torg 03- The Nightmare Dream (23 page)

"What about me?" Wind Whirl asked. "I didn't come all this way just to watch."

"I wouldn't dream of leaving you out of the fun and games, kid," the Guardian said lightly. "You're coming with me."

78

Father Bryce dozed in the co-pilot's chair, snoring softly as the airplane continued its trip over the Indian Ocean. A patch of turbulence rocked the plane, however, and Bryce sprang awake.

"What was that?" he asked, startled by the jolt.

"There's another storm front ahead of us, Father," Tom said as he fought to keep the plane level.

"Another front? Have we reached Great Britain already?"

Tom shook his head. "No, we're just off the coast of Africa. I've got to set us down for fuel."

"Africa? Then what does that storm mean?" Bryce asked nervously.

"It means there is another realm out there, beyond the storm," Tolwyn said as she entered the cockpit. "They have sliced up your world, Christopher, carving out chunks in which to set their own reality."

"Another realm? Baruk Kaah, Uthorion, the Gaunt Man ... weren't they enough?" Bryce felt himself losing it as the full impact of the meaning of the storm hit him. He bit down on his tongue, forcing the madness from taking hold of him. Then, once he felt he had control of himself again, he asked, "Can't you go around it, Tom?"

"I could try, but we're very low on fuel," Tom said. "I need to get us to an airfield."

"Do you know of any in this part of the world?" Tolwyn asked.

"There's one outside of Qina, in Egypt. That's the place I usually stop on hauls along this route. It's as good a place as any to try. Now hang on, I'm going through the storm."

Bryce crossed himself, offering a short prayer for his companions. He was beginning to hate traveling through the storm fronts between realities. As a matter of fact, he didn't think he'd ever like rain and thunder and lightning ever again.

The front was before them, a looming wall of raging rain water and streaks of lightning. Bryce had a moment to examine the wall, to remember his previous trips through similar obstructions. Then the airplane flew into the storm.

79

The Guardian and Wind Whirl carefully made their way over the barbed wire fence to the back of the hangar. No one had noticed them yet, and everything was proceeding according to the Guardian's plan.

"There is a door around the side, but we'll have to go through the water way to use it," the Guardian whispered.

"Let's do it, then," Wind Whirl said impatiently. "I'm a man of action. I'm used to speed. This sneaking around is cramping my style."

The Guardian grasped the young hero by the throat, moving with a blinding speed of his own. He squeezed,

The Possibility Wars

cutting off Wind Whirl's air. "Your style means nothing to me," he hissed angrily. "If you do anything to hamper this mission, I will kill you. Do I make myself clear? Nod once if you understand me."

Wind Whirl nodded.

"Very good," the Guardian said, releasing the young man. "Now follow me."

The Guardian could feel Wind Whirl's hate-filled eyes boring into his back, but he didn't care. Let the youth think of me however he pleases, the Guardian thought. All that matters is that we complete our mission.

He reached the corner of the hangar and peered around it cautiously. He saw two shocktroopers standing on the other side of the water way—too far away to take out quietly. He backed up behind the hangar and turned to whisper to Wind Whirl.

"That way is not open to us," he said in a hushed tone. "We will have to make our own entrance."

Wind Whirl looked confused. "How?" he whispered. "Neither of us have the Golem's strength or ..."

The Guardian cut him off. "We have this," he said, holding up his diamond-tipped cane.

The diamond tip was extremely hard and strong, and it was pointed to a cutting edge. The Guardian put all of his muscle behind it, slicing a deep cut into the metal of the hangar wall. He repeated the process, cutting at a cross angle from the first slice.

"Luckily," he said as he pulled back on the sliced metal and bent it open, "this pre-fabricated material isn't very thick."

They entered the hangar quickly, looking for any guards that might be around. All they saw was the seaplane, and a deep green shadow against the far wall.

