Denver, America – May 10, 1998
A private plane touched down at Denver Airport after a nightlong flight right across the country from Detroit. The plane belonged to the FBI. The passenger’s, were the agent, whose name was Michael Wilson, Larna and Red. It was Red’s first time in a plane, so she was feeling a little sick after the flight. Larna had been in a plane before, for much longer than just one night, so she was used to the turbulence. Michael had taken them straight from the mansion in Detroit to the airport, explaining what his problem was during the trip to the airport. It made no difference if Larna and Red refused to help him; he still had orders to bring them to Denver, so that they could answer questions regarding their involvement in the capture of Alberto Donnetti. Red staggered down the steps off the small private jet. Red, who was sixteen, was five feet five inches tall, weighed eight stone, and had a developing 32A-20-32 slim, fit and curvaceous figure. She was wearing an all red rubber suit, moulded to fit the curves of her body to perfection, displaying the curves as much as they could be. She had a red leather jacket over the top, much like Larna’s. Over her eyes was a pair of dark sunglasses, with a hint of red running through them. Her straight flame red hair was tied into a ponytail at the back, with the tail reaching right down her back. On her feet was a pair of red, knee high leather boots. Red leather gloves covered her hands. Her lips were a bright red. Her whole look was of red rage. Larna was close behind her, making sure that her partner did not fall. Larna had not always worked with a partner; in fact this was the first time since her assassination partner. Red was different. Larna considered her more of a little sister, than the junior partner in the team.
Larna was twenty one Erayears or one hundred and forty nine Chronoyears old. She was five feet eleven inches tall and weighed nine stone. She had hazel eyes and auburn coloured hair, which had a white streak about one centimetre wide, running down the middle. With measurements of 36B-24-35 she had the body of a top model of the nineties. She also had the looks, ones closely resembling the actress Hudson Leick, to match her body. On the right side of her neck she had a tattoo of the Chinese for Eternal Devotion in memory and honour of her late husband. On her right bicep she had got a tattoo of a Fox. On her left buttock was a tattoo of a black rose wrapped around a dagger, signifying her assassin background. Larna was wearing a pair of black fishnet stockings, with a very close tight pattern, which made her legs look even sexier than they were without them. On top of them going around her waist was a small, tight figure hugging black leather mini-skirt which, at about eight inches long, just covered her buttocks. On the top was a black leather shirt over a black lace bra. This shirt was tucked into the mini-skirt. Her jacket was a black leather motorbike jacket with matching black leather motorbike boots on her feet. The boots had got a number of buckles on the side and came right up to about half way up her shinbone. Around her neck she had a gold chain with a cross on the end. The cross hangs down to lie just in-between her breasts. It was her mother’s necklace and Larna was never without it. On her right wrist she had the wrist part of a pair of handcuffs that they use in the present day. Her father gave it to her when she was young. She used to keep it in a box until she killed her foster father, now she wears it constantly to keep reminding herself of what she had been at one time. Her face had just the right amount of make-up. Her eyes were surrounded by a dark eyeshade and her lips were a bright red with a black surround. It looked professional without being tarty. Her hair was swept back into a tight ponytail at the back of her head, leaving only a tiny fringe down her forehead.
A helicopter was waiting to take all three of them to the FBI headquarters. Red did not like the idea of going in another flying aircraft, but she had little choice in the matter. Michael pulled the back doors open, so the three of them could get into the back. When all of them were inside, he closed the door, and signalled to the pilot to lift off. Another five minutes later and they were landing on the top of the Federal building. Michael jumped out as soon as the propellers had stopped going around. The wind on the top of the building was gusting quite sharply. The landing had been tricky, but successful. Michael pulled his jacket around him, as he rushed across the rooftop to the entrance to the stairs.
Larna got out second, with Red not too far behind her partner. The two women stared out over the view of the city from the top of this building. The Rocky Mountain range could be seen on the horizon, the tops covered by the low hanging cloud. Red whistled a ‘whew’ when she saw the fantastic view that she was being given. She had never seen anything as spectacular—even the mountain ranges and valleys of Mars could not match the view of the city and of the mountains in the distance. Michael waved them across, urgently wanting to get out of the cool weather on the top of this building. Red walked across to him, still looking around her in all directions, trying to take every single sight that she could see in at once. Larna was not interested in the scenery—she was more concerned with the events that Michael had just told her about on the flight. Michael waved them into the stairway that led down to the main offices, before following them down those steps.
