Adventures In Parodyverse: Secrets Part 2

Adventures In Parodyverse - Secrets Part 2

    "A bowling alley?" Lara asked as she and Jay pulled up in front of Larry's Bowl-O-Rama. She brushed her hair back as she stepped out of the car and looked at the towering bowling pin sculptures standing on the parking lot. "Kind of an eerily fancy place, isn't it?"

    "Yeah," Hatman agreed. "Look, whatever you do, don't rent shoes, okay? They have this thing you sign and we're not sure, but we think it may be an agreement to sell your soul."

    "You're kidding, right? Is this some kind of hazing to find out just how blonde I am?"

    Jay turned around and stared at her. He was dead serious.

    "Oh," she whispered. "If this place is so dangerous, why did you bring me?"

    "I was told you're sort of 'in tune' with everything around you. That you can sense things," he explained patiently. "This is right up your alley."

    "You made a joke!" Lara giggled, finally causing Jay to lose his stoic expression and smile. "And it was a good one!" She quickly high-fived Jay. "Okay, let's go in."

    Hatman smiled as he led her toward the bowling alley, having boosted her confidence enough for her to nearly lead the way.

    The front door opened with a creak. Lara looked at Jay and chuckled, noting that she found it amusing how cliche that was. They both entered the bowling alley, stepping through the doorway into harsh fluorescent lighting.

    Just inside the door was a grainy, worn carpeted floor with an ugly pattern, and a wooden desk with dozens of wooden cubes embedded in the wall behind it. Each cube contained a small light and a single pair of bowling shoes. A old, balding man stood behind the desk spraying a pair of shoes. He looked a bit like he'd been dead for years but nobody bothered to tell him.

    "This is hell," Lara suddenly told him.

    "It's a little tacky, yeah," he admitted.

    "No." Lara looked at him sadly. "I mean it really is hell. The people working here are desperate souls who are forced to remain here."

    "That still sounds about right for a bowling alley," Hatman reiterated.

    Lara smiled and patiently grabbed Jay's chin, pointing him toward a man mopping the floor in the eating area. "Notice how they don't interact with the customers? It's because they don't see the customers."

    Hatman frowned and walked past the front desk to the eating area. He stood next to the old man mopping the floor. As predicted by Lara, the man mopped around him but didn't look up. "Excuse me," he prodded, trying to get the floor cleaner's attention. It didn't seem to work. "That's odd."

    "When we stepped through the doorway," Lara added calmly, "we left the...I guess it's a plane. The plane we were on before. I could sense it."

    "And you didn't stop us?" Jay asked.

    She shrugged. "It didn't feel dangerous. Just odd."

    Strangely enough, Jay felt reassured by the casual attitude Lara had toward the whole situation, though he wasn't sure exactly why. He followed her up to where the bowling lanes were, noticing that there were two small groups quietly bowling and seeming to ignore him.

    "Why did you bring me here?" Lara finally asked Hatman. "There doesn't seem to be much going on."

    He leaned against one of the bowling lane tables and folded his arms as he explained. "This bowling alley has always been a little odd. But a month ago it closed without explanation. Then some of us noticed that the lights were on, and it seemed like there was movement inside, but no cars were ever parked outside and no one ever came or left."

    "So it's some kind of pocket dimension thing? Why are we concerned with that?"

    "Because the real Larry's Bowl-O-Rama has gone somewhere," Hatman told her. "If you noticed, whatever this is...it's kind of normal for a bowling alley, except for the lack of interaction. Larry's was a very...unusual place. Wherever it is now, I'm sure it doesn't fit in at all."

    "It's all very creepy," she noted softly. "But honestly...what can I really do?"

    Hatman shrugged. "If I knew that I'd have done it myself already. I brought you because honestly...I'm stumped. So is Dream. And Xander doesn't seem to be available."

    "Well--" Lara took a deep breath and looked around the bowling alley. "I dunno if these are ghosts...but if they are, ghosts usually have some kind of message. And you have to follow their script to find it out."

    "Which means what?" Hatman asked.

    "It's a bowling alley." She smiled. "How about if we bowl a game?" she suggested with a shrug.

---

    Yuki viciously kicked open the door to Mr. Epitome's quarters and marched in. He tossed aside his newspaper and stood quickly as he saw her approach, but then noted she seemed uncharacteristically calm for someone who just violently destroyed a door.

    "You went too far," she seethed quietly.

    "Well, you did--"

    "No!" Yuki interrupted him angrily before he managed to finished his sentence. "You don't get to give me excuses. I never touched anything of yours. I've never made trouble for you. It isn't some childish lesson you're teaching anymore, Dominic. Super villains pull this kind of shit...destroy something I care about so I decide to surrender and quit."

    "You're quitting? So easily?"

    "No," Yuki growled through clenched teeth. "I'm kicking your ass. On behalf of my bike and Hatman."

    Epitome laughed. "I'd pay to see--" He ducked when she quickly took off her jacket and threw it in his face. When he tossed it to the floor she had already launched herself at him. Just as he reached out to block her, she planted both feet on his chest and grabbed both his arms for leverage. He knew what would happen next.

