"Perverts From Dimension X'

[olddochermes2]

"The Purple Molesters"

"Perverts From Dimension X'

9/3-9/11/2014

I.

Timothy Limbo got thrown out of the Starbucks across Fifth Avenue from the Public Library at two-thirty in the afternoon. He was yelled at by the manager to never return and, as he left the coffee shop, he could overhear everyone muttering how he must be drunk or on drugs, maybe schizophrenic. Outside was a pleasant early September afternoon with a brisk breeze. Gleeful teenagers were running around, still free of school for the next week at least. Timothy stood on the sidewalk with slumped shoulders and glanced back at the faces staring at him through the shop windows.

He was inoffensive-looking enough. At twenty-six, Timothy stood a few inches under six feet in height and was slightly built. He habitually wore biker boots, worn-out jeans and a battered leather jacket over a white T-shirt but then he did ride a Harley so that was all appropriate. The mop of butter-yellow hair that hung down past his collar and usually got in his eyes was untidy, but his face seemed friendly and he looked accessible. Timothy was the sort of guy that people asked directions from or struck up casual conversations with on the subway. Little children and old ladies liked him on sight.

All this added to his dismay at what had happened in that Starbucks. He wasn't used to being shouted at or cursed out, and he was having trouble digesting what had happened. Timothy crossed Fifth Avenue and lowered himself to the low wall in front of the Library, right next to one of the stone lions. To his relief, everyone was going about their business and no one seemed to be paying him any attention.

Calming down a little, he cupped his hands in front of him and summoned a casper. Barely visible even in direct summer sunlight, the little swirl of energy looked like a clear tornado only three inches high. It spun and hovered over Timothy's hands like an eager puppy waiting for attention. No one knew for sure what his 'friendly ghosts' were. Nowhere in the KDF files or library was there a record of anyone with the same gift. He nodded at the Starbucks across the street. The casper spun up past head level and shot over the heavy traffic to slide into the shop as someone opened the door to enter.

Establishing contact, Timothy could see and hear everything that the casper perceived in its mysterious way. It was hard to explain how this felt to him. Tim explained it best by saying it was more like remembering something he had just seen rather than experiencing directly. In that respect, it was much like telepathy from what he had heard about that ability. Sitting across the street, he saw inside the Starbucks as if he were physically inside the shop. A uniformed officer was talking to the excited manager, which made Tim's heart sink. As he watched, the cop touched the radio fastened to his left shoulder and bent his head to speak into it.

Upset again at realizing he was being reported to the police, Timothy jumped to his feet and turned right to cross 41st Street at the intersection. The casper came spinning up to circle him. He mentally thanked the little whirlwind, whether it was a separate being or a gralic manifestation of his own subconscious, and the friendly ghost popped out of existence like a soap bubble. At the next corner, he bought a foot-long hot dog and a can of Dr Pepper from a street vendor and ate the hot dog without even tasting it. Standing by a wire trash receptacle, he drained the soda in a single gulp and belched unexpectedly. Timothy started walking again, hands in his pants pockets and head down. He knew what he had witnessed in that Starbucks. He was sure of it, even if a dozen other people had seen nothing except him acting weird.

By the time he got to 38th Street and swung left toward Lexington, Timothy had regained his self-assurance. With all the weird inexplicable events he had already experienced in the Midnight War, why would this make him doubt himself? That molester in the Starbucks was some new nightmare creature that had to be challenged and fought like any other.

In front of the old ten-story stone building that had housed three generations of Tel Shai knights before him and his current teammates, Timothy heard the front door unlock before he even touched it. He stepped inside the vestibule and waited for the familiar clicks and buzzes that meant he was being scanned by Trom sensors more advanced than anything Human medical technology could approach. The scan did seem to go on longer than usual, though.

Finally, the inner door clicked and he opened it. Standing in the front hall waiting for him was his team captain. Lauren Sable Reilly was attractive in a highly individual way, with thoughtful dark eyes over a snub nose and full lips. She wore her straight black hair brushed back over a high forehead and seldom bothered with anything more than minimal make-up. Her posture, though, with arms folded across her chest and one foot tapping on the carpet, was not reassuring.

"Hi, Tim. I just got off the phone with Officer James Mulvaney. He gave me his report. What's your side of the story?" Sable's voice was calm and not accusatory, but there was a critical gleam in her eyes that wasn't usually there.

"Something new and scary, captain," Tim answered bluntly. "I was seeing through my caspers, watching the barrista prepare this incredibly complicated latte and I was counting the steps. That was when I saw the thing. Well, I'll just come out and say it. I saw a naked purple man fondling a woman who wasn't aware he even existed."

II.

Half an hour later, they sat facing each other at the long oak table in the conference room on the second floor. Timothy had gone over his experience in excrutiating detail twice and Sable suddenly relaxed enough to lean back and shake her head thoughtfully.

"This man... or creature, I suppose," she summarized. "He looked like he was in the late stages of starvation. He was completely naked, with a full erection. His skin was bright purple. And he had pointed ears that stood up past the top of his head, a sort of protruberant muzzle and pointed teeth. Have I got that right?"

"Yep, that's him," Timothy said. "And nobody else in the shop even seemed to notice him. I think it's because I was viewing through my casper and their perception is wider and deeper than Human."

"That makes sense," Sable said, drumming her fingers on the table. "I am at a bit of a loss. Despite how crazy today's events sound, we both have experienced stranger things since we became Tel Shai knights. And honestly, I trust you as far as honesty and sanity go, Tim. You're a down to Earth guy. I'm taking your story at face value."

"Thanks. I can't go back to that Starbucks, though. The creature had his hands all over this woman, but she didn't feel his groping. He gave me this awful sleazy smile. Everyone saw me shout, 'Get away from her!', saw me take a wild swing at nothing and fall on my face, knocking over a table. The woman was terrified." Timothy frowned and added, "Come to think of it, that was the last I saw of the purple creature. Maybe I just didn't notice him after that because of the commotion, maybe he vanished. I don't know."

