Denso was bleeding, and his blood was blue. His tunic had been shredded by Chaos’s claws and slashers. Denso had deflected most of the attacks with his metal wristbands and boots. Still, some had gotten through, and Denso had gotten in a few good licks of his own, for one of Chaos’s eyes was nearly swollen shut. His nose and lip were bleeding. In Chaos’s case, the blood was black.

            Chaos was smart. His initial blows had been focused on damaging Denso’s shoulder mount, making Denso’s laser inoperative. Denso tried firing a missile from his shoulder mount, but Chaos was cold blooded, and Denso’s heat-seeking missile could not home in on him. Denso, an inhabitant of the dimension known as Ramanujan, had the highest density of any living creature in creation. He was thus so heavy he could not even stand without his gravity belt. Newborns in Ramanujan were swaddled in gravity belts the way Solarian children were wrapped in diapers. Losing the fight, and out of options, Denso activated full power on his gravity belt. The activator was a safety switch that had to be held down. Denso did so with the strength he had left. The belt hummed at full power. Extremely heavy Denso floated up out of Chaos’s clutches like a feather riding the wind.

            Fractal, Tempo and Spindle materialized facing Chaos. Josh appeared, again tumbling into a bruising landing. He stood up just in time to see Chaos lash out at the others with his slashers. Fractal did a martial arts-like maneuver with his arms then thrust his upturned palms forward. A freezing gust of wind seemed to emanate from Fractal’s palms and blew Chaos away. He flew twenty meters, but landed adroitly on his feet!

            “Now Fractal, you know I hate the cold,” Chaos grinned then he fired his claws at the others like deadly darts. Tempo instantly morphed into a shield protecting Fractal and Spindle. The claw projectiles buried themselves in the shield. Chaos’s expelled claws were immediately replaced by new ones. He fired again, as the shield that was Tempo advanced upon him. Fractal and Spindle moved along behind her protective barrier. Spindle stretched his torso up above the shield to fire five quick arrows from his crossbow. Chaos moved with lightning reflexes, deflecting four of the arrows away with his slashers. The fifth, however, buried itself in Chaos’s shoulder. Chaos looked at the arrow then yanked it out. The wound spurted black blood, but Chaos seemed more enraged than hurt by it. He glared at his three attackers.

            “As usual, brother,” Chaos angrily called out, “you let others protect you from your weaknesses!”

            “It is you who are weak, brother,” Fractal replied. “You do the bidding of evil.”

            Like a martial arts pro, Fractal stepped around the shield. He thrust his upturned palms forward and issued a lightning blast. But Chaos matched Fractal’s pose and lightning blasts sprang from his palms, as well. Amazingly, the crackling forces met midway between the two Kolomogorons and locked in a spectacular ball of jagged lightning. Some bolts were expelled from the massive display and tore up the hard brown earth and disintegrated boulders. One flew over Josh’s head and he ducked just in time. Both warriors sagged under the pressure of the stalemate. Finally, both energy sources crackled out simultaneously. Both Fractal and Chaos staggered, exhausted. Fractal fell to his knees. The shield that was Tempo returned to the more pleasing form of Emily Kinicki. The claw darts imbedded in her skin dropped to the ground, but her slim human-like arms suddenly morphed into gleaming scimitar blades and she stood with Spindle, one on each side of Fractal, and threatening the weakened Chaos.

            “I’ll save your destruction for another time,” Chaos panted, like Fractal, drained. Chaos then turned his glare toward Josh, “and I will have the Solarian’s brain!”

            Electric arcs appeared around Chaos and he vanished into a patch of gray, his ability to dimension jump having been built into him by The Evil Cluster.

            As Josh ran to their side, the three rebels looked up. Josh, following their line of sight, did the same. Denso was floating high above. Finally passing out, thus releasing the switch on his gravity belt, Denso fell. His great density brought him down with such force, the ground trembled for kilometers in all directions, knocking Josh off his feet. The slashed and bloody Denso became imbedded in the hard-packed soil, unconscious. Tempo immediately knelt, and placed her hand on Denso’s bloody forehead. A white glow enveloped both the girl and the colossal Denso.

            “What is she doing?” Josh asked.

            “Tempo is not just a morph and a telepath. She is also a therapeut,” Fractal explained, “a healer that can absorb the injuries of others and dissipate them within her Quaternion system. It’s why we have survived for so long in our struggle with The Evil Cluster. Tempo has, at one time or another, brought each of us back from the edge of death.”

