Cloud Riders (32 page)

Vile dipped and became visible to Link once again. “Who you calling Hey, Hole? Since when do tunnels talk, anyway?” Vile said in a nasty tone that could sour the stomach of a volcano. “So why should I give a shooting star about you?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you're so flat,” Link said in a domineering, male voice. His hole entrance expanded and a section of his lip latched onto Vile's outer edge. “Dip and you disappear. You're so flat I have to hold onto you to keep you in sight. No wonder I've never seen you before. Listen, babe, my tunnel leads to Earth solar system, where you can become three-dimensional just like me. It's the only way to go. You need three dimensions to expand into your full potential."

"Can't I just have some of your three-dimensions?” Vile asked, her voice becoming as sweet as a girlfriend whispering words into her lover's ear.

"I only have enough for myself,” Link answered with a tough-love voice.

"Really! Then why bother me? Let go!” Her tone had recaptured the harsh corrosiveness of offended rage. “Let go or I'll
kill
you!"

"How?” Link asked in a bored voice. “Solar systems can't kill wormholes. I'm four times your size. You can come up with a better threat than that."

"I'll find a way."

"Oh, lighten up, sweetie. Trust me, you'll enjoy your journey, or my name isn't Link Traver, which it is."

"Your name is Pest Hole and there's no way I'm going inside you!” Her voice went beyond nasty, each word approaching explosive profanity.

Link snickered a bully's taunt. “Enter me, I am the way. Maybe your only way."

"I don't trust you, Link Traver.” Vile snarled like a cornered animal. “You're nothing but a wormhole; I don't care how big you are. I'm a beautiful, fully grown solar system. So, let go of me!"

"Do you know what shadows are? Stay here and you won't have the wonderful experience of seeing yourself followed by yourself."

"Why would I care about... what did you call them?"

"Shadows. It doesn't matter, Vile. As I speak I'm pulling you into my tunnel, being as my three-dimensional suction is greater than your two-dimensional resistance."

"And that is how it all began,” Maken said. “After a while Vile began to enjoy her travel. She became one with the idea of escaping Shadow Gobbler Universe. As time went by, she buried the fact her journey within the wormhole had not been initiated by herself. Eons evolved during which Vile gave fatherless birth to a son and called him Kid Badd; and he called her Mother. Vile's suns gazed into her son's laser-light eyes."

"You're so beautiful, Badd."

Ages passed before Kid Badd asked, “Mother, where are we going?"

She looked into his intense green eyes and smiled. “To a place different than our own. Earth solar system."

"So her son is as big as a solar system?” Paul asked. “How can that be? I've seen him. He's my size."

"You are visiting the past of a universe different than your own. You have arms and legs that detach and go sightseeing and do battle at your bidding. You have met and defeated Claude Nab and his owner-trainer, Calamity Horrid, and you ask about the size of Vile Extinction's son?"

Paul felt the uneasiness of questioning his teacher, but this had seldom stopped him before. “Yes."

"Like imagination, it just is. The fact you question it is good. What do you imagine the answer is?"

It had to be a trick question. But Paul thought he knew the answer. “I'm trying to put limits on my imagination?"

"And mine, dear boy. And mine. Now, another eon passed and useful knowledge came to Vile Extinction through Link Traver's connection to Earth solar system. She had challenges blocking her arrival. Specifically, a wonderful wizard by the name of Maken Fairchild... and a boy we shall call... Paul Winsome."

"Why? Why me?"

Maken laughed. “Sometimes I wonder about that myself. However, once written in the big book of life, there exists no eraser powerful enough to do away with the written destiny. Therefore, Booker is unable to rewrite the page. I believe, if I am correct, this means you are stuck, dear boy."

"That isn't fair!"

"Granted life is often not fair, but I must continue our little story anyway. There came a time when, without explanation, Vile gave her son a mighty wormhole-clearing shove. Watch as it happens."

Vile called after her departing son, “Find planet Earth, a wizard named Maken Fairchild and a boy named Paul Winsome. Stop them from keeping your mother from coming out of this long hole."

"How, Mother?"

"KILL them!"

Maken interrupted the exchange. “You now come back to Earth solar system and watch Kid Badd fly out of the giant wormhole."

