> ---------------
>
> WRITER'S NOTE: This story takes place during the later half of Saving the Future #28.
>
> ---------------
>
> The Parrodipolis apartment of Catherine Gillespie.
>
> She hadn't left her apartment in what felt like months but it could have been weeks or days, she doesn't know. It's been awhile since she has had any sort of contact with the outside world. She's become a bit paranoid since she's gotten back to Earth & Mr. Spooky, a man who always seems to know more them he lets on, told her to no trust anyone. She still not sure if that was good thing but a few days, weeks, so time ago everyone who wasn't who they were just disappeared. She saw it all from her bedroom window, some of it was quite gruesome. At that moment she just lay there on her bed, that is where she's spent most of her time. It seemed pointless to do anything else.
>
> Then, she heard something which was odd since there hasn't been anything around to make any noise except her & she wasn't moving. She rolled off the bed, crawled to her window & peaked out between the vertical blinds: There were people out there. They looked a bit stunned, but they were definitely people. Catherine wasn't sure what they were: Was the World's population back? Or were these more the Void Scholar's fake people? She wasn't sure, so she crawled back into bed.
>
> A few hours went by then her door bell rang: Catherine didn't want to answer it. A few minutes after that, there came a knock on her door: She still wasn't going to answer it. A few minutes after that there came a mix of knocking & ringing. That combo went on for a few minutes, so she finally got up to answer it. So, armored with a baseball bat, Catherine unlocked her door & standing there in the door was two people who looked a lot like Chad & Ronnie. There was a few things off about them but the most visible one was that 'Ronnie' was not dressed correctly.
>
> "Hello." Catherine said cautiously.
>
> "Hi!" Ronnie said.
>
> "What do you want?" Catherine asked.
>
> "Well... Seeing as how the People of World have all come back in a big bright flash, a flash so bright we had to wearing sunglasses. My compatriot & I making our rounds to see how everyone we know is. We've stopped by Jane's, she didn't know about any fight which was good so here were at Casa Dela Gillespie."
>
> The guy who looked like Chad leaned into whisper something in the guy who looked like Ronnie's ear. He did so & got this reply. "Well, yes I know Catherine lives just down the hallway from us but I wanted to see if Jane was mad for punching her in the face, she wasn't so that mean she was one of those fake people that had been running around. So, now were here to see about Catherine & to get the real Little Cat back."
>
> 'Ronnie' turned his attention back to her & asked. "So, can we have him back?"
>
> Catherine looked over at the cage she had which the last she had checked was empty but now it held the a bundle of brown spotted white fuzz. Little Cat was happily chomping away on a jelly bean, it was a light blue color.
>
> "Uh.. sure." Catherine said as she let the two men.
>
> She still wasn't sure if they were who they said they were but she didn't still have that bat & felt that she could take them. As Chad went over to the cage, Ronnie asked. "Are you going out to play?"
>
> "No. I just wasn't sure who it would be on the other side of the door. I've been along here for awhile."
>
> "You have been?"
>
> "Yeah."
>
> "But we're told the world went away leaving only the people went the Legion & you weren't with them, were you?"
>
> "No. I was on the Moon went the switch out happened."
>
> "Visiting Mr. Know-It-All's home base?"
>
> Catherine had to think about who Know-It-All was for a moment then said. "Yeah."
>
> "Well, Cool Beans. It seems everything is back to the way it was." Ronnie said. He then added. "Well, except for Chad lost his accordion in a strange jungle somewhere in another dimension & I am now an acting agent of SPUD, except for those 2 things everything is A Oh Kay!"
>
> "ok." Catherine said uneasy. She wasn't sure if she liked Ronnie being a Spy but he being a part of a Government organization did seem to fit.
>
> "So, everybody's back?"
>
> "Yeah. Or least that what we heard from Dan D. when left his flying battleship."
>
> " cool."
>
> "Yeah." Ronnie said.
