Journey West 12: Dimension Police Return

    (Some time ago)

    “Damn it!” screams Lee Lee as she jumps about the cabin of the ship, her white Chinese dress and hair buns flapping and bouncing about as she goes from panel to panel.

     “waaaaah!” screams her sister Ki Ki, clutching her fists near her face, squishing her breasts together beneath her pink Chinese dress, a near match for that of her sister.

    “Stop screaming and help me get the engines back under control!” yells Lee Lee.

    “waaaah…you’re yelling at me!” whines Ki Ki.

   “By the goddess own sake,” says Lee Lee, “that Dah-hoth hit our atmospheric engines, if we don’t get it under control we’ll pass right over this flat planet…or circle around its edge….I don’t know…just help me get the repair and shut down systems back on line before we have to find…out…”

    Ki Ki looks at the panel and with a broad smile says, “we’re stopped.”

   “Yeah…I see that…” says Lee Lee, “but…Computer bring external viewers on-line, what just happened.”

   :Computer: (Atmospheric Engines shut down by external forces, docking beam from station below current location has the ship stabilized)

    “Docking beam?” says Lee Lee

   “We’re saved!” shouts Ki Ki

   “But…” says Lee Lee, “this world…shouldn’t have that…”

   Lee Lee hits the button for the external view to appear on the monitor, and indeed a great blue beam extending from the surface has them, but below them is all ocean, the beam extends a distance away. She hits a few keys to zoom in on the source, even as it starts to pull them in.

   “Pretty,” says Ki Ki marveling at the source of the beam.

   On a small island, amongst a chain of islands, is a huge castle that looks to be made of coral arranged in a shape similar to a pipe organ, only in three colors. The central part is black, however the side on the castle’s right is pink, and the side on the castle’s left is a light blue. Both colors making the center stand out as something otherworldly. On the surface they can see that each color segment has its own garden with its own entry doors.

    “Guess we’re not going to crash at least,” says Lee Lee, as she thinks, “but what the hell is going on here, they didn’t just
snag us, they hacked into the ship and shut down the emergency escape, and even the damaged systems.”

   Ki Ki couldn’t care less as she is just relieved they aren’t flying about like crazy, but she does wander something as the ship lowers towards a landing pad behind the castle, a raised structure on a plateau, hidden it seems from normal view by the castle, rock outcroppings off the island, and trees all around it; she wanders how Betty and her friends are doing back at the other island against that giant monster.

    ******

    (The present)

    As far as the people walking about and continuing to enjoy the carnival of the Black Circus know the incident at the big tent was all just a show; while this is a good thing in the long run, for the short term it means the party can’t readily walk about with out being approached by those who had been in the audience. Not that its that big of a deal, it just means they can’t go out and have fun themselves; or leave for that matter until night fall when the man who has just arrived, Baron Bon Lon of the Dimension Police, has it ordered for this entire circus to pack up and leave with him from this world.

     The man who calls himself the Ring Master had a rather odd story to tell when questioned by Baron Bon Lon, a story about receiving a message from an anonymous source supposedly coming from Aesperia. Baron Bon Lon explained to them that this Black Circus is a group of “crime fighters” who can be either contacted by scouts, which tend to be contacts they’ve made along the way and contacts those contacts have made, or the Black Circus detects dimensional threats themselves. Supposedly one such scout contact sent them a message about a group of criminals on this world of Aesperia including names and images along with their exact location and path of travel.

   Now Ring Master takes off his hat and bows to Rhulan and Hollia with Lin Lin floating about her, while Cata and Gold Wolf Stand
back; Betty is no where to be seen in this back room.

   “My apologies,” says the Ring Master, “As the Baron says it would seem we were tricked by The Thing Named Jim; this occurrence greatly disturbs us and do not fret fair maiden heroes of this world our company will as the Baron says be departing from your world. I do hope this incident has not soured your image of us, we are heroes much as you are, if need be you may contact us for assistance in the future.”

   He flips his fingers and manifests a small beetle looking device which he hands to Rhulan, “This pretty miss is our contact device, merely click the wing and a screen will come up which you can load and text messages to us with.”

