Adventures In Parodyverse: Center Stage Part 3 (UT#295+ tie-in)

Links:
Part 1
Part 2

Center Stage Part 3 (UT#295 tie-in)

    Lara Night walked the halls of a pure white crystalline castle. Or so it seemed from the inside, because the hallways were endless, its windows overlooking an overly bright landscape of more crystal and white. The air was cool but not too cool, warm but not too warm. Soothing, actually, and everywhere she went there was a calming breeze.

    She herself was dressed in a very comfortable but embarassing miniskirt and a thin tee shirt, both sparkling white, with soft canvas white sneakers but no socks. Once in a while she passed other women dressed exactly the same way. There didn't seem to be any men. But she ignored that because she was busy following her senses, trying to locate Jay in the confusing maze of hallways.

    Finally Lara felt that he was close. She could hear giggling at the same time, but couldn't quite get a fix on the direction. Then she remembered...even in this place she could become intangible and take a more direct route. She did so, and walked straight through the crystalline walls to where Jay was located.

    He was in a large room playing tag with a yet another woman in a miniskirt who resembled Zdenka but wasn't. He had a childlike playful smile on his face, like he was in a dream and had no idea what was really going on - he also still had his hair. That's when Lara could sense calming waves trying to enter her mind coming from an unknown source. It was an electromagnetic equivelent of drugging, only her personal energy field rendered her immune. She wasn't sure for how long, though.

    "Jay!" Lara called out to him.

    Jay didn't pay attention to her at first, but when he did, he had an expression of total awe on his face. He walked over to Lara and held her face gently in his hands. "What are you doing in my dream?" he asked her. "You look so pretty."

    The next few seconds melted together. The last word Jay spoke echoed off the walls in the room for what seemed like an eternity, and Jay held her close against him and kissed her deeply, almost...expectantly. The mental wave became stronger and hit Lara at that instant, and while she resisted it still she was left reeling and confused by it for a moment.

    And Jay seemed confused too. It was as if his proximity to Lara was counteracting the wave's effects on him too. "That...that was odd," he whispered. "I...I feel bad for kissing you. Like...I've angered you."

    "I'm not angry," Lara said, "Just shocked." She thought about explaining but with that wave present, if she explained it she'd just make no sense to him. She had to get him out.

    "Good," he breathed happily. "This is a sex dream, after all, and I didn't get that far with Yuki and Zdenka--"

    "That wasn't Yuki or Zdenka," Lara told him, but he didn't seem to be listening.

    "So how about you?" he asked. She noted that his voice sounded like a teenager trying to get the prom queen into bed, rather than Jay's usual quiet self. Dreams always happened in the absence of time and inhibition, so she had to make a note to herself to forgive his behavior. "Hurry before I wake up."

    Lara had an idea simultaneously as she felt Jay tug at her clothing to try and remove them. She had to think quickly, because Jay believing it was a sex dream, she could sense he certainly was ready for it at any moment. He had no idea it was all real to her.

    She altered her energy field for a moment again and let the wave of confusion crash through her mind full force that time. As she opened her eyes she felt that Jay's hands were missing from her, and he was stumbling backwards, stunned like someone who had just been awakened forcibly from sleep.

    "It's you!" Lara exclaimed. "Whatever this is, it's linked to your mind! Jay, you have to remember how to get out."

    "Out?" Jay asked groggily, sounding confused still.

    "Yes, out!" Lara grabbed Jay's shirt with two fists and pulled him against her forcibly. "Dammit, Jay, concentrate!" She narrowed her eyes and decided to turn the wave and the dream against its designer. "I don't like this place. Get us out and I'll give you so much sex you'll forget how to walk! I'll have your children if I have to."

    That finally snapped Jay back to reality, and he frowned. "You're such a comedian," he told her.

    As he spoke those words, the two of them began falling. Lara held on to his shirt more tightly, but she didn't have the power to force them both airborne without possibly tearing his shirt and dropping him. Instead she rapidly made a static bubble and expanded it quickly as they fell so they bounced safely once before tumbling to the ground.

    Or maybe it wasn't ground. It was much too soft. Lara looked up and realized that they had crashed through a skylight into a furniture store, and were now tangled on a brand new space-age foam mattress. To her dismay the two of them were still dressed as they were inside that...place.

    "Are you okay?" Jay asked her.

    "Yeah," Lara whispered as she sat up painfully. She looked sad as she looked up at Jay. "I have to ask you something though. About the dream."

    Jay frowned, remembering the dream he had. He was still trying to resolve everything in his own mind, and was quite embarassed by it.

    "Do you have a lot of dreams like that?" she asked. "Cause that was just...weird. Hunting every girl in your memory in your own personal crystal castle?"

    "Lara, a guy's dreams are private," Jay explained quickly, trying to hide his embarassment. "I can't even explain why things happen in my dreams, they just do. I've never been able to control them."

    "Wow. So I really was in your mind." Lara sat up and tried to straighten the skirt so it wasn't so embarassing. "I guess it's pretty cool when I think about it. Now we just have to find out how Marvellous Marv is doing all of this and blow up that huge furnace of his."

    "I'm glad you came out of it okay," Jay said, sounding a little distracted. "If something would have happened to you--"

    "Then I would have been screwed," Lara joked. She kept smiling until Jay couldn't help but laugh. She hugged him as he laughed. "Jay, you're not a stranger, you know. I like to think we're good enough friends that we could have dealt with something like that."

    He nodded. "I suppose. But I'm still really embarrased about it, Lara."

    "And I'm embarassed to still be in this...outfit. But I'm dealing with it. At least till we can get rid of Marvellous Marv's wedding chapel and furnace of doom."

