Priya Echo's Adventure - Part 5

CHAPTER 19 - THE FALL

Priya lay for a while, watching the swaying blemishes move playfully in front of her eyes. A fickle breeze rattled the blades of grass between her fingers one way, and then another, enticing them. Clarity soon collapsed the blur, and she could see the faces of a few people that may have been strange masks in the crowd not so long ago. “Do you remember what happened?” Eric asked, running his hand through threads of raven hair, intermixed with verdant earth. “Eric is that you? How long have I been here?” she asked, seeing in her peripheral vision the three other companions, and the wrinkled, spectacled mug of Hook staring down. “My dear, you’ve been out for almost half an hour” Hook noted, as the other boy moved his hand underneath her neck for support. His hands were warm to the touch. Priya got to her feet and saw that where once there was a crowd there was now an abandoned landscape. Remembering the light of the chandelier, she made her hand immaterial and reached in, removing the potato chip, and placed it in a pocket for safekeeping. Eric was pale with anxiety, and said to her in particular, as if the others were not even there, “You were really amazing out there, standing up to him, but now we should find a hiding spot where we can all be together and ride it out, like a bunker or something. Priya, you wouldn’t believe what’s been going on since you blacked out”. Rubbing his cheek, she smiled to comfort him, “You know I can’t do that. I have a job to do”. “That’s the Priya I know!” Hook exclaimed. “That’s our newbie!” Nadine added. Noticing more of the landscape as the blurriness seeped away, the park was strewn with acorns, some of them plump, others tiny. Her eyes felt like sponges, soaking up the indistinctness and turning it into clarity. “We’re calling it the acorn fever” Eric began, “if you watch the news channels, it’s spread through most of the world, depopulating major urban areas, morphing people into acorns, and just on the whim of a madman”. Hook dabbed a cheek with a hanky, and explained further, “He was able to summon the word “NUTS” at different cities simultaneously throughout the world, it hovered over them, giving off infectious light that radiated the contagion of the acorn fever”. Droves of squirrels began to sneakily caper across the park, inspecting the fresh trove of oak-fruit. “Is there a way we can fight back?” Felicia pondered, shooing away a squirrel that became too curious. Priya swiped off the dirt still caking her shoulder, “There’s always a way”. She looked intently at the cavities in the structure of the university, the brick that had been excavated so effortlessly. “First let’s get to the stadium, everyone is hunkering down there” Hook sighed, leading them back. As they filed into the basketball court Priya gazed over the stands, where people were passing out bottles of water, and then to the space near the far goal, with sleeping bags set along the floor. “Can we have a minute to talk?” Priya asked the other’s, and they separated, climbing up to the stands to get themselves refreshments. “Things are about to get really weird around here fast … like level ten weird, which is why I need you to do something for me” uttered Priya, her words coming out steadfast and true, then wiped the dust out of his hair so he would focus. “If you feel it’s important, let me know …” Eric answered. “I just really need you to be safe” she interjected, acknowledging the sudden role reversal. He looked around to the stands and to the loitering crowd, some passing out plastic containers of staples and chocolate bars, the big kind, “This place is about as safe as it gets, but what did you have in mind?”. Lifting up her hand to his cheek, she looked at him and drank in the sweet, mild, priceless ignorance in his eyes, “I need you inside of me”. Eric took a few steps back and spun around, looking to see if anyone nearby had heard, “Priya, are you kidding? Right here …. in front of all of these people”. “No, that’s not what I meant” she blushed, “I have a realm inside of me …. I literally have another dimension, and I need you to hide there for now”. “Is that how you were able to scarf down four slices of pizza?” he wondered, fading into a flashback of their first date. Priya squinted hard and immediately crossed her arms, “Don’t push it, fella … just get in there”. “Um … okay. Can I have something to remember you by?” he asked blatantly, drawing in for a kiss. Waving it away, she reached a hand into a pocket, “Survive in there, and you can have one when you get back … but I did have something you can remember me by”, passing a little card into his hand. “What is this for?” he said, turning it over. “It’s what I do sometimes once a week … but I’m not very good at it” she whispered defensively. The card read, “Amethyst Rink” and had a little picture of a snowflake on it. Eric’s eyes lit up at the discovery, “This is for the rink downtown. Priya, you can ice-skate?”. “Just as a stress-reliever, I’m not any good”. Beaming mischievously, he play-punched her shoulder, “That’s nice to know, you’re getting less mysterious every day”. “Don’t count on that” Priya said, putting her hand on his, and curling it up over the card. His tone dropped, realizing the significance of what she had decided to share with him, and the truth of their parting. “Now I know two things about you” he thought. Close again, their faces only divided by fat, obnoxious molecules of air, “I’ll keep this for when I come back” he promised. And so, she took his arm and pulled him through. He felt the rush of phasing the barrier. Eric looked down, howling as galaxies flew past expeditiously. Just like a first-timer. A sky-diver that is. It certainly was a long way down.

