Author: Douglas A. Taylor
Category: Suspense
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Chapter 19
"He said we have to do what?"
"He said," I repeated patiently to Bill, "that we have to bring the two monsters together."
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" he demanded.
I chuckled. "My words exactly, Black. He didn't know and didn't care. All he said was that the farther apart they were, the stronger they got. He said if we could bring them together, then they would neutralize each other, but how we did that was our problem."
Padma snorted softly. "It sounds as if JB Swift was not trying too hard to be helpful."
"Of course he wasn't," Bill said. "He had no incentive to. He had already gotten what he wanted. Still . . . I doubt he's lying." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Wizzit, where are Red and Orange right now? What's their status?"
"They are approximately ten meters below the level of the ice, a little less than one kilometer due south of you. Red's club became damaged; I was forced to destroy it twenty-one minutes ago. They are currently engaging the fire monster using blasters only, and having a tough time of it."
"I see." Bill mused. "You said they're below the level of the ice?"
"Yupperooni. Fire monster has been carving out tunnels, if you recall. Don't yet know what his purpose is. He had been trying to move to the center of the caldera, but Red and Orange drove him back. Now he is moving outward toward the rim of the crater."
"How are they able to breathe down there?" Padma asked. "Aren't the tunnels all filled with water from the melted ice?"
"I said they were having a tough time of it, didn't I? They have been keeping me quite busy locating the pockets of air that exist down there and adjusting their force shields to trap the air and hold it. I have occasionally had to teleport them to the surface to breathe. Then, too, the water surrounding them is alternately freezing and scalding, so --"
"Yes, I get the idea," Bill said with a small laugh. "Is there any chance they could get close enough to 'port the bad guy up here?"
"Physical contact with the fire monster would be inadvisable," Wizzit said. "Red and Orange have both suffered second-degree burns from such attempts, and I believe I have already mentioned that Red's club was damaged."
Bill looked around us. The Zoinks appeared to have vanished along with Lily; the only villain nearby was Mister Yeti, who was trying to break himself free from the ice he had frozen about himself. "Then I guess we'll have to bring our guy to them," he said. "That is, unless the ranking Prime here disagrees."
I grinned and shook my head. "No argument from me. How would you suggest we go about it?"
"Grab him and teleport, I suppose. The thing is, if we go at him from the front, he's likely to get hold of one of us and hey, presto! Instant human popsicle. But you were able to hold him from behind, though, right, Blue? You didn't get a chill from that, did you?"
"Nope, not a bit."
Bill nodded. "Good. I'll go after him first, if you agree. If I fail, then you and Indigo can take turns trying."
"Sounds good."
"Before we do that," Padma interrupted, "would it be all right, Blue, if I go get another weapon for Red? It would take me only a minute to teleport to the weapons room and back."
I smirked, although Padma couldn't see it. "And it also would give you a chance to check on Yellow, right?"
"Well . . . yes. And Green, too, of course."
I nodded. "All right, Indigo. Wizzit, if you please?"
Padma vanished in a flash of indigo light. "While we have a moment," Wizzit said after she had gone, "may I ask a question out of ignorance?"
That got my attention. Wizzit is an alien life form -- basically, a long tube of pink gas -- and he doesn't always understand us humans too well. (Although sometimes I think he understands us all too well!) As I have heard it, he used to ask a lot of questions "out of ignorance", as he puts it, but they have become fewer and fewer over the years. Still, one will sometimes pop up. It's usually some observation he has made that is either so incredibly obvious that you wouldn't think anyone would even ask about it or so off-the-wall that only an alien could have dreamed it up. Either way, it's usually pretty interesting.
"Go ahead," I said when Bill didn't reply.
"To your knowledge, have Red and Orange recently become lovers?"
Mike and Trina? I blinked in surprise. "I don't think so," I said slowly. "Why do you ask?"
"I have been observing them during this battle," he said. "They have been doing a good deal of quarreling; it is mainly Red trying to keep Orange out of danger, and Orange not wanting to be held back."
Yeah, that sounded about right to me. "I've heard Orange complain about that recently," I said.
"It's not uncommon for human males to be protective of females," Bill observed thoughtfully. "Especially when you're talking about a young, aggressive male such as Red and a young, attractive female such as Orange."