    Jay nodded. "Let's go, honey," he joked, taking her hand and referring to pretending to be a couple again.

    Lara punched him in the shoulder gently as they made their way out of the furniture store.


---

    Jay was wearing a Tornadoes cap this time when he returned to Marvellous Marv's Wedding Chapel and Travel Agency. He literally blew the doors off of the place before he entered with Lara close behind.

    Stan the salesman looked at the two of them entering and ran for the back door, trying to make a quick getaway. Hatman and Lara ignored him in favor of the bigger fish.

    "Is he still here?" Jay asked Lara.

    She nodded. "He's not aware that we're here yet. Though I'm sure Stan will tell him."

    "Let's get moving." Jay headed quickly through the chapel and crashed through the door at the end.

    When they arrived in the small hallway between the dressing rooms and the basement, they noticed that the door labeled 'Keep Out' was open, as if to welcome them to their doom.

    "We'd better be careful," Jay whispered. He switched his Tornadoes cap for a ninja mask. "Stay behind me and out of sight."

    Lara nodded and stayed close, but didn't tell Jay that she had them both under cover of a very aggressive energy shield. If Marv tried to get anywhere near, or one of his 'salespeople' tried to sneak up, they'd be knocked a few feet away.

    Jay froze as he entered the basement and could see that furnace flickering in the distance. He could feel Lara's small hand on his shoulder, and knew she could tell he was hesitating out of the fear of unpredictability. He looked at her for a moment - she seemed angry that Jay was still traumatized by his recent experience.

    "Remember what I said I was going to do?" Lara whispered to him.

    "Planning to do something to my furnace?" Marvellous Marv asked loudly as the lights in the basement suddenly came on. The exit door at the top of the steps slammed shut, and Stan remained at the top of the stairs to guard it.

    "Come and stop me," Lara invited Marvellous Marv bravely.

    Jay's heart started racing as he gave Lara a fearful look. He didn't realize they were shielded until Marv reached for Lara and was knocked onto the dusty basement floor by an unseen force.

    "Blow up the furnace, Jay," Lara urged him. She looked at Stan and added, "You two guys better get out of here if you know what's good for you."

    "I won't let you destroy my gateway!" Marv growled. "I worked too hard and for too long to build it!"

    "So it is a gateway," Jay noted to himself as he switched to a Torpedoes cap. "Yuki was right all along."

    "Looks like an elemental gateway," Lara added. "Liu Xi would be impressed if she'd be around to see it." She looked at Jay and suddenly grabbed his shoulder. "Wait...does that cap allow you to launch torpedoes or to be one? I don't want you to get too close."

    "Oh. Right." He quickly switched hats to one marked Laser Tag instead. But just as his eyes began to light up and the beams began to strengthen, he was knocked off his feet along with Lara...

    ...and then the floor disappeared. Lara quickly began hovering and wrapped her arms around Jay first, and then her legs as she learned she didn't have the strength in her arms to hold him aloft.

    At that point Jay knew it was now or never. He aimed the eye beams at the furnace again and they began heating up. As he did that he felt a surge of power rush through his body and he knew why - Lara had somehow sensed that he had to build up to a critical energy mass and was giving him a powerful boost.

    Jay gasped as he felt the power rush through him. It was a rush, and it burned through him at the same time. His heart began to race, and he felt he wanted to scream but he couldn't because his jaw was cramping.

    Marv and Stan ran for their lives as the beams from Jay's eyes flashed bright enough to force Lara to turn away. The furnace erupted in flame at first but then melted, releasing clouds of steam and smoke until the entire thing collapsed into a mound of melted red hot slag. The walls and floor around it were cracked from extreme heat, and the floor above was scorched to the point of near collapse.

    When Lara pulled the Laser Tag cap off of Jay's head he was sweating and shaking from exhaustion. The floor was back under their feet, so Lara gently lowered him along with herself, propping him up carefully so he could support his weight against her until he regained his balance.

    "You okay?" Lara asked. "I guess I should have warned you before I did that."

    "That was..." Jay smiled tiredly. "Pretty cool, actually. You're always so timid and passive all the time...I had no idea what you were capable of."

    She half shrugged, half frowned. "I could do better," she whispered almost sadly, "But I don't want to bring the whole place down or kill Marv or Stan."

    "You did great." Jay looked at the doorway to the basement and sighed. "Too bad they got away, though...we couldn't do everything at once. We'll catch them again eventually."

    "Yeah." Lara nodded in agreement before smiling slightly. "I guess we learned some stuff about each other at least."

    "About that." Jay put his hand on her shoulder and started to follow her out of the now deserted building. "If you forget what you know about my dreams? I'll try to forget how nice you look in a miniskirt."

    "Oh, right." Lara poked fun at him, "Like you'll forget that so easily."

    Jay sighed. "Yeah, I guess it was a little unrealistic. Let's just settle for keeping it between us then."

    "That, I can do." Lara nodded. "So now we track down Marvellous Marv?"

    He frowned and sighed sadly. "It seems that we don't have any clues to follow."

    "We don't need clues." Lara smiled. "I know exactly where he is."

TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Liu Xi Xian, Yuki Shiro, Lara Night, Chiaki Bushido (Psychic Samurai) (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, all rights reserved
-- All other characters property of their respective owners

Post By Anime Jason Fri Nov 10, 2006 at 01:42:34 pm EST	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: Center Stage Part 3 (UT#295+ tie-in)

	[New] [Email] [Print] [RSS] [Tales of the Parodyverse]	Next In Thread >>