    Yuki used her weight and leverage just at Epitome's center of gravity to pull him forward and fall to the floor, using the kinetic energy and the force of her legs to fire him at the entrance wall with all the power she could muster. She watched as he crashed through both layers of plaster and wood wall with a satisfying crash, and she watched him tumble into the hallway.

    But her satisfied smile disappeared quickly. He only tumbled once before returning to his feet in an instant. "Oh shit," she whispered to herself as Epitome stood, and looked a frightening combination of shock and amusement.

    She tried a spinning kick as he approached. He not only dodged it, but he grabbed both her feet while she was still in the air and tossed her into the hallway violently. She felt the breath rush out of her artificial lungs as she crashed into the wall at the top of the stairway. She got up relatively quickly and looked around. He wasn't there...he was behind her...

    ...and by the time she spun around, he grabbed her around the neck with his arm, lifting her feet off the ground. He forced his fingers deep into her skin just below her rib cage, where his x-ray vision told him her main battery was located. She gasped as the battery punctured, and her power diminished.

    She tapped into the secondary battery and reached up, desperately grabbing Epitome's throat with both hands, clamping her fingers around, hopefully with the strength of a vise.

    But he just tore her away and threw her into the staircase. She crashed through two levels of stairs and railing before hitting the marble floor at the lowest floor landing with a single bounce. Her eyes were closed when she landed.

    "What the hell is the matter with you?" a female voice asked angrily.

    Dominic was uncharacteristically calm for someone still full of adrenaline, even as Liu Xi shoved him without much more force than any other ordinary human. "I thought I told you to mind your own business."

    Liu Xi glared at him momentarily before leaping down the staircase, using mastery of air to touch down gently on the marble floor before kneeling to check on Yuki. "You'll be okay," she whispered. She struggled to try and lift the cyborg, resorting instead to partially dragging Yuki toward Al B's lab.

    "Let me help," Epitome tried to offer.

    "Don't you touch her!" Liu Xi hissed at him. "Stupid bastard! Why do you have to fight everyone?"

    "She started it," he pointed out.

    "Just...go away! I can't even stand to look at you right now!" With those last words, Liu Xi disappeared down the hall with Yuki in tow.

    Epitome stood in the doorway of Al B's lab, quietly watching as Al replaced Yuki's damaged battery and hooked her up to some sort of machine to recharge it quickly. Yuki was still unconscious - her human brain was still in shock from the assault.

    Just as he turned to leave, Liu Xi stepped out of the lab. She blocked his way quickly, seeming sure yet still nervous - she was fidgeting as she spoke.

    "Look," she whispered sadly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said those things to you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I should have let you help."

    Mr. Epitome didn't respond. He turned around and walked away.

---

    Yuki's eyes snapped open, and she gasped. Her breathing then calmed, and she looked saddened by her last live memory. "First he destroyed my bike, and then he tries to destroy me."

    "I wouldn't say 'destroyed'." Al B stepped aside - behind him was Yuki's fully assembled motorbike. It had even been cleaned. "I got bored." He shrugged.

    The purple-haired cyborg laughed, and even teared up at the sight. "Just when you really piss me off, Al, you go and do something like this. And I remember why I love you all over again." She closed her eyes again and hugged him tightly.

    "Does this mean I'm forgiven?" he asked.

    "Yeah," she whispered to him. "Soon as you figure out how to get the bike out of the lab."

    Al B Harper looked at the bike, and then at the slightly smaller entrance door. "Oops," he said.

    Yuki laughed and hugged him again.

---

    The bowling didn't last very long. Once Hatman sent the first ball rolling down the lane, it passed right through the pins without disturbing them and then hit something soft. That something said, 'ow!'.

    Marvellous Marv climbed out of behind the pins and dusted himself off. "What did you do that for?" he asked.

    Hatman looked at Lara, who shrugged. "Before now I never thought I'd go on a mission that's weirder than one of Xander's." He looked at Marv and commented, "I thought you were dead."

    "Yeah, well I found the secret to eternal life," Marv replied. "Never be in the same dimension as your death."

    "So you brought an entire bowling alley with you?" Lara asked.

    "No, actually I happened to be in the bowling alley when it showed up here," he said. "I belong here but these people don't. That's why I can interact with you."

    "But why is it here?" Hatman asked. "And where did the real Larry's Bowl-O-Rama go?"

    Marvellous Marv looked at Lara. "Why don't you ask her? It's her the message is for."

    "What message?" Lara asked.

    Without speaking another word, Marv saluted the two of them, walked right past them both, and headed out the front door of the bowling alley. Hatman tried to follow...but the door didn't budge. He even tried breaking the glass, but it had become shatter-proof. "Lara...I think we're in trouble," he said.

    "You have no idea." She pointed at the bowling lanes. It seemed that the janitor, all the people playing, and the shoe renter at the front desk were all looking at them.

TO BE CONTINUED



-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 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

Post By Anime Jason Sat May 13, 2006 at 11:56:31 am EDT	Subject Adventures In Parodyverse: Secrets Part 2

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