            Josh was astonished to see the bleeding reverse. The blue blood on Denso oozed back into the slashes. The slashes closed and vanished, reappearing in the same positions on Tempo’s pristine body, which was that of Emily Kinicki. Denso’s eyes fluttered open. Tempo took her hand away, and the white glow winked out. Then Tempo closed her eyes, and her injuries vanished in the same way. If it was possible to be more in awe of Tempo, Josh was.

            “Thanks, Tempo,” Denso groaned as he climbed out of the Denso-shaped impact crater in the ground, and helped the girl to her feet. Tempo seemed drained by the affair, and Denso helped her to sit down on a nearby black boulder.

            “I’ll be all right in a while,” she sighed.

            This gave Josh the opportunity to look over the Forbidden Zone. It was desolate. All was hard-packed brown earth studded with occasional black boulders, from horizon to horizon. It reminded Josh of the surface of Mars as seen by Earth’s unmanned spacecraft landing there—except for a distant Black Mountain with a snowy white peak.

            “This is one creeped out place,” Josh muttered.

            “It is our deliverance,” the voice said over the burn bands. “I had Denso bring Chaos here because the Minions of The Evil Cluster cannot penetrate this dimension. Could not come to help Chaos. The Forbidden Zone is surrounded by the strongest magnetic fields in the universe. Their dimension jump activator is based on magnetic energy. They cannot get through to the Forbidden Zone without disastrous effect.”

            “It didn’t seem to bother Chaos,” Josh noted.

            “He is not Cadavrian,” Fractal said. “He is from my dimension, Kolomogoro, and thus unharmed. But The Cluster and their Minions cannot enter here. This is why we chose it as the perfect place to construct our command center.”

            Fractal gestured to Denso who scooped the wilted Tempo up in his arms. Crossbow in hand, elastic Spindle elongated one leg and sprang ahead as their scout. They all headed toward the Black Mountain that had a snowcapped icy summit. Along the way, they crossed grassy brown plains where herds of animals that reminded Josh of musk ox thundered off at their approach. The oxen were green and yellow striped, and trumpeted like elephants. Huge predatory flying reptiles circled high over the herds, swooping down to fell a fleeing ox with beaks the size of broad swords. When an ox was killed, the rest of the reptiles landed and fed in a frenzy. This was a world every bit as deadly as darkest Africa.

            In time, they reached the Black Mountain, hiked up its side, and into the snowfield. Josh was freezing, but determined to conceal it as the others must obviously be doing—except for Tempo. She was wearing only a bathing suit and peacefully asleep in the able arms of Denso who carried her through the rising blizzard. She still retained the form of Emily Kinicki, so Josh felt a ridiculous pang of jealousy that she should be in Denso’s arms instead of his. To get his mind back on track, Josh asked a stupid question.

            “This command center of yours,” Josh called out above the biting wind that grew more bitter the higher they went. “What? Is it an igloo?”

            “I do not understand this word,” Fractal answered.

            “This mountain is gnarly, man. Good for nothing but snowboarding! You guys live up here?”

            “Ah, the snow and the ice,” Fractal nodded.

            “Don’t forget the wind!” Spindle said above the gale.

            “Chaos is cold blooded,” Fractal explained. “He cannot stand the cold. Not unless he wears some sort of protective suit. He would find his weapons and powers compromised. The Forbidden Zone has many advantages for us.”

            “Whoa, dude,” Josh said, thinking it through, “if you and Chaos are brothers, aren’t you cold blooded, too?”

            “Chaos was altered when he joined forces with The Evil Cluster. They added to his Kolomogoron powers that had eternally been pledged to peace. They built into him the most dangerous weapons. The most evil intent. The evil in Chaos could only exist within a being whose blood ran cold. Chaos has been forever changed. He is a ruthless criminal.”

            “No brotherly love, eh?” Josh ventured.

            “There once was, but it was one-sided. My brother was always possessed by a certain evil. But nothing like what The Cluster instilled in him. He had the seeds, they were the fertilizer. The Cluster came for him when we were about your age, so he knew what was happening to him. He could have escaped, but Chaos grew to enjoy the new powers given him. Powers to oppress others. He’s my brother no more.”