CHAPTER 20 - TELENON’S MINIONS ATTACK

Reunion hall was the main gateway of the university. Freshmen scurried through the hall, towards sociable classrooms. Backpacks stuffed with lecture notes. It was a place the higher ups were definitely proud of. Trophies lined the display cases. Pictures hung on the wall with photos of alumni from years past. Along one narrow hallway was a rather oversized mirror, polished to perfection. It was a place highschoolers traded their doodles for business degrees. An upstanding place. Priya walked alone as if heading somewhere important. Her fingers stretched out to the wall for balance, instinctively. Hard silence was not enough to cope with the gravity of the moment. She needed a place, a natural place where people went on with their own private affairs. The blank slate at the center of a crowd. Ahead of her the corridor tightened. Through filmy spectacles she could see a rectangle of light. A buzz of humanity. “Are you kidding me? That was freaking awesome!” Felicia yelled, catching up to her. At the girl’s heels were two others of similar standing. They huffed and puffed as the hallway had been a marathon. The look of anticipation was palpable in her manner. “I thought you were a nerd, '' Dominique added furiously, hands on her hips in condemnation. “Girls, I was going to let you know, but it just wasn’t the right time, '' Priya answered, guarding her face with two palms. Nadine rolled her eyes and bit on a piece of granola bar, “I knew everything”. A conversation dawdled until something loud crashed into the other room. Together they ran to see what it was. A giant bowling ball from Telenon sat amid rubble on the ground. From its three hollows came python sized snakes that bit the first student they could sink their teeth into. “Ah, they got him!” Felicia gasped. Green light flared from his eyes as scales overtook his person. Soon he had a pinball club and was headed right towards them. Priya stood for a moment to study the environs. Subtle afternoon air leaked into the room. The place was spacious and fraught with activity. The figure approaching her was certainly menacing. To her left a good polished mirror glistened. A diagonal rectangle flew across its surface. Priya lifted up her arm and outstretched her hand for the request. In reply, the mirror shattered, and its shards leapt to her hand, forming the mirror sword with angular precision. Now the snake faced man bore his fangs and lifted his arm for the decisive blow. “Not quite,” Priya mouthed. The mirror sword met its counterpart, halting its progress. Vibrations phased through the woman’s body as she sensed the weight of it. “Don’t move '' she implored them; her face hidden behind a barrier of jet-black hair. Inescapably the blade proceeded through the figure, bringing the bearer of that armament to the other side. It certainly was just the beginning. Walls caved as more bowling balls intruded, sending their serpents to fetch the innocent pedestrians in razor sharp jaws. A small band emerged, circling around. They hissed chaotically, and some had grown spikes from their pinball clubs. Priya smiled at the compliment Telenon had sent her and began in earnest. Lightning quick motions dispatched them, amputating arms, sending them flying. The soldier’s motion was feather light as she drew a gory chasm into the stomach of an enemy. Nadine looked on in disbelief. They could not touch the ever-shifting form. In pleasure the woman jumped up and kicked one of the giant bowling balls, sending it careening back from whence it came. Another was nearby, but the hydras met their end at the flick of a wrist. Shockingly, more reinforcements charged in from the adjacent halls. A snakehead soldier made its path towards her with his implement ready. Priya felt the time was right, and so altered into echoes and phased through the body to the other side. Dominique’s eyes went red as she witnessed the hapless creature explode, fire spurting from its eyes and throat in one tumultuous burst. Following the agile theory of martial arts, the soldier pierced one of them through the chest, throwing up a shower curtain full of blood into the air. Still another lacked an abyss in their body which she promptly assisted with. Felicia gasped as about five at once thought to sneak attack her from behind. Yet in wonderous counter the lithe, ivory lab coat upon her back transformed into that of a cloud, into which they were engulfed, and quick snaps of lightning sent them back, plummeting onto the ground stiff as boards. The lab coat returned to its original substance. As that occurred another army appeared and was sent to their fate. Priya felt more precocious now, sculpting the flesh of her enemies with the mirror blade. Forming a crimson mist. Making autonomous what was once union. The train fell in empty gestures. Another serpent could not shut its mouth and attacked. But the motion of a glimmering wave was too quick, and its head fell, hammering the floorboards. In a circle of the reptilian filth she stood, a noble visage in all that disgracefulness. Priya’s hair came loose, freeing individual threads from their bounds. Their movements were alluring. A youthful dance that gave clemency to the air. Felicia experienced the magnetism of her friend as that pristine statue lingered. But the day was not yet won. In the remaining spheres the soldier heard rustling. Bends along its outermost layer. Something was inside. Priya gripped her sword again as the shell broke apart like an egg and a behemoth of matching skin strut out. His arms were like thick trunks. Reunion shook as it stomped towards her. Priya looked around for something helpful. It was one of those occasions. Seeing little of worth in the room, she looked skyward, craning her neck. In semicircles of shining metal an ornament was nestled. Its crystals dangling handsomely in air. Priya reached her hand up and forced the chandelier to come careening down. As it was about to land, she took the article and turned it into a shield embedded with crystal just as the behemoth struck his mighty fist against it. From sheer force it pushed the soldier back a yard. The combat resumed, with enough acrobatics until the big lug dropped. Not wanting to retain the article, she tossed it like a coin at an attacking goon. When the next one broke free from its shell, it struck the ground with such strength as to form it into a basin. Priya turned to echoes to evade the attack, materializing a foot away as the wreckage fell like rain. Outraged, the fingers on its right hand became five snakes which Priya had to behead one by one. Nadine watched as her newbie sent out a stream of lightning that latched onto the beast, and pulled onto that chain, swinging him around to the other side of the room and through the barrier of the brick wall. In dry sarcasm she merely leant her back against the wall, considering the proceedings dispassionately. A third behemoth had many holes in its body from which it gathered snakes and forged a bowling ball of pure snakes to send at Priya. It hissed as it careened across the floor. Quick witted, Priya merely jumped onto the adjacent wall as it passed, slicing it vertically with her blade. It would ignite a moment later. Felicia couldn’t believe it as the soldier lifted the behemoth with nothing but punches and kicks, climbing slowly towards the ceiling. She alighted back onto the ground alone, inside a column of sunlight. Both cheeks rotated as she searched the room. A single sphere remained. Its contents burst out into the open. The behemoth was taller and stronger than all the rest. Its eyes saw the nemesis, standing idle in the glow of reflective beauty. For a second Priya’s mirror sword shined like an insubstantial ethereal diamond. The creature made its approach. It would finish everything in one bash. There was nothing to stop him. Knowing what to do, the woman stuck out the blade. Its shard detached, and panels of wood from the wall ripped off to form the border of a mirror. Close enough, the behemoth stood before its own reflection, growling at the sight of such a barrier. It lifted its mighty fist, cocking it back slowly into the air. As it did, the reflection arose, and struck first with a brutal fist, collapsing the great fortified body onto the ground. Excellent. Priya reassembled the blade and returned to them. In euphoria she dispatched the shards back to the polished surface. Dominique was giddy from the novelty of it all, cheering and clapping. Nadine leaned there, bored a little after what had transpired. She knew what would happen after the lightning rope thing. Felicia kind of stood there panting. Thankfully, Dominique was able to save her before she touched the ground.

