| |
––––––––
Rayen was jerked and bounced at warp speed.
Wait a minute. Did she know what warp speed was? That thought flashed by as she spun in a twisting blur.
Just as she had revolved when she was in that fire cyclone.
She hated time travel. All of it.
Everything slowed at once. She had a whole second to prepare herself before hitting the floor of the transender. She bounced and forced herself to move because ...
Bam! Tony hit hard in the spot she’d left vacant, but he must have recalled last time, too. He groaned but quickly rolled away before Gabby landed on his chest again.
Rayen waited. No thump. “Gabby?”
Tony pushed up onto his knees. “Gabby!”
A ball of color rolled from the air and landed gently on the floor. Gabby sat there a moment then broke into a fit of giggles.
“Are you kiddin’ me?” Tony grumbled. “How’d you do that?”
For once, Rayen was with Tony. “Why didn’t you land like a bag of rocks?”
Gabby caught her breath and stretched, pushing hair off her face. “I didn’t actually do that on purpose. I panicked and curled into a fetal position, thinking that I didn’t want to hit the floor or land on Tony again. The next thing I knew, I’d stopped. Then I was worried I wouldn’t get here. I started moving and here I am.”
Tony shook his head. “Only you would have auto-pilot woo-woo powers.”
Rayen struggled to her feet, wishing she had her powers. Her body had taken a beating over the past few days.
Red lights flashed around the top of the round transender, and a siren cranked up.
She stretched out the kinks in her body. “We know what that means.”
Gabby said, “Time to get out of Dodge.”
Had she heard that right? “What is Dodge?”
Tony let out a painful sigh. “If we get out of this mess, we’re puttin’ you through Pop Culture 101, Xena.” He turned to the end of the transender where they’d exited the last two times.
A purple glow shaped as an arch brightened then dimmed then brightened again.
Tony muttered, “And there’s our blue light special.” He lifted a hand. “Before you ask, I do know that glow is purple.”
She tossed back one of his usual replies. “Whatever.”
When they reached the end of the transender, she lifted her hands to rest on the humming wall. Tony and Gabby each grabbed one of her arms again just as the familiar sulfur stench began flooding the air.
Rayen thought, Please let us out.
Then she held her breath because the last time they’d entered the Sphere it looked as if an apocalypse had hit.
And a ground fog had infected her which caused hallucinations. She almost killed Callan because she thought he was a TecKnati who’d harmed the MystiK children.
The hatch that formed where she touched the transender wall disappeared, and they landed on rock-hard ground on their hands and knees.
Why couldn’t one place have something soft to land on?
When she realized she and Tony were the only two on the ground, she looked around to find Gabby hovering upright again.
Gabby tried not to smile and failed. “I’m getting used to this.”
A whirring sound that turned into a high-pitched squeal announced the transender was about to spin then leave in a cloud of red dust.
Rayen and Tony jumped up. They started to run but Gabby shouted, “Don’t leave me!”
Gabby was moving her arms like she was trying to swim but was going nowhere. Rayen ran back and grabbed her shirt, dragging her along and getting away from the transender right before it spun furiously, then disappeared.
All Rayen could think was please don’t let anyone find that laptop in the supply room. It was their only way back.
She watched where she stepped. The ground was still torn up from the prior destruction. Overhead, the red moon offered a weak light, but the vegetation glowed pink, orange, and blue. Not just glowed, but the colors pulsed, and the air was steamy. Add that to the sweet-sour smell and she was ready to get moving.
Tony stopped and muttered, “Give me a break.”
Gabby sucked in a breath.
She raised her head to see what was going on.
An oversized reptile had stepped from the woods.
Just once, she’d like to have an easy trip to this place.
When the creature turned its head toward them, it emerged from the broad orange palm fronds, where darker-blue branches behind it had regrown since the last time. The thing was shaped like a huge turtle. It stood eye-to-eye with Rayen when it lifted its body on chubby legs and wobbled out into the field.
Then it fell and fumbled around until it was up again. The head stuck out on a skinny neck that had a thick tuft of blue and white hair resembling a chopped-off horse’s mane.
It made a chittering noise.
Gabby floated next to Rayen. “I think it’s a baby something.”
Tony wasn’t as willing to downgrade the creature and reminded Gabby, “I remember Rayen fighting a baby croggle in this very spot, Sweet Cakes, that tried to eat us.” He turned to Rayen. “Think you can call up that crazy power of yours, Xena?”
She had no idea. Tony had a point, but she couldn’t harm something that posed no immediate threat. “Not all baby reptiles are killers, Tony.”
“Snapping turtles are dangerous back home.”
Gabby whispered, “It looks pretty harmless.”
At that moment, the critter angled its head to one side then the other, studying them. It yawned, exposing two rows of sharp, pointed teeth.
Tony said, “If it’s got teeth, it’s got potential.”
The baby turtle thing took two more tentative steps their way.
It wasn’t often that Rayen agreed with Tony, but she did this time. “Maybe we can scare it off,” she suggested and raised her hands to wave back and forth.
That was the wrong move.
The turtle thing let out a blood-curdling scream, and dropped to the ground, sucking in its legs and head.
Something huge crashed around in the woods, making a loud grunting sound.
A head Rayen wouldn’t be able to wrap her arms around shoved out from the trees. Way up. Another ten feet in the air. The eyes in that head zeroed in on the clammed-up baby and let out a screech of fury that forced them all to cover their ears.
Then it plowed out of the woods, heading straight for them.
