| Previous Post
---------------
WRITER'S NOTE: This story takes place during Saving the Future #26.
---------------
The Parrodipolis apartment of Catherine Gillespie.
T-Plus 24 hours since the Void Scholar has replace 98% of the Earth's populous.
T-Minus 10 minutes until The Lair Legion hologramatic hoax.
"Uh!" Catherine said as she hit the floor. She opened her eyes & looked around. She was back. She stood up & before she did anything else, she felt a sudden urge, it was power urge. Catherine ran into her kitchen & over to the sink where she promptly throw up into it.
"I guess my body just doesn't agree with having it's self broken down into it's base atoms & transported across large amounts of space." She thought & then went to the full length mirror in her bedroom.
Once there she, she looked herself over. She was dressed in, starting from the ground up, a pair of navy-blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high-tops, on her feet were a pair of argyle socks. Her pants were a well-worn, and ripped in places, pair of blue jeans. Moving up her body, she was wearing an unzipped graying black hoodie, and under that was a black T-shirt. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets and a couple of wrist bands. A few of her fingers had some rings on them. Her black nail polish was cracked and chipped in places. She had short, sandy blond hair which was pulled back and into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin was wearing a pair of black plastic glasses. Nothing seemed to be wrong or out of place.
As Catherine continued to look herself over & wonder if everything was in fact the way it was before she took her trip to the Moon her attention was turned away from the mirror to her window. She saw something odd.
"Wha?" She said out loud.
She wasn't sure but it looked like there were a series of missiles headed for a various points around the city. Before she could think about it them any further, a bright flash went off. It was followed shortly there after with a sound of an explosion. Catherine was blinded & fell to the floor. She missed the almost prefect Mushroom cloud rising up from the missile's intended target.
As her eye sight had returned, Catherine lay on her floor wondering what had happen & if she was in fact dead or not. Then she thought that was stupid question. Of course she was dead she was well with in the blast radius of the what most likely was a Nuclear attack. As she lay there, she thought that the afterlife looked a bit blurry. When she squinted the blurriness focused a bit & look to be like her bedroom.
She reached up & touched her face, she wasn't wearing her glasses. After a few clumsy grasps for them, she found them. They were broken or anything. She also found it a bit odd that there wasn't broken glass around or a burnt anything. Everything looked perfectly fine. This was truly not what she had expected in a post-nuclear fall out zone. The next thought in her mind was maybe she had gained some sort of super powers from this. But she quickly dismissed those thoughts, they would have to wait until later.
Catherine looked out her window & everything looked perfectly normal out there. All except the sky was all smokey which didn't make an sense. He mind flashed back to Galacticus' first trip to Earth & Heralds' attempt to prefer his boss from chowing down on the planet. Catherine scanned the sky but couldn't see any mostly naked metallic man on a equally metallic board but that didn't mean there wasn't one. As she stared at the sky, she wondered what had happened while she was gone.
Catherine then looked down at the street. There standing in the middle of the road was a tall, slender gentleman. In his right hand, he carried a grey Umbrella like it was a cane. He wore a plain looking three piece grey suit with a plain looking grey button down shirt with it was a plain looking grey tie. His shoes were pitch black & buffed to a shine. His brown hair was cut short & he was slightly balding up top. He had a neatly trimmed, well groomed Goatee. As Catherine looked down at him, he looked back up at her.
Catherine opened her window & went out on to her fire escape. There was no sound, it was completely deafly quite.
"Spooky?" she called out. He shook his head yes.
"What happened?"
He motioned for her to come down & she did. Not only was there no sounds, it was also cold. Catherine zipped up her hoodie.
"Hello, Miss Gillespie." He said.
"Hi." she replied. "What happened?"
"The Lair Legion through their combined might have avoided a Nuclear winter & the destruction of at least three metropolitan areas."
"What about the sky?"
"That, my dear, is a hologram created by the Legion's resident Artificial Intelligence Hallie. It's being used to fool the blighter they are currently dealing with."
"ok." Catherine said & looked around the barren street. She then asked. "Where is everybody?"
"They have been displaced."
"By the Legion?"
Spooky shook his head no. "They were been taken away the Void Scholar, that the blighters' name. You & I are among a small handful of people on the planet."
"Who else is around?"
"Most of the Earth's population is centered on Parody Island with the rest scattered across the planet."
Catherine didn't reply, she was in a bit of shock.
"We make up 2 percent of the Earth population at the moment."
"How... how.. come were left & not.. with everyone else?" Catherine stuttered.
"Most if not all of the Earth's population at the moment was off the planet at the moment the switch took place."
"Switch? What switch?"
"The Void Scholar has an army of nasty little creatures that can take the form of any person or animal. They now make up the the majority of the Earth's populous."
"But you said there was only a handful of people around?"
"Yes. People. These creature might look like you & I but they aren't. It's been said that they were at some point but that would have been millennia given the way they look."
"How could I spot one? Just for future reference."
"They are hard to spot, their deception is that good. One thing that does given them away. They do have a habit of stuttering. But know this that most of the people you may see around aren't who they appear to be."
There was a pause & then Catherine asked. "Are you one?"
"No. I, like yourself, was on Planet at the time."
"Doing what?"
He didn't say reply at first but after a few second thoughts, he said. "Nothing you need to worry about at the moment."
There was another pause, then Catherine asked. "Do you know The Hooded Hood?"
He looked a bit taken back at the question. He then replied "How could one not know of him! A master planner who was at times an adversary of the Lair Legion & at others an ally. He is rumored to be dead, but I see no reason dispute that fact. Why do you ask?"
"Oh. No reason." Catherine lied.
"I think it's best for you to get back inside. Those nasty dopplegangers should be back up & around by now."
"What about you?"
"I should fine. Now get inside & remember trust no one." Mr. Spooky said as he then turned & walked away.
Catherine started to climb back up her fire escape. As she did, people started to come out on to the street, once she noticed that she started to climb faster.
---------------
TO BE CONTINUED...
|
