"That really doesn't mean all that much to me," I sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next."
"At least I have a fairly good idea where all the portals are in the area," Fel said with a smile.
"You do?"
"Yes, because this sphere is so similar to the last two, the portals will be in relatively congruent positions."
"Thanks, Fel." I said and took a drink of my beer and stood up. "Time for me to wake up I guess."
Sixteen
3rd World
Ultraman - Some Park
We ended up stealing a car. Apparently Suzona knew a thing or three about hotwiring them, which surprised the hell out of both me and Evean.
We stopped at a shop along the road and bought new outfits, as well as a more detailed map. We also got some basic food supplies and gear. We weren't able to find any weapons however.
Loomis grumbled a few more times about how someone must be following us, or something. Suzona wondered if it was simply a case of mistaken identity, or if someone thought the man she had rolled was still in the room, and they wanted something from him. Either case would have simply been a matter of bad luck.
The car itself was a little crowded, Suzona drove and Evean sat in the front next to her giving directions. Teshes fell asleep sitting on my lap, while she had been rather friendly towards Loomis when we had started out, it seemed that now she was more comfortable with me.
That earned me a few sidelong glances from Loomis that were less than friendly.
I was pretty sure by now that Loomis had a problem with me, but what it was I couldn't tell, and to be honest, I really didn't care. We were all here on a mission, and we all had a lot at stake. My only goal was to get this over with, the sooner, the better.
But I still wondered. Who had done it?
And why?
If they had wanted Joseph or Gregory gone, they had succeeded. If they had wanted Teshes gone, they had failed.
Or had they wanted all three of them gone?
It was strange that they had treated Teshes like she was a hostage, not like a member of whatever it was that they had thought Joseph and Gregory were a part of. Was that because of what they'd been told? Or was it just a cultural bias?
And if it had been one of ours, when had they made the call? I tried to think back of who was where, and when, but anyone would have had ample opportunity from my viewpoint. Even I had the chance when I used the restroom during dinner.
It could be an external party, if there were any active gods here with an active champion, they might have noticed us, somehow, and made the call themselves. But that idea was stretching things and it still didn't explain the bit about the wolf.
All I knew was that if it was Evean or Suzona I was going to go nuclear on them. Evean, because she was becoming a friend and I had actually started to care about her. Suzona, because I was kind of hoping she might become a friend too.
So that left Loomis and Teshes. I wasn't fond of Loomis, so it wasn't hard at all to stick him in that role. I just didn't see him as smart enough, or conniving enough, however.
Teshes? Hard to say. Fel and the others thought she was innocent, but that was more from lack of opportunity than anything else. She didn't strike me as the conniving type, but she also wasn't stupid.
I sighed, I'd just have to wait and see what happened next, while trying to make sure that whatever it was, it didn't happen to me.
We found a place to ditch the car a couple of miles outside of the city, and started to walk.
"Shouldn't we steal another one?" Loomis asked.
"No, if they start seeing a string of car thefts that will lead them to us." Evean said.
"What are we going to do for a place to sleep?" I spoke up.
"Good question," Evean said. "Suggestions?"
"Pick up some sleeping bags and find an abandoned building."
"Assuming there are any around here," Suzona said.
I shrugged, "We could always break into a store that's gone out of business."
"So, any suggestions on how to find our story teller?" Evean asked
"Phonebook?" Was my suggestion.
"Assuming they're still alive," She sighed.
"Well, after that, perhaps we just start calling everyone with the same surname and see what they say?"
"Let's see what a phonebook tells us."
"Sure," I agreed.
"I have one question," Suzona said and we all looked at her. "Where do we get a phonebook?"
"Umm, has anyone seen a phone booth?" I said looking around as we walked.
"What's a phone booth?" Teshes asked.
"Something that I haven't seen a single one of since we got here," Evean sighed.
We walked in silence after that for quite a while, though not so much from a lack of something to say, more because there were more and more pedestrians walking around us as we made our way into the city.
"William, check it out," Evean said and was pointing to a building.
I looked and it said 'Library' on a pedestal out front. I looked back at Evean and smiled.
"Why don't you go inside and see what you can find, I'll take the others and look for a place to spend the night. We can meet back here, say at sunset?"
I nodded, "Sounds like a plan."
"Want some company?" Teshes asked.
I shrugged and looked at Evean, who shook her head.
"William doesn't need any distractions," Evean said grinning. "Besides, we still have to find a place to stay, and that may require all of us."
Teshes "awed" and pouted, which told me she probably had been thinking of some sort of distractions.
"I'll make it up to you later," I teased in a loud whisper.
"Who, me or Evean?" She asked.
"Both," I smirked and went off to the library as Teshes blushed, Evean and Suzona laughed, and Loomis just glared.
The library was, well, a library. There was a counter at the front, with several young women working behind it. The rest of the building appeared to be taken up with tables for reading, and lots of floor to ceiling bookshelves with books on them.
