|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- A ROAD MAP OF ARCTICA--CUP 25--"KARATE CHOP" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  A Road Map of Arctica  ||  -------- (Cup SRrm025, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = It was a sunny day, 3:15 PM on Comma's garage-sale-cool analog-digital clock (with the numbers on little tiles that flip down). The office was totally abandoned. I looked out at the main work area, and it everything was messed-up, as if the place had been trashed and looted. Then I heard a rumbling from 53rd Street below. I slowly walked toward the window, with a sinking feeling, but just then Comma burst out of the closet and grabbed me by the arms. "Just fucking relax, Daptin!" he yelled. I threw him aside with superhuman strength and sent him headfirst into a filing cabinet. He crumpled over. He was probably dead. I moved to the window and looked out. A Warhome was cruising down 53rd Street. It got to Broadway, and joined a convoy of Warhomes heading downtown. There were hundreds of them, and they just kept on coming. I closed my eyes. How could it have happened? When I tried to go back to Rillekon's Road, I instead wound up still in this world, but in my Warhome and in my true godlike body. I told Bonnie and Abigail everything. My head was buzzing. I was all screwed-up. I had known I didn't have the strength the make another attempt to go back to Rillekon's Road. So I found the right command and had the Warhome bury itself. It was only supposed to dig itself out upon my verbal command. Or so I thought. It's very hard to understand the logic of Warhomes from their video-graphic control system. Anyway, the Warhome now safe and buried, I decided to go back to Manhattan to bring my life here to some closure. Bonnie drove me back that night, and my mind was racing. I didn't know what to do or what to think. And now... two months later... mere hours for me... Warhomes were free on this Earth, this poor innocent world... how could it have happened? I was very careful to remove the police uniform--I left the Warhome naked, and put on clothes that I had packed for the trip, even though they were much too small for me in my real body. I thought I had it all under control... that naked walk across the field in my superhero body... noises of the Warhome burying itself at my back... the world feeling unreal and flimsy around me... Then I remembered something... a loose thread on my uniform... Abigail had plucked it off while we were standing there on the platform of the Warhome... that thread... could that thread have really been a matter handler itself? And now... staring down at a sunny afternoon in Manhattan, Warhomes roaring down Broadway... two months... two months since I had spoken to Agatha and Ferrajalt... two months for Sleap Drassy to continue her attempts to pierce Gnoboslast... That night... the night I got back to Jersey City... Saturday night... I came here to the Hull offices... maybe to say goodbye to Comma, maybe to just be here one more time... I screamed and karate chopped at the fabric of this world. I was savage. I ripped it apart. In rage I fucking destroyed my little "real world". I screamed the scream of a world beginning or ending and I fucking ruined it. My scream increased in intensity until that weak little world was gone. And I was in a place of wild power. I saw Sleap Drassy doing her thing, trying to look outside the universe. Maybe she saw me, I don't know. I knew everything at that moment. The next moment, I heard the click of a phone hanging up. Agatha Petunia Wack turned around, the phone still in her hand, and she paused a moment before opening her mouth in amazement. "Daptin?" she said. "Yeah, hi." I said. "That was quick!" Prince Ferrajalt said from a comfy chair. "Ho!" a big guy, who I assumed was Darnazy Thonc, said. "I sense a slancewave hence! Most apocathery!" "How did you get back so quick?" Agatha asked. "It was very messy." I said. Ferrajalt chuckled and nodded. Just another wacky supernatual event here in Severe Repair. ***CUPLINE'S END*** ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----