CHAPTER 21 - HOOK TAKES PRIYA AND CREW TO RIKIRAL COMPUTER

Not long afterwards the dry, languid, anything-but-eccentric Mr. Hook returned with a clique of university staff and academics. “Come with us, I have something to show you” he enjoined, and they hastened down a series of corridors into the depths of the main building, until it terminated in a boiler room, the type where only bad things happen to good people. Removing a key-card from his suit-pocket, the geriatric scooted over to a little door encroached upon by thick pipes and swiped it on a dusty pad. “Here is something you’ll see which is our best kept secret” Hook promised, gesturing for them to follow. Nadine, Felicia and Dominique shrugged their shoulders. Apparently, she was not the only one. A few at a time to squeeze through, they came to an elevator big enough to fit a horse. Lurching, the box creaked its way into the hidden underbelly of the earth. “Unbelievable” Priya gasped as they were all released into wider space, ogling like drunken peasants at a laboratory large enough to contain an auditorium. But it was not that which made her devolve into a gigging dunderhead. “Here is where we kept after liberating it in the war. Ladies and gentlemen … what you have before you is a Rikiral computer used to oversee an entire Forward-Marker, the most fearsome class of warship the navy faced. After the ship was dissected, it was left here by the military authority for safekeeping. They had myriad futile attempts at probing its design … and all were met with disappointment” Hook explained, replaying history in their minds. He led her up to one of its segments containing rows of compartments, “Priya, perhaps with your … skills, you can bring it out of dormancy”. She leaned against the bulky thing, itself like a boiler room folded into origami, and looked to the right across a series of glass vessels, some of them containing hovering exclamation marks, others question marks, “Yes, but I may need some additional financing for this project, if you could inform the panel, and have them pardon my recent shortcoming”.

