CHAPTER THREE:

Rebels

     Josh was beginning to become short of breath as they ran. The girl in the purple bathing suit displayed not a hint of exhaustion. Then Josh remembered. Tempo was really a mass of metallic ooze, with no real lungs nor heightened heart rate -- probably no heart at all, despite her present appearance as the pretty Emily; despite the unforgettable breath she emitted close against his face earlier in his room. It must have been just for effect, Josh concluded.

     She led him into a cave with a perfect half-circle entrance. It was black and forbidding. What appeared to be a dark, sinister recess, opened instead onto a daylight-filled meadow of red grass and colorful flowers. The petals of the flowers were all triangles and squares, with perfect circles at their center. The flowers and grass grew in precise rows as though here Mother Nature was a mathematician. Birds with triangular wings flew over the meadow in a V formation that was actually a precise right angle. The cave that was not a cave, and the geometric birds and meadow, were just more enigmas in this dimension of riddles.

     “We have been fighting the Dimension Wars for six years,” Tempo said as they crossed the meadow. “All in our resistance group are from worlds conquered by The Evil Cluster. There are five of us. Five of the few still free. What The Cluster calls rebels. Now, you are one of us. But unlike us, you still have a home untouched. It is up to you to help Solaria to remain so.”

     “Up to me?” Josh gasped, breathing heavily of what he hoped was oxygen. How could this have happened? How could junior high student Joshua Miles be the solution to winning the Dimension Wars? It was too much to digest. Josh decided Tempo must be mistaken. Chaos must be mistaken, too. Josh had no special powers that could help these fantastic beings win a war that had been going on for years. Oh, his teachers said that he had potential, but they also said that he didn’t apply himself, was not the most diligent of students. Now, creatures from other dimensions were vying for Josh’s inadequate brain. Yes, a big mistake. Josh and his brain were just along for the ride.

     The orange sweet potato clouds diminished over the red grass meadow and Josh was struck to see two suns in a sky that was as black as deep space. Several moons were also present, some crescent, some half moons, some full. Josh’s grip on reality finally let go as suddenly, from within a stand of trees a hundred meters away, another apparition sprang. It bore an angular, almost human, face of a bird, but its neck stretched back and into the clump of trees like a rubber band becoming thin as a thread.

     Josh let out a yelp of fear, but Tempo calmed him with, “It’s all right. It’s only Spindle.”

     “You made it,” the face squeaked, bird beak breaking into a lipless smile. “Does he still have his brain?”

     “Yes,” Tempo replied.

     “Coulda fooled me,” the bird-like entity said, looking the boy over as though Josh were an unexpected worm for lunch. Spindle then looked over Tempo. “Tempo. Why have you assumed this frail and unflattering form?”

     “It is the boy’s favorite Solarian female,” Tempo responded. “It allows him to better relate to me.”

     “Well, stop it. It’s unattractive!” Spindle squawked.

     Then with an audible snap, the rest of Spindle’s elastic body sprang forward from the trees to join with his face. His elongated neck compressed down to a near normal length, and he stood before them with two arms, two legs, and almost human. This new entity wore a chrome burn band on one arm, and a form-fitting jump suit that looked to have elastic properties commensurate with its wearer’s. The material was red, and from Spindle’s head sprouted a shock of bright red hair that stood up like a rooster’s comb. His feet were bare, three-toed, clawed, and splayed, like a chicken’s. His skin was rubbery and a pasty yellow.

     “He thinks you’re unattractive!” Josh muttered in an aside to Tempo.

     Spindle had a futuristic crossbow strapped across his back with five strings drawn taut and five arrows in place. The arrows didn’t have typically pointed tips, but instead boasted broad flat blades. Spindle also had a stout, squat spear on his belt. It had a short handle and resembled the weapon preferred by Zulu warriors in 19^th century Africa.

     “Come,” Spindle ordered as he started off ahead of Tempo and Josh, “Fractal is waiting.”

     As the three of them marched on, the red grass meadow gave way to a rocky grassless region where fissures issued forth green steam. The rocks themselves were cubes of various sizes, and almost translucent in nature.

     “I’d better go on ahead and warn him you’re coming,” Spindle noted. “Wouldn’t do for Fractal to be startled by your arrival and let go with one of his lightning bolts.”

     As Spindle stepped forward, his legs stretched out many times normal length and in three or four steps carried him stealthily over the cubic-boulder strewn horizon.

     “He’s some sort of -- elastic birdman!” Josh gasped.

     “He’s from Frobenius,” Tempo offered, “a dimension whose inhabitants are born with molecular properties that enable them to extend their body parts.”

     Tempo and Josh continued to trot on for a few minutes. They began to see thick dark clouds forming just ahead with circular bolts of lightning crackling within.

     “He’s brooding, again,” Tempo sighed.

     The two crested a hill and saw Spindle standing next to a hulking figure twice Spindle’s size. Not as big as Denso was, nor even quite the size of Chaos, but a strapping, muscle rippling, veritable mass of a man. The new entity sat sullenly on a translucent cubic rock, brooding, as Tempo had foretold. The dark storm clouds seemed to be rising up from the broad shoulders of the man who sat like Rodin’s The Thinker. His skin was pale green and his long thick hair a deep chestnut brown. He was shirtless, but wore brown tights and black boots. The tattered remnants of a green cape hung from his shoulders. This could only be Fractal.

