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Author's Chapter Notes:

a tale fit for a meal

A short while later, Jillian returned with more food, and the subject turned to comparing notes on their time in Centralict.

“…But there was this old man, Abu-Sharrah there, and he let us ride with him,” Max told them about their falling out with the Triad.

“And the bitch still got away!” Justin laughed, “But we caught up with her later, and took ’em back!”.

“Wow!” Rod remarked, “So that’s what that was all about! All we heard was something about carjacking, a high-speed chase, and somebody hijacking a ship.”

“Warpgates, never-ending buildings, and treasure hunts,” Dusk sighed. “Sounds like Centralict’s a much more eventful place than we gave it credit for.”

“I’ll say!” Twyla added. “We just ended up pawning off some of our stuff for passage on some ship. We played for the crew, and we did a couple bare-bones shows at a few ports along the way.”

“And yet you didn’t stop at any of those places,” Ma’Quiver observed, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Of course, I have no trouble understanding why you chose to stay here, but what was it about the other places that made you keep looking?”

“Well, how can I put this?…” Rod mused, “I guess you could say there was no scene for us to work with at any of those places…”

“Yeah,” Dusk piped up, “by the time the ship was ready to set out again, the novelty’d worn off, and nobody seemed to care anymore.”

“It’s totally different here,” Twyla added. “They love live music here, and people have been really supportive. DJ hit it off with Lester— the previous owner of this club— and when he decided to leave, he left the place to Deej, so that pretty much sealed the deal.”

“It’s pretty cool,” Rod reflected, “here, music is sacred.”

“As the locals are fond of saying,” Twyla winked: “Sharing is caring.”

“The important part is, we can take our time here,” said Rod, “and get our act back together before we figure out where to go from here.”

“Of course,” DJ pointed out, “several of the other shop owners fronted the money to set the place up, so I’m glad you’re here to drum up business until Bankshot’s fully established. I say you can stay as long as you want, but you have my blessing when you’re ready to go.”

“So, what kind of crazy adventures have you guys had in the meantime?” Twyla asked their new guests, resting her chin on propped elbows and folded palms.

“Aye!” crowed Rude Bones, “Y’all look like you’ve seen some action out there!”

“You can say that again!” Shades laughed, “We’ve survived pirates, thugs, storms, and even the dreaded ghost ship Twylight!”

That name raised a few eyebrows at the table, for more than one reason.

“There’s a ghost ship called Twylight?” Rod leaned forward in rapt attention.

“That’s… kinda creepy,” Dusk remarked.

“I almost sank aboard that thing!” Max told them.

And so they took some time explaining about their grim encounter with the haunted derelict.

“I can’t believe ya actually set foot on her deck!” Rude Bones gasped, “Let alone came back. I know one man who saw that ship. Said they lost half their crew when they tried to search the damn thing…”

“So it just sinks over and over…” Twyla shivered. “A ghost ship that damns anyone still onboard…”

“I don’t think I’d have the balls to go anywhere near that thing,” Dusk confessed. “Who knew this dimension was so dangerous?”

“But at least you made it,” DJ commented, wanting to change the subject. “I guess some cautionary tales have more basis in experience than I thought.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda surprised we even did it,” Shades mused. “Sometimes, I think I left my common sense back on Earth, but I find I just can’t bring myself to regret it. I guess there are some things you just have to experience for yourself.”

Despite all their troubles, Shades found that he was actually starting to feel at home in the Sixth Dimension in spite of himself. Looking back, his old life had always felt like a dress-rehearsal for a curtain that never quite came up. Now the stage was set, the curtain raised— all that was left was for him to play his part. His favorite thing about it: no script. Sure, he’d have to do most of his own stunts, but somehow that just didn’t bother him as much as it would have once upon a time. Had come to realize how much he had come to despise the restrictions and regulations that governed his old life.

“…Oh, you mean like being held hostage?” Justin winked.

“You were a hostage?” Jillian nearly fumbled her tray as she brought the next course.

Seriously?” Rod and Dusk blurted in almost perfect unison, staring at Shades as he snapped back to the here and now.

“It’s true!” Justin insisted. “We were fighting these marauders who attacked a treasure ship they were bringing up, when this crazy bastard named Erix jumped in and tried to steal the ship. Max was already fighting him, and Shades tried to help…”

All eyes on Shades.

“It’s true,” Shades admitted. Though hardly his proudest moment. “I thought I had the drop on him…”

“So I had no choice but to fight him again,” Max told them, for all intents and purposes confirming Justin’s account. “I’m still not sure which fight was tougher, Erix on Kon Kimbar, or you at Nikopolas Arena.”

“Someday I’d like to see for myself just how strong he really is,” Ma’Quiver commented.

“At least you saved him…” Jillian looked back and forth among them as she set down the trays, narrowly dodging Rude Bones’ shameless reach.

“Keep it comin’, Jugs!” the old man cackled, and Shades was no longer sure if that was his fourth or fifth bottle he just snatched off her tray.

“Well at least you’re training me, instead of trying to kill me.” Still, Max did not feel at all comfortable relying on luck to save him, much less his friends, after seeing for himself just how dangerous enemies like Erix or Striker could be. “That match was at least as tough as fighting Erix.”

“Wait a minute!” Twyla snapped, more than a little incredulously. “Arena? As in a gladiator arena?”

“I guess you could call it that,” Shades quipped.

“I got stuck there,” Ma’Quiver explained. “Ran out of money, and thought I could just win a few matches…”.

“But the guy who ran the place was a total asshole!” Justin added. “They took Bandit!”

“And I had to fight to save him,” Max elaborated.

