Stuck at the airport (1)

Sun said as she picked up the phone in her room. It was dead. Someone had hung up the phone! Sunny couldn't hear when she was upstairs. It is always quieter in her room....way down in the depths of the catacombs of the Mansion. "Frell, frell, frell it all!" Sunny said as she marched back upstairs.

Manhiem was still happening upstairs...Sunny saw Rae on the phone.....wondered if Rae knew that Spy was stuck at the airport. Rae hung up before Sunny could get to her.

"Let's go VikingPimpDaddy, we've got to go pick up Spy. Tell your little cheerleader friends to go home. Besides, weren't you told not to bring them here again?" Sunny asked, looking at the now sad Ragnar.

"Sure, fine...nothing a little painkiller won't take care of." Spy answered as he thought *and being able to rewind what just happened and delete it* Spy was hoping that Laeryn didn't 'see' what just happened. Chances were, she 'saw' it.

"Right, then!" Rae climbed into the back seat, over Ragnar "hi..." and into the cargo area of the car. She began throwing things over her shoulder and into the back seat.

"I don't know," he replied to her, I guess Spy called from the airport for a ride, and I heard Rae muttering something about an explosion. "What?!" yelled Kay, Jilla, and Mouse, all at once. "An explosion? Why didn't they tell us?" asked Jila. "Is Spyral okay?" asked Mouse, forgetting her irritation from a moment ago, at the deafening noise that caused her to take Mouseling out of her crib and down the hall to the farscape daycare so she could sleep peacefully.

"I have a bad feeling about this," said IQ. "Maybe we should head up there?" So, four more Scoobs headed in the mansion Cherokee towards the airport to see if they could help.

The entire airport was a disaster. People running and screaming. Falling and tumbling. Screaming and falling. Running and tumbling. (You get the idea, it was MASS HYSTERIA, okay?)

The temperature felt like something out of the hottest, dankest jungle and the air was filled with so much static electricity, that the angels single downly wing was actually crackling with every movement he made. Which wasn't much, considering the amount of pain that he was in.

He could take alot of punishment, this angel, but considering that in his crashing, he had taken out two rows of bench seats, and left a considerable dent in the wall, there were lots of times, when he had felt better.

He looked up toward the gaping hole in the air, and the void that lay beyond it. It pulsed, as if with a life of its own, millions of colors dancing across it in sickening patterns.

He had missed that part, unfortunately, being dazed after the actual opening of the damned thing. But he HAD been aware enough to hear the scream of the blind girl that had been in the adjacent waiting area. Screams, as if she had been taken by ...... whatever had come thru.

The angel struggled to his feet. Stepping lightly, he approached the portal with caution. Reaching into his wing, he pulled out a pair of hyperuzis. Jacking back the slides, he came to a halt in front of the hole in the air. It crackled, loudly, with energy.

"Dren!" he barely got out, as he quickly tried to raise the hyperuzis and fire. For he knew what was going to happen just before it did, but he was too late. Something large and metallic landed against his chest, sending him flying back once more, and his twin hyperuzis skittering in two different directions.

Raising up his head, the angel witnessed a large mechanical arm, retract back into the portal, just before he saw a large mechanical leg enter his world, and smash down onto the tile floor of the airport.

"Can generally be considered the cause of most explosions!" Rae yells. "I need specifics." She stops dead as an ominous noise fills the air: concrete and steel straining and breaking under an enormous weight.

The group starts into the large main lobby of the airport. Heavily armed, Rae is setting off metal detectors from ten feet away. As Ragnar continues forward, Rae and Sunny stop dead, arrested by a wall of heat.

Kay, Jila, IQ, and Mouse were all quiet, each lost in thought, wondering what could be going on. As they pulled up into the short-term parking, what felt like a small earthquake rocked the car.

It was bit of a madhouse to say the least. Pushing and shoving, shoving and pushing. A time or two he was actually taking three steps back for every two he went foreward. What ever was up had spooked these people something good.

Sirens and alarms were going off but noone seemed to be interested in stopping three lunitics, with not enough common sense to run away ,from running foreward.

