(no subject)

46.

It is always surprising how quickly things can turn about.

The chamber they were in rocked to one side, throwing everyone against the far wall.

Mickey fell out of the cloud and gasped a breath only to have it be knocked out by his collision with the hard wood paneling.

The Cloud Thing was the only thing in the room that had not moved at all. It appeared to be hovering sideways, since the room had moved but he hadn’t.

The shifting of the car had been accompanied with an agonizing sound of distressed metal that echoed all around them. There was a subsequent rumble of the train coming to ground on its side, and a slide that
followed that.

Then there was an amount of groaning from within the car, but only a bit.

Then came a hissing sound.

Everything in the cabin stopped as all eyes tried to locate that sound.

On the far wall there was a small yellow spot that seemed to be the center of the hissing sound. That dot moved, becoming a line that dripped molten metal from its path.

The Cloud thing turned to face the perceived entering enemy. It, in its way, hissed back at it.

The yellow line had become a half circle and promised to finish the same pattern. Mickey noticed that there was a buckling of metal that preceded the appearance of the molten yellow substance.

“Acid?” Mickey wondered.

The boy got to his feet, just as those around him did the same. He looked around and quickly picked up a pistol. But, when he looked around, no one seemed to be threatening him.

All eyes were focused on the wall that was about to be redesigned to include a portal.

Suddenly the Cloud Being seemed to realize that this might be a rescue. He turned towards Mickey with the intent of making such a rescue pointless.

Too late the idea, as the circle of metal that had been part of the wall screeched as it pulled away from the car and folded in half. Without the cabin was a giant right hand that had crumple the steel as you
or I might ready paper for the wastebasket. At the end of the arm that fostered that hand was a magnificent Paul Bunyon with a mask.

In his left hand was a young boy who was in a rush to pull up his pants.

“Jeremy,” Mickey called out.

“Hey,” Jeremy called back, and then added, “And it’s ‘The Spitter!’”

He hadn’t spat a trail of yellow that cut into that metal, of that Mickey was sure. The boy was still above, adjusting his clothing, and beaming a bit of a blush from his freckled cheeks.

He didn’t want to point it out, but Mickey smiled when he thought Jeremy might have to change his superhero name if he did anymore of his most recent action.

The right hand that had taken the wall away had dropped the clanking metal to the ground and reached through the Cloud Being to grab the boy who was the crux of this assignment.

Mickey found himself outside of the coach in a second and moving away from the spot.

As he turned back he saw Emo turn Rugglestump’s head into the hole in the train car. A second later flame erupted around the dragon’s head. This was the bounce back from the fire that filled the car. Now the dragon and his handler followed the three that had already left the area.

Jeremy was laughing, and Mickey was smiling.

“This is Mastadon,” Jeremy told his friend.

“Call me Don,” Said the giant.

“Hi, Don,” Mickey offered.

There was a sudden jerk in his movement, followed by Don saying, “Uh-oh!”

He stopped walking and set the two boys down as he began to lose his gargantuan size.

Mickey thought to himself, “I guess all power has a time limit.”

Mickey had taken a large step towards wisdom.

(c) 2005 by C. Wayne Owens

(no subject)

47.

The trio crawled up on Rugglestump’s back.

“Where are we?” Asked Mickey.

“We thought you knew!” Jeremy said, "If you don't know where we are, how will we ever find our way home?" Then he smiled in a way that said he was joking.

“Doesn’t matter,” Don told Mickey.

Then the air began to rush past them in hurricane force.

The boy was now aware that the dragon on which they rode was flying past the wreckage of the train and up the tunnel that had been the massive plunge he had experienced.

Mickey took the same kind of hold on scales that he saw the others take and was soon happy he had done so. He was pressed down by the roaring wind.

When the giant beast reached the top of the tunnel it continued up into the open air and the boy found the entire experience exhilarating in a way he had never known. He was not only flying, he was free from his captors and those who would end his life and threaten the safety of his family.

He was aware of Emo thumping his shoulder. When he looked up he saw the man was trying to hand him a small device.

“Here,” Emo shouted in a nearly vain attempt to be heard over the atmospheric roar. He made sure that the boy saw the ear plug attached to the box. He then reached back and used both hand to hold onto his ride.

Mickey put the plug in his ear and looked at the box. There was a tiny screen that seemed to be some sort of LCD presentation. On the left of the screen was a red button marked “Power.”

He depressed the button and a picture faded in on the square. There standing at a bed were his mother and father. In the bed, with a bandage covering his head was his brother David. They were all waving.

He yelled, “Mom, Dad, David!”

His father spoke to the camera, “Sorry son, we can’t hear anything from your end, but we thought it was important for you to know we were alright. The kind of folks that you were dealing with probably told you we were dead, or some such, so we wanted to put your mind at ease.”

His heart was light, but he was still hoping this wasn’t all another ruse by the bad guys.

“Hey there Kiddo,” came his brother’s voice, “They gave me a shot to the head, but there are some kind of amazing Doctors here. They got me though and said I’m lucky to be young and strong.”

Mickey thought as hard as he could, “Who’s Green Arrow’s girl friend?”

“You mean the Black Canary? Why would you think that right now?” His brother’s words came like a cooling rain in the middle of the desert.

“Just wanted to make sure it was you,” He thought back.

“Okay, but we better cool this,” David winced, “It kinda hurts my head.”

“Tell everybody I love them,” The sibling thought.

David turned to his parents and said, “He says to say he loves you.”

It was apparent from their reaction that they didn’t know about this link between their boys.

“Bye for now,” Mickey thought and watched everyone wave, some a littler more thunderstruck than others.

He hit the power button and put the device in his pocket.

Now he was free.

The first laser blast hit the scales near his hand.

“Damn,” he thought as he looked at the flying beings shooting things at them, “It’s not over yet.”

“Free doesn’t mean safe,” He thought.

Wisdom was coming faster these days.

(c) 2005 by C. Wayne Owens