     “What’s with the storm?” Josh asked Tempo in a hush. “It seems to be coming right out of him!”

     “Fractal is a Kolomogoron,” Tempo explained. “He can control and focus the elements and the tectonic forces within a planet. Lightning bolt, lava blast, freezing wind, even earthquake. His powers are most useful in battle, but sometimes they are a bit out of his control.” As they approached the gloomy leader of the rebel group, Tempo called out, “Joshua Miles is here, and untouched by Chaos!”

     The storm above vanished as Fractal stood and looked down over Josh with concern. “This weak little entity is to be our salvation?” he scowled.

     “Told ya,” Spindle noted.

     “Yo, nice to meet you, too,” Josh disdainfully replied, hurt by Fractal’s disrespect.

     “Here. You’re going to need this,” Fractal said, producing a burn band that he placed on Josh’s left forearm over his shirt sleeve. It attached itself with an electronic hiss. Josh looked over the buttons and lights on the amazing device that allowed interdimensional travel. Josh was suddenly, inexplicably, one of them.

     “Look, you guys are fighting some kind of war,” the boy said. “I’m not into that. I’d be happy to just -- go home.”

     “You cannot return to Solaria,” Fractal snapped. “You must show us how to save the universe!”

     “Yeah, well, that’s not my dog. Call 911, okay?”

     They all looked at Josh, bewildered by his words.

     “So -- what are we gonna do?” Spindle squawked.

     “With this accelerometer they’ve invented, Chaos knows the future,” Fractal growled. “He can track us anywhere. He’ll know where we are going. Be there waiting for us!”

     “The same is true for you, Joshua Miles,” Tempo said through the lips of Emily Kinicki. “As long as he has the accelerometer, Chaos can find you.”

     “Then you gotta do something about that gizmo!” Josh said, having nothing more constructive to offer.

     “What do you suggest?” Fractal said, with an open look like he expected Josh to have the answers to the pop quiz.

     “How should I know?” Josh sighed. “It’s some sort of machine, right? Then stick a monkey wrench in it! Pull its plug! Blow it up!” Josh proposed.

     Understanding crept slowly into Fractal’s eyes. “I know of no device for the wrenching of monkeys, nor the pulling of plugs. But blowing things up! That is something we know!” Fractal assured. “How do we accomplish this?”

     It was becoming clear to Josh that these super beings were powerful and had the ability to travel between dimensions, but -- they weren’t all that bright!

     “What happened to the big blue guy? That Denso dude?” Josh wondered, looking around for some sanity.

     Fractal nodded, again as though Josh’s question was more of an answer. “You are right. We will need Denso for your mission to be successful.”

     “My mission? What mission?” Josh blinked.

     “Destroying the accelerometer,” Fractal replied. “Denso’s shoulder mounted missiles can blow it up, as you suggest, but only if we can get close enough. Starla?”

     “The proposed mission makes perfect sense,” a disembodied voice said over all their burn bands. “We must destroy the accelerometer, now that we have Joshua Miles.”

     Josh didn’t like the sound of that. Was he a prisoner? Who was that strange, soulless voice that came over their burn bands? Josh had best play along.

     The strange voice went on. “Denso burned into the Forbidden Zone, and took Chaos with him. They are still fighting. Denso’s life signature is fading. He’s losing.”

     Spindle punched a button on his burn band. “Denso?” the elastic birdman cawed into the device on his forearm.

     There was a crackle of static, sounds of a great struggle, then the deep, resonant, unmistakable voice of Denso responded. “A little help here?”

     “Well, if we need Denso, we’d better help him!” Josh blurted out, surprised by the authority in his own voice.

     “Yes, Joshua Miles. But it will take all of you to rescue Denso,” the voice over the burn bands said. “I’ve set all your bands for a burn into the Forbidden Zone.”

     As they all steeled themselves for battle, Tempo said to Fractal, “Joshua Miles has formulated a name for us.”

     “A name?” Fractal scowled. “We have names!”

     “No, a name for our group. To give us mystery! Strike fear in our enemies’ hearts -- those that have them.”

     “What is this name?” the hulking rebel leader said.

     “DimensioNoids!” Tempo said with the kind of pride the real Emily Kinicki might never find in one of Josh’s ideas.

     “Look, I was just -- you know, trying to come up with a name that described...,” Josh said.

     “DimensioNoids,” Fractal repeated thoughtfully. “I like it. We need -- an identity. Brilliant, Joshua Miles!”

     Josh could only roll his eyes and change the subject.

     “This -- Chaos. What’s his story?” Josh asked.

     Surly Fractal responded, “It is enough to say that Chaos is a ruthless and relentless being who will not stop until he has all the dimensions under his heel. He was so as a child, and will be so until he is stopped.”

     “You knew Chaos as a child?” Josh said, surprised.

     “Yes,” Fractal said, fingers over the activation button on his burn band. “We grew up together in Kolomogoro. In the same family body. Chaos is -- my brother. Now, let us try out this new name you have given us! DimensioNoids! Burn!”

     With that, the three rebels punched the activation buttons on their burn bands, and three portals opened, taking Fractal, Tempo and Spindle away.

     Josh was shocked by the revelation of Chaos being Fractal’s brother. He was slow to react. Still, having just seen the others do it, he too was able to activate his burn band, and was once again hurled into interdimensional space.