The angel was jolted awake by the sounds of a freight train going of the Empire State building. His body shook with the impact, as the sound penetrated thru his already deafened ears and seemed to rattle his very bones. Each impact was impact was actually causing his body to bounce an inch or two off the floor. This did nothing good to quell the pain he felt.

The angel managed to raise his head and look up and his mouth fell open, slack jawed, at the large metallic monstrosity that stopped just in front of him, and seemed to hover over him. It must have stood at least 20 feet tall. Made of a gleaming metal, it looked like something out of a child's 'Erector Set Nightmare'. At least a dozen different appendages covered its upper body, including a very large and dangerous looking one that seemed to be attatched directly to its back. Small red beams of light seemed to be emanating from another half dozen places on its body, which seemed to sweep the area, as if scanning it. The beast did not seem to have a head, as it were.

At the sound of his voice, three of the red beams swept forward, sweeping crazily across the angels body. A high-pitched wail now began to emanate from the beast, as if in alarm, and one of the appendages seemed to focus on the prone angel.

Mustering all of his remaining strength, the angel rolled out the way as a plasma burst erupted from the appendage and impacted on the tile floor of the airport. Concrete spattered everywhere and choking dust filled the air. The emergy beams continued to sweep the area, as if searching for what little might remain of the angel.

Another screech filled the air, from behind the metallic monster, and glancing back in the cirection of the portal,yet something else seemed to be emerging from it.

"Ice-cream!" Rae replies, panting (we can't sweat, so we pant). Sure enough, she finds a freezer full of pre-packaged ice-cream bars. She helps herself to several, shoving them into her bag where she knows they will not melt (due to the magic).

Slurping down one herself, Rae squares her shoulders and heads in the direction of the noise, holding Raegun at ready. "You're not going to pick now to go all pacifist on me, are you, love?"

She picked up a piece of rubble and threw it at the the creature's head. The rock bounced off but drew blood (or something). It turned with an angry roar. Pieces of the floor near Rae disintigrated under the power of the red death-beam. Sweating and unarmed, Rae stood her ground in the middle of the deserted lobby.

Unnoticed, Sunny darted into the lobby and began dragging Spyral to cover. Raegun, slung over Sunny's shoulder, watched Rae nervously as she stood, vulnerable.

As Rae began to edge backwards and Sunny and Spyral disappeared from view, Ragnar laid down the explosive charges she had provided. Hopefully, these would destroy the portal. Hopefully, they would not take the airport with it.

Rae moved cautiously into a small office adjoining the lobby. The monster, too big to use the door, began pounding at the wall. Rae threw a chair through the window, breaking it. A two-story drop was preferable to what would happen if she stayed put. She leaned out and saw Sunny and Ragnar carrying Spyral to safety. Other Scoobs had begun to gather as well.

Rae dove out of the window, hitting the ground in a roll as the monster broke through the wall and into the office. She pelted towards the car, yelling at everyone to get in and drive away.

Spyral didn't make any protest at his rescue. He was so relieved to have a reprieve from that things attack it took the trip back to the mansion for him to recover enough to think clearly.

"Why did you come back early Angel?" Rae asked him. "Early?" he was puzzled. "I wasn't early. I told you I would be back today. "No you didn't", said Sunny. "I remember telling you on the voice mail that I would be back.

As they help Spyral into the house and onto the couch, suddenly he gasps and tries to pull away. "No! We must go back! Now!" "Sit down man, and rest." said Ragnar, think the angel was delusional. "No, the girl. It took the girl." said Spyral weakly. "What girl?"asked Kay. "The blind girl." "Blind girl, Spy?" asked Mouse. Jila tried to push him back down onto the couch and cover him with a blanket. "No, there was a girl, and the hole took her." he said almost desperately.

Raegun ignored this. "If they wanted to... hurt this girl, they could have done it without taking her. They could have destroyed the airport and everyone in it. They didn't. They just took the girl."

Sure enough, all of the major channels are covering what they are calling 'an earthquake of staggering power and amazingly limited range'. Of course, none of them can get close enough to find out what's really going on, which is just as well for them.