Every single man in the reception area to the offices could not take their eyes off Larna and Red from the moment that they appeared out of the roof access stairway. Larna looked around the reception area. It was a mixture of wood panelling, glass windows, and green synthetic plants. The chairs looked like those found in a family living room. Red moved to one of them immediately. She desperately wanted to stop the world from spinning around—the after-effects of the plane trip. Michael appeared from the stairs a few minutes later. He moved across to Larna, who was stood up behind the back of the chair that Red was sitting in,
“I’ll show you to my office, then we can discuss how we can handle the case.” he said with a small smile on his face.
“Wilson!” a deep, well weather and experienced, voice boomed from the office side of the reception area.
Every one was taken by surprise by the sudden yell. Michael turned to face the doors to the office instantly. The smile went clean off his face when he saw his boss standing in the doorway. The older man had his arms folded across his chest. His facial expression matched his angry posture. Michael excused himself from Larna, before walking over to his boss as quickly as he could.
“Yes sir.” he said as he came to stand right in front of the older man, yet taller man.
“What are you doing?” the man asked, looking at Larna and Red to show that he meant what are they doing here.
“Commander Graham, I was hoping to get them to assist me in the case of the missing Beauty Contestants.” Michael replied honestly.
“Wilson, take a look at them for a moment would you.” Graham said, then paused to take a good look at the pair of leather clad women, “I don’t care what they did in Detroit, they are not getting involved in FBI business again. Question them about their activities with Donnetti, then get them out of my building.”
Michael turned back to face Larna slowly. Another Agent then ran up to Graham. He was carrying a brown manila file. Graham turned to the younger, file clerk assigned, agent took the file off him, then flipped the front cover back. His mouth dropped open when he saw the list of disturbances that Larna had been involved with. He lowered the file.
“Wilson, get back here a second.” he cried out urgently.
Michael turned back around. He felt like a yo-yo on a small bit of string. He returned to stand right in front of Graham again.
“I’ll get rid of them as soon as possible boss, don’t worry.” Michael said, before Graham even spoke.
“One of them is Larna Fox right.” Graham said, glancing towards the two women again.
“Yeah, the one standing up.” Michael replied, quickly looking over his shoulder at Larna.
“I want you to bring the pair of them to my office. I want to have a word with the pair of them personally.” Graham ordered, before twirling around and storming back through the main double glass doors into the offices part of the building.
Michael watched him go with a very confused look on his face. He did not understand the sudden turn about in his commander’s attitude towards Larna and Red. He continued to try and work it out as he walked back to join Larna and Red.
As they were walking to the office, Red turned to Larna, so that she could whisper into her ear. The pair of them was walking along behind Michael, so he would not hear the conversation that well anyway, but Red did not like to take any chances. This whole place felt wrong to her. Red put that feeling down to the fact that she normally went about things without the help of anybody in an official capacity. She thought that that was what Larna did as well—yet Larna was going along with what Michael was doing as if she did it all the time. Larna knew that to handle a situation in the past, you had to cover all sides, but especially the most important side—the law abiding side. She had been taught this during her numerous adventures back in time. In fact, she had learnt from the very first trip back when she faced Rogue. Red glanced down to Holena’s terminal on her wrist.
“Holena says that these beauty contestants should not have disappeared.” she stated, repeating what Holena had told her.
“I know.” Larna replied simply, “The Thala told me exactly the same thing. This events does not correspond to our time line reality.”
The Thala, or The Time, History And Location Analyser is her main time travelling aid. It is surgically attached to her left wrist so that Larna’s thoughts can activate the computer. The machine accesses Factual Historical Information (FHI) Implants that have been surgically attached to the inside of her skull. These Implants give Larna every single piece of data concerning people, places, and events going right back to 1980. Thought processes operate the Thala with the responses being given to Larna in her subconscious thanks to a modified FHI Implant. The only sign that Larna is using her aid, is when it appears on her wrist. It appears when Larna activates the operations function. Once it is activated the Thala loses the power to keep the invisibility shield in operation, as it is at all other times, so no one can see the futuristic technology on her arm. Red was confused by what Larna had just said—things were getting fuzzier all the time.