“That was where I met these guys,” Ma’Quiver told them. “Berto was already cheating me on my arena winnings, and his thugs were threatening anyone who might have given me passage out of Bodeen, because he was trying to get me to train his Nikopolas henchmen, so I knew he couldn’t be trusted to keep his word with Max, either. After fighting a match those folks won’t soon forget, we teamed up and busted outta there.”

“We had a ship,” Max said simply, “so Ma’Quiver helped us rescue Bandit, in exchange for a way to leave Sarna and continue his search.”

“Search?” Dusk asked. “For what?”

“For my master,” Ma’Quiver replied. “We got separated a couple years ago, and I’ve been searching for him ever since. By any chance, you haven’t heard of a man named Lazlo, have you?”

A quick exchange around the table revealed they had not.

“Then I guess the search continues.”

“Since Max made a bargain with him,” Shades continued, “we spent most of our last voyage training with him, but none of us could use Shanshou-kan.”

“Don’t feel too bad. In all his travels,” Ma’Quiver told them, “Master Lazlo only met one other person with the gift.”

“Speakin’ o’ familiar faces,” Rude Bones piped up, “ya mentioned ye’ve fought some pirates along the way. Ya meet anybody I’d know?”

“You ever heard of a pirate captain named Striker?” Justin intoned, watching the old pirate nearly spit-take in mid swig.

“Ya mean that Striker?” Rude Bones blurted.

“Yes, that Striker,” Max affirmed.

“We didn’t want to fight her,” Justin explained, “but you remember the Triad? The guys who ripped us off? Well, Striker’s crew had captured ’em, and the Tri-Medals were about to fall into their hands…”

“You didn’t!” Rod gasped.

“It was a long shot,” Max admitted, “but somehow we managed to free the Triad, and get our stuff back.”

“Ya know, Striker’s crew did pass through these parts a few months ago,” the old man told them, “before DJ and these folks arrived. It was a pretty tense situation.”

“I could imagine,” Ma’Quiver commented.

“I mean, the Isle of Castaways is neutral territory, but that ship, In Brazen Defiance, was so heavily armed, it had everyone on-edge their whole visit!”

“The Brazen,” Shades sighed. “That’s good. If it was the other ship, things might’ve gotten ugly.”

“Why is that?” DJ asked.

“Because we sank the Brazen!” Justin laughed.

“No way!” Twyla and Dusk shouted, the former, especially, sounding almost certain that this time one of them would surely say they were pulling everybody’s leg about that one.

“Well, it’s more like some crazy pirate blew something up shooting at us with a plasma rifle,” Max clarified as best he could. “Even so, it turned the fight back in our favor, and it definitely saved my life. And Bandit’s.”

“They were talking about selling his fir,” Shades filled them in, “even eating him.”

“You poor kitty!” Jillian gasped, giving him another helping of fish. “People like Striker are horrible!”

“So, what’s so important about these things anyway?” Rod demanded, “That everybody keeps fighting over them?”

“Well, they’re supposed to be the keys to some ancient treasure,” Shades told them, “at least that’s what Kato claimed, but…”

“We’re still not really sure of much beyond that,” Max confessed as he took his off its chain and joined Shades in passing it around the table. “Though it is clear that they’re all of the same make, and are surely from the same place.”

“Some treasure hunt it’s turned out to be so far,” Justin muttered, recalling how much it once bugged him to let Kato keep hers. “We still have no clue where to even start looking for it…”

“That’s assuming somebody else didn’t find it in the meantime,” Dusk warned him. “I mean, just because it was hidden, doesn’t mean other people couldn’t stumble across it by accident, while doing something else.”

“Ha! Wouldn’t that be a pisser!” Rude Bones snorted.

“You’re probably better off trying to find your friends instead, Shades,” Twyla suggested, “though you sound like you’re already leaning that way anyway.”

“But still, even if you do find them,” Rod cautioned, “that still leaves the question of how you’d get back home. You don’t suppose any of those… warpgate things in Tranz-D lead to Earth, do you?”

“Wouldn’t know,” Shades shrugged, “but based on all I’ve see and heard about the place, I kinda hope not. I’m not so sure I like the idea of something like that even being connected to our world…”

“Even if it means having to find another way back?” Dusk pressed.

“A safer way, yes,” Shades conceded, “though at times I wonder if I really want to go back. John and Amy, on the other hand, I don’t know what they want, but if they’re looking for a way back to Earth, I would help them any way I could.”

“Trust me, guys,” Justin’s stern voice holding all of their undivided attention, “you don’t wanna mess with that place. Goin’ in there is suicide.”

“He’s right,” Max seconded. “It’s way too dangerous.”

“That, and I think, during our time in St Lucy, I may have found a lead on alternatives,” Shades told them. “Keep an eye out for Camcron Industries. They’re doing ‘research’ into weird space-time stuff, and may even be back-engineering technology from Tranz-D. Though I’m not sure I want to know where they’re getting it from…”

“I guess you’re right,” Rod relented. “Still, it’s kinda sad to think of all that knowledge being locked up like that.”

“Maybe it’s for the best,” DJ sighed. “If even the ones who created all that couldn’t control it, then perhaps the world is better off without it.”

“All the same,” Shades confided, “I’m still not sure what’s scarier, being a hostage, being trapped in some haunted place that’s trying to kill you, or being stranded out at sea for days with no more food, surrounded by unknown miles of ocean…”

“By the way,” Justin piped up through a mouthful of seafood, “I’ve been meaning to ask ever since we got rescued. What is a Donner Party?”

Twyla gagged. Rod spit his drink. Jillian gasped, and Dusk and DJ simply gaped at him.

“I’m trying to eat right now,” Shades muttered. “But if you really wanna know, I’ll tell you about it in the morning, okay?”

“What?” Justin looked around the table at them. “What’d I say?”