Ghost nodded in acknowledgement to Rae. "I think I can manage to slip in unnoticed," she said, as she quickly became translucent, then reappeared a few seconds later.

He was once again shoved back down into the cushions, this time by Ragnar. "Never underestimate the powers of an angry viking to counter the healing powers of the Divine and Immortal. You won't do anyone any good unless you heal. I'll go with her!"

Spyral looked after them with longing. The angel usually had uncommon patience, but he had reached his limit. He didn't like taking a beating like the one he had been given. He hated being dragged away from one even less. Though he knew that he did indeed need at least an hour or so to recover. And then. It was gonna be "Open Season!"

Rae said with a shrug. She eyes Sunny. "Isn't that what we do? Establish, dig in, THEN fight. Without an HQ, there's nowhere to send out teams from, and nowhere to fall back to once you've taken those first losses."

Rae gets up and walks up to the TV, staring at the men unloading supplies from old, black-and-white trucks. "Looks like those military budget cuts really hit hard. That looks like the rocket-launcher from 'the day the earth stood still'. And those tanks." Rae shakes her head in disgust. "Too bad the military hasn't really played an active role in many recent sci-fi movies."

in a small room off of her bedroom. Not even the DRDs know of the existence of this room. Every Peacekeeper in Rae's profession has such a room. Only a retinal scan plus a voice command (in code) from the operative can open it. Booby-traps ensure its security. Communications equipment lines the walls. Except for periodic transmissions to Command indicating that she is in fact alive, Rae has never had cause to use this room.

"A Sebacian presence on Earth would be devestating." Raegun says insistantly. "And that assumes that the Peacekeepers would expend their resources on such a planet."

"Did you look at the army that was lining up outside that airport?" Rae demands angrily. "It's from those horrible little balck-and-white 1950s horror movies. They don't stand a chance!"

"Rae, at least wait until Ragnar and Ghost return with the report. The Scoobs have dealt with a lot in the past. Maybe they can deal with this, too. Hmm? You're just worried now. Take the time to really think about this. You can always request a military intervention later on..."

"Right. I should check my stash of fuel and fire power, just to make sure I'll have enough to use my Prowler...if it comes to that." Sun said, heading towards the catacomb door.

...workshop. Inside were various gismos and gadgets he had been working on. IQ walked over to one corner of the workshop were he had been working on something that slightly resembled a washing machine. He felt that this new invention he had been working on would be useful with the upcoming problem, whatever it might be. It still had a few bugs to be worked out with the hydrolics. IQ quickly went to work.

for Sunny to return with a weapon's report. She shelves the unexpected intelligence that Sunny is still in communication with the Peacekeepers (wondering briefly if she might also be in communication with the Scarrans, who had a habit of leaving their mark on a person, as Rae well knew) along with a mental note to check it out later.

Rae bends over, seemingly sympathetic, but whispers, so softly that not even Mouse hears, "I probably don't need to tell you that you don't go ANYWHERE without my okay. Don't frell with me on this, Spy. A lot of people could get hurt."

"No one plans on doing nothing, Spy." Rae says gently. "But sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor." She turns to leave, placing Raegun on the bar. "I'm going to the gym. Keep me briefed on events here, and let Sunny know where she can find me."

keeping 90% of his attention on the whispered conversations taking place all around him. "Are you still considering getting that brain implant?" he asks Rae. No sound comes from him, but through her ear-piece, Rae can hear clearly.

"He does appliances, but he might balk at working on an actual person. Especially a Sebacian. It's not as though he's particularly familiar with your phisiology."

"Shut up, Raegun." Rae advises mildly, still pounding the bag. "And remind me to talk to him about it." Rae files that away in her brain too. Picturing a Scarran face on the punching bag, she continues pounding, until she begins to over-heat. Her mind makes a connection. "Raegun?"