Sable pushed back her chair and stood up. "There's a lot to think about here. The rest of our team should be back around suppertime. It's Pizza Night, but we will have a formal meeting to investigate."

Rising when she did, Timothy Limbo hesitated and then said, "I have an idea. Might not work but maybe you want to try it."

"Let's hear it, Tim."

"Wellll... your own gift is enhanced sensory perception. You can give yourself telescopic or microscopic sight, hearing keen enough to hear a hair fall, a sense of taste or smell more sensitive than any other living being. I want you to try something. Come on, let's go down to the front door."

As they walked down the staircase to the front hall, Sable asked, "Care to explain your plan, my friend?"

"Sure," said Tim. "I have never been able to arrange for someone else to view what my caspers do. God knows we've all tried, they'd be a great spy system. But I wondered lately if you might be the one who could find a way."

Standing in the vestibule, with the gilt-framed oil portrait of Kenneth Dred hanging on the wall to their right, they opened the front door and stood on the top of the five steps leading down to the sidewalk. The usual traffic and pedestrians were going back and forth.

"Looks pretty mundane," Sable said. "What now?"

"Okay. I'm going to summon a casper and ask him to hover right in front of you. Then I want you to crank up your perception in different ways. Night vision, telescope sight, the bit where you seen tiny particles suspended in the air. Try everything but do it while looking through my little pal."

An unexpected grin broke across her face, making her look like a teenager. "Why have we never thought of this before? Let's give it a try."

The faint tornado spun a few inches in front of Sable's eyes and she began concentrating. After a minute of silence, she quietly said, "Say, this is great, Tim. Your casper seems to act like a lens. My different perceptions are each sharper than usual. But nothing bizarre so far. Let me shift into ultra-violet."

"I'm watching through another friendly ghost-" Timothy began.

Without warning, Sable gave out a blood-curdling scream that turned heads around all up and down the street. Standing on the sidewalk ten feet away from her was a horrible scrawny man with garishly bright purple skin. His ribs showed clearly, his arms and legs were thin as broom handles and he was wearing absolutely nothing. Pedestrians walked by completely and blissfully unaware. The purple man leered up at the KDF members, showing sharp sharklike fangs in a wide mouth. Pointed ears stood up past the top of his head. He reached down to his huge erect penis and waggled it at Sable teasingly.

As soon as she had seen him and screamed, Lauren Sable Reilly had plunged backward into the vestibule, yanking Timothy by the arm with her and slamming the heavy oak door shut. She clapped a hand to her chest, breathing rapidly. "Oh my GOD. I'm sorry to react like that, Tim, but honestly I wasn't expecting anything like that. He was just... so disgusting!"

Timothy received one of the caspers on his palm and dismissed the little being. "Whatever those things are, that one is gone now. You notice no one else saw him? They walked around him and avoided contact, but I don't think they knew why."

Plopping down on the deacon's bench behind them, Sable regained her composure. "Wow. I have not been taken off guard like that in a long time. I'm a believer, Tim. These... these Purple Molesters are our priority as of right now."

III.

By six o'clock that evening, the rec room was crowded with an unusually full assembly. Wednesdays had been much-enjoyed Pizza Nights for the Kenneth Dred Foundation for years. Reserve members usually made it as well as the active team, and often they brought guests who were active in Midnight War but not KDF members or Tel Shai knights. Traditionally, current cases were not discussed until the gossip and mundane news had been thoroughly gone over.

The recreation room had two brown leather couches that ran the length of their walls, some comfortable recliners, regular wooden chairs and even a hassock that Unicorn usually claimed. A folding table had been set up in the middle of the open space to hold four assorted pizzas, a big bowl of spicy meatballs, bags of pretzels and popcorn and some sixty-four ounce bottles of Pepsi and Mountain Dew. The excited chatter was non-stop as everyone caught up on recent developments in their lives.

Demrak Jin had everyone laughing for the sole time that they knew her. The Gelydra had zero sense of humor in any case and had not intended to be funny. She related how, when she was still in her early teens, she had fled Ulgor after a palace coup and come to live on the surface world. When Dr Vitarius had taken her in and showed her New York City for the first time, it had happened to be Halloween night. Not knowing anything about the holiday, Jin had been unsettled and bewildered by all the macabre decorations and people in strange costumes. She had asked Vitarius if she was making a mistake coming here to live because America was such a morbid country.

The mental image of the confused young Demrak Jin being horrified by Halloween because she thought America was always like that was irresistably droll to her teammates. They laughed until tears flowed, hugged her and said it was the best 'coming to America' story anyone had ever shared. Jin was pleased at their reaction.

Jeremy Bane announced he was close to retiring for good, especially now that he saw how well the new team was handling the Midnight War. He said his Dire Wolf Agency now only took clients by appointments and he would be traveling more, spending more time at Tel Shai visiting Cindy. Even Ted Wright showed up, having a rare night where he was not working the overnight shift at Metropolitan General. Megan Salenger had brought Archie McAllister with her as usual, and Unicorn introduced everyone to her boyfriend Cory Adams, many meeting him for the first time. Cory knew about the Midnight War and had even accompanied Unicorn on a few minor investigations but he was still new to the secret world and listened to the wild anecdotes with a sort of appalled fascination.

It was nearly eleven before things settled down enough that Sable made an announcement. She thanked everyone for showing and agreed they had all had enormous fun that they deserved. But it was time to attend to business. A new menace had appeared that day that had to be addressed. All active members and those reservists who were interested would assemble on the second floor conference room to discuss the new mission.

