CHAPTER TWO:

Claws

     There was a metallic ching and three-inch metal claws popped out on the creature’s fingertips. Josh jumped out of bed and pressed himself into a corner as the thing vaulted fully into the room. Josh looked into its glowing red eyes. They seemed to pull him in. Josh suddenly felt his will to flee become the necessity to move closer. Why would I do that? he thought, confused, but unable to alter the need.

     As the claws reached for Josh, another patch appeared in the adjacent wall. This one resembled the flaming threshold Tempo had used earlier. A colossal granite block of a man leaped through the portal; blue skin, blue hair worn in a crew cut with a long pony tail, tiny jet-black glasses mounted on a prodigious face with a square jaw and mouth firmly set. He had metal wrist guards, a broad metal belt with lights and buttons on it, and a contraption the size of a large silver microwave mounted on his right shoulder. The new arrival’s landing impact shattered Josh’s wooden floor beneath metal boots the size of canoes!

     “If it isn’t Chaos,” the new apparition said to the first, grabbing Chaos’s wrist just in time. “Wanna dance?”

     “Denso!” Chaos growled. “My pleasure, and your demise!”

     With his free hand, Chaos took Denso by the throat and unceremoniously slammed him into the ceiling. Plaster fell like Kansas hail. As Chaos grinned the grin of the victor, there was a louder ching of metal and three glistening foot long slasher blades popped out on the undersides of each of Chaos’s forearms. Just as Chaos was about to rake the blades across Denso’s throat, Denso swung a fist the size of a ham into Chaos’s jaw. Denso’s massive punch sent Chaos flying across the room, crushing Josh’s desk. The blue man fired a laser beam from the box mounted on his shoulder, but the gray monster was incredibly quick. He deflected it with his slasher blades, and Josh’s homework was set afire instead. The explanation to Josh’s teachers this time would be far less believable even than that of “The dog ate my homework!”

    Denso jumped onto Chaos’s back, left forearm around his neck. Chaos’s metal hair coils seemed to be alive. They reached back to envelop Denso’s entire head as Denso locked the choke hold in place. The two fell back onto Josh’s bed. The bed collapsed. That’s when Josh, for the first time, noticed the chrome band on Denso’s left forearm. It was the same kind of device the girl had used to vanish. Denso hit the largest button on the band, and yelled, “Let’s burn!” Again, there was a burst of incomprehensible energy, a patch of fire opened, and the two evaporated into it.

     In the commotion, Josh was unaware Tempo had returned, standing, thankfully still in her ‘appealing’ form, right behind the awestruck boy. Josh spun around as she spoke.

     “Denso can restrain Chaos for only a short time. Fractal has directed me to bring you to him.”

     “Fractal?” Josh said, perplexed by the new name added to those just recently introduced to his swirling mind.

     “Fractal is our leader,” Tempo smiled.

     The girl touched some small buttons on her arm band, then grabbed the boy’s wrist.

     “I have set my burn band so we dimension burn several kilometers from Fractal’s location. The enemy has found a way to track us, so we must cover our burn traces.”

     Tempo then poised her finger over the large central activation button, but Josh stopped her.

     “Chill a mo,” he said. Tempo didn’t know the words, but she understood his meaning, for holding his wrist put her in telepathic contact with him and, in telepathy, it’s the thought that counts.

     Josh broke from her grasp and put on his backpack. It had three protein bars and some other stuff in it that might come in handy. He grabbed the battered helmet he wore when skateboarding. The Old Nutshell, as his dad called Josh’s helmet, had served Josh well in the past. He’d seen what happens when the big button on that burn band was pushed. It could be a bumpy ride. He thought a moment, then tucked his skateboard into the pocket for that purpose on the side of his backpack. He tightened the chin strap on the Old Nutshell, locked hands with Emily Kinicki and said, “Do it.”

     Tempo smiled Emily’s smile, then touched the large central button. Josh’s ears throbbed from the incredible sound, for inside the energy field created by the burn band, the sound was much louder, much like the pounding pressure of a deep sea dive. Josh suddenly found himself flying, more like floating. It was like being caught in the rush of a waterless tidal wave howling down a never-ending corkscrew tunnel. Dancing prismatic lights of every color imaginable coursed through the walls of the twisting pathway.

