Akira, body and spirit now recombined, was badly dehydrated. He’d gone a week without any water or food. The hunger was the least of his problems, his body had had some, if admittedly minimal, fat supplies to burn; just a longer than usual fast but then again his body had once been accustomed to fasting. Going so long without water on the other hand had left him close to death. Thankfully his body had been in a shady, cool area of the house and his coma had meant no physical movement (his pressure sores testified to that). Both had helped him survive without water for so long.
He flipped over onto his front with a scream. The underlying tissue damage resulting from prolonged pressure on his skin was excruciating. He could feel the rawness on his heels, ankles, hips and tailbone from lying on them, motionless for so long.
He forced his limbs to start working, crawling towards the kitchen and water. He went unconscious at least twice that he remembered, as he dragged his body across the house. His blood pressure was dangerously low and his mouth tasted of dried blood and sawdust. How he managed to get himself up onto a chair and next to the tap was lost in his hallucinations and increasing dizziness. At the time he could have sworn that a dozen little winged creatures had appeared out of nowhere, flown him onto a chair which they then moved next to the sink before turning on the cold water tap and splashing some of the life-saving liquid into his mouth with their wings. His contracted throat immediately rebelled against it, causing him to cough violently before almost collapsing from the chair.
Something seemed to hold him up and again some water dripped down his parched throat. Then his delusional ‘little helpers’ vanished, his mind obviously no longer needing the notion of mystical assistance as he again tried to drink, slowly, a little at a time from his own palm.
Having risked as much water as he dared, he looked around. On the table linked by a long twisted cord to the wall beside the pantry was an old fashioned telephone with a dial. He’d never seen it there before but it was just what he needed at this moment in time.
He stumbled across to the table and lifted the receiver to his face. There was a dial tone. It took him several minutes to figure out how to dial by spinning the disk. He then stumbled out of the kitchen, through the house before collapsing unconscious on the lawn.
He never saw the Crate flying in and landing, never felt Annie pick him up and carry him inside the ships’ cabin and administer intravenous fluid directly into his veins or the wet sponge she applied to his lips to allow him to adsorb water into his parched throat.
It was another 24 hours before he awoke again to find himself in the BASEment infirmary, lying on his side, still with an intravenous drip in his arm.
Annie stood over him, arms crossed and with a look of intense anger on her face. He suddenly had the impression that she was a Valkyrie about to smite her enemy, him.
Before she could chastise him, he had to know, “My doppelgänger, is he still around? You need to warn the others they may be in danger.”
Annie’s expression didn’t change, “I figured something like that when I couldn’t find any sign of the brand or reptilian alterations on you. Admittedly I initially thought you were the doppelgänger not him. That’s why I ran a DNA analysis and scan of your body for scars. I couldn’t imagine a clone would also have the same scars as our Akira.”
Over the next hour she explained what had happened to his team members; their meeting the other ‘Akira’ at the Library, the fight and then their disappearance after ‘he’ had vanished trying to get into the vault.
Annie had instigated a number of global searches, trying to trace their commdots and using facial recognition by hacking into every surveillance satellite and orbiting sensor array she could get access to (including those on orbiting Vilani ships) but she had failed to find them. She was starting to think they weren’t on Earth anymore.
She left him to sleep whilst she went to contact Dr Bradbury at the Library and explain that Akira had not been their attacker.
As soon as the door closed Akira collapsed out of bed ripping the IV out of his arm in the process and proceeded to get dressed. This had been his fault, if he hadn’t allowed himself to become corrupted by a lust for power, for forbidden knowledge. If he hadn’t acted so badly, then Sam, Mace and Mary would still be here, not lost somewhere ‘out there’ wherever that was.
He needed to try and make this right. He had to head to the Library and try and investigate.
He stepped out of the door and found himself physically lifted like a baby and plonked back in the bed by a very angry Annie and a smiling, if equally threatening Jeeves.
Annie’s voice was low and husky. It would have been sexy if it wasn’t also filled with menace, “We’ve seen enough idiotic actions from you over the last few months and we don’t need any more. You will stay here until I say you’re fully recovered even if I have to restrain you… And I won’t be using fur-lined manacles to do it either. Look, let me negotiate with the Library so they don’t kill you on sight.
