Adventures in Parodyverse:  Choices Part 5


    Lara Night walked quickly behind Jay.  The urgency of the situation of a dangerous android on the loose in the halls of the Lair Mansion meant she didn’t bother to change from her casual white short sleeved shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

    It contrasted sharply with Hatman, who was still in his default costume.  Ironic that he wore it because he hadn’t changed after his last encounter with the same android outside.

    Being out of communication with Anna, who was chasing the mystery android to keep track of him, it was only mildly surprising that Lara and Hatman turned a corner and saw their target heading right for them.

    The male android screeched to a halt, realizing it was surrounded.

    Anna took her opportunity.  Rather than stopping, she ran right up to the male android and grappled with him violently.  She repelled off the interior wall, and spun around, flinging him violently into the opposite side, and giving an extra push off the floor.

    The result was just as she had intended - she sent him crashing through the outside wall, falling clear of the Lair Mansion.  She knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but it would take the fight back outside.

    Or so she thought.  As she discovered, she did him a favor - he apparently had orders to escape, not fight the Lair Legion.  Anna chasing him through the halls prevented that, until now.  Once he hit the ground, he stood quickly and started running as quickly as he could toward the causeway leading to Paradopolis.

    And then Anna felt even worse as she watched him stop after crossing the causeway, and blast it with eye lasers, isolating Lair Island from the rest of the city.

    She turned to face Lara and Hatman, and she looked dejected.  “I’m...sorry.”  Anna whispered.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We all screw up sometimes.”  Hatman reassured her.  “I know what you tried to do.  You wanted to keep the people in here safe.”

    Anna nodded, but still looked kind of sad and ashamed.  “I...will help rebuild the bridge.”  she offered.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, that’s what we need.”  Yuki finally caught up, and slapped Anna on the shoulder.  “A multi billion dollar android doing road construction.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I bet Yuki already has a plan.”  Hatman guessed from the sly grin on his fellow Legionnaire.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh yeah.”  the purple-haired cyborg enthusiastically agreed.  “I’m tracking your android pal right now.”  She looked right at Anna.

    Anna replied reluctantly, “Can we chase him?”

    Yuki winked at Hatman.  “You might need to fly to catch him,”  she told Anna while looking directly at Hatman.  Then she cryptically said, “Hatty, I have an errand to run.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Right.”  Hatman said.  He dug through his belt and pulled out a Jets cap.  He seemed to understand what Yuki was referring to, though Anna didn’t.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll see you guys later then.”  Lara guessed her action for the day was over.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“CSFB! is looking for you, by the way.”  Yuki told the blonde.  “He says he wants to arrange a meeting.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A meeting?”  Lara asked.  “What kind of meeting?”


---


    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A meeting between my foot and the Chronicler’s ass!”  CrazySugarFreakBoy! eloquently explained as Lara Night asked him the very same question.  “Hatty told me you were having problems with him.  I want to help you take care of those problems, but I can’t get there without your help.  So set me up!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I...don’t really want to cause trouble.”  Lara sheepishly responded to the Wired Wonder, sounding a little unnerved that he was circling, powered by boundless energy and a need to do something.  “I’m working on getting along better with him.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re playing his prison bitch, is what you’re doing.”  Dream warned her.  “He’s playing you.  He’s going to try and see how far you’re willing to take it, and then he’s going to screw you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m prepared, if that’s what he tries to do.”  she said.  “I think I have my bases covered.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Either you take me, or I contact Lisa.”  CSFB! threatened.  “I’ll find a way in myself if I have to, and I’ll kick his ass even more if you’re not there with me.”

    Lara finally looked like she was going to relent, but first she gave him a stern warning.  “He’ll hurt you, Dream.  He can do that.  He can even manipulate Chaos.  I can’t let you get hurt over this.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You sound like Hatman.”  he laughed.

    She laughed too.  “Yeah, I do.  But I mean it, Dream.  If the Chronicler has a personal vendetta against me, it’s between him and me, and I want to settle it myself.”

    CSFB! looked toward the ceiling, and tapped his chin.  He didn’t take long to think of his next move.  “Okay, maybe I can take it down a notch or two.  At least let me talk to him, you’re too smart, sweet, and beautiful to put up with this alone.”

    She shrugged sightly, and rolled her eyes at his sweet talking.  “Okay.”  she said.  “But please behave, I don’t want the Lair Legion to have to pull off a rescue to the inner planes.  “Or at least not Liu Xi.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why not Liu Xi?”  CSFB! asked.

    Lara was hoping he wouldn’t catch that as she said it, but it was too late to take back the words now.  “She said she would hurt him if she had to.”  Lara said.  “That scares me, because I know he’ll force her to, and she probably can kill him.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Gotcha.”  CSFB! noted.  “So let’s go, then.”

    She thought about warning him that he’d feel a little dizzy and disoriented when they arrived, but she figured that he probably felt that way normally.

    Lara held Dream’s hand tightly, and he felt a hot, tingling sensation all over his skin for a moment.  He was forced to close his eyes for a second as a bright light overwhelmed him - the light was coming from him, and from Lara.  Then darkness and cold fell upon them both.

    He opened his eyes, and looked up.  Above him was a starry sky.  His feet touched a marble floor which merged with tall, marble columns on the fringes of a very large room.  Between the columns was more dark sky and stars.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why did you bring him here?”  the Chronicler asked.  He was in a pinstriped suit and black checkered tie.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nice suit.”  Lara greeted him with cheerfully.