     “What’s this -- tunnel we’re in?” Josh shouted.

     “A dimension burn!” Tempo explained. “Fractal is waiting for us in Durratta, a dimension of geometric illusion. It’s continuum is slightly warped, so the enemy will be unable to track us, there.”

     “What are you guys?” Josh wailed, at a loss for poise, “Some sort of freaking...DimensioNoids?”

      “DimensioNoids? I like this term, Joshua Miles! DimensioNoids!” Tempo shouted as if testing the sound of it.

     “Hey,” Josh shouted back, “I was kidding. You know, DimensioNoids. Kinda lame.”

     Tempo smiled through Emily Kinicki’s lips. “I like it!”

     Josh had no way of knowing that his parents, roused by the noise, had ventured down the hall and into Josh’s room. They gasped at the sight. Wrecked desk smoldering, crushed bed and floor, ceiling ripped open to expose the lath work.

     “My God!” Josh’s mother exclaimed. “Did a tornado go through here?” Mrs. Miles called out, “Josh?” then to her husband, she whispered worriedly, “He’s -- gone!”

     “And he’s been smoking!” Josh’s father scowled.

     Josh looked down the winding interdimensional pathway. Another bizarre thought occurred to him. He held up the fist that was their two hands clenched together. “Can I let go?” he said to the morph that looked like Emily Kinicki.

     “Yes. The burn will deliver us both, now that we’re in the tube,” Tempo said, a bit bewildered.

     “Cool!” Josh grinned.

     Josh let go of her hand and grabbed his board. While in free fall he mounted the skateboard bringing the wheels into contact with the twisting walls. It was an incredible run. He did a full 360 around the inside surface of the tunnel. He shredded it! “Awesome!” the boy shouted, drawing a smile from Tempo that was more of a puzzled wince.

     As he boarded along, Josh wondered, Was he trying to show off for Emily? Trying to get her to smile? But this wasn’t really Emily. This was a mass of liquid mercury with the ability to look like Emily!

     The dimension burn reached terminus, which is what interdimensional travelers called achieving final destination. Tempo landed deftly on her feet. Josh, unfamiliar with terminus velocity, crashed and burned, tumbling along the ground and landing face first in dunes of oily black sand. Josh spat out some of the black stuff, and looked over with awe the dimension called Durratta.

     Until now, Josh’s mind had been able to grasp most of what was happening to him in relatively familiar terms. Upon arrival in Durratta, all logic fell away. No earthly perceptions presented themselves to solve the riddles of this unresponsive land.

     Towers of what might be considered trees grew up out of the black sand. They had scaly bronze trunks that stretched for miles, telephone pole thin, straight as arrows, up into clouds that were orange. The clouds bore a stiff and unmoving resemblance to the lumpy sweet potatoes Josh’s grandmother made every Thanksgiving and, only by her smiling demeanor, forced everyone to eat and to compliment her on. Limbs grew out of the trees at perfect right angles, and the leaves were perfect circles. Furry creatures resembling pure white monkeys frolicked in the trees, whooping peculiar haunting whistles. The monkeys had perfectly round heads and eyes and mouths that, too, seemed to be perfect circles.

     “Denso is a brave warrior,” Tempo sighed scanning the strange domain worriedly, “but he cannot withstand Chaos for very long. Hurry,” she added, with urgency unnecessary, for Josh was filled with fear -- fear that Chaos, the creature with the vengeful claws and serpentine hair coils, was out there somewhere, intent on stealing his brain!

     “Why does he want my brain?”

     “Chaos used an accelerometer, a device provided by The Evil Cluster, to look into the future. There he discovered the seeds of his destruction had taken root in you. Had we not been tracking Chaos, we might never have found you. Might never have discovered the location of Solaria.”

     “Solaria?”

     “Your dimension,” Tempo smiled. “You are its champion.”

     “Uh, sorry, but I’m no superhero!”

     “I know not this word, but you are our hope. For our enemies, The Evil Cluster, corrupt beings from the dimension of Cadavra, intend to conquer all the dimensions. Enslave them,” the girl explained, still as Emily Kinicki, but letting her own haunting Quaternion voice slip out.

     “But I can’t really be much help,” Josh responded.

     “You will find us the way to win,” Tempo said.