Unfortunately, policy restricted formal meetings to KDF members. Cory Adams said he had to be at the office next morning and their babysitter charged overtime anyway, thanked everyone for a good time and took off after kissing Unicorn by the front door. Archie McAllister, on the other hand, announced he could handle some more meatballs and would be happy watching foreign movies on their satellite TV, so he remained in the rec room with his work shoes off. Megan fluffed his hair affectionately as she went with the others up to the conference room.

There were twelve seats at the long oaken table, and all but one were filled as the members settled in. Stephen Weaver had not been able to make it from his duties in New Mexico. Standing at the head of that table, Sable felt a twinge of pride at the rare treat of seeing everyone gathered at one time. "My brothers and sisters of Tel Shai, my teammates and partners of the Kenneth Dred Foundation, I call this meeting to order. We are gathered to discuss something new and shocking in the Midnight War that so far I know almost nothing about. We have decided to call them, until we learn more, the Purple Molesters...."

IV.

The next few days were disappointing for everyone. Nowhere in the KDF files could references to anything like these strange creatures be found. FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, the massive ledger compiled by Kenneth Dred himself over fifty years, was searched in vain. Calls were made to Associate Members and colleagues who were knowledgable in esoteric subjects but with no results.

Timothy Limbo spent nearly all his waking time sending the caspers out over the city and viewing what they saw. Several times, he caught glimpses of the purple creatures in public, making obscene gestures at people who remained unaware of them. The leering monsters were aware of the caspers, though. They always looked up as the tiny whirlwinds approached and grinned mockingly at them. Timothy reported all this and KDF members immediately rushed to the scene but the monsters were gone by then.

Late on the third day, Timothy reported something new. His caspers found a female Purple Molester. The creature was just as starved-looked as the males, resembling a survivor of the concentation camps, and just as naked as the males. She had a mat of tangled white hair that looked as if it had never been washed. Like the males, the female monster was seen acting out sexual activities with both men and women who remained completely unaware of her presence on top of them.

Back at the conference room, co-ordinating the search for information, Lauren Sable Reilly sipped hot tagra tea and seemed exhausted. "I suppose it should be a comfort that the monsters don't seem to be doing any physical harm to the public. Personally, I am so offended and so disgusted by their actions that I can hardly think straight. But no one in the general population is aware of any of this. It all seems to be just symbolic menace. It's like... people making rude remarks out of earshot."

Sitting across from Sable, Haley Lawson rested her chin on a cupped hand propped up with her elbow on the table. She had spent the day skimming through the thousands of rare books which filled shelves in every hallway of the building, searching for titles which might seem relevant to their search. The youngest member of the new team at nineteen, Windcatcher's most striking feature was a pair of bright lime-green eyes under straight auburn bangs. She was wearing a rust-colored sweatshirt and black jeans, with red sneakers on her feet which were tucked up under her in the chair. Haley watched her captain thoughtfully.

"I'm with you," she said. "Honestly, Sable, this whole business creeps me out big time. How long have these things been out there anyway?! Have they been walking around all our lives, making fun of any privacy we think we have? For all I know, right now one of these purple freaks is right here waving his, well you know.. in my face." She shuddered violently and folded her arms defensively across her chest. "It's hard to deal with."

"We do have the Yellow Shield to keep out hostile presences," Sable told her. "This building has the strongest defenses against Midnight War intruders of any place in the real world. I suppose that should be reassuring."

Unexpectedly, Jeremy Bane appeared in the doorway. He still showed only a few hints that he was nearing sixty, with scattered grey flecks in the black hair and some lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth. Since he had stepped down as KDF leader years earlier for Sable to take over, he had still remained on the team as a sort of senior advisor.

"Hey, Jeremy," Haley greeted him without her usual impudence. "Good to see you here."

"I have some disturbing news," the Dire Wolf told them as he came over to take a seat at the table. "I've been calling my network of observers nonstop. Also, I've had Bleak going through his own army of informers. Regular people are starting to catch glimpses of these purple monsters."

"What? Oh, that IS bad news," Sable replied. "What are you hearing?"

"Just scattered incidents. Some of my people tell me things they won't mention even to their families. A few were afraid they were beginning to experience signs of mental illness when they saw skinny purple men groping people and not being noticed. I tried to reassure them that these monsters so far are harmless and may be just illusions." Bane shook his head. "But it's getting more serious."

Both Sable and Haley leaned forward with anxiety on their faces.

"Some of these Molesters appear to be having physical effects now," the Dire Wolf said. "They are pulling pranks. One woman said she saw a purple man in her house and then her car keys fell behind her refrigerator where she had a hell of a time retrieving them. A guy in New Jersey tells me he saw a Molester trip an old man who broke a hip. If they are starting to actually affect physical objects but still remain unseen most of the time, the Molesters are going to be a major threat."

"I'd say so! Jeremy, we are not making much progress. What ARE these things? How can we get rid of them?" Sable asked.

"Wait a second," Haley interrupted. "I'm sorry. This is getting on my nerves. Jeremy, are there any of these perverts here now? In this room?"

Bane reached up under the sleeve of his black sport jacket and slid out a slim throwing dagger. It was one of the matched pair of silver-bladed weapons he had carried since the beginning of his career. "I don't think so, Haley. Look, the blade is cool to the touch. If harmful gralic energy is nearby, these ensalir blades get warm and even start to shimmer. We're as safe here as anywhere short of Tel Shai itself."

"Oh, good," the Windcatcher said, lowering her shoulders from where they had been hunched up. "I'm sorry, just the thought of these monsters is freaking me out."

The Dire Wolf stood up again. "I'm going upstate to meet Garrison Nebel. It's about a three hour drive to Bearsville, maybe I can convince him to come back here with me. I know he hasn't worn the Eyeless Helmet for years but I hope he will let someone else try it on. It reveals hidden truth and exposes falsehoods. That's exactly what we need." Heading for the door, he said over one shoulder, "I'll call after I talk with him."