"Can I help you?" One of the women asked.
"Yes, I'm doing some research on the gojira story, as told by Chie Hayasho."
"Hmm, I'm not familiar with that one, let me look it up." She said and went to a computer terminal and spent a few minutes typing on it. After a minute she wrote something on a piece of paper, and came back over.
"Here is the location of the one book we have by her," She said and handed me the piece of paper.
"The shelves and aisles are numbered, and here is the title of the book," She said and pointed to where she had written it.
"You wouldn't know if the author is still alive, would you?" I asked.
She shrugged, "I can try and find out if you want, but it will take a while."
"Why thank you, I would appreciate it if you could," I said and smiled. "I'll go get that book while you're looking."
I went and started looking at the aisle numbers, it turned out the aisle I was looking for was upstairs, but once I found it I located the shelf fairly quickly and the book title she gave me not long after that.
I took the book over to a table near the windows and started to look through it. There were a lot of stories in it; apparently Misses Hayasho had decided to chronicle a number of local folklore stories and legends back when she was in college. In each she gave an introduction as to how she learned of the story, and who had told it to her.
In most of the stories, she had heard them from several people, told in several variations. But not in the case of the story of the gojira. That story had been told to her by a single man, a rather handsome and young man, she admitted, who she was quite taken with at the time.
He had gone on in detail to describe the monster, this 'gojira' that he had seen, and told her a story about it, and about how it had wreaked great havoc on a city, until it had finally been destroyed.
She had found his story quite fanciful, and had not intended to write it in her book, until several months later she encountered another man, this one was rather old and frail, and he mentioned the story of a monster from long ago, and had given it the same name. When she recounted the first man's story to him, he had agreed that such monsters had existed once, but that they were long gone from the world. That the younger man was probably just taking license with his storytelling.
"Oh, Sir!"
I looked up; the girl was there with another piece of paper.
"I have managed to find Misses Hayasho, she lives with her daughter now, here's her phone number."
I took the piece of paper and looked at it, then stuck it in my pocket, and looking up, out the window, I saw several police cars come screeching to a halt in front of the building, the doors flying open and eight men stormed into the building.
"Oh, dear!" she said and looked at me, "we had better go downstairs!"
"No, we had better hide," I said to her. "They have guns, so whoever they're after is probably armed and dangerous. I don't feel like getting into any shootouts, do you?" I asked her.
She shook her head no.
Just then someone called out loudly, "This is the Police! Everyone is to evacuate the building immediately!"
She looked at me, and then back at the stairway. Fortunately we were the only people around. She started to run for the stairs, so I grabbed her arm and pulling her back I covered her mouth.
"Don't yell," I warned her.
"It's you that they're after!" She gasped when I removed my hand. By now I was dragging her towards the bathrooms that I had spied.
"Afraid so."
"Please don't kill me!" She said.
I sighed, she knew where I was going next, assuming I survived; so there was no way I could let her talk to the police.
I could kill her, it would only take an instant, and I know Fel wouldn't blame me a bit; lives were in the balance, a lot of lives.
"I won't tell anyone! I won't say anything!" she was crying now, "Please, please don't kill me!"
I sighed again, what to do, what to do, and I still had to get out of here!
I pushed her into the bathroom, and had an idea. I handed her the book, "Here, hold onto this a minute."
Concentrating, I opened a portal behind her. She didn't even notice as she was crying and staring at me in complete fear.
"Oh, do you like cats?" I asked her.
"Wha..." was all she got out as I pushed her through the portal and let it collapse after her.
I stepped back out into the library and looked around, thinking. Lots of books, lots and lots of books.
And two cops, each armed with some sort of weapon, came running up the stairs.
Kicking off my shoes I shifted into my champion form, and grabbing one of the bookshelves I pushed hard against it, from the far side, and started it moving across the floor towards the stairway.
They must have seen it coming, because they opened fire, but I was blocked from view as I pushed the shelf, all ten feet by thirty, across the floor until it toppled into the stairwell.
The books all fell out of it as it toppled and all of the officers charged forward to help their fallen comrades who were now buried under a pile of books, the heavy bookcase temporarily blocking the stairs. Running back to grab my shoes I kept going, and just before I hit the window I tucked into a cannonball.
And bounced off the window onto the floor.
Which hurt.
A lot.
Swearing I looked at the window, it was shattered, but it was still holding together. Casting a healing spell on myself I got up, ran to the other side of the room and then took another run at the window.
Everything slowed down suddenly, and I noticed that was because someone had thrown a hand grenade up from the floor below.
It went off just as I hit the window, the extra pressure from the blast definitely helping me to bust through and fly away from the building.
