The portal opened and the figure fell out on to a world that he did not know. The portal sparked, spluttered and died. He looked about and recognised some of the surroundings he saw. He remembered them as if they were from a dream. He thought he'd read about them from somewhere, but he wasn't certain where. This place wasn't his home, and across from where he stood was a park, with a lake. It had been a long time since he'd seen a lake, and walked over to it, brushing past a woman who was also crossing the road. This caused two reactions, one of which was immediate and the other would take place over time. The woman he had gone past, staggered back slightly and lost her balance, falling in to the path of an oncoming carriage, which struck her head, splitting her skull. She died instantly. The portal suddenly reopened and the man dived in to it and returned home.
Commander Dave Goldfish, Chief of Operations at C&C, a headquarters for a covert superhuman surveillance operations known as Network,, was getting ready for the evenings entertaining. As a member of the X-Wars team known as the Fringe, he felt somewhat alone at times, being based in England, whilst the team operated from America. There was a C&C being built over there, but time was still a factor. However, tonight he had invited a few members of the team over for a meal - much to his wife Jo's annoyance as he had forgotten to mention it to her until a couple of hours before, but she had calmed down after ten minutes, and set about preparing things. Dave had invited over Fever and her beau Micheal Savage and Blaquesmith and Crystal. Six was a good number and he suspected if he had invited anymore Jo would have killed him. He checked his collection of fine wine - knowing that he'd rather have a few good ales tonight instead, but that collection wasn't anywhere near ready. Even the ÊCommander at C&C only had so much influence, and then he used it reluctantly. He'd had power before, and whilst it tasted good, it usually only lead to trouble. He selected a few magnums of champagne and had them transported upstairs. With the power to control heat, he could keep them ice cold by preventing heat from reaching them. He smiled. This was going to be an interesting evening, he could feel it.
:::Jo::: he called and he was teleported up to his office.
"Remind me," asked Jo.
"Okay, I am a Guardian, so is Crystal. Blaquesmith is a Warder and Fever is the Lady - got it?"
"Yeah, got it." The tannoy blared out.
"Commander Goldfish, please contact R&D. Code Alpha 2."
"Alpha 2?" asked Jo. "That's something we haven't had in a while."
"True, gimme a second." He pressed the com pad on the wall. "This is Goldfish. What's up?"
"Sir, there seems to be a problem with the portal generator."
"Is Professor Stone trying to get through?"
"No, sir. It is not a portal from Avalon."
"Well, how is that possible? I ordered the gauntlets to be put in stasis when we arrived back."
"They are still there, sir."
"Last time the professor came back she gave me all the files on the portal technology to read. Is there a portal generating?"
"No, sir. But there are what we can only assume are attempts to open them. Whatever it is, it is causing a problem with our generator."
"See if you can fix it. If a portal opens, call me on an Alpha Omega
Priority. Any other problems, I am off duty. Capice?"
"Capice, sir."
"Good. Goldfish out." He turned to Jo. "It's over a month since we crossed over to Avalon."
"Yes, you banned transmission to the science world because of what happened."
"Ah, well. Forget it for now. Let's do some entertaining. From the board it look as thought they are about to arrive."
Soon the party was going and there were various conversations going around the table as well as plenty of champagne. Jo was talking to Fever and Micheal, whilst Dave was talking to Blaquesmith and Crystal. Ê
"You know," said Dave to Blaquesmith. "I never did ask you how you knew I was avatarr".
"Yes, you did," he said. "And I didn't tell you. Look, you'll find out one day. We all have our secrets to keep."
"Don't we all," said Dave and smiled.
"Why, do you know something about Micah, Dave?" asked Crystal.
"Me? No," he replied. "Or at least, not anymore."
"Now that's cryptic, Dave," said Blaquesmith, as he drank some more champagne. "One of these days you'll sound like me."
"And that's a bad thing?" replied Dave.
"Depends what day it is," said Crystal and winked at her husband.
"I think I'll leave that one alone," said Dave with a grin.
"So what's Dave like when he's out with you all?" Jo asked of Fever.
"Well, he done his bit," she said. "Otherwise he'd not make Guardian. Dere are times t'ough. He reckless at times, but after the Hellfire Club incident, dat was clear." Dave hid his discomfort well at that. He'd never live the incident down. "De incident avec Luke, too." Dave smiled. His first act as a member of the Fringe was to go out and kick seven bells out of Luke Sykwalker. Luke hadn't been pleased and netiher had his team members, but Dave had made an impact. Fever sighed, as she saw his smile and decided to change the subject. "As a question, how did you two meet? Dave rarely talks about himself."
"Yes, he does keep himself to himself. I was surprised when he joined the
Fringe. How did we meet? The first or the second time?" she replied.
"You've known each other twice?" asked Micheal.
"Yes," replied Jo. "Let me explain." She turned to Dave. "Do you mind me telling them the story?"
"No, it had to be told sooner or later. Everything has it's place, I..." The intercom flared in to life.
"Commander Goldfish to R&D. Code Alpha Omega."
"...Suppose," Dave finished. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, duty calls. Blaquesmith, Crystal, you may be interested in the story Jo's about to tell." He turned to his wife. "I'll be back as soon as I can, sweetheart."
He kissed her on the cheek and departed for R&D.
"Well," said Jo. "It happened like this..."
Down in R&D, the scientist were in a state.
"What in blazes is going on here?" asked Dave as he arrived.