Refurbishing the machine over the next few days, Priya finally restored it by repurposing some energetic components. “This will be your base of operations” she told them, “the system will help you research a cure for the acorn fever, and I have programmed it to provide lessons in basic manipulations, or magic as you put it”. “Where will you be going?” Nadine thundered, breaking out in alarm at the implication. “As far away from here as I possibly can. I have to draw his attention, and that will give you enough time to disseminate my knowledge and begin to organize” she admitted, seeing the color leave her friend’s face. “That’s bullshit, we’re coming with you” she demanded, almost threateningly. After a cold minute the scientist was able to pacify her. “Nadine, leave the bad ideas to me. I have to go alone” she stated, forceful enough to cut through the bastion of outrage. The companion dropped a box of computer chips that she had requested, and the scientist took them over to a table where there was a processor and filled it up and set it to maximum until it was a thick green liquid, and poured it into a chip-press, building a comb patterned chip to integrate into the delta level circuit. That task completed, the two of them had a quick conversation in the corner where no one else could hear, then bid the rest of them adieu.

CHAPTER 22 - PRIYA DRIVES AWAY

Fields of wheat danced to the melody of the wind along the side of the road as a beaten-up truck whizzed by. “Am I the only one here who is going to say it?” Visioness blurted out. “Say what?” Priya replied, turning down the music. The memory of leaving for the parking lot was still fresh in her mind. Sitting on a step she had found Richard, drinking a bottle of scotch, and saw him wearing a hat, but it was not a hat. It was the cap of an acorn, and the beginnings of a slow transformation. “Don’t let any of them damn squirrels get me girl” he had begged, and so they had gathered up some of the ruined brick wall. He sat in a little corner near the steps, and she began to lay them, interring him. For mortar they used paper mache. On the other end he helped as well, until all that was left was a single space, through which they both peered, their eyes meeting. “They won’t get you in there, I promise” she said, before sliding in the final brick, but with the way things were going to change, what was the use of promises anymore? “Roadtrip!” Visioness roared, heady from the fragrance of the country air. Visioness controlled her arm to take the last sip of the bottle of scotch that Richards had given her. “Eww! That’s so gross!” Pelfe protested as Priya wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Both Priya and Visioness couldn’t keep themselves from laughing for a solid minute. At least they had one thing in common. The rustling of the field began to still, transfixed, perhaps by a single lonesome traveler. Noticing the ominous difference, the truck came to a rumbling halt. Priya slammed the door behind her and headed out into the stalks, and those that were in her way bent, crunching easily. Through the columns a poetic face glanced back at her. “Teddy … is that you?” she declared upon seeing the Senator motionless, stalwart, camouflaged by grain. “Not an easy journey at all, dreamer. It was rough, but I’m the first to get across” he answered, gliding over. Kneeling down on one knee, he bowed his head, “consider me your loyal knight”. “You don’t need to be so humble, Teddy, once I re-manifest the realm, I will be just like the rest of you, and everyone will forget where they came from after just a few years” Priya smiled, dismissing the flattery. “Highly doubtful Empress” Teddy countered, despite how with the cremation of the avatar chain, its logic spilled out into the barren wastes of space-time, their ties were now less than definite. “Listen, Teddy. It will take some time until our abilities return. We have to work together to wrest control of this level from the grip of Telenon, its magnate. He’s a madman that will stop at nothing to foment chaos and drain our magic. The phenomenon will not be safe in his grip” she explained. But as she spoke, he looked over her shoulder, and was intent on another subject entirely, “Echo … don’t tell me that hunk of junk is our ride”. With its peeling paint and puckered exterior, it looked like something that could be gambled off at a poker game. Climbing into the passenger’s seat, Teddy put on his seat-belt, and they continued down the road until the welcome sign of a small town swung by, “Panorama Precinct”. He had her stop by a local bakery, where he paid the baker to bring a loaf of bread on a wooden peel out into the parking lot, and set it on the ground. “This will be called the bakery bus,” Teddy noted. With more bio-dimensional yeast, the loaf of bread continued to rise until it had become a city bus, wobbling as a crowd of the patrons and familiar faces disembarked. Seeing the first person, Snow ran up to Priya, suitcase in hand, “Do you know where my mom is!”.