   *crunch*

   Rhulan crushes the device in the palm of her hand, “Do not hand such devices around this world, clearly you have no idea what you’re doing…”

   She glares at him, “you didn’t even mention a password, total anonymity in whose calling you, it’s like you want to be set up by some ass-hole for exactly what happened here.”

   Ring Master gets this look on his face like this actually never occurred to him, Hollia sees his face and is herself surprised, although she doesn’t understand the technology or exactly who and what they are and why they are doing what they do; she does understand the basic. They are some sort of mercenaries or adventurers who work for free on quests but don’t even bother to be certain whose sending them these quests are legit or check up on them, or even seem to have any system to do so.

  “I’ve told you this before,” says Baron Bon Lon to the man, “given the degree of this crime and the level of the criminal that was involved I’m afraid this time the Dimension Police have no other recourse than to do a full audit of your organization.”

    Ring Master shrugs, “heroes give whistles to their wards, but as you ladies and gents say, our services are not needed here.”

    He bows again, this time it doesn’t feel as genuine, “I bit you great and powerful sorceresses ado.”

    Baron Bon Lon shrugs at the group as he escorts Ring Master to another room down the hall to speak in private, likely about his story in greater detail.

     “Miss Betty.” says Hollia spying Betty peeking her head in through the tent flap.

    “Where have you been Miss Betty?” asks Hollia, “You should have seen it just now, that guy we were fighting earlier tried to play to all cool, and even had the gall to give Miss Rhulan this communication thing but she…”

    Hollia notices Betty is looking past her at the other tent wall with a concerned look on her face.

   “Is something wrong Miss Betty?” asks Hollia.

   “Huh?” says Betty with a fake smile, “Oh, sorry its just…that man.”

   “That Ring Master guy?” asks Hollia.

   “No,” says Betty, “the other guy, we…kind of have a history.”

   Cata smirks, “well he is a cop and you are a pirate.”

   “and,” adds Gold Wolf looking up, “the same type of elves.”

   Rhulan just watches with arms crossed and one eye brow raised.

   “Its,” says Betty, “is a bit more complicated…you guys remember those other two Dimension Police officerse, Lee Lee and Ki Ki?”

   “No,” says Gold Wolf abruptly.

   “You weren’t there.” says Rhulan with a somewhat mean tone.

   “I barely do,” says Cata, “I do recal those were the names of the two you said were in that ship that helped us against that giant monster back at Los Rodos.”

   “Oh yeah,” says Hollia surprising Lin Lin who flutters a bit at her outburst, “They were trying to take you back for…something right?”

   “Being a pirate?” says Cata smugly.

   “Well…no.” says Betty, “my parents just view that as acting out, they said they were taking me back to my fiancé.”

   *sigh*

   Betty continues, “and that man was just in this room.”

   Hollia looks confused for a moment before it dawns on her, “Oh…that…uh Baron Bon Lon guy right?”

   “Yes,” says Betty, “I am a Baroness technically, he and I have an arranged marriage, we’ve known each other since we were kids. I ran away from home the day before the wedding and became a pirate shortly after. I guess they finnaly got serious instead of sending Bon Lon to talk to me or a member of the royal guard they sent my friends from with in the Dimension Police.”

   “Heh,” says Rhulan, “your…friends…doesn’t sound that serious, more like they are trying still to keep such a scandal under wraps.”

   “I…guess,” says Betty, “I just wish they hadn’t gotten Lee Lee and Ki Ki involved.”

   “Speaking of whome,” says Baron Bon Lon walking back into the room, from behind where Betty came in, “Both personally and on behalf of the Dimension Police I would like to hear what happened to them in more detail; more than you just admitted to. Starting with what this giant monster was and where they are now.”

    --They tell him the full details about Lee Lee and Ki Ki confronting them on Los Rodos, about the Dah-Hoth Ravana appearing, a fact that troubles Baron Bon Lon, and about their ship being hit and flying off during the battle.- -

    “I see,” says Baron Bon Lon upon hearing the whole story, “their biochips would have sent them back if they were killed or seriously injured, same too for their ship. They must have just crashed somewhere, and are waiting for the ship to repair its self.”