>
> The four of them, including one hamster, just stood there for a few moment. Not really saying anything. It was getting awkward until Ronnie said. "We must be off. I want to call up SPUD & see if I can get a Gun, Dan D. took the one that came with this suit. He left the knife set, but I've never been good with throwing things. Plus, Guns go boom when you shoot them. I have these grenades." Ronnie said as he pulled some from a punch on his belt. "But you've also got to throw those, too."
>
> Ronnie laughed a bit then said "BOOM!" loudly & laughed a bit more. Chad & Catherine both shared in some uneasy laughter.
>
> Shortly there after, mostly from some prodding from Chad, the two of them left. Catherine then went to call The Safe to see if her grandfather was alright.
>
> ---------------
>
> Later that night, Catherine was out side walking the streets. Mostly to just hear the sounds that she hadn't heard for sometime. Normally she would have found them annoying but now that were like music to her ears. As she walked around she past by a local pawn shop, there in the front window were a few TV's hooked up a video camera. She didn't pay any attention to her reflected image. But out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something a bit off. She walked back into the camera's view.
>
> She looked at her self, there it was her normal self but she was surrounded by a sort of psychedelic aura of energy. It's colors of reds, oranges, red oranges, yellows & on the very edges fading out in a whitish color. Floating around in this aura field were little globs of stuff, a few of the globs were furry, some had poky prickly things. Catherine moved back & forth in front of the camera & on the screen she saw the aura with it's energy globs followed her. She then looked down at her hands, she didn't see the aura or the globs.
>
> "Hello, Miss Gillespie." said a voice.
>
> Catherine looked up there he was.
>
> "Spooky."
>
> "Yes."
>
> Catherine looked back at the screens, there she was with her aura & there was Spooky, he didn't have any sort of aura around. Not even a energy glob.
>
> "I see you noticed the presence of portal travel."
>
> "What?" Catherine looked at Mr. Spooky with a puzzled look on her face.
>
> "Yes. Remember back to the portal, the one you fell through & end up in Parody Harbor. The one from Misters' Beeslyhuxtoy & Swiss' apartment."
>
> Catherine thought about it for a few seconds. "Yeah. So?"
>
> "To make it safe for one such as you, Mister Swiss or Beeslyhuxtoy: you all were encased in an invisible energy shell."
>
> "But you closed that portal, didn't you?" Catherine asked.
>
> Mr. Spooky was about to answer but stopped since he thought she no longer had that memory. He then said. "Why do think I had anything to do with it?"
>
> "I don't know." Catherine said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I just have this feeling."
>
> "All right. I did have a hand in the portal."
>
> "It sucked your hand in?"
>
> "No. I have some power over portals like that."
>
> "Ok." Catherine said. She always thought he had some sort of extra powers beyond being mysterious.
>
> "Do Chad & Ronnie have auras around them?"
>
> "No."
>
> "Didn't they also go through it?"
>
> "Yes. But their passage through the portal was planned so the auras' around them had were there for only a short time. They have dissipated."
>
> "So, what about mine?"
>
> "It will go away, eventually."
>
> "When?"
>
> "When what the aura is there for is done."
>
> "And that is what?"
>
> "Only time will tell." Spooky said stoically.
>
> "Well, you could since I think you know."
>
> "I do know but if you knew the end of the book it would take away all the fun of reading the book. Plus, you might not understand what it means."
>
> "You could explain it to me."
>
> "No. I have better thing to do then foretell your future. But it is a dozy."
>
> "Ok." Catherine said changing the topic. "So, is my aura always going to show up on video tape?"
>
> "No. I altered the viewing capabilities of that camera." Spooky said & he snapped his fingers & Catherine could no longer see her aura.
>
> "You knew I'd be coming by here, didn't you?"
>
> "Yes. I've already read the book."
>
> "I'm a book?"
>
> "No." Spooky said & sighed. "Your life as a book is a metaphor."
>
> "oh." Catherine said.
>
> "Good night, Miss Gillespie." Spooky said & he was gone.
>
> All the way home, Catherine keep looking at her hands.
>
> ---------------
>
> THE END
>
> ---------------
|
|