“So what does that mean exactly?” Red asked, just to make the picture clear in her mind.
“It means that we’re dealing with time travellers.” Larna replied, without taking her eyes off Michael’s back.
“Does that machine of yours have any idea as to who is doing this?” Red asked, glancing towards Larna’s left wrist, where the Thala was hidden by both the leather jacket and the invisibility shield.
“No. It can’t pick up the LSR’s of the beauty contestants either.” Larna replied, then went quiet as the pair was shown inside Commander Graham’s office.
Graham rose to his feet, doing the courteous bit that he was brought up with. Red immediately went to one of the chairs in front of the desk. Larna stayed at the door. Michael stood right beside her. Graham looked at Red, who was still wearing the shades over her eyes. He found that a little unnerving but got over that feeling quickly. The difference between the pair of them was clear. The one in red looked younger. She covered her body as well, much more than the one in black—Larna. Larna, he could tell, was extremely confident of her ability to handle any situation. This was causing her no concern at all. The one in red was slightly nervous—her hands were never still. Graham held
Larna’s file in his hand as he stared at Larna.
“This is some file Miss Fox.” he said, slapping it down on to the top of his desk, “You’ve been involved in a lot of FBI business, all of which has been unexplained. I want an explanation for what you did at the Donnetti mansion, before we go any further.”
“I was hired by the Commander of the Detroit police force to help rescue Judge Wallberg’s missing daughter. That’s what I did. I can’t help it if Donnetti’s men got in the way of that.” Larna said firmly and confidently.
“This file gives no mention of you.” Graham said, turning his attention to Red, which made her slightly nervous, “Fox has always been working alone in the past cases. So who are you?” he concluded.
“She’s my junior partner. I guess you could say I’m training her to be just like me.” Larna replied, before Red could say a word.
“Jesus that’s the last thing that we need.” Graham said with a sigh as he slumped down into his seat.
“There’s no need to be insulting.” Larna said light-heartedly. “Besides, I thought that you wanted our help with these missing beauty contestants.” she finished, changing the subject from her past, to her probably future.
Michael placed his hand on Larna’s right arm. Larna turned to glare at him with a—get your hands off me—expression. Michael started shaking his head, telling Larna not to push that issue to far. Red just sat on the seat, watching the conversation like a tennis spectator. Graham moved back in his seat, so that he could stretch his legs out under his desk. He folded his arms over his chest, while he tried to figure out what he should do next.
Michael moved further into the office from his position at the door. Graham had been sitting still for several minutes without saying a word. Red sat staring at him wondering what on earth this man was doing. Larna stood with her arms folded across her chest in her usual defensive, yet casual, stance. Graham grabbed the remote control from off the top of his desk suddenly. The move made Red jump in surprise. Larna grinned—some alertness her junior partner had—she thought to herself, before turning her attention to the television screen that had just come on. Michael sat down on the seat beside Red, leaving Larna without a chair.
“Is that the tape of the interviews?” he asked Graham as he turned his attention to the screen.
“Yes. If these, ‘ladies’, are going to help us with this case, we had better bring them up to speed on what has happened so far.” Graham paused as he turned his head so that he could look directly at Larna, who was still standing at the door. “This is the taped interview of the pilot, the co-pilot and the steward on the private plane which was taking the beauty contestants to Los Angeles for the Miss America contest. This is all that we have got to go on.” Graham finished, then started the tape going.
The picture was in colour. There were two men, in very smart business suits, sitting on one side of the small table, which was right in the centre of the all white room. The table was the only piece of furniture in the room. The pilot was sitting on the chair facing the camera, so he was looking right into the lens. His hands were on the table. They were shaking. He tried to drink from the plastic cup that was on the table, but he was shaking so bad, that he could not lift the cup to his mouth without spilling some down his front. He looked a wreck. Larna wondered what this man must have been put through to end up looking like something that had been dragged through a hedgerow bottom—numerous times. It was one of the business-suited-men that spoke first.
“So they all boarded the plane in Dallas—then what happened?”
“The flight was going perfectly. The weather was fine. We had no trouble at all. It was after half of the journey when something happened.” the pilot stated.
“What happened?” the second man asked so that he could get in on the interview.
“That’s the thing. I can’t tell you. I remember flying the plane, then the next thing I know were on the ground in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert. The girls had disappeared without a trace. The co-pilot and the steward were both as confused as I was. According to the times on our watches, we had lost five hours somewhere.”
“Alien Abduction?” Red asked from her chair the moment the pilot had finished speaking.
“This is not the X-Files Miss Fox.” Graham stated firmly from his seat, after pausing the tape to stop the picture.
Red looked slightly confused—she had never heard of this X-Files—whatever they were supposed to be. She turned to look at Larna for some assistance. Larna was staring at the picture of the pilot. Red watched her closely, but Larna did not flinch from the screen. Graham started the tape again without saying another word.
The picture now showed a different man sitting in the interview ‘hot’ seat. This was the co-pilot—so one of the business suited men told the viewing audience just to let them understand who was being interviewed. The man that had spoken first the last time spoke first again.
“The pilot told us that everything was going fine up until about half way through the journey. What caused you to land the plane?”
The co-pilot looked just as confused and bewildered as the pilot had been when asked to describe what had happened to force them to land the plane in the middle of the desert just outside Salt Lake City. He simply shrugged his shoulders in a—I do not know—expression. The second man moved forward in his seat.
“Something must have happened.” he stated, more than asked, “Why did you land the plane?”
“I don’t remember landing the plane. So, how can I tell you what caused us to land in the first place,” the co-pilot barked back, his fear of his lack of knowledge, making him angry.
Graham stopped the tape, bringing the fuzzy, out of frequency station, screen back on to the television set. The screen went black seconds later as he flipped the set on to stand-by. He turned his chair around so that he could face the three people in his office.
“That’s all that they could tell us. The pilot, the co-pilot, and the steward all said the same thing. One moment they were flying along, the next they were on the ground. At first we thought they were trying to hide something, but when we gave them all a lie detector test, they all passed with flying colours. Not one could explain what had happened during those five missing hours.” Graham explained, just to confirm the details that had been given by the tape.
Larna still stood staring at the television screen. She could not understand what was happening. The pilots had no record of anything happening. The Thala could not pick up the beauty contestants LSR’s. Everything stank of people having technology beyond the capabilities in this time zone. Time travellers. Graham rose to his feet. Michael sprang upright too. Graham moved around the desk.
“Let me take you to the incident room. Maybe the agents working on this case have had some new leads. I can also show you pictures of the missing women,” he said, glancing from Red and Larna several times, as he moved to the door.
Larna blocked his path briefly.
“Red and I will be with you in a moment, we just need to have a private word for a second.” Graham nodded his head in understanding, before leaving the room. Michael glanced at the pair of them wondering what that private matter could be, before, he too, left them alone inside the room.
Red got to her feet slowly. She turned to face Larna, who was looking rather concerned as she stared at the blank television screen.
“This isn’t going to be a problem.” Red stated with a confident, broad smile on her face. “All we have to do is get Holena to lock on to their life signs, we transport over their, kick some ass, and obtain hero status with a click of our fingers.” the young woman finished, getting very excited about that prospect.
“You face one major problem for a start.” Holena said as she appeared in a burst of bright white light in the middle of the room.
“Don’t tell me, you can’t find their LSR’s either.” Larna said, knowing that she was right with that assumption.
“That’s right, it’s like they’re fading in and out, almost as if they are being shielded by something magical and mystical. I can’t explain what would cause the readings to fluctuate like they are.” Holena replied, quite upset, as much as a computer could be upset, that she could not work something out.
“This is like nothing I’ve ever faced before Red.” Larna stated honestly, “The unknown doesn’t scare me, but there is something not right here. I can just sense it. Electricity can block the LSR function, but it cannot make the readings come and go, like the people are ghosts. The signals are bouncing around all over the planet.”
“She’s right Red, one moment they’re in Brazil, the next Japan, the next Australia, then the Arctic. Nothing on record can do that.” Holena confirmed, backing up Larna’s statement to the full.
“So are you saying that they’re not time travellers?” Red asked, wanting to clarify the situation a little further.