"Sir, a portal opened, flickered and closed down again. It appears to be coming from the realm of science, but our own portal generator is creating some sort of destabilisation affect. If it continues, the generator coils will explode, taking out this half of the UK with it." The new head scientist was not as familiar with the portal technology as Professor Stone had been, but he new enough about quantum mechanics and chronospacial engineering to know what he was talking about.
"Damn," said Dave. "Someone will have to go over there and get them to sort out there end. I'll do it myself." He went over to the stasis booths and put his palm print on one of the secure units. "This is Goldfish. Over-ride security protocols Gamma, Beta, Epsilon 0 2 9."
Palm print and voice recognition confirmed. Protocols confirmed. Stasis unit is now unsealed. Dave took out on of the gauntlets and put it on.
"With the other gauntlet at this side of the portal and out of stasis, the time stream should flow on both sides. Tell Jo I'll be back as soon as I can, and ask her to apologise to our guests."
"Aye, sir," said the technician. Dave nodded and pressed the blue button to take him to the world of science. The portal flared in to life and Dave stepped through. He arrived on the other side in what appeared to be an exact replica of his office at C&C, except that it wasn't his office. There were many differences about the place but the room was the same.
"Great," thought Dave. "At least I'll feel at home." The door to the office opened and in stepped a man. He smiled.
"We've been expecting you," he said. "I'm Alex Danvers."
"Expecting me?" said Dave. "But I'm..."
"Not from this world." Danvers finished the sentence. "Yes, I know. Welcome to Sol3, Commander David Goldfish, Chief of Operations at C&C and Guardian of the Fringe."
Dave shut off the portal and looked at the man in front of him.
"How do you know who I am?"
"Commander," said Alex Danvers. "You have entered a world where you and your friends have celebrity status."
"Come again?"
"Follow me," he said, "and I'll explain every thing." He left the room and Dave followed him in to a corridor. "This is Network International. We are a graphic magazine company."
"Comics," said Dave.
"We don't like to call the comics. I am the President of the company, which deals in movies, merchandising, graphic magazines. I am a temporal physicist."
"And you run this company?"
"Yes. About twenty years ago, I created a machine which could call upon the powers of active imagination and create new characters. What it turned out to be was a window in to the other two realms of magic, and magic/science. What we did was create our comics based upon your adventures. Look at the walls and tell me what you see." Dave did so and looked at the comics on the wall. There were various titles including 'The Goldfish Chronicles', 'Fringe', 'Chosen', and 'The X Warrior Adventures.'
"These are us? Me and the X-Warriors?"
"Yes, we don't create your world, we just tell of what you do. We are about two, three months behind you however. We are experimenting with the time displacement to try and get a link on your world now, but we aren't having much success."
"Yes, you are." Dave frowned. "You are locking on to our time period and it is interacting with our portal generator and opening unstable portals, which are doing some major damage to the generator. I've come to ask you to stop, or at least let me help you."
"Well, we can't stop, but if you can help us it would be most appreciated."
"No problem," said Dave. "I'll see what I can do. If you'll take me to your window machine?"
"We have to go through the comic store to get to it, but it'll be good publicity." Dave shrugged. Something wasn't right about this situation and he intended to find out what.
Back in C&C, Jo had just finished telling Fever, Micheal, Crystal and Blaquesmith how Dave and she had met for the first time, the first time.
"So," said Crystal, "let me get this straight. He pulled the image of the man of your dreams from your mind, and created himself a body based on him, then organised events so you'd fall in love with him?"
"Not to fall in love with him, to try to get me to fall in love with him. Even with his powers, he couldn't control the soul and therefore couldn't force me to love him. He could just influence it so things would happen the way he wanted."
"Strange way of getting the girl," said Crystal.
"It was quite devious," said Blaquesmith. "I didn't realise he had such a streak of cunning."
"When Dave wants something, he'll get it. By whatever means," said ÊJo.
"I'll have to watch him in future," said Blaquesmith. "I'll see him in a different light." Blaquesmith closed his eyes as if in pain.
"Micah?" asked Crys, concerned.
"Nothing, it's gone now," he said, though obviously not happy.
"Perhaps it's the champagne?" suggested Micheal.
"Perhaps," said Blaquesmith.
Alex had explained to him the history of the company, how he had first started when he saw the X-Warriors. He had hired a group of artists and writers to do some comics about them and the company grew in to a multi national entertainment's industry.
"Oh, that is so cute," said Dave as he walked through the store. "It's a Blaquesmith action figure."
"It talks as well. Listen." Alex pushed a button on the back of the toy. 'What is, is' it said.
"I'll have one of them," he said. Dave was led down to a room below the comic store where the artists and writers worked. They ignored him as he walked passed and was led in to a room below them. It was like the R&D labs at C&C. He saw the window machine, which had the exact dimensions of the portal generator. The head scientist spoke to Danvers as Dave examined the
machine. It was indeed a window machine, but the time circuits on it were far superior to anything he had ever seen.
"We are about to do test now, to see if they have solved the problem," said Danvers.
"I'll monitor your machine," said Dave. Danvers nodded. He pressed a button and the window opened. The time circuits flared and the window opened. The time was not the present day on Earth. It was a great many years before. Danvers pressed the button to close the window, as the test didn't work. Nothing happened and the window wouldn't close. Dave went over to the panel and tried the button, touching the window. His gauntlet flared in to life and the window became a portal. A very unstable portal, which pulled the head scientist in to the portal and closed.
"Oh, boy," said Dave as he looked at Danvers, then at the place where the portal had closed.