According to Dr Bradbury the vault defences were activated by Ophelia…” Akira briefly remembered Sam saying something about how Annie and Ophelia knowing each other at least electronically. Annie continued, “The defences neutralise all mystical ability before teleporting the intruders somewhere. Wherever that is, no-one has ever returned as far as they know.
Ophelia seems to think the destination varies on some sort of rotation and all are potentially deadly, however she thinks she managed to transport them and your double to an alternate, more hospitable location in an alternate dimension. The gateway is one way and not easy to control. Before you think about it, we will not allow you to try and follow them. Three missing team members are bad enough, when it gets out that Wessex no longer has a team defending it, all hell will break out amongst the meta-villain community, I’m sure.”
It was three days later before Annie unlocked the infirmary doors and allowed Akira to head down to the hangar and a waiting, obviously anxious Adam who transported him to his appointment with the Head Librarian, Dr Bradbury.
Akira tried apologising but Dr Bradbury waved it off. “The priority now has to be rescuing your companions if they are still alive from wherever they are. We have been scrying for them and reached the conclusion they must be on a different plane or dimension. Our internal systems,” he waved his hand towards the downcast demonic figure hovering about the crystal that held her essence, “are convinced they were still alive at the moment of crossover. That’s the good news. The bad is that we have no idea where they are or how to get them back.”
He hesitated for a couple of minutes then crossed to a statue and removed a pendant from around its neck. For a split second, Akira was convinced the statue had momentarily moved as though it was about to attack. If that was the case it elected not to as Dr Bradbury undid the clasp and walked towards him with the pendant, shaped like a longsword with an elaborate guard and pommel carved from an emerald.
They proceeded passed the clean up on the ground floor and down to the station platform and the Stacks. In front of them stood a massive bank vault with multiple locks but only a single very small keyhole.
They stepped forward and Akira felt the ornate rug he was standing on shudder then relax as the crossed over to the door and Dr Bradbury took the sword pendant and inserted it into the lock. With a massive groan the vault door swung open to reveal a tunnel filled with ancient books and artefacts all in hermetically sealed security cases. On the threshold, just inside the frame of the door were carvings on the floor, walls and ceiling. This had to be what contained the defence spell. Deactivated by the strange-looking key he knelt down and touched the carvings. Inert, he could learn nothing from them.
Dr Bradbury explained, “When the vault is opened properly these and the other defences remain deactivated though Ophelia can elect to trigger them at any time. When the vault door is locked, the room has all the air sucked out using some mystical means I don’t fully comprehend and the defences are activated. There is no way to trace your friends, I’m sorry.
Akira nodded but admitted, “Perhaps once the vault is locked again I might be allowed time down on the platform to try and see if there is any way to contact them? I know you believe them lost forever but, I know my friends. If anyone could escape and return it would be them and I want to be here for them if I may. With your permission I would like to stand vigil for them. If they are to cross back from wherever they are the most likely point of crossing is here surely?”
It took a lot of convincing but in the end Dr Bradbury agreed to allow him a few days down on the platform to see if he could do something.
Akira sat on the ornate carpet cross-legged. He did wonder if it was some sort of living mystical construct as he occasionally felt a small, almost imperceptible shudder through his crossed legs as he tried to focus and reach out towards the vault and whatever lay beyond. The feelings seemed to alternate between an alien warmth and the intense, unfriendly cold that was the very antithesis of life itself. Nothing he could do however allowed him to reach further or make contact. The whole chamber was sealed against astral entities.
It was 36 hours later that an exhausted Akira fell into a deep, uncontrolled sleep. He was obviously experiencing some form of dream going by his rapid eye movements yet when he woke a few hours later he felt refreshed and had no memories whatsoever of what he had been dreaming about.
What he did know was that Annie was sending him an urgent message over his commdot that Death Metal was attacking the Jewellery section of Wessex’ Little Russia.
Funnily enough, he no longer felt the urgent need to stand (or sit) vigil in the vault. He was convinced that somehow his friends would find their way back, he just needed to make sure that there was still somewhere for them to come back to.
Akira had an idea, perhaps people didn’t need to know that the rest of the team was missing. He just needed to talk with the others back at the BASEment and possibly try and track down a certain young woman he’d briefly met once before. He smiled, for the first time since he’d re-entered his physical body. It was time for the Balance to reassemble.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 