 *                        *                        *                        *                        *                        *

            The Evil Cluster, of course, did not call themselves “Evil.” The four wicked beings bent on conquering all the dimensions referred to themselves simply as The Cluster. Each wore a black fog shroud around them that fit like a cloak. It was really a force field that protected them from attacks of many and various kinds. The black fog covered their entire tall, gaunt bodies, allowing only their gray dead faces and three fingered hands to show. Their faces were sunken and sad, with deep black eyes, four small vertical slits for nostrils, and lipless mouths. They were humanoid, but barely.

            When Chaos reported in, he didn’t fear retribution for his failure to acquire Josh’s brain. The Cluster feared their own odious creation. They had made Chaos powerful, entrenched in him every heinous ability their insidious talents could impart. They needed him to defeat all the rebels who opposed The Cluster’s rule.

            “The Solarian is with the rebels, then,” Number Two rasped in that tinny robotic voice with which every member of The Cluster spoke.

            “Yes,” Chaos replied, his injuries from his fight with the DimensioNoids having already healed thanks to the recuperative powers built into his physiological make up. “They have probably taken the boy to their base somewhere in the Forbidden Zone, where our Minions cannot penetrate.”

            “Would destroying the Solarian dimension demonstrate our resolve?” Number Three suggested.

            “It could make the boy even more intractable,” Chaos shrugged. “It would be more to our advantage to win him away from the rebels. Bring him under our control. Use his knowledge against Solaria, and against the rebels.”

            “Do you have a plan?” Number Four asked of Chaos.

            “I will again employ the accelerometer,” Chaos offered. “See if I can observe the rebels’ designs on the future. Search the Solarian dimension for clues to the whereabouts and weaknesses of this Joshua Miles.”

            “But like our jump activator, the accelerometer cannot penetrate the magnetic field surrounding the Forbidden Zone,” reminded Number Two.

            “True, but if the Solarian returns to his own dimension, I will find him.”

            “You have told us that it is important that we acquire the Solarian’s brain,” Number Three noted.

            “That his intellect is the key to our victory,” Number Four added pointedly.

            “It is, and we shall have it,” Chaos promised then he turned and briskly left The Cluster’s chambers.

            Number One, leader of The Evil Cluster, said nothing throughout the brief conference. He seldom spoke. Number One didn’t trust Chaos. None of them did. Chaos always seemed to have his own agenda. But they needed him for ultimate victory. They were not mobile, could not take the forces of a dimension jump. They had to let Chaos lead the way.

            Chaos made his way down the long corridor leading from The Cluster’s chambers, which were at the center of a vast fortress. Chaos had to cross a large courtyard where captives under interrogation hung chained to posts. Chaos knew that the quest for Josh’s brain was far more important to his than to The Cluster’s cause. He did not reveal to them that he’d discovered just how important to his future the Solarian boy was. Chaos passed through the heavy security protecting the building that housed the accelerometer and went inside.

            The accelerometer was a fantastic machine. It towered in the fortified room nearly touching the vaulted ceiling that was at least fifty meters high. The Cluster had stumbled onto the accelerometer’s precognitive abilities when their scientists were trying to develop a tracking device to monitor the movements of the rebel bands throughout the dimensions that sought to stop The Cluster’s conquests. At the accelerometer’s base was the operations chair, designed to fit Chaos’s form, for only his physically fit Kolomogoron body could take the strain of the accelerometer. As soon as he sat down, the machine whirred to life. Great pulses of magnetic energy throbbed through the circuits and neurological pathways generated by the accelerometer. The twin brain sensors hummed in, placing their crackling terminal tips against Chaos’s temples.

            Searching the future caused great pain inside Chaos’s head. He enjoyed it, until he thought back to the vision the accelerometer had shown him only last night. It came as pictures of the distant future always did: a fragmentary burst of himself on the ground, dying, and Joshua Miles standing over him in green armor. The accelerometer was much clearer when viewing the near future, things that were going to happen in the next moments. It was an effective way to track rebels, but Chaos wasn’t interested in them. He had to find the Solarian, and change the future.

            On the operations console, Chaos dialed in the dimension known as Solaria. His mission was a search for clues— clues to the whereabouts and weaknesses of Joshua Miles, the Solarian boy who had become the critical prize in the Dimension Wars. He began his search of the future in the little town of Wheatland and the school where the boy studied, the farm where he lived. The boy would return home.