he mutters to himself, looking at
the prone form, "Heck, maybe if it does I'll use that little party trick
on this one knight turned belly dancer.....could be fun....."
Satisified with making certain adjustments to Matrixes permanent and
irreversible, Flagg nods and smiles....then wills the clothing of Joshine
to again form upon the naked and sleeping woman's unconscious form.
"Forget," Flagg intones the Word of Power, causing Joshine
to forget the last five years of her life before now......
"Now where to put you?" Flagg thinks aloud to himself.
A literal lightbulb flashes above Flagg's head. After all, not only
was what he was about to do to that one version of Nantucket going to be
fun.....the
energies released by that one TARDIS he'd found floating around space would
do wonders in giving that one interesting dragon (real head on his scaley
shoulders.....that one Minestus Flagg had talked with so long ago) the
magical little 'extra' needed to jumpstart things and make it possible
to actually enter that Red Pyramid dear old Tesla put it.....where
his magic using rivals coudn't touch it.
In a reality with no magic in it.....!
Flagg fiddles with a mutli-color ultra-long scarf that he'd found on
the control column of that TARDIS.....and......after causing the TARDIS
to tear explode and push a large chunk of 20th century American real estate
(and surrounding sea) back into the past (and then "sideways") he then
pushes
Joshine into an abandoned house......a bit later....in Nantucket.
And the magic flows and powers out over a world who'd been magically
dead.....and out into an unsuspecting universe.....
Yes, Flagg is satisfied with the results (with the extra bonus of displacing
yet another chunk of real estate....from the very last world the blue box
had visited....right before it's occupant evaporated)...... Fun fun fun!!!
And all not so flashy as to tip certain Ones off to his little tricks
and playing....
But right now, there is this rather urgent business back in that one
Earth. His Nadine was on her way! At last!
Soon afterwards (er.....if you have seen the TV movie or read the story
"The Stand" you'll get what happened to Nadine to understand why she says
before an elevator to her "love's" hotel room: We... are... dead...
and... this... is... Hell!
But that....unpleasantry is not important to the here and now story
here.....and now.
"Say hello to Seven of Nine me....." Sam Macy is saying as they beam
back from that amazing meeting with the Voyager....only to fade out in
consternation and confusion as he and the others of the Nantucket Council
sees the slumbering woman on the floor.....and an odd group of very heavily
armed people with revolvers (one young man dressed....as a cowboy?)....along
with some fugitives from a fantasy novel!
"Oh, that's just great," mutters Dragon Synizn, annoyed.
-
 Meanwhile,
in a universe far away (where a certain TARDIS had come from).....an enclave
inside a Time Barrier....flickers....and vanishes......
Go Back
|