CHAPTER 23 - PANORAMA PRECINCT

The local hotel owner was not about to argue with the sudden influx of curiosities, as long as they paid double. Even so, there were not enough rooms, forcing some of them to part ways and find a local bed and breakfast, all except for Snow, who occupied a house that the tenants had fled from when they witnessed the newcomers. For most of dinner they watched the news coverage of the acorn fever, which continued to ravage the world, depopulating even major cities. Slush Noodles went down the buffet-line, slapping a thick slice of honey-ham onto his plate and smiled smugly knowing that both he and his fiancé would be useless for whatever nonsense the patrons had in mind. They would probably settle down in the town for the duration, taking in the sights and browsing local shops for knick-knacks. Peering over his shoulder, he could see his fiancé was still moody. She had a two for one coupon that had expired, and it wasn’t even applicable in the new reality. Afterwards Priya gathered them all outside for an announcement none of them were ready for, “This family has made a lot of progress, and I recognize each of you for that. As time continues, the abstract becomes clear. I have observed the actuality that underlies this world, the focal element. There is a rogue imagination, disembodied and untamed. Telenon seeks to abandon all reason to the chaos of its perpetual motion. I fear his designs, for with reason gone humanity will soon follow. The epidemic of the acorn fever is only the first phase. To fight against that, I ask you, Linden, and you Melina to come out of my eyes, and take the form that can collect the acorns, and store them for safekeeping”. Priya looked directly at an oak-tree, and the light from her eyes came out as a beautiful stream that illuminated it for a moment. From a hole in the tree came scampering out two squirrels that made their way over to them. “This is much more convenient, if I do say so myself” the Linden-Squirrel remarked. Crawling up her legs, each of them sat upon her shoulders. They were cute but with golden armor. As Linden chittered, Melina-Squirrel addressed them, “As we do the hard work of securing the nutritious bodies, you all will go in teams to destroy the word-signs that still hover over the cities, invading them with infectious light”. Exhausted, Echo closed her eyes as Linden continued uninterrupted for some time, naming off the teams that would travel to each destination. Priya looked at her family. It was but a brief antebellum, and just below the skin, the scars of the Ascension still lingered. But soon she could retire to the comfort of her hotel-room, where the air conditioning was just right, and the sheets were layered just the way that she liked them.

Everyone had a rude awakening the following morning as the pillow cases were filled with squirming tadpoles instead of fluff. Everyone except Echo. Veles went outside and unzipped hers, letting them plop onto the ground. “Huh … what is that?” she thought. The patroness darted outside to soak up some of the ample sunlight. Around her, the camomile from the bed and breakfast wafted out. She strutted out to the end of the walkway where the quaint cobblestones poked into one another. Above the somewhat mild tempered roofs of the village, a blue sky fanned out.The trees around her seemed to have good dexterity with their limbs. Their leaves drooped down in bountiful heaps. Veles took a deep sigh. But that simple start was not to last. Across stretches of Panorama Precinct it was raining sawdust whenever houses passed by overhead. Most of them had uprooted from the neighborhood just east of the hotel. Veles flew up to one of them and walked through the door. She found them empty and took one of the couch cushions for herself. Valco had gotten up early that morning as well to hike through the surrounding area. Most of the townspeople had already fled but there were still some stragglers. He saw them travel north but did not intervene. After a short nap uninterrupted by the tadpoles and their tomfoolery, Veles found a spa with a hot spring. She went inside to find a pool boy in the lobby. “My, and who do we have here?” the amorous suitor flirted. He was made to order, so to speak, and handsome for the uninitiated. “Ah … thank you. Are you the pool boy around here? Is there a spa?” Veles asked abruptly, changing the subject in the most drastic way imaginable. “Indeed mam. I can be your host and you my guest” he replied, attempting the feat of charm. Veles felt little in the way of romance. The day had not gone according to plan and she needed a retreat. The smile left his face, and accepting the inevitable, the unlucky pool boy guided her through the door to the other side. “Are you flipping kidding me?” the patron blurted out. Instead of a normal spa there was a pool of olive oil, and in it was a party of praying mantises bathing and having fun. Trying to decide what to do, she watched as a green mantis arose on its own, green olive oil sliding down its thorax. The pool boy was speechless as his handsome jaw fell. “Um … thanks, but no thanks. this really isn’t my scene” she said, excusing herself and returning outside. Echo woke up and ambled down the stairs to the hotel lobby and fell back into a big easy-chair near the fireplace. A hotel maid was brushing the dust off of the fireplace. Falling asleep from the warmth of the fire, she was out for a minute. “Get off!” she cried, bursting into awareness again. The dust from the hearth that had been brushed off had transformed into a tan, affable Siberian Dusty that would not stop licking her face. “Smooth sailing so far!” she called out, and pressed her head back into the pillow and closed her eyes.

Chapter end