After Bane left, Haley stood up and stretched, clasping her hands behind her and arching her back. "Ow. That's better. So, captain, next move?"

Sable was studying her empty mug as if it somehow held answers. "Most of our members are standing by but they do have other assignments. I know Sheng was already handling a blackmail case for some politician. Josef is tracking a group of White Web assassins in Washington. Timothy has his caspers searching the city non-stop. I do have Jocelyn out on the streets, and my hope is that if we find one of these creatures, her Red Spectre can be quick enough to affect them."

The Windcatcher pulled out her chair again but paused. "You know, I haven't seen Megan since early yesterday morning."

"Neither have I," Sable said in slight surprise. She took the Link off her belt and thumbed a button. "Megan? Megan, report in."

"Hello, Sable. I'm in the lab," came the Trom Girl's subdued voice. "I project I will have some progress to report shortly."

"What are you talking about? Progress on what? Have you been working in that lab for the past thirty-six hours?!"

"No. I did take a nap and brought a food tray up here," came the voice. "I will be down in a minute, captain."

Sable replaced the Link to its clip on her belt and gave Haley a helpless shrug. "Maybe our Trom Girl has come up with a miracle."

"I think it just shows how quiet she is most of the time, that she can hole up on the sixth floor like that for a day and a half and we don't even notice!" Haley said. "I hope she at least told Archie so he's not worried..."

"Oh, he'd turn up here looking for her," Sable said just as Megan came hurrying in the open door of the conference room. The Trom Girl was carrying an armload of equipment, with wires and cords danging to the floor behind her.

"Here I am," Megan announced breathlessly. "Let me try to explain." She dumped the gear on the table and extracted a bizarre pair of goggles from the jumble. These were made of burnished aluminum, were fed from a battery pack by a cord and had lenses set in cylinders four inches thick. Oddly, the left lens had a red filter while the right lens was blue.

"Those are the dopiest looking things I've seen in my entire life," Haley laughed. "Why one red and one blue lens?"

"To create purple," Megan answered as if it were an obvious explanation. The Trom Girl sat down next to Windcatcher and demonstrated how to work the tiny dials on the side of the goggles. "After our meeting, I gave the problem some thought. Between our members and the collected information in this building, we should be able to identify any Midnight War phenomenon. Yet we were getting nowhere. Could it be that these beings were not part of the Midnight War, then?"

Sable and Haley exchanged startled glances. Megan continued, "By 'Midnight War,' we usually mean phenomena related to the use of gralic force, to the adjacent realms and to the variant Races known as the Cousins of Man. These Purple Molesters seemed to be something unrelated."

As she paused, Sable broke in, "Megan, you're a genius."

"I actually am a genius, so your statement is accurate. I have been investigating in a field of contrary physics where the Trom have already done theoretical conjecture. I am not sure how to explain in basic terms you will be able to understand."

"Don't try to spare our feelings," Haley snorted. "Just tell it the way you see it."

"Certainly." Sarcasm was lost on a Human orphan who had been raised by the Trom from infancy. Megan simply went on, "This is not an accurate explanation but it may help. Imagine an infinite sequence of universes that do not interact because they vibrate at different frequencies. If you speed up or slow down the vibrations of entities from one dimension, they may partially cross over into the neighboring one."

"Oh, I've seen this in science-fiction movies. We're being invaded by perverts from Dimension X!" said Haley.

"That is a convenient way for you to conceive the situation," Megan said with a completely straight face. She flipped a toggle switch on the battery pack, which made the goggles give off a low humming.

Sable's Link buzzed and she took the call. After a few minutes of questions and answers, she thanked the other person and broke the connection. "That was Lt Montez, our NYPD liaison regarding scary events and mass panic by the public. He wants to know if we're making any progress. People are starting to report dangerous unexplained events. One woman was sitting in her kitchen when she saw the knobs turn on by themselves on her gas stove. Something had blown the pilot lights out!"

"If she had been sleeping in another room or had come home later...." Haley said uneasily. "These sleazoids are starting to get murderous."

The Trom Girl made some adjustments on the bulky goggles and handed the device over to Windcatcher. "Here, Haley. I want you to take a look out the window."

"What, me wearing those goofy binoculars? Oh, okay." Haley strapped the goggles over her face and they did indeed look ridiculous. "Geez, these are heavy, too." She stood up and walked over to the high narrow windows opposite the conference table. She tugged aside the curtains, peered out and gave a high-pitched shriek that almost made Sable fall out of her chair.

"There are hundreds of those creatures out there!" Haley yelled. "They're all over the place!"

V.

Sable rushed over, holding out her hand, and Haley Lawson promptly tugged off the goggles to hand them over. As the team leader tightened the straps of the bulky device around her head, she said, "Haley, sit down. You're getting too worked up."

Without the goggles, Windcatcher was staring down at Lexington Avenue. "Now everything looks normal. Just another day in the big city. This is the spookiest thing I've ever witnesssed, Sable."

"I have two more pairs of these viewers charging now in the lab," Megan said. Up close, she did look tired. The inquisitive eyes had dark circles under them. "They should be functional within an hour."

"I've seen more than enough of the perverts for the moment," retorted Haley. "To think that no one out there is aware what's going..."

Gazing down through the parted curtains, Sable took a breath and sounded calmer. "They almost outnumber the regular people. I don't see any signs that they are having a physical effect yet. The Molesters are just pretending to have sex with everyone. Or they're imitating the way people walk and stand, as if mocking them." She unfastened the goggles and shook her head, brushing her hair back with her fingers.

The Trom Girl took the googles and switched them off. She placed the device back on the conference table, inserted a jack into an input on the side of the battery pack and plugged the cord into a wall outlet. "I want to keep these charged for when we will need them in the field. Please be careful not to trip over the cord."