"Yes, other than that!" Rae snaps. She breaks into a run, heading towards the ballroom. "Aliens, plus powerful weaponry, plus heat..." It was definitely a possibility. "Frell!"

over feeling so helpless, Kay went to sit by him. It would do no good to try to get him to forget what was going on. So, maybe talking about it would help. "Tell us about the blind girl Spy. What was she like? What happened between you and her?"

Chryse asks as she walks in. the room is full of heavy tension and she is confused by it. Chryse had just gotten back from a brief visit to her homeland and was surprised to see Spyral back at the mansion already.

Jila sits on the floor in front of the couch. "It would help to know more about this girl Spy. We all know that you don't get this adamant over something trivial, or girls that just happened to say hello at an airport." Noises from the television of cement block walls falling at the airport interrupt Jila's thought process. She turns toward the television and watches the high ranking officials who have been caught strategizing by the media. "There's got to be something really special about her to open a portal to another dimension." As Jila watchs the television she sees way in the back of the picture, at the airport entrance two Very familiar figures who are trying their best to be inconspicuous, Ragnar wearing a long black trench coat and ghost who is Almost but not quite invisible.

"How many thermal suits do we have?" she asks Sunny, carefully announcing her presence first by shuffling her feet against the floor and tapping her fist against the door-frame. No good ever comes from surprising a keyed-up Peacekeeper, or so her mother had been fond of saying.

"Spyral's..." Rae hesitates, then talks swiftly, not pausing long enough for Sunny to break in or even protest. "Not quite himself, perhaps. Gods only know what happened to him before we got there, and he IS acting oddly. It might be concern for the girl, (assuming such a creature even exists, it could have been a Scarran trick) but it could be something else. I thought, for just a second there when he didn't want us to return to the mansion that I saw... well, bloodlust in his eyes. Worried me a bit, let's say. Besides, he may be too close to the situation to make an unbiased asessment. I'm not saying anything. Just that you might make a better judge of this sort of thing. So, could it be Scarrans?"

"something .......... different ......... about her," the angel said, speaking of the missing blind girl. "I didn't make too much of a connection before. I'm STILL not sure now, but..........."

"I dunno........" Spyral said. "I can't explain it." He looked to the ladies. "When I brushed up against her........ for the first time since I've been back to the mortal plane, I felt power. Not like the stuff that everyone around here has, but REAL power. IMMORTAL power! But she's not from the Beyond. Not like me."

"I don't think that it was the monster that wanted her," Spyral said. "She was already gone when I came to. That means that either something else came thru first, when I was unconcious, and took her, or she got away. Either way, I get the feeling that she was the target, and I have another feeling that she may not know why. Or even that she's not from around here."

"Maybe," Spyral said. "It's not unheard of. Species fleeing from their realms to the safety of another. Escaping persecution, that sort of thing, And on a world like this, powers like hers would not exactly fit in to the scheme of things, y'know?"

"So as time passed, the descendants would most likely, probably forget about the kind of power that they're carrying around," Mouse said. "BOY!" she added with a shiver. "Makes you wonder about the people you're bumping into on the street, huh? How many of them could fry you like an egg, or shove you thru a brick wall without even trying?"

The angel could only nod in agreement, as he stared solemnly at the television screen. On the television, Ragnar tried to seem inconspicuous as he strolled along the lines of soldiers arrayed outside of the airport. You could tell that the waiting was driving the viking crazy, as he waited for word from 'Ghost, who had made herself completely dim and entered the building, which had become all too quiet, all too quickly.

The soldiers, onlookers, and reporters seemed to all fall to their knees as a piercing, high pitched wail filled the air. Only Ragnar remained standing, one hand mashed over his right ear, the comm in his left ear seeming to aid in keeping out the sound. So loud was it, that even in the depths of the mansion, it could be dimly heard.

A loud and fast clomping, like that of a heard of hungry great danes, seemed to emanating from the direction of the stairwell leading down into the depths of IQ's lab. Suddenly the door burst open, and IQ came spilling out, causing everyone in the room to spin and look at him. He stopped in front of the crowd, trying to catch his breath and holding something that looked COMPLETELY high tech and unexplainable.

