Subject Zero: CONFIDENTIAL (Short Stories)

Adventure Book (8)

     My Travels

     So I embarked on an eight-month adventure - a perilous journey through the World of Wonders to learn what I could about Beyond in the hopes of defeating Him. In the process, I had many experiences that my younger self might have described as "swashbuckling" if not for the constant nausea that accompanies the unnerving train rides. It feels almost as though I lived 100 different lives in different parts of this world.

     I traveled with bandits, learned to speak 13 languages (all of them are human languages), got in fistfight with a talking chair, and got tattoos with a tribe of octopus-armed warrior Marshes. I studied ancient texts, compared notes with scholars, and dined with light Shades ("Shades" - or Luminescences - that are made of light, instead of darkness).

     I stole supplies to work on my Quantum Destabilizer, which proved to be one of the most difficult inventions I've ever worked on. To fully chronicle my adventures would take 10 volumes, but here's a catalog of some of the most outlandish parts of the Dream World I saw...

     The Yo-Yo Land

     Also known as the Do-Over Land and the Go Insane Because Nothing Gets Done Land (the last name being the most accurate but the least poetic). This is a world where time moves both forward and backward in a seemingly random manner. So you may have a really crummy week, but then get a chance to do it all over again. Or just as you complete high school, you may live backward all the way to kindergarten.

     The Yo-Yo Land can move forward normally for really long spans of time or "yo-yo" back and forth several times in one day. Professional "timelineologists" are like weathermen who try to accurately predict "what the time will be like" on any given day. As the old saying here goes, "one step forward, infinite steps back, then two and a half steps forward, for no discernable reason!"

     Lottocron Nine (The Gambling Hideout)

     It's like the mob took over the entire land. Except there is no mob, because gambling is not only legal here, IT'S MANDATORY!

     Every aspect of life is left up to chance in this land. Babies learn to roll dice before they learn to walk, and no one over the age of five goes anywhere without their lucky deck of cards. Even chasing your soulmate is left to Lady Luck.

    The Oracle

     I found the Grim Reaper. She had been hiding out, since "Beyond" is looking for her.

     She told me I was in the Forgotten Valley, and that she had been treating my wounds for a long time. Strangely, she seemed to already know my name and what my mission was, although we'd never actually met before.

     Whether she was psychic or had just communicated with V is hard to say. But she had some stunning insight about Beyond. She said that if I truly wanted to face Him again, I would have to protect my mind and that she could help me, but it would require putting a metal plate in my head with difficult surgery. Maybe it was the thin mountain air, but I agreed instantly.

     For a week, as I recovered, we had many long conversations about... "Beyond." Apparently, His thirst for power caused Him to destroy His role in the hierarchy. She spoke of Him without anger, but with a calm, steely, clinical resolve to see His reign of terror end. She looked deep into my eyes and said I had the eyes of someone who is destined to destroy Beyond.

     I showed her my unfinished Quantum Disabler - a weapon I was designing to blast Beyond into nonexistence. The problem was the power source. In all my travels, I had never come across an element that had both the necessary power and the required stability. GR (Grim Reaper) suggested an element that she had discovered in the Paradox Park. It was inert when visible, but highly radioactive when hidden. She called it NowYouSeeitNowYouDontium.

     When I awoke the next morning, she was gone, and I was in another area of the Dream World entirely. It was time to continue my quest...

     I sometimes wonder where she is now and how she knew so much about me...

     My Return to the Dream Land

     This was something that I had planned in my head for so long it was difficult to believe it was actually happening. Plus, there are parts of the world where everything happens in your head, so it can get confusing.

     But there was no mistaking the Dream Land for another part of the world. The constantly shifting kaleidoscope of color, lack of gravity, and persistent smell of burnt hair were all signs that I was in the right place.

     And of course there was also the fact that Beyond Lawless instantly spotted me and unleashed His goons.

     Quadrangle of Qonfusion

     With his henchmen in disarray, I had what would probably be my only chance to attack Beyond directly. Lawless sensed that, for once, momentum was not on His side, and so He retreated to something called the "Quadrangle of Qonfusion."

     I only had minutes until Beyond's forces regrouped, and it would take me hours to untangle the unreal architecture of His fortress.

     Then I realized that in the Dream World, you did not need to follow the rules of physics, and I lunged right at him. The moment I had worked towards and struggled for all those long months had finally come. I had Beyond Lawless in my crosshairs!

     But at that moment, the entire Dream Land shook as the portal was reactivated!!!

     There was no time to question why or to curse my luck. Beyond was incapacitated with laughter, but I needed to beat the rest of His hench-monsters to the portal or my home world would the invaded by Beyond's forces.

     I ran along the length of the Quadrangle, and as I approached the edge, I jumped up in the air while simultaneously tossing a concussion grenade behind me. The force of the blast catapulted me past Beyond's demonic gang and though the portal. The passage between the two dimensions collapsed behind me. I reentered the world of my youth to face an ally I had not seen in
months, V. My frustration was indescribable - once again, my ally's actions had sabotaged everything I had ever worked toward... But she did save me. And for that, I could not be more grateful.

     And my resolve to defeat "Beyond" has never been stronger.

{ End of Part VIII }

[ "i'm not to be forgotten." }