Closing the curtains and turning away with a shudder, Sable watched the Trom Girl hopefully. "Megan, I know that look on your face. You already are planning something."

"Yes," said the Trom Girl. "I believe this is not a natural occurence. Someone is actively making these beings appear and is trying to bring them fully into our world. We need to stop the process."

"Of course," Sable said. "I see it now. There is only one group of Humans with technology at that level. This has to be the John Grim Institute at work. That's where our efforts should be directed." The realization seemed to galvanize her. "I will recall our members here and we will launch a confrontation with Grim Enterprises."

Megan satisfied herself that the weird goggles were charging, then turned to her captain. "The John Grim researchers only have such knowledge because they stole it from the Trom. Grim himself was a low-level telepath who took knowledge from Trom observers without being aware of it. He thought the huge leaps in theory he experienced were his own discoveries."

Haley had gone back to the window despite herself. "This is so strange. Without those goggles, it looks completely normal out there. I feel sick knowing those monsters are actually running around mocking everyone. Wait. One woman just touched her own butt and looked around. No one is near her."

"She became aware of one of the Molesters touching her. They're becoming solid enough to be felt," Sable said. "If that keeps up, it will start an epidemic of ghostly sexual abuse and people won't understand what's going on. They'll all think they're going crazy."

"I must return to the lab and work on the next phase of our equipment." Megan Salenger trotted over to a waist-high cooler in one corner of the conference room and took out a bottle of water. "There is so much to be done."

"Wait, maybe Haley or I could help you," Sable said.

"No thank you. You would be in the way." The Trom Girl rushed from the conference room, taking a swig of the cold water as she went.

"Well! I love Megan but her manners still need some work," Haley muttered.

"It's the way she was brought up." Sable went back to the long table and toyed with some of the loose equipment that had been left there. "I don't even know what any of this does. Probably better to just not touch it. The last thing we need is an explosion."

Taking out her Link one more time, Sable changed its setting and called the available members back to base. "We'll have Timothy, Jin and Jocelyn here," she told the Windcatcher. "Plus Megan when she's done whipping up gadgets. If it comes to a serious battle, of course Unicorn and Sheng will come running as well."

"I don't like this case one bit," Haley said. "Ugh. I keep thinking of those purple freaks watching me take a shower or grabbing my girly bits and I wouldn't even know it...! How can you stand this, Sable?"

The team leader shrugged and tried to keep her voice even. "In a way, you could say that these assaults aren't really happening. If you can't feel anything touching you and there's no physical sign of any contact, you can try to think of it as imaginary. Think of these Molesters as perverts just thinking dirty thoughts not actually carrying them out."

"That sounds like it should help..." Windcatcher replied dubiously. "But we need to get rid of these creeps as soon as possible. Send them back and lock the door."

A buzzer sounded by the monitor panel, indicating that members were in the front vestibule being scanned. "Good," Sable said. "Let's gather up at the table. It's time to launch our counter-attack."

The sudden grin that lit Haley's face showed relief. "Go, Sable! I should have KNOWN you were already working up a way to get after these freaks. When don't you have a plan?"

Rushing up the stairs and into the room, Demrak Jin almost skidded to a halt. The Geldydran woman was only an inch or two over five feet tall and thin, but her body was denser than Human as an adaptation to ocean life. She was stronger than a bodybuilder twice her size. She looked like she would weigh maybe one hundred and ten pounds but actually tipped the scales at a hundred and ninety. With short bristling white hair above a sullen wide face, Jin was not seen as pretty by anyone but she had presence. When she entered a room, she took it over by sheer force of personality. Now, wearing a denim jacket and jeans, yanking off mirrored sunglasses, the Gelydra strode into that conference room as if about to fight a duel.

"I found nothing!" she snapped. "On those streets for hours and I saw nothing of these so-called Purple Molesters! If I did not trust your word without question, captain..."

"You don't have to take my word for it," Sable said with a hint of amusement. She clicked on the battery for the red and blue goggles, handing the device to the woman from Ulgor. "Here. Check out the scene outside through these."

Struggling to fasten the goggles over her head, Demrak Jin grumbled, "These are foolish-looking."

"That's what I said!" chimed in Haley, going over to watch as Jin pulled open the curtains. The Gelydra gasped and jumped back from what she saw, but stepped forward again and glared down ferociously at the street below. Her hands curled into tight fists harder than rock. "Grelok curse me! There they are. I apologize if I seemed to doubt you, my captain."

"Now we see what we have to deal with," Sable said. As she spoke, Timothy Limbo and Jocelyn Garimara entered the room. Timothy was wearing much the same clothes he always did and he looked tired. He had been sending his caspers out over the city almost without pause for the past few days.

Watching Demrak Jin with those odd-looking goggles on, Jocelyn turned to give Sable a questioning look. Almost thirty, she was an Aborigine from a Western Australian tribe that had fewer than a dozen members left. While still in her early teens, the Red Spectre had manifested itself from her body. This gave her enormous power but also made her feared and hated by both her own famly and by the white people. A few years of being exploited by the late warlock known as the Sphinx had soured her even more. It was remarkable that she had stayed basically fair-minded and open to friendship, but joining Tel Shai had saved her from sinking into complete bitterness.

With her smooth dark brown skin, straight shiny black hair and large soulful eyes, Jocelyn was a striking woman although she never saw herself that way. She dressed more formally than her teammates as a rule, and today was wearing Navy blue slacks with flat shoes, a white long-sleeved blouse and a simple silver chain necklace.

"I have to ask what is going on here," she said finally. "I take it Demrak Jin is not going to see a 3D movie at the cineplex?"

That comment made Jin yank off the goggles and hand them back to Sable. "Captain, those creatures are overrunning the city."

