"EXCUSE ME PLEASE, EXCUSE ME, MY FRIENDS!" said Bhaghhh-rupth, Lord of the flies and of the rotten lands. "IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR MY SHOW! I'VE GOT TO GET MYSELF READY. TALK TO YOU AFTER THE SHOW!"
"Ehy... All right," said Edulcore Cicciotto, smiling politely and still having no idea who or what the giant turtle-demon was.
Dr. Quantos and Chance walked back to their table, the doctor shaking his head the whole way. "Don't that beat all," he said, chuckling. "It was all an hallucination."
"An hallucination?" said Cicciotto. He looked up at the ceiling and said, "Strange."
"Hm? What's that, Ed?" said Quantos.
"If it was only an hallucination, why did we all see the same thing?" pondered Cicciotto. "Remember how we were talking about the tesseract? And yet, if you look up now, the ceiling's no higher than 16 feet at the most! We all saw it, though! It rose several stories high!"
"It's a mystery, I'll grant you that," said Dr. Quantos. "But probably something that could be easily explained away through the powers of one of the metahumans walking around here. Well, they should bloody well refrain from using their powers in an enclosed place like this, especially if this has happened before."
"I'm getting another drink," said Danny, who was tired of sitting there, bored in what proved to be just a normal early 21st-century pub.
"I don't buy it," said Chance after a few moments of idle chatter between the three (Turner had likewise left the table for a drink, and only Quantos, Schanz and Cicciotto remained seated at the booth as the rest of the team was fraternizing with the other patrons of the bar).
"Hm? What was that, Chance?" asked Cicciotto.
"It doesn't make sense," said Chance. "Doc, you're... well, you're a doctor. Wouldn't you be able to tell if you were having an hallucinogenic reaction or not?"
"Certainly," said Dr. Quantos. "And you're right, come to think of it... If I had been exposed to an hallucinogen excreted by someone in this bar, I would've been able to tell. The side-effects of hallucinogens are unmistakeable as such."
"Well, I know I had some kind of hallucination a couple of minutes ago," laughed Cicciotto. "I've used drugs enough years to tell when I'm having a bad trip. But Danny was completely unaffected by anything, and neither of you seem to have really been affected by any kind of hallucinogens at all!"
"Yes, I'm sure I haven't been exposed to any chemicals. My luck powers keep me from succumbing to anything I don't wish to succumb to. If I had been drinking alcohol it may have been a different story, but all I've had tonight is ginger ale. So... what if it really happened?" Chance finally asked.
"Howso?" asked Cicciotto. "Didn't you and Doc just come back having seen nothing but some photographs of the Eiffel Tower and Tokyo?"
"Yes... therein lies the mystery..." said Chance, frowning as if in thought.
"Heh. The game's afoot, eh, Kris?" chuckled Quantos. He had seen the glint in his young friend's eye before whenever he had been captivated by a mystery such as this one.
"Suppose," began Chance slowly, "suppose old Jake didn't want us to know the truth about what you saw, Doc? Or about what we all saw? It's obvious to all of us that this place looked much, much bigger on the inside than the outside. Very much like a tesseract, as Ed noted."
"Then you think the photographs you two saw may have been planted there before you went back?" asked Cicciotto.
"I'm beginning to think so, yes," said Chance.
"But for what purpose?" asked Quantos.
"That I don't know." He stopped talking for a moment. His voice went to a very low whisper. "Don't look now, gentlemen, but the bartender's keeping a very close eye on us right now." As soon as Chance had said that, though, the bartender averted his eyes and pretended to be busy polishing the same mug that had been in his hand for several minutes by that time.
Chance stood up, got out of the booth, turned around and bent down at his friends and said, "Follow me, gentlemen. This bears investigation." Dr. Quantos and Edulcore Cicciotto did so and walked behind Chance.
The tall Swede was a chemist by trade, but he had always been keenly interested in forensics and the detective trade, having been practically raised on Sherlock Holmes stories. He circumnavigated the entire bar as if merely checking it out, and discovered that indeed the bar was no larger than the dimensions they had seen looking outside.
"Hmm. This is indeed a puzzle," he finally said after checking all the doors, walls, and ceiling in the now-ordinary-looking bar and finding nothing out of the ordinary. "Doc, the explanation that you had suffered an hallucinogenic reaction would still seem to be the most probable explanation, except for the fact that we had all seen how high the ceiling had been from our booth. No hallucinogenic reaction could account for that. However..."
"Could it have been some kind of psychic hallucination?" asked Cicciotto.
"That's what I was thinking," said Chance. "But if so, why would the people who work at this pub claim it was caused from an actual secreted hallucinogen? Why not just explain it as a psychic interference of some sort?"
"What's the explanation, then, Kris?" asked Quantos. "It can't have been real, can it? These walls are solid!"
"I believe it was real," said Chance, "but it was something that isn't seen very often and is always covered up by the ownership of the bar. The only question is: why?"
"Excusssse me, gentlemen..."
The three men turned to see a slithering, snake-like man who wrung his hands as he talked and had a cowering, groveling demeanor that made one intensely dislike him.