I burned another couple of healing spells on my now rather abused body and for a brief moment as I flew through the air I wished that I had wings, then I hit the ground, the nicely paved sidewalk ground, and not the much softer looking dirt just two feet to my left ground, and tucking and rolling several times I burned another couple of healing spells as I felt a few things break that I probably needed right about now.
I came to my feet before I'd even stopped my forward momentum and ran as hard and fast as I could.
I didn't know if the police had seen me or not, there were still cars showing up at the building behind me, and there was a lot of smoke billowing out of the hole I had made my exit through. I was currently running through a small park, which had trees in it thankfully, and through which I was now running in an attempt to cut down on anyone noticing a seven-foot tall cat man running at full tilt.
When I got to the edge of the park, I stopped behind a tree, and shifted back, then put my shoes on and walked out into the open; several people saw me and gasped. My shirt was in shreds, and fairly bloody, and my pants were also a bit torn up with blood on them as well.
"Are you alright?!" a man asked coming up to me. "What happened?"
"Someone attacked the library!" I said trying to look dazed, which wasn't all that hard, my ears were still ringing, but I only had one cure spell left at this point and I didn't want to burn it unless I had too.
"We need to get you to a hospital!" He said, taking my hand.
I sighed; I really didn't want to involve anymore people than I already had. "Can you let me use your jacket?" I asked, and he pulled it off immediately and put it around my shoulders.
I turned and looked back towards the library, it was obviously burning now. I started to wonder just what kind of grenade that was?
"There are others still over there!" I said and pointed back to the building. Turning towards my erstwhile good Samaritan I tried to look panicked. "You've got to help them! Please!"
He looked at me, then looked towards the fire, and said, "Wait here!" and ran into the trees. I was amazed at how many people followed him. I walked across the street, tried to fix my shirt so the collar didn't show any blood, then buttoned up the jacket and started walking quickly away. The sun was setting and I was wearing dark pants, so hopefully no one would notice the tears in my pants, or the blood.
After the sun had finally set, I stopped in a public restroom and got a good look at myself: I was dirty from the explosion and the fall, my hair was a mess, my pants were ripped and the suit jacket I was wearing was one size too small.
I looked like a bum.
I laughed at that, causing a couple of people to look at me and shake their heads.
"You should go home, and sober up!" One of the men there said.
"I would if I had a home to go to!" I laughed sadly.
He just shook his head and walked out the door.
"There's a soup kitchen over on Thirty-Fourth Street," another man said.
I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and then looked at him. "Could you point me in the right direction please?"
He did, and thirty minutes later I was sitting at a long trestle table with about forty other bums eating a rather good bowl of soup while a man preached to us about the sins of alcoholism, drug abuse, and easy women.
Twenty minutes after he had finished, I was shown to a cot and told that I could use the showers in the morning and have breakfast, if I sat through another sermon.
"Why, thank you so very much," I said to the man who had shown me to the cot. "You truly are doing your god's work."
He looked at me a little funny when I he said that, then went off to help another poor soul.
I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
§ §
I grabbed my beer and took a long pull. Sure, it might be a dream, but right now I sure needed a drink, even one that only existed in a dream.
"So, how is she?" I asked.
"In a state
of shock. I don't blame you for not killing her, once this is all over you or someone else can take her back home, and she'll get her life back."
I nodded, "Any idea how they got onto me?"
"Sorry, William, but no. I've talked with Roden and Isengruer and they say that neither Evean nor Suzona know what happened."
"Were the others attacked as well?"
"Actually, no. They came back and saw the library in flames, encircled by the police and assumed the worst. Evean and Suzona are apparently not surprised that you're still alive. I suspect the other two will be." Fel smiled at me and tipped his beer, "Your legend grows."
I growled, "Being a legend is a pretty damn painful pastime if you ask me!"
"As it always has been."
"Can you wake me up in an hour or two, after I've gotten some rest?" I asked him.
"Of course, and I can even tell you where she lives."
I sighed; I hated it when he responded to my questions before I even asked them, much less thought them.
"But you love me anyways," Fel smiled.
"So, where is she, and how did you get the address?"
"It was in the girl's head. She looked up the address, but only gave you the phone number, in case you were some kind of murderous maniac.
"Well, can't fault her perception," I chuckled.
"Nope. I can even give you directions."
"Thanks, Fel. After I talk to our source, I'll head over to where the others are staying. Can you tell me where they are?"
"Of course," And he put the information in my mind along with the way to get to Mrs. Hayasho's house.
"Well, no rest for the wicked. Time to get back to work," I sighed.
§ §
And woke up. It was dark, but there were a few night-lights going. I searched around until I found someone about my size with good taste in clothing, and I stole his pants and shirt, leaving him mine, as well as one of the gold rings I had left.
Thankfully the braided leather cord I had them tied to hadn't come off. It was large enough that I could wear it in either form, and I had the rings spaced around it so they wouldn't clink against each other.
Portals of Infinity: Kaiju Page 17