Paul watched a semitransparent, flat, two-dimensional boy clear the wormhole and instantly swell into three-dimensions. Kid Badd's eyes shot a green laser beam to clear his pathway to the small blue planet ahead of him.

"He knows this sphere has the name Earth because of an instinct born of his mother's prior knowledge feeds, originally fed to her through Link Traver,” Maken explained.

"But how did she—"

"Paul, everything is out there to be glommed onto. Signals, thoughts, dreams, clusters of imagination. I suggest you ready yourself for what is coming,” Maken warned.

Vile's snarl slammed into Paul, and by the jerking of Kid Badd's head, her voice had reached them simultaneously. “Our destiny depends on you!” Kid Badd trembled. “Get a hold of yourself and get on with your assignment for your mother! Find Maken Fairchild. Find Paul Winsome. Kill them both!"

Paul watched Kid Badd reach Earth's surface.

The sun burned brightly, and Kid Badd became aware of something following him. There, for the first time in his life, Kid Badd saw his shadow. He tried to outrun the strange shade. His face clouded over, for his shadow seemed not as perfect as the others he witnessed. The shadows all around him were dark and black, while the one coming from him appeared imperfect in its gray tone.

The image faded from Paul's inner vision, replaced by Maken's voice.

"And so he finds and enters the mansion of Wizard Maken Fairchild, your humble servant. While he waits for me to return from gathering food for my web weavers, he uses the time to come to the realization semi-transparency did not lend itself to perfectly dense shadows. You have observed the birth of the threat to Earth solar system.” Maken's voice faded. “And now we return to the present."

Paul came out of the dreamlike fall within his own mind. His reality instantly changed from being within Maken Fairchild's memory to flying forward inside Link Traver toward Vile Extinction. Will flew beside him.

"Mate, you okay like?” Will asked, touching Paul's shoulder. “You were yelling, don't you know.” He shook Paul. “You all awake now, sort of? Who is Shadow Gobbler and that lot?"

"I'm okay. Just had an insight into the past.” He closed his eyes. “An insight about everything."

"Mate, anything on how to save, like... us?"

"No, Will. You?"

Will glared at Paul with eyes full of accusation. “But isn't everything, sort of...everything?"

"You'd almost think so, wouldn't you,” Paul said, exasperated. “Everything didn't include how we're going to get out of this mess."

The wizard liquid inside Paul returned to the more flamboyant sound of Reshape. “We have visitors."

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"You see anyone?” Paul asked Will. “Reshape says we have visitors."

Will whispered, “Thought I heard something kind of like, mate. I'm betting Reshape sees better than us, don't you know, even through your eyes.” At first glance, Will blended into the darkness, appearing to be clothes flying without a body.

"Who am I supposed to see,"
Paul thought-spoke to Maken. After no answer, he said, “I don't see anybody, Reshape.” He felt self-conscious talking to someone Will, Link and Vile couldn't see, yet why? If Reshape couldn't hear the great collection of questions parading through his mind, why should he care if a flat solar system or a wormhole overheard him asking a few of his own?

He realized his thoughts went on and on. Of course! It had to be the key to why he couldn't think-speak with Maken or his sky persona as Reshape. His thoughts might be mistaken for speech. What did his dad say? ‘Control your thinking and edit what comes out of your mouth.'

Paul's eyes fully adjusted to the midnight hue inside Link. He looked at Will, and Will stared back like someone who hoped for instructions.

As they flew farther inward Paul continued to search for new visitors. “I still don't see anybody,” he said to Maken/Reshape.

"Look behind you."

Startled, Paul turned his head. A massive shape flew directly at him, followed by another almost as large. Calamity Horrid and Claude Nab grew in size as they approached. They soared upward and hurtled over Paul and Will like two dark clouds pushed by a windstorm.

"Scared the living juice right out of me, don't you know!” Will pulled his hands from the top of his head. “Look how big they're getting, mate. Maybe they can get big enough to plug up this hole, I'm thinking, for sure, sort of."

The response to Will's words came fast. “Link Traver! My name is not Hole! My name is Link Traver. All of you get out!” His voice bounced and echoed around the quivering walls. “Get out! Get out! Get out!” The wormhole's demand faded, absorbed into his inner walls.