    The Chronicler seemed annoyed by her response.  “I asked you a question!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sorry,”  she apologized.  “He asked to meet you.  I thought if I showed you--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Don’t apologize to this dickweed.”  CSFB! interrupted.  He turned his attention to a very stunned Chronicler.  “Look, jerk-off, I came here to tell you, if you don’t stop treating my friend Lara badly...I’m going to put my shoe so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste the brand!”

    Lara put her face in her hands and shook her head.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Is that so?”  the Chronicler growled, raising his voice.

    CSFB! then added insult to injury.  “By the way, the 80’s called, it wanted its tie back.  And its buddy the 30’s wanted its suit back.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Let’s see how funny you think you are in Comic Book Limbo for the next two years!”  the Chronicler threatened.  He raised his hand to point at the Wired Wonder.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll never surrender to the dark side!”  CSFB! grimaced as he started to fade away...until Lara grabbed the Chronicler’s finger.  When Dream reconstituted, he fell to his hands and knees, gasping.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“How dare you!”  the Chronicler growled at her.  And threatened, “Do you want to join him?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You can’t keep fighting everyone who gets in your way.”  Lara calmly told him.  “But if you have to fight someone, fight me.  Unlike Dream, I know why you treat me like crap, and I can take it.  I wanted to try get along with you instead of organizing a coup to take you down.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“The point is,”  Lara continued, as she let go of his finger as a goodwill gesture.  “Besides your attitude...you’re actually doing a decent job.  It would really be a shame have replace you.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you...threatening me?”  the Chronicler was really angry now.  His fortress shook as he began to lose his temper.  “That does it!  Thanks to you, CrazySugarFreakBoy! will spend the next nine years banished to Comic Book Limbo!  And you are hereby--”

    He didn’t finish that sentence, as Lara slapped him hard across the face.  She was angry now.  “If you try to finish that,”  she warned, “I’m going to have to hurt you!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s a laugh!”  the Chronicler recovered from his face slap.  “You can’t hurt me.  You think you’re powerful?  I’ll show you what power is!”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Here we go.”  CSFB! groaned as he started to recover.  “The nothing can stop me now speech.”

    The Chronicler wheeled around quickly and turned on CSFB! again.  The Wired Wonder doubled over and collapsed to the floor, and his breathing started to become raspy and painful.

    Lara Night let out an angry snarl and lightning began crackling around her, as she grabbed the Chronicler, enveloping him in high-voltage blue tinted electricity.  She dragged him to the edge of the huge marble platform of his stronghold...and then flung him off, into the darkness of the space surrounding it.

    She kneeled next to CSFB! and hugged him tightly, using the close contact to force energy into his nervous system and his own accelerated healing ability, to give it an extra boost.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, keep your energy.”  CSFB! told her.  He pushed her away gently.  “You’ll need it.  I’ll get better on my own.  That’s so cool, how you went all Return of the Jedi on his ass.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m sending you home.”  Lara said, ignoring his usual fandom related comment.

    He smirked, and said, “I still owe the Chronicler an ass kicking.”

    Lara’s eyes narrowed, and she insisted this time.  “I’m sending you home.  If there are any consequences, I’ll face them alone.”

    CSFB! sighed, and relented.  For a rare moment, he became calm, and his voice softened.  “You’re brave, and sexy.”  he said with a wink.

    She almost laughed as she touched his shoulder, and he vanished in a flash of light.  Then she rose to her feet, and turned around.  

    The Chronicler was back, and his suit was smoldering and torn.  He had the look of a child who’d just fallen off his new bicycle, and he was shaking.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You tried to kill me.”  he said, sounding as if that was the last thing he would have expected from Lara.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I did.”  Lara admitted bravely, but she swallowed hard as she said it.  She was truly worried about the consequences.  “I had to protect my friend.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Now I’m going to have to...aaaah!!”  His voice started out confrontational, but a little shaky.  But then ended with a fearful cry as Lara raised a fist and lunged partway toward him.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You don’t hate women,”  Lara guessed, “You’re terrified of them.  Why is that?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why do you think?”  the Chronicler asked, his face reddened as he pulled up his torn and smoking suit jacket as a demonstration.  “So what, you going to replace me now?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  Lara lowered her voice to near a whisper.  “Like I said, you do a good job, and it would be difficult to replace you.  All I want you to do is leave me alone.”

    That last part sounded threatening enough, even spoken quietly, that the Chronicler cringed again, expecting another assault.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“And stop lying to me.”  she also insisted.  “I know I haven’t been stealing energy from your universe.  I don’t absorb it like a black hole...I absorb some, and I give some back.”

    More quietly and gently, she added, “Look, I know you value your privacy.  If you would have treated me better in the first place I never would have had to come back here.  Think about that.”

    The Chronicler didn’t respond.  He was quietly sulking.

    Lara Night took one more look at this pitiful man, and she said nothing.  Instead, she vanished from his realm of her own accord, and headed back to check on CSFB!.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Owned!”  Lisa greeted the Chronicler with when she appeared from nowhere.  

    He jumped at the sound of her voice first, and then started grinding his teeth angrily.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You knew this would happen.”  she taunted him.  “Why didn’t you just treat her with more respect like I asked you to?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I have my way of doing this, you have yours.”  the Chronicler replied coldly.  “Now leave me alone.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Suit yourself.”  Lisa shrugged as she left him in the darkness of his citadel to sulk alone.

    But even after he was alone again as he wished, as he looked at his still smoking suit, he chided himself for not knowing better.  He could see the alignment of the plot threads clearly - and Lara was clearly right.  She would indeed not have come back to his home again if he treated her differently.


TO BE CONTINUED
    

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin