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Chantal hid behind a stack of barrels with a blonde human she’d met in the dungeons. He called himself Charles. He said his mother was an astronomer and his father a pilot – so it was practically inevitable he’d end up getting himself lost in a parallel universe. He said he’d been here for eight months, and he knew the layout of the compound pretty well. Separated from her uncle, Charles seemed like her best bet for an ally right now.
A hand came down on her shoulder, and she jumped.
“It’s me, Uncle Abe,” he whispered.
As Chantal looked up to see her uncle, she spotted Rush’s auto-chute open a couple of hundred meters above the ground. He floated down, settling in a heap at the edge of the woods.
“Come on,” Biggs said to Chantal.
“You go,” said Chantal. “Get him and carry him into the woods – try to find Clenti’s place. Charles here says he can get us out of here. We’ll come get you.”
Biggs agreed, nodding and running off to get Rush. Chantal watched as he unstrapped him, hoisted him over his huge shoulder, and ran off into the woods.
Chantal turned to Charles, who was watching the other prisoners run for cover from some debris that was falling from the sky. The compound was a mess – people running everywhere. Suddenly a flaming hulk crash landed in the main square, the giant balloons still burning and crackling.
“Follow me,” Charles said. “My ship is here somewhere. I think it’s in the third chamber.” He grabbed Chantal’s hand and ran faster, pulling her along.
“Are you – are you from the moon, or Earth?” Chantal asked, hoping he understood the terms.
“I spend most of my time in Colorado, on Earth, Charles said. “But I’m originally from Kennedy Territory.”
Chantal felt a surge of relief. Someone she could actually relate to in the middle of all this madness.
They turned a corner and found themselves facing a row of short soldiers in armor, armed with spears.
They quickly turned and ran the other way, then darted down a narrow space between two stony buildings. “In here,” whispered Charles. He opened a door, ducked in, and pulled Chantal in with him.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could see a ship.
“It’s my vessel,” Charles smiled. “I bet these idiots still haven’t even figured out how it works.”
He walked up to it and gave a short whistle, like he was calling a dog. A door in the side opened.
Before they could step in, a door burst open in the hangar-like room, and in stepped Grick the Dark Master. He raised his wand to strike down Charles.
“No!” yelled Chantal.
“Forcefield!” said Charles, and his ship’s energy shield extended, enveloping Chantal and himself in a bubble of protection.
Grick attempted to fire a bolt of lightning at them anyway, but the energy just dissipated around the shield. Charles laughed as Grick’s face showed his fury.
“Come on,” said Charles. They climbed aboard, and he operated it entirely by voice command, lifting off and leaving Grick fuming in his wake. He took it out of the building and up above the mayhem of the compound.
“Take us to entry coordinates for Portal Four Three-Victor,” he said.
“No – wait!” said Chantal. “This portal – is that how we get back home?”
“It’s how we get home, and how we got here.”
“The Circle of Doom.”
“Yes,” Charles smiled, “that’s what they used to call it back in my grandfather’s day. We’ve learned a lot about the portals since then.”
“We can’t go yet! We need to go to Clenti’s and pick up my uncle and Rush.”
“Okay, I’ll rush. Where’s Clenti’s?”
“Look for a cottage near a pond, maybe a kilometer or so from here.”
Charles located Clenti’s and hover-landed outside.
“Let’s go!” yelled Chantal as the vessel’s door opened and Rush and Biggs came out of the cottage. Clenti followed behind them.
“Thank you,” said Rush to Clenti. “We couldn’t have survived this, or made it home, without you.”
“Thank me by bringing me with you,” said Clenti. “I have lost everything here. And Grick will surely not let me live after this.”
“Very well,” said Rush. “Captain Biggs, may Clenti join us?”
Charles came to the vessel door and answered for him. “He’s certainly welcome. But if we’re going to go, we better go now.”
“Your son?” asked Clenti, indicating Charles.
“Excuse me?” asked Rush.
“This is your son,” said Clenti. “I am able to discern lineages.”
“I don’t have a son, old man,” said Rush, stepping into the craft and helping Clenti aboard.
Clenti followed Rush to the cockpit where Charles was speaking to his flight control system and Biggs and Chantal were taking their seats.
“Ah, and the mother,” said Clenti, smiling at Chantal. “Your son has come to our rescue, it seems!”
Biggs shot a look at his niece.
“Charles,” said Chantal, “um, what is your full name?”
“My name is Charles Abraham Rush. Why?”
Avery Rush gulped and looked at Chantal.
Charles voiced the final command, and the ship headed back toward the Circle of Doom, and an uncertain future for this unlikely crew.
END
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Tag-Alongs