"Let an adult give it a try, boy,” Calamity Horrid commanded. She stared at Vile. Her voice seemed to come out of the back of her head, like a mother scolding her children about something they were sure she didn't see. “You have fulfilled your destiny by entering this worm to challenge Vile Extinction."

"Link Traver, not Worm!” Link cried.

"Now Claude and I will take over,” Calamity continued as if Link didn't exist. “We will finish the job for you, little boy.” She didn't turn back to look at Paul and Will. She grew and grew, and continued her charge.

Paul cheered her on. “Be my guest!” Inside he said,
"Thanks, Maken Fairchild."

"Come along Claude. Try to keep up.” Calamity Horrid grew to twice her giant size, and then doubled that several times. She had become gigantic, but observably still tiny compared to Link Traver or Vile Extinction.

Claude matched her growth, staying a respectable head shorter. “I'll help save sweet Vicki."

Calamity lectured like a crazed teacher trying to convince herself her lesson took root as understanding amongst her students. “In the end, it must be your destiny to have us save our beloved Earth solar system. To do it ourselves, in an adult way. This is not a boy's job. How dare this solar system threaten mine!” Her voice magnified as she grew. “We will scare it away! You hear, boy?” The sound of her voice blasted around the wormhole walls, hopping, skipping and bouncing until absorbed. “It is I, Calamity Horrid, not the boy Paul Winsome who will now become the hero."

"You think you can scare away a whole solar system?” Paul asked Calamity with as much politeness as he could fake, his voice easily carrying to her despite the distance between them.

Claude Nab turned his massive head toward Paul and Will. “Vile Extinction and the wormhole will get theirs, trust me,” Claude growled. “She's in charge; believe me. She's your friend."

"Calamity, you do your thing,” Paul hollered after Calamity Horrid and her pet. “Let me know if you need any help.” He just had to grin. “Let me know if you need my pebble and Will's clunk of a tuning fork."

The size of Horrid and her ape grew beyond any possible understanding of the laws of physics, but the flat solar system they faced still dwarfed them.

Deep into the darkness, Calamity and Claude flew, now side by side, occasionally bumping. They grew into monstrosities the size of a small planet and its oversized moon.

Claude Nab beat on his chest and shouted words more growl than language. “I'll
in
gest you!"

Paul looked at Will. “That'd be like a puppy trying to lap up the Pacific and Atlantic oceans."

Calamity screamed, “Show yourself, idiot, Vile Extinction!” The sound of her voice proved so powerful the sides of Link couldn't absorb all of it, leaving the rest to bounce off and become a chorus of threats circling the enclosure looking for victims. “Spin out of here and go back to where you came from! I, Calamity Horrid, Queen of all you survey, give you one last warning!"

"Feel the fear!” Claude Nab howled. “I
in
gest!” His voice circled the wormhole until absorbed. In the contest of threats, the winning volume easily belonged to Calamity Horrid.

Vile Extinction's voice became sweeter with each word. “Would you please ask your monkey what he's doing? Does he wish me to laugh myself to death?” Sweetness joined the nastiness, mingled and became contest-winning strident. “Calamity Horrid and you, monkey! Shut up! I shall now
kill
you!"

Calamity and Claude immediately reversed direction, shrank on a crash diet of panic, and became blurs as they zoomed over Paul and Will's heads once again.

Link Traver spoke to the escaping pair. “Wait for the Paul Winsome boy and his buddy. They will soon join you silly creatures."

"Pay no attention to him,” Maken thought-said to Paul. “Scare tactics only succeed when fear clouds the mind. Stay focused."

"Easy for you to say.” Paul tapped his front trouser pocket to make sure his weapon hadn't escaped. “Got your tuning fork, Will?"

"Yeah.” He patted his pocket. “Yeah."

Paul wondered how Calamity Horrid and Claude Nab thought escape possible if their solar system became cooked by the entrance of Vile Extinction's suns. He began to feel the heat from her suns despite Vile's long distance from him. His stomach took up residence in his throat cutting off his attempt to speak.

"Focus, Paul,” Maken insisted. “All you have learned up to this point in your life, all your father and I have taught you, now must become your focus."

Taking a deep breath, Paul treated his fear as if nothing but stage fright. “Will and I have a weapon,” he warned in a voice pathetic in volume when compared to Calamity's or Claude's, Link's or Vile's.