Larna turned to look at the hologram image standing beside her. Holena, for the first time that Larna could remember, actually shrugged her shoulders in a—you tell me—expression. Larna looked back to Red, who did not look very happy with that news.
“So what are we going to do now?” she asked, leaving the decisions to the senior partner.
Larna came sweeping out of the office, like she had been filled with a new sense of determination. The truth was she was not happy at all. This was going to be a completely blind adventure. The Thala would not be able to help with this at all. Somehow they had to find ten missing beauty contestants, without the help of any futuristic searching technology. Moreover, without the help of any clues gathered by the present day law officials. Graham moved into an upright position, from his laid back one against the wall opposite to his office.
“Have you decided to help us?” he asked, hoping that they would say yes, but not showing that opinion outwardly.
“The only thing we can do is try to help you. From what you’ve given us so far, the chances are not looking good for those women.”
“I know that. Come on, let’s get to the incident room.” Graham said, full of the joys of spring now that Larna had volunteered to help them.
Michael smiled at her as he went passed her; following after Graham down the corridor. Larna did not smile back. She still had the same gut feeling that she had had when she first asked Michael what the case was outside the mansion. Everything about this case so far had sent up the alarm bells, warning of big trouble.
No one said another word as they went down the corridor, then into the lift. Larna and Red were at the back of the lift, with the two FBI men standing right beside the doors. The lift was going down—Larna thought to herself as the floor felt like it was dropping away from her. Suddenly both FBI men turned around sharply. Both had their guns out. The guns came to point right into the chest of Larna and Red. Michael was in front of Red, while Graham was in front of Larna. Red jumped back in horror when she saw the gun pointing at her.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed with horror.
Larna stared into Graham’s eyes. He did not have the same look in his eyes. It was like the lights were on but the shutters were down. Larna glanced at Red, who was trying to get herself as far away from Michael’s gun as possible.
“Don’t make any sudden moves, these guys are being controlled by some external force.” Larna said, confusing Red even more. “Take a look into their eyes, it’s like they’ve just been switched off.” she finished, using the easiest way to describe what she saw in Graham’s eyes.
Red look deep into Michael’s eyes. Larna was right—Michael looked as if he had been switched off. Before Red could turn to face Larna, Larna had slammed both palms of her hands into Graham’s throat. The men dropped his gun to the floor, lifting his hands up to his throat to protect himself, as well as in a reflex action to the sudden pain. Larna then did a left footed rising into Michael’s hand, knocking the gun clean from his grip. The lift doors slid back then. Larna grabbed hold of Graham’s jacket, lifted him up off the floor, and then tossed him out of the lift. After seeing what Larna had done, Red gave Michael the hardest shove that she could. Michael went flying out of the lift too. Suddenly the corridor right outside the lift was filled with at least twenty FBI agents, all with their handguns pointing into the lift. Red ducked down to the floor instinctively. Larna spun away so that the side of the lift was her shield. She frantically started pushing every button on the lift panel, desperately trying to get the lift doors to shut, before the bullets caused any serious damage. Red was fine, she was still wearing her body armour, but Larna did not have that luxury. After ten more seconds the lift doors slowly closed. Larna slid down the wall of the lift, thankful that they had escaped for the moment. Red peered up from her curled up position.
“What is going on? Why are they firing at us?” she asked, quite upset by this sudden turn of events.
“Whatever happened with the pilot and co-pilot on that private plane, is happening here. Somehow these time travellers have got the ability to control the minds of people. They can manipulate any situation to fit their needs. We need to get out of this lift, before it opens on another floor.” Larna urged finally.
Holena took that as a cue to activate the Vortex Warping device. Red jumped into the bright white whirlpool of light without evening thinking about where it would take her. The lift suddenly stopped. Larna glanced towards the doors. Gunfire started to fill the lift as soon as the doors had started to open. From the side view the Vortex would be invisible to the naked eye. And, as soon as they were out of the mysterious spell that had been cast on them, the FBI agents would not remember seeing a woman disappearing right into fresh air. Larna took in a deep breath, before diving forward, doing a forward roll across the floor of the lift, then springing up into the light of the Vortex.
Queen Pypa and King Drum are dimension travellers. They travel through dimensions collecting beautiful people from every alternative earth that they can find. They have now stopped in New Arizona.