"Yes?" said Dr. Quantos, smiling disingenuously but politely at the repulsive snake-man though. "Can we help you, sir...?"
"They call me Mr. Yssssaparoth. I couldn't help but overhear your... converssssation..." At this his reptile-like eyes seemed to light up, and his forked tongue slipped out a few times as he spoke. "You have... sssseen it, then...?"
"Pardon me, sir? I know not what you mean," said Quantos as the others remained silent. "Please excuse us, we're having a private discussion."
"I think you will want to hear what I have to... ssssay," Ysaparoth said. "You are very fortunate. Very fortunate indeed to have sssseen what you ssssaw, my good ssssir. Only a few people to have walked into this esssstablishment have ever sssseen... the Metatithenai."
"Meta... tithenai?" repeated Chance.
"My Greek is rusty," said Dr. Quantos, "but I believe it means to transpose... to transfer from one place to another."
"Yessss... yessss..." Ysaparoth whispered, cackling quietly. "That issss what the... 'placccce' that you have sssseen issss called."
"What is it?" asked Cicciotto. "This Metatithenai?"
"And, moreover, why would the pub owner lie about our friend seeing it?" asked Chance seriously, looking for any signs of untruth by the snake-like man.
Ysaparoth seemed to laugh in his quiet, unique way once more, and he finally answered, "Jake issss a good bussssinessssman. He would not want to losssse a cusssstomer to the Metatithenai. He issss not really looking out for your own ssssafety, although the Metatithenai can be very dangeroussss, moresssso than thissss pub itsssself, but he would hate to get ssssued by a patron damaged in the Metatithenai and come back to ssssue him. And of coursssse he would not want anyone to sssspend their money there rather than here..." And at this he started cackling quietly again in his unique way.
"So... this Metatithenai is some kind of... transporter machine in the form of a bar or a club? asked Chance.
"No, no, no, it issss not a placccce, not really. It issss a living creature. You were very lucky to have gone into it from here. You ssssee, it doessssn't like Jake. That'ssss why it ssssometimessss comessss by here briefly to ssssteal away some of his cusssstomerssss who are looking for more than jusssst the pleasuressss of an ordinary bar. It temptssss thosssse it choossssessss with glimpssssessss of itssss inssssidessss, and thosssse it hassss chossssen who have a sssspirit of adventure enough to sssseek it out will find it."
"Well, that explains why we all saw the roof as being so much higher than it is, and all those tantalizing glimpses of other, higher levels," said Cicciotto. "Some kind of psychic vision, I guess."
"But what about the walrus-tusked bouncer I saw?" asked Dr. Quantos. "If he exists in this... Metatithenai, why did I see him working here in this bar?"
"Ha-ha... ha. Yessss... yessss... Chewy'ssss twin brother, Gummy, workssss in the Metatithenai. It wassss Gummy that you ssssaw there, and Chewy who workssss here. They are very competitive brotherssss."
"Strange names," laughed Dr. Quantos.
"Only nicknamessss," laughed Ysaparoth. "Ah, but I musssst go now, gentlemen... I only wanted to tell you that the Metatithenai hassss not forgotten you, and that you may wander itssss hallssss once again at the most... unexpected of timessss..."
"Well, I doubt I'll be returning to Jake's anytime soon, though," said Dr. Quantos. "So tell him I said 'hello,' then."
"You can tell... 'him' yoursssself, ssssir. The Metatithenai issss not confined to Jake'ssss Placccce. It choossssessss when and where it wantssss to go. Jake hassss no authority whatssssoever over it. When you next sssstep upon itssss tiled floorssss it will not be from thissss placccce."
And why are you telling us all of this? thought Chance suspiciously.
As if guessing his thoughts, Ysaparoth said, "I am merely the humble sssservant of the Metatithenai, good ssssirssss. And it issss time for me to return to my masssster."
The snake-like man walked away from them in a cowering manner, off into a dark corner. Chance and the others followed him surreptitiously, until Ysaparoth could be seen walking to what looked like the door leading to the back alley. When he opened it, however, they all glimpsed what appeared to be a very large and lively club. Ysaparoth closed the door behind him, and the three men saw his grin through the dwindling crack of the door as it shut.
Chance immediately walked over to the door and opened it. All he saw there was the wet pavement of a back alley and a couple of homeless men huddling in a doorway next a trash can across the way and trying not to get soaked from the rain. "Wow," he gasped. "You all saw it, didn't you?"
"These kinds of things never cease to surprise me, Chance," said Cicciotto. "Even considering all the things I've seen in the last year."
"Well, that was quite the small adventure," said Dr. Quantos, laughing. "And certainly enough for tonight. Let's rejoin the rest of the guys. We wouldn't want to miss Mister... er, uh... Bhaghhh-rupth's show. Oh, and fellas...?"
"Yeah?" the two answered at the same time.
"I take back all that stuff I said about this not being a comic-book. As the kids say nowadays, my mind is getting blown every minute I spend with you young folks." Dr. Henry Quantos laughed as the three men walked back to rejoin the rest of the team.
[ 09-21-2002, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: TheTimeTrust ]