"Worse than that," Sable said, "They seem to be turning solid. We're getting reports of them having physical effects. Soon they will be raping and killing for real. Here's my plan. Megan has concluded that this is not a Midnight War event but rather some sort of Mad Scientist deal. She developed those goggles so we can see the Molesters and she's working on something else right now. My theory is that only John Grim researchers could come up with something like this."

"Those guys again!" Timothy said. "Always trouble."

"The main Grim facility is out in Flushing. There are two smaller research that I know of, one on Long Island and one down by the Battery. There's no way to tell which facility is behind this.. maybe all three are. Right now, everyone get into full field suits with all the gear. Jin, for you that means your sharkhide suit of course. Haley, forget your Windcatcher uniform, I want you in full armor covering as much of your body as possible."

"Considering what we're dealing with, I second that idea!" Haley said.

"Meet downstairs immediately and we will split into pairs. There's no time for our usual infiltration and sneaking around approach, guys. The situation is going to get ugly out there very soon. I want confrontation and resolution." With that, she herself rushed out of the conference and up to her quarters on the third floor to get into their combat gear.

Despite the urgency they all felt, everyone had to stand around waiting for another forty minutes until Megan Salenger was satisfied that the red-blue googles were functional. She had crafted three of them, which meant one set of goggles went with each team of two members. So far, she had not found a method to harm the Purple Molesters themselves. She thought that given time she would be able to devise a counter-frequency that would be effective but weeks for experimentation was out of the question. Sable set the members up in pairs and gave final instructions. Four of them went down to the tiny underground garage beneath the KDF building where the two cars were stored.

Megan and Haley left the building and walked briskly toward the garage on 40th Street and Third Avenue where the Trom Girl kept her Jeep Cherokee. The IMPERIAL GARAGE also stored Bane's cars and Timothy's motorcycle, so the business made quite a profit each month providing extra security for these special customers. The Trom Girl asked Haley to drive, while she herself took the passenger seat and continued meticulously tweaking tiny parts inside an electronic device with a tool as thin as a sewing needle.

VII.

Getting off the Grand Central Parkway near where the 1964 World's Fair had been, Timothy found the John Grim Institute easily enough. There was nothing hidden about it. Over a dozen red brick buildings were arranged in a geometric pattern with covered walkways between them. Three huge parking lots were crowded with cars and, as he pulled over to the side of the road within site of the facility, he saw a delivery truck with the interlocked letters JG and the slogan 'Tomorrow's Breaththroughs Today' in forward-leaning italic script on its sides.

Finding a convenient spot cleared for cars to turn around, Timothy Limbo turned off the engine of their black Nissan Elantra after winding down his window. He stared out at the sprawling complex. "Sheesh," he said. "Check out the size of that place. This might take a while."

"I have the patience to wait for days," Demrak Jin replied. She was wearing her tight long-sleeved tunic and leggings of grey sharkhide with the denticles facing outward. These were abrasive enough that she had been asked to sit on a folded blanket when in one of the KDF cars so the seats did not have to be frequently refurnished. These suits did make grappling with Gelydrim in battle a risky approach. In the seat behind her, her bone-bladed long knife sat in its ivory scabbard.

"Okay, just so you know." He held out both hands and four of the tiny whirlwinds of moving energy spun into existence over his upturned palms. Even looking deliberately for them, the caspers were difficult to see. An unsuspecting person was unlikely to ever notice one of the little tornadoes. "Let's go, fellas. You know what we're searching for."

As the caspers glided rapidly through the open car window and hurtled silently toward the buildings of the John Grim Institute, Timothy Limbo sighed and leaned back in his seat. His eyes were distant. "I'm going to have to concentrate on what they're seeing, Jin."

"Go ahead," the Gelydra said. "Do not worry. I will stand guard and any of those purple monsters who seek to harm you will have to go through me first!"

"Thanks, Jin."

An hour crawled by. Once, a white car marked SECURITY slowed as it went past and Demrak Jin forced a smile for the guard driving. Seeing that Tim was deeply distracted, she reached into the back of the Nissan and pulled up a gallon jug to water to take a long drink. Then she poured some into her cupped hand and rubbed it over her face with a sigh. Gelydrim were sea creatures and she felt better when she kept herself well hydrated.

By now, even Jin was getting fidgety. She checked her Link for messages from the other teams but found nothing. If only some of those purple creatures would show themselves, she thought as she went into a blissful daydream of slaughtering the Molesters by the dozens in a furious battle. She sat there with a wicked grin as she imaging herself wiping blood from her blade and being cheered by grateful crowds.

Finally, Timothy gave a shudder and sat upright. The four caspers came spinning back in through the car window to circle him like excited hummingbirds, then vanished. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Oh my God, my head hurts. That's a lot of information to take in. We found nothing, Jin."

"Really? I have to say I'm surprised."

Timothy wriggled his shoulders and tried to get comfortable. He had been sitting motionless in that car seat for almost ninety minutes. "Yeah. I'm disappointed. We didn't see a single Purple Molester in the area. All the research projects going on seem really ordinary and boring to me. Lots of labs with people staring at computer screens and making notes on clipboards. There was one room with cages full of white mice but all the scientists were doing was feeding each group from different dishes of chopped up meat. A chart of nutrients was on one wall and lines were being drawn through various ingredients."

"I'm... disappointed, actually." The Gelydra leaned over Timothy to peer past him at the sprawling complex of buildings. "I was expecting SOMETHING."

"Yeah, me too. But there's no human heads kept alive in fish tanks, no robots telling people to bow down, no extraterrestrial aliens or open gateways to other dimensions. As mad scientists go, these guys are just plain dull. Maybe without John Grim himself leading them, they've turned into just another think tank eating up government money and designing improved weapons for the military? Anyway, I found no purple perverts and nothing to show they've even been here."

The woman from Ulgor was scowling more than usual, and she had one of those sullen faces that seem angry even when asleep. "What should we do now, Timothy?"