"I picked it up on my signal analyzer here. But its SO powerful, it's almost overloading it!" IQ said. "It's a full burst, inverse, Halcyon waveband pulse of multiple nulls. I've never seem anything like it!" IQ added.

somewhat died down, or ears became accustomed to it, all of a sudden it was quiet. Not just that the sound was gone. All sound was gone. Like the quiet after the hurricane. No sound came from anywhere. The Scoobs looked at each other, and back at the television screen. Ragnar was looking as confused as they were.

"For some reason this silence doesn't sound good." Jila said in forboding. Just as Mouse opened her mouth to reply, another explosion came from inside the airport. Ragnar was thrown to the ground. And, the impact was so powerful, that it felt like the entire earth shook. The Scoobs at the mansion, deffinately felt the ground around them move. Then, they saw Ragnar looking into the airport with a look of shock on his face, as he started backing up.

Kay drove the car as, in the back seat, Sunny and Rae changed into their enviornmental suits. No one else was in the car, which was just as well, since it was quite small to begin with, and rendered smaller by the two women in the back seat trying to get dressed.

"Great." Rae picked up her helmet and check it for cracks, as she outlined her plan for Sunny. It never ceased to amaze her how shoddy some of the material that Command used in these things was. Always breaking at the most inconvenient moments...

"Because our enviornmental suits double as haz-mat suits." Rae snapped. "Among other things. Gods only know what kind of germs are floating around in that place. Microbes, viruses... parasites."

Sunny snapped her comm off and said to Rae in a whisper that Kay wouldn't be able to hear. "Isn't it a little late to be worrying about that kind of thing? I mean, if you want to play the irreversable contamintation card..."

"I have my reasons for wanting us to go in first." Rae replied. "I want US to know exactly what we're dealing with before we endanger the others." She turned her comm on. "Who's got the portable TV? What's going on out there?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Sun said out loud, while "thinking" to Rae, *About the Scarrens, I know you think they still have a hold on me....but let me assure you....the only good Scarren is a Frellin' DEAD one!*

"Hey, Sun, slow down! You don't want to overheat unnecessarily" Rae cautioned, wondering if Sun was mad about the Scarren comment she had made, in her mind, earlier.

*That would be a wise decision, Rae. You are right, I can do it without thinking....and I do realize that I am doing it....and always try to 'turn it off'. But that comment about the Scarrens...well it pissed me off, at first. Then I calmed down and realized that you are worried about the other Scoobs and the rest of the humans on this planet* Sun said as she, Rae and Mouse moved around in the airport, trying to locate the cause of that frellin' high pitched yell or whatever it was.

*For what it's worth, I'm with you on Mouse being here. I would hate for Mousling to go through what I did.* Sun added motioning towards Ragnars semingly lifeless body

"Relax. I'll stay contained in the suit until we're sure I'm clean, but I need to do this!" Rae pulls off her helmet and bends over Rag, listening for breath. "Frell! Mouse, he's not breathing. Talk me through this see-plee-are thing you people have."

"He could be contaminated. We can't risk contaminating the others. Triage time." Rae rolls up the sleeves of her suit, aware that beads of sweat are dripping down her face. She bends over Ragnar and whispers in his ear. "If you fail on me, I'll bring you back just so I can beat the crap out of you."

"Total isolation." Sun provides. "Orange and blue are in-between levels. Black would be a pain to arrange. We'd need special air filters and three-inch walls in his cell. Froonium alloy, of course--"

"Frell..." Rae unzips her suit (immediately qualifying her for code black isolation) and pulls out a med kit. She zips up before she opens it. "Tell me what hurts."

*I will.* Rae nods and sorts through the medical kit. She pokes and prods Ragnar carefully. "I think you have some broken ribs. I can't fix that here, but I can take the pain."

The soldier who has just been hit ignores him. His attention is on three figures in bio-hazard suits bent over a fourth figure in a trench-coat. "Did we invite the CDC?"

"Nothing..." Keeping an eye on the group as it enter the airport, he waits until the other members of his unit are distracted and follows them cautiously. *Man, I could get a promotion out of this! Wow!*