"Well, look what we found," Wind Whirl sneered,

"absolutely nothing! Maybe this whole mission is a bust, Guardian. Did you think of that?"

The Guardian ignored him. Something about the quiet of the hangar disturbed him. Something about —

"The green shadow!" Guardian yelled. "Wind Whirl, watch out for the shadow!"

The warning came to late, however. Machinegun fire exploded out of the green mist, for that was what it was. The Guardian could see that now. Round after round emerged from the mist, cutting Wind Whirl apart in a macabre dance of bullets and blood. Of course he would be their first target. If they gave him a chance, his speed would allow him to dodge the bullets. He never got a chance to prove that, however.

When the firing stopped, Wind Whirl fell to the floor of the hangar, his body torn to pieces by the bullets. The Guardian, furious that someone in his team should be cut down like that, started to move forward, but a voice stopped him.

"Take another step and we will open fire," the voice called out.

The mist faded, revealing a dozen shocktroopers and a green-cloaked figure.

"The Green Shroud!" the Guardian gasped.

"I am flattered," the Shroud said, "you remember me!"

"What is this all about, Shroud?" Guardian demanded, stalling for time as he tried to think of a way to take out the twelve machineguns pointed at him.

"What does it look like? We discovered your spy and moved the operation to a more secure area. Then we set this little trap for you and your friends."

Images of Angus Cage in the hands of Mobius, undergoing extreme tortures, flashed through the

Guardian's mind. Then he saw the rest of his team, still unaware of the danger they were in. He turned to look out of the hangar, hoping to see some sign that they had reacted to the machinegun fire.

"I wouldn't worry about your teammates right now if I were you, Guardian," the Green Shroud said pleasantly. "I'd worry about myself."

The Guardian turned back to regard the villain with a cold stare. "I'd worry about you, too."

"Bravado to the end, is that it?" the Green Shroud asked. "Bah! Take him!" he ordered, and the shocktroopers started to move.

80

Rocket Blue heard the machinegun fire. It came from inside the hangar, where the Guardian and Wind Whirl were heading. Round after round sounded from within the metal building. It sounded like they were emptying full drums of ammunition into their targets. She shuddered, knowing that the reaction could not be seen because of the battle armor she wore.

"That sounds like trouble," the Golem said.

The two of them were watching the main gate, but they saw no activity that suggested the base was on alert. The guards at the towers along the fence continued to talk or shuffle in obvious boredom, as though they could not hear the gun fire.

"Golem, I'm going in," Rocket Blue informed him. "Follow after me and take down those guard towers."

"You got it," the Golem said, but he doubted the Rocket Ranger heard him. She was already airborne, flying on great jets over the fence and toward the hangar.

Rocket Blue only got a short distance when the next portion of the trap was sprung. Electrified cables burst from a hatch in one of the towers, hurling themselves directly at the Rocket Ranger. They wrapped around her battle armor before she could react, sending volts of disrupting energy through her suit. The jets immediately conked out, and Rocket Blue plummeted to the ground, landing hard. She remained where she fell, unmoving.

Golem, screaming his rage, tore through the barbed wire like it was string. He ignored the shocktroops rushing toward him, ignored the guards in the towers. He was heading directly for Rocket Blue.

Before he reached her, however, a huge figure stepped out from behind a building. It was taller and broader than the Golem, and it wore a battle suit that seemed patterned after the Rocket Rangers' suits.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the armored villain said. "I'm Tank."

Then he swung a massive, armored fist at the Golem. It landed with a jarring thud, and everything went black.

81

Raven Wing heard the commotion on the other side of the base and immediately saw it for what it was. "This whole thing is a set up," she told Earthwave, "a trap."

Earthwave pointed his hands at the ground, directing his energy at the earth. Suddenly a mound of sand rose up under him, giving him a better view of the base. "What should we do?"

"I would suggest that we —" but Raven Wing didn't get a chance to finish. Two figures appeared on the other side of the barbed wire fence. They were dressed in mirror-image uniforms, covered with the same designs only inversed one to the other.