"I'm not sure. Return to base, I guess. If we hear from the other two teams, we can go help them." He started up the car and checked both ways before easing out onto the road.

"Now I really hate the Purple Molesters," growled Demrak Jin. "Worse than attacking us is wasting our time."

VI.

As it happened, Sable and Jocelyn were delayed for over an hour after the other two teams had left. As they were heading down to the garage, the front bell rang. Lt Joseph Montez was accompanied by Officer James Mulvaney, the cop who had taken the report from the Starbucks manager. Sable explained that Timothy had already left the building and was not expected back for at least a few hours. Montez explained that no charges were expected to be pressed against Tim at the moment but he wanted to compare stories.

After Mulvaney repeated what the Starbucks manager had told him, adding details from the customers who had been there, he said that because Lt Montez knew Timothy personally, they had come here for confirmation but the incident was likely to be dropped. Surprisingly, Mulvaney was ordered to wait outside. He would be curious and likely irritated about this, of course, but the NYPD tried to keep Midnight War knowledge to as few people as possible. Before Montez, it had been Inspector Harold Klein who had come to Jeremy Bane with any weird or unexplainable crimes in the city.

Sable and Montez conferred with Jocelyn standing nearby. The lieutenant repeated his usual warnings that anything he disclosed now was unofficial, off the record and would be denied by his department. Sable said that this had always been their arrangement. Then Montez admitted that during the past three days they had been receiving scattered reports of people sighting gruesome starving men with purple skin. What was more disturbing, these purple men were always performing obscene acts and gestures on unsuspecting people who seemed unable to see or feel them.

Montez had collated over a dozen of these reports, ignoring the skeptical wisecracks from most of the office staff, and had decided to come here to see Sable. What had tipped the decision was the latest report. One of the purple creatures, an old woman with tangled white hair, had been glimpsed shoving a three year old boy off the curb onto busy Lower Broadway. Fortunately, the child's mother had swooped down and gotten him back up out of the way of an oncoming taxi but it had been close. The purple monsters were starting to have physical effects and they were becoming not just lecherous but murderous.

All Sable could tell him was that her team was investigating and that these Purple Molesters were being regarded as a completely serious threat. In fact, she told Montez, she and Jocelyn were on their way to follow a possible lead at that moment. Montez took the hint. As he was leaving, he repeated that everything he had told them was confidential and Sable agreed.

After Montez went back outside, before the two KDF members could get down the concealed steps to the garage under the building, the official phone rang. First, it was the local office of the FBI with an agent from Department 21 Black. Then, it was longtime observer Bleak with some more reports. By the time everything was settled, an hour had passed. Sable and Jocelyn finally climbed into the dark green Subaru Outback and rolled up the steep concrete ramp that exited onto Lexington Avenue. They headed south.

Battery Park City, at the southwestern tip of Manhattan, included a good deal of reclaimed land from dirt taken during the World Trade Center construction. As they drove through the upper class area, Jocelyn kept putting the viewer goggles on briefly and yanking them off again with a shudder. The Purple Molesters were increasing in both number and boldness, she reported.

Off on a small peninsula of its own was a towering chrome and stainless steel structure with the interlocked letters JG in red enamel across its top edge. The parking lot was filled with cars and, strangely, almost two hundred people were milling about in that lot. Most were holding sheafs of papers and they gathered in clusters to discuss something.

Slowing just outside the barred gate to the complex, Sable peered out her driver side window and expanded her vision to its telescopic function. "Those are medical benefit papers they're holding," she told Jocelyn. "Dental and vision coverage is up for renewal. I see union representatives in the crowd. They're wearing ID tags. Why everyone is outside for this, I have no idea."

"Maybe management doesn't want it discussed in work areas?" the Australian woman wondered. "Jesus! Look! Sable, there they are!"

Shimmering into existence and becomng corporeal in an instant, dozens of the Purple Molesters appeared scattered throughout the crowd. In an instant, mass hysteria exploded like a wildfire. People screamed and ran around aimlessly while the weird creatures tackled them. Fully solid now, the purple creatures started pinning both men and women down on the asphalt, ripping clothes open and pulling down their victims' pants. Some of the creatures were slapping their erections against horrified captives' faces, others were licking any exposed flesh on the humans with long prehensile tongues.

"Oh my God!" yelled Sable. "Jocelyn, let your Gammon loose. Stop those monsters!"

From within the Australian woman's torso, a sizzling red outline of gralic energy shot out through the car window and crackled toward the scene of depradations like a lightning bolt with a zeal for vengeance.

VII.

"Hey, I know this area," Haley blurted as they turned into the town of West Park. "My hometown is only like a few miles away. If we weren't on a case, I'd show you around Glenville."

Sitting in the passenger seat of the Jeep Cherokee, Megan Salenger clicked the panel shut on the device she had been working on the entire trip. She glanced up. "Mmm? Oh. Glenville, yes. I've never been there. Haley, do you know where the John Grim building would be?"

"Not really," Windcatcher answered. "But it's bound to stand out in a Norman Rockwell town like this. If we have trouble finding it, we do need to put gas in the car anyway and we can ask at the gas station."

Both young women were in the KDF field suits. Heavy boots, pants and waist-length jackets with an inner layer of the flexible Trom armor, the suits held a dozen pouches and slits which concealed miniaturized gadgets and tools. Megan's suit was even more packed with gimmicks, including the flattened disc of the gravity shield between her shoulder blades and the beam projector clipped to her belt. Both had stowed their helmets on the back seat of the Jeep for the drive out to Long Island.

"I didn't want to bother you while you were working on that gizmo there," Haley said, "But all of a sudden I'm catching glimpses of the Perverts From Dimension X. Nothing ghostly about them. Suddenly I see one standing on a corner, real and solid as a fire hydrant, then they blink out again."