"Yes, I have observed that in Blue's behavior towards Junior Prime Pink," Wizzit replied. "However --"
"Wizzit!" I cried. "I hope you don't think Pink and I are . . . eww! She's my sister, for cryin' out loud! I'm supposed to take care of her if I can."
Bill chuckled. "Good point. Protective behavior does not necessarily imply attraction, Wizzit. Nor does quarreling, although the two sometimes go hand in hand."
Padma had reappeared as Bill was talking. "What do you mean by protective behavior?" she asked suspiciously. "I have not been all that protective toward Yellow. And we never quarrel!"
"We weren't talking about you and Yellow," I said, trying to suppress a laugh. "Although . . ."
"Wizzit was telling us that he thinks that Red and Orange have hooked up," Bill put in. "Quarreling by itself is pretty thin evidence, though."
"Granted, but that brings me to my second point," Wizzit said, assuming a dry, academic tone, "which is that, despite their arguing, Red and Orange have been performing extraordinarily well as a team. That teamwork, I have surmised, is at least partly due to the fact that each is maintaining an exceptional awareness, albeit subconsciously, of the other's position and actions. I have observed this phenomenon a few times before, Black -- with yourself and Shelley, back when you were Red and Orange; with Blue and Indigo, back when they were Indigo and Violet; with Yellow and Indigo now; and, interestingly, with Blue and Lily Lee, when she is in her so-called commander mode. In each case, that heightened awareness appeared to coincide with a certain amount of romantic interest, hence my question about the current Red and Orange."
"Blue and me?" Padma sputtered. "But -- but we were never really . . . I mean, I had thought about . . . but we didn't . . . and . . . me and Yellow?" She sighed. "I thought we had been keeping it a secret. Is it that obvious?"
"Well, maybe not to Black or Pink," I said, "because they haven't been around you all that much, but to everyone else, yeah. The two of you have been pretty much screaming it from the rooftops."
"I . . . will talk about this with Yellow later."
"Yes, well, as interesting as this grade-school gossip about who likes whom is," Bill interrupted, "we do have a monster to fight. Okay with you if we continue this discussion later, Wizzit?"
"Can do! I'm looking forward to it."
"Fine. I'm going to start circling around that thing. Get ready to teleport me."
"Go get 'em, big guy!"
I watched Bill move cautiously around to the back of the ice monster, which was watching him warily. Padma moved closer to me, and I felt her hand on my arm. "Blue," she said, leaning close and speaking in a confidential tone, "I had been meaning to tell you about . . . well, about Yellow and me. Really, I'm sorry. It wasn't as if I intended to --"
"It's all right, Indigo," I said, cutting off what had all the earmarks of a painfully awkward, not to mention unnecessary, apology. "Yellow's a good guy, and I can tell that he really likes you."
"So . . . yo
u're 'cool' with it?"
"Yeah," I said with a chuckle. Nobody can put invisible quotation marks around an untested slang term like Padma can. "I'm cool with it. Besides, didn't you hear what Wizzit said? I've got my own fish to fry."
"Your own . . . fish?" she repeated, obviously puzzled by my idiom. "I don't . . . oh, I see! You and Lily." She snorted softly. "I didn't need him to tell me that. I knew you were in love with her back at the Enclave base."
"Well, maybe, but that was Li Lin-fa, whom Wizzit has never met."
"That's true." Padma sounded thoughtful. "You and Li Lin-fa, and also you and Lily Lee? It is an interesting love triangle you have there. I hope they do not become jealous of one another."
"Kids, focus! Please!" Wizzit had adopted a voice that was startlingly similar to Mr. Philips, the ultra-fussy drama teacher who directed our spring musicals back when I was in high school. "Big scene coming up, gotta have your full attention!"
Padma giggled. "He sounds like one of my teachers from school."
"Same here. But he's right. We do need to pay attention."
Bill had crept up behind the ice monster and was poised to spring. Mister Yeti, still immobilized in the ice, was turning his head first one way and then the other to try to see what he was up to. As I watched, Bill leaped forward and slipped his bo over Mister Yeti's head. "Now, Wizzit!" he shouted.
The two of them disappeared in a flash of black. A few moments later, Wizzit said, "Okay, Black is in place. Are you kids ready?"
"We're all set, Wizzit."
"Then here we go!"