    “and why can’t they just teleport back where they came from?” thinks Rhulan, a similar thought shared by all except for Betty who knows the reason (the chips have to be replaced every time due to DP budget limitations and can’t be activated manually as a result only in emergencies such as eminent death).

    “However,” says Baron Bon Lon, “now that we know that Betty the Baroness and her crew and vessel are here our guys in the sky should have an easy time removing these elements from this world.”

    He presses a button on his glove, in that he touches a spot on the cloth that lights up like a button.

    ******

   In The Pirates Cove far back in Stratalia, north of Los Rodos along the southern cape of a peninsula; a traveler, a large man with a bald head wearing leather and fur steps into a bar.

   “Long time no see, Jard.” says the bartender.

   “Yeah, yeah.” says Jard to the bartender as he walks past a table which he stares at funny, mainly because the people sitting around it are two foot tall anthropomorphic cats and one rat in odd pirate costumes.

    Jard leans over the bar, “what’s the deal with the weird little monsters? Never seen anything like them…they part of that Cata creature’s crew? I heard she’s left these waters.”

    The bartender leans over, “No, they’re part of this other crew; from what I hear their crew and Cata’s crew both got in a fire fight against some weird giant monster.”

   Jard looks at him funny.

   “Its true,” says the bartender, “and from I hear Holly-Lia from Stratalia was involved as was some sorceress they keep calling Rhulan.”

   Jard looks at him funny some more.

   “Yeah,” says the bartender, “some crazy broad actually got named after some old bedtime story and decided to go around acting and dressing like her. Been rumors of it going around.

   “I think I know who you mean.” says Jard whispering, “you heard I tried my hand at being a bandit right? Ran into that girl and her tutor; I bet that’s who that was.”

    “Bandit?” says the bartender, “Oh yeah, I remember you married those pirate co-captains Miriam and Maria; but when Cata showed up you all headed in-land. Heh, so that’s why you’re here then. Your…wives heard she was gone and sent you into town to investigate
am I right?”

    Jard looks a little sheepish.

   “Well, yeah man, she’s gone. Heard her and the captain of these…uh I think they said they’re called Figmentions or something, joined up with Holly-Lia and this Rhulan sorceress on some quest having something to do with the monster they fought.”

   “The captains just abandoned their ships and crew?” says Jard a little too loudly, not that it matters Whiskers and the other members of the Adorables crew have cat ears and hearing and have been eavesdropping on the whole conversation.

   “Na,” says the bartender whispering, “heard the monster sank both ships, and get this Stratalia sent their navy…yeah all the way from Fort Bazan to come around salvage both ships. They’re actually fixing up both back in Stratalia. Wish these others had gone with them.”

   As if on cue all the Adorables vanish into thin air.

   “Well damn,” says the bartender at normal speaking volumn, “now I wish I had a million gold pieces…”

   Nothing happens.

   He shrugs, “well worth a shot.”

  Mean while at the docks of Bostonia where crews paid by Stratalia have been examining and trying to aid repairs to what they salvaged from the shores of Los Rodos find themselves perplexed as both ships vanish into thin air; leaving some of the working crew dangling in mid-air from safety lines from catwalks like marionettes.

    ******

    “Thankfully,” says Baron Bon Lon, “we have the full support of the Kuhrai and Suihrai in…orbit, if you can call it that, above this most unusual world. We were able to use our systems with theirs to lock onto your crew and ship…”

    He looks at Cata, “ships, seems the Kuhrai according to my telelink communicator opted to grab your ship as well just now.”

    He turns to Betty, “your ship…rather your parents ship that you have now not only pimped out but also gotten a giant hole torn into it, has been sent back to the Royal City. Your crew it seems have gotten a lighter than I expected treatment, they’ve been sent to the Pirate City where you found them.”

    “Wow,” thinks Hollia, “he just did and heard all that while he was talking just now?”

    ******

    Far, far away from Aesperia, in the glowing white clouds filled universe of Nirvana, there sits a city floating, a city of boardwalks and rustic bars, and old English housing. This is the Pirate City, where it’s so pirate like, it could easily be mistaken for a theme park attraction; and pretty much is. Upon this world the Adorables have just appeared.

    “Commander Whiskers,” says one of the crew, “we’re back home, what happened?”

    “If I had to guess,” says Whiskers, “I’d say the Dimension Police found Captain Betty and were able to back trace her to us via their ships.”

    “They can do that?”

    “Yesss,” hisses Whiskers, “but not usually with out being there in person and tagging you, this is most unusual.”

    “What about Captain Betty?”

    “Yeah,” repeats the whole crew, “what about Captain Betty?”

   “She will be fine.” says Whiskers, “remember, she is a Royal Angel, she’ll just get a slap on the wrist. No doubt our dear Captain is the reason we got off so easy; and don’t worry men, we’ll get a new boat, and rescue the captain.”

    The Adorables call cheer.

    ******

    “Now then,” says Baron Bon Lon, “If you’ll excuse us, I need to speak to Betty the Baroness in private.”

     Betty starts to follow him.

    “One moment,” says Rhulan stepping forward, “Dimension Police Officer Bon Lon…or is Baron Bon Lon of the Royal Angels of Nirvana; in either case you should know that this woman has placed her self in my care at under my command while she is here on my world so don’t get any ideas about secretly whisking her away like you just did to those ships and her crew.”

    Rhulan *snaps* her fingers, and purple sparks appear around Betty and quickly disappear.

    “That,” says Rhulan, “is a dimension lock; I put that spell on her as soon as she told us her pursuer was an inter-dimensional entity.”

    Baron Bon Lon is surprised, even more so that Betty is surprised; and that everyone else there is surprised.

    “It’s an easy spell for me to perform,” says Rhulan with a tone of regal authority, “I did it that very night after our battle against Ravana, she had to be asleep for it to work. It’s actually kind of a sneaky spell; although I suppose I could have told her I did it, but I wanted to observe her first in how she got along with us and feel out her motives and personality…and it kind of slipped my mind that I had done that spell till just now anyway.”

    Rhulan pauses, “Any who,” she continues, “I did because it seems this Thing Named Jim can’t enter our universe, but he can send his little minions…and does so rather regularly…so he could have at any time sent a small teleporter device here, had it lock onto Betty and then send her to him; not unlike how you just grabbed those ships and her crew, and how…I imagine I figured it out, those expensive one shot so not doable manually emergency biochip teleporters work as well.”

    Baron Bon Lon smiles, “and to think the Suihrai told us this was a developing world.”

    Hollia looks at Baron Bon Lon and back at Rhulan realizing she nailed it right on the head while thinking, “Rhulan really is brilliant, even with people like these.”

    ******

    Meanwhile in yet another dimension, the white room in which the Thing Named Jim resides, now wearing what looks like a golfing costume, he bangs his head repeatedly into a table saying, “why, why, why, why, why, didn’t I think of that before? I could have nabbed my beloved precious Captain Betty ten worlds ago…no…any time, any where…damn you…damn you, you interfering sorceress bitch!”

    ******

    Betty follows Bon Lon out of the room, through a small hallway to another secluded spot in this unusual space inside the Black Tent. Once he is sure no one is around Bon Lon’s demeanor changes, from the professional officer to that of a normal man speaking to his lover.

   “Betty,” he says, “its okay you know, your parents really do view all this as an act of delinquency, just some vandalism and joyriding. I really don’t doubt they’ll treat you getting their ship damaged like you took it for a joyride and wreaked it Betty.”

    He takes her hands in his, as though grasping delicate petals, “Please, just come back with me…peacefully. If you’re worried about The Thing Named Jim, you know he can’t enter Nirvana anymore than he can enter this Other World; and if this woman has some spell on you keeping you from leaving we can overcome that as well, you know we can Betty.”

    Betty smiles and speaks in a soft tone, “Bon,” she shakes her head softly before continuing, “You know that I love you, but I found something here, a powerful oracle said that Rhulan has the power to harm that monster…”

    She pauses, “and I saw a second woman, something…different. A light elf perhaps, named Corinth, she was very similar to Rhulan. In this place I may really find people or creatures or some sort of mystical weapon that can really, truly, stop…”

    “Betty,” interrupts Bon Lon softly.

   “No,” says Betty releasing her hands from his slowly, “I don’t want to feel like a prisoner in my own home, I don’t want to be trapped forever in Nirvana unable to explore other universes and worlds with out fear of that thing coming after me.”

    She shakes her head, looks down, and then looks Bon Lon directly in the eyes, “He’s done it before, to lure me out, he’s gone after people I’ve met, after whole worlds I’ve been too. He’s a monster, if he can’t get to me he’ll go after others I care about.  He’s sent his minions here, my new friends defeated them one after the other, my new friends even took down the Dah-Hoth Ravana. I was practically useless in that fight but they…they forced it to flee; I heard not long before Rhulan, Lin Lin, and Hollia alone with the help of this guy Scrags chased off Gabrielle as well. They’re strong Bon, very strong, I’m safe here while I look for…a…way,” she whispers softly, “kill…”

    “I understand,” says Bon Lon.

    He smiles and looks around returning to his professional tone, “Besides I have other orders; the Suihrai have given us a bit leeway to search for our missing officers Lee Lee and Ki Ki. In that they’ve allowed just me to search for them, with what this group your with has told me we can trace their trajectory.”

   Betty says, “I hope their alright.”

   “Me too,” says Bon Lon.

   “I…” says Betty, “I’ve been checking in the towns for any signs of them along the way, no one has described anything like their ship crashing or any strangers that sound like them. But we…we’ve not gone everywhere; I…I just thought we’d run into sooner than this.”

   “Don’t worry,” says Bon Lon putting his hand on the outside of her shoulder, slightly massaging it, “Those two are strong, I’ll find them.”

    He pulls Betty in for a hug, as they embrace she pulls her head back with her eyes closed. Bon Lon leans in and kisses her softly. They part after a moment.

   “Betty,” he says softly as the two part ways, “…be safe.”

   Betty only smiles and leaves out the tent flap back towards the others.

   As Betty comes into the room with the others Cata’s ear twitches as she whispers to Betty, “Cookie and Fi Fi would be jealous.”

   Betty is red faced for a moment but chooses to ignore Cata and the fact she had been eavesdropping. Cata smiles, a wicked sight on her feline face as she follows her as the group is gathering together in the center of the room to speak as privately as they can in this place made only of tent flaps that barely muffle any conversations between these little rooms if they can really be called as such with only sheets separating them.

    The conversation is short and too the point, none of them really want to wait around until nightfall. The Black Tent is near the edge of the circus so they decide to split up and look around for an exit other than the main entrance so they can sneak off and get a better feel for where they are. The Dimension Police may have intervened but less than an hour before they were locked in combat with the very people whose strong hold they are inside of.

   As Rhulan and Hollia with Lin Lin floating close behind make their way down a hall that leads into a hall with wood boards for sides rather than curtains a woman’s voice calls them from behind.

    “Excuse me, but you’re heading further into our ship not out.”

   They turn to see a woman who resembles Dark Cookie, with the black leather clothes, tail, and tiny bat like wings; except this woman has pointed ears, distinctly red short cut hair, and cat like red eyes.

    “I figured,” says this woman, “you lot would wanna leave early, can’t blame ya’ll with dem Dimension Cops and our boss and all, but before yins go I wanna say thanks.”

    She bows before Rhulan and Hollia.

    “Why?” asks Rhulan abruptly.

   “Fer holden back o’course.” says this demon like woman whose voice and appearance don’t match up at all, “I’m humble e-nuff ta know when my o-pone-ents is holden back, can sense it to ya’know.”

    She taps her temple as she says that last bit before continuing, “ba-tween ya and yer blondy sister, any o’ us would be hard pressed ta win.”

    She smiles, “nev-ar ex-pect-ted ta meet two like ya’ll outside the Ne-thar world.”

    She bows again, this time deeply and speaks with a much clearer and deeper voice, “Thank You again Great One.” and then leaves with out another word.

    “Huh?” says Hollia.

   “She was in that large group that showed up at the end of the battle,” says Rhulan, “nothing to worry about, it would appear she realized how strong we are and that we were holding back. She decided to thank us for it.”

   “Oh.” says Hollia.

  Rhulan thinks as they turn to go back the way they came to see if the others had better luck, “A denizen of the Netherworld is also part of this Black Circus, interesting.”