"The Rage Brothers!" Earthwave shouted, ordering the mound of sand to propel him forward. It rolled across the ground, and Earthwave rode it like it was a surfboard.

"Earthwave, wait!" Raven Wing called, but he ignored her. The Rage Brothers were two of his most notable enemies, and he couldn't be reasoned with when his mind was made up. In some ways, Earthwave was as slow and dense as the elements he manipulated.

She started to move forward to help him, when she heard an airplane engine. Raven Wing looked up to see a plane coming in. By the way it was listing, she didn't think this was a scheduled stop for it. Also, it had no Nile markings.

She turned back to Earthwave in time to see him collapse. The Rage Brothers had gotten on each side of him and pounded him with their beams of anger. They were able to turn rage into a tangible weapon, and Earthwave had blundered into their trap.

"Discretion is the better part of valor," Raven Wing told herself. "It will serve none of them any good if I get captured too."

Her mind made up, Raven Wing turned and flew back into the desert.

82

Tom O'Malley fought the controls of the plane, trying to keep it in the air. He heard the engines sputter from lack of fuel, felt them cough as they fought to process the last drops of the precious liquid. The storm had been a hard one to pass through, but Tom had gotten them to the other side. Now he had to get them on the ground in one piece.

"How long can you keep us in the air, Tom?" Father Bryce asked.

Tom looked at the fuel gage. The indicator dipped lazily past the E. "Not long at all, Father," he admitted, looking out the windshield. "But I won't have to. There's the airfield up ahead."

"Airfield?" Bryce said. His tone suggested confusion. "That doesn't look like any airfield I've ever seen. It looks more like an armed camp!"

Tom saw that the priest was right. The familiar airstrip that he expected had been replaced by something much different. "It doesn't matter what it is, Father," Tom called. "That's where we're going. Hang on, everyone! I'm taking us down!"

83

"Wow, look at the wizard," Toolpin gasped as he stared out the window of the airplane.

"That's no wizard," Pluppa scolded. "That's a harpy."

"Then where are her feathers?" Toolpin asked.

Mara, intrigued by the conversation, moved across the aisle to see what they were referring to. For a moment she didn't see anything unusual. Then she saw the flying woman. She had long, flowing hair that was the color of a raven, and she wore a matching black body suit that clung to her curves like it was painted on. A billowing cloak the color of the darkest night completed her outfit, and she appeared to be flying without the aid of any kind of mechanical device.

The woman saw Mara, smiled, and pointed away from the airfield they were approaching. Then, with an amazing burst of speed, she flew out of sight toward the front of the plane.

Mara ran to the cockpit, pushing past Tolwyn so that she could see through the windshield. There, flying in front of the plane, was the woman in black.

"Tom, you must follow that woman," Mara said urgently.

Tom looked up, but did not react in any way to the flying woman. Father Bryce gasped, and Tolwyn mumbled something in what Mara assumed was the Ayslish tongue. Tom continued to work the controls, moving with the grace of a concert pianist.

"She better know of a place to set us down," Tom told Mara as he turned the plane to follow the flying woman. "And it better be very, very close by."

84

The Guardian was strapped into a metal chair in one of the smaller buildings on the base. The chair, in turn, was bolted to the floor. Also in the room with him were Rocket Blue, the Golem, and Earthwave. Each was trussed up in bindings that hampered their powers. Rocket Blue was wrapped in electrified cables that short-circuited her battle armor, trapping her within the immobile metal suit. The Golem was bound with heavy chains that were made of an extremely tough metal, and he was fitted with a mask that circulated a gas that rendered him unconscious. Earthwave was suspended from the ceiling by shock-resistant restraints, and the metal floor separated him even more from the earth that responded to his commands. Raven Wing wasn't among the captives. He hoped she didn't suffer the same fate as Wind Whirl.