| "Er.....right," Leela blinks, obviously wondering for the fiftieth
time what she's gotten herself into her.
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 him 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....preferably 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 couldn'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.
The Doctor
You know? I could get used to this! I think simply to myself,
looking back and seeing how my friends (and dear Inquirer) handle potential
problems.....letting me handle the tasks I had set off in doing instead
of haring off, putting out yet another set of problems that my Companions
just can't seem to be able to handle (besides...some of them.....running
and screaming).
I then turn back, but find that Xoanon seems to be giving off some rather......frightened
muttering. I can't make out most what he's saying and no manner of prodding
or coaxing seems to work. However....what I do get....is a bit.....disturbing.
"We have gotten all we are going to get here," I sigh.
We soon seem to follow a similar path that my.....TV counterpart (a
concept that still strikes me as bizarre at times) followed with Leela
in examining the Barrier. Yes, it is a Time Barrier and everything inside
it is just moved forward a few seconds in time. A true void, impervious
to all forms of energy and such. Leela's (amazing girl....good brain in
that head of her's) questions about how, if that's true, we hear the voice
of Xoanon leads us to the very base of the Great Cliffs. Betty and Ragan
smile when Leela's question brings us here.
I believe that they knew....but that small tidbit of information was
left out in the brief synopsis of what happened on that TV series while
on that trek through the jungle.
Well, we had been in a hurry back then and no matter what, their telling
me about the Mordee expedition was invaluable in aiding me finding this
planet. See, back in my reality I'd aided my version of the
Expedition (and I'm rather inordinately happy to say that unlike my...er......that
other Doctor I remembered to wipe the core of my personality).
Thankfully, I happen to know through the Melcit Theorem that the personality
the other Doctor left in Xoanon is compatible with my own. One wouldn't
think it, seeing that the chap is.....or would have supposedly been a future
incarnation of me. However, despite how different some of my previous selves
had seemed.....as much as it sometimes irks me.....all of those aspects
of their personality of previous incarnations go into in some way at creating
the new incarnation.
If nothing else, I spoke with Sigin privately awhile ago and he assures
me if I do go insane....he can use his magic to heal my mind.
Dragons, I'm told, are rather good at that particular brand of
healing magic.
I pause, noting the fact that the faces carved into the cliff aren't
perfect. Then again, what is perfect in this imperfect universe?
"So how do we get in?" Leela asks, "Up the nose?"
Betty and Ragan break into laughter at that one as I explain it's through
the mouth of the Fourth Doctor.
That said, it's a rather easy climb, but when we get to the top, we
discovering a Tesh guard gaping out the back of the cave.....looking at
the strange landscape that just popped into existence.
After tending to the Tesh's stabbing wound caused by Leela's thrown
knife, we soon see just why that now unconscious guard was looking!
-
 "Nantucket?!"
the Doctor blinks, recognizing the town behind the spaceship in the distance.
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