The Trom Girl turned her somber eyes on her teammate. "That is not good. It means they are being more established in this reality. Whatever summons them here is growing stronger."

Stopping at a red light, Haley looked over at a laundromat where an old lady was wrestling with two bags of clothes in the trunk of her car. Abruptly, there was a momentary flash of one of the Purple Molesters dancing wildly around her, making vile gestures. The old woman raised her head and looked around as if she had heard something, then went back to her laundry.

"I hate this case so much," Windcatcher snarled as the light changed. "If they're starting to be solid enough to prank people but we can't touch them, how can we ever fight these sleazoids?"

"If they are manifested completely and can affect physical objects, then they should be vulnerable." The Trom Girl gave her friend a slight reassuring smile. "If they are solid enough that you can see and feel them, then you can punch them. Does that make you feel better?"

"Much." Haley reached inside the collar of her field jacket to touch the ancient gem she wore under her jersey. "I've got the Air Gem on, of course. If one of those freaks touches me, I'll hit him with tornado winds and throw him a mile away."

"There is the building we are seeking," Megan said, pointing at a side street.

Making two right hand turns, Haley brought the Subaru around and pulled over next to a three-story white brick building with its own parking lot. There were no security barriers or sentry boxes to prevent them from entering the lot, but there was a sign on a metal post JOHN GRIM ENTERPRISES - MEDICAL RESEARCH LABS. Beneath that was a smaller warning AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. Windcatcher parked right in front of this sign with her usual impudence. "Whaddaya say, Megs?"

The Trom Girl had unclipped her Link and was making adjustments on it. "I am ready. We can not be subtle or stealthy today, Haley. I expect the creatures to soon manifest as solid beings. The situation is urgent enough that we must act openly."

"Oh, I'm ready to act openly," Windcatcher said. Megan lowered the helmet over her head and slid the visor down. A faint pink hue spread over the visor which was opaque from the outside. Haley pulled her auburn hair back into a ponytail before donning her own helmet. "These give us some deniability at least," she said. "They can't give good descriptions of two people whose faces can't be seen."

As they stepped out in front of the main entrance, Megan punched a code into the keypad of her Link. "All their cameras and alarms are now disabled. All door locks are open." Still holding the device, she walked up the wide stone steps and opened the frosted glass door. They entered a reception room with unremarkable waiting chairs, a rack of magazines, a clock on the wall next to a sign that announced JOHN GRIM ENTERPRISES - TOMORROW'S INNOVATIONS TODAY.

Facing them across an oval desk was a pleasant-seeming middle-aged woman with eyeglasses hanging down off a chain. She was talking into a landline phone. "Hello? Sarah? Hello?" She put down the phone and said, "Well, that's odd. Say, how did you get in here? Do you have a pass?"

Haley drew and fired the CO2-powered dart gun without answering. When the thin metal dart jabbed into the woman's neck, there was a burning sensation that distracted the victim for a second, then the drug acted so quickly that she was dazed and unresponsive within another two seconds. The receptionist slumped back into her swivel chair and Haley bent over her to retrieve the dart.

She stowed the spent dart in an inner slit of her jacket and turned to Megan. The Trom Girl was taking readings on the device she had been working on. "Power is still on in this building," she told her partner. "An excessive amount of electricity is being consumed on the top floor."

"Top floor it is then," Haley said, holstering her dart gun. Before they could make their next move, a trim young man in Navy blue slacks and light blue shirt with the logo GRIM SECURITY over the left breast pocket came around the corner. "What exactly is going on in this place?" he began, then dropped his hand to the revolver holstered on his belt as he saw the unconscious receptionist.

Windcatcher drew on the gralic effects of her talisman. Tornado winds from somewhere in Oklahoma rushed over the guard at one hundred and forty miles per hour to fling him off his feet and against the wall behind him with stunning impact. Before he slid to the floor, Haley let him have an anesthetic dart in the neck, which she also retrieved.

"I'm starting to feel funny," she told Megan. "Kind of light-headed? Do you have a ringing in your ears, too?"

"Yes. It worries me." She pressed her palms against the side of her helmet. "I'm breathing through the filters and systems do not indicate any toxic substances in the air. But I definitely feel slight vertigo."

"What do you think it is, Megan? You're the only genius here."

"I suspect we are feeling fringe effects of whatever is phasing these beings into our reality. We should hurry." With that, she strode over to a metal door that opened onto stairs and started heading up them. Following close behind, Haley fought down some dizziness and tried to focus. A high-pitching buzzing noise was getting louder.

At the third floor landing, Megan paused by the door and listened. When she adjusted the directional microphones in her earpods, they picked up sounds beyond what flesh and blood was capable of performing. She could hear a security guard at the end of the hall outside, speaking into a walkie-talkie.

"Labs on this level are secure, boss. Cameras are still out, doors won't lock, alarms are dead. I never saw anything like it. Some kind of cyber attack is my guess. Here's the elevator, I'm going to inspect the second floor now."

As she heard the hiss of the elevator doors shutting and the hum of the motor lowering the cage to the story below, the Trom Girl opened the door from the stairwell and stepped out into the brightly lit corridor. There was a row of metal doors with frosted glass panels marked only by numbers and the JG logo. Around one corner, she saw a bench set into an alcove that had a coffee dispenser. She knew no one would be in sight.

"Okay, now I'm feeling nauseous," Haley said through the helmets' communication system.

"The symptoms are strongest in front of this door. I want you to stay behind me blocking anyone from coming in. I'm going to questions the researchers," Megan answered.

"Let's get this over with," Windcatcher said. She followed as the Trom Girl opened the door marked 321 and stepped into the lab within. Two men in white smocks spun around in surprise at her entrance. Their nerves were already on edge from having been told by the security guard that the facility was under some sort of hacker attack. Now, two sinister figures all in black, wearing helmets with opaque visors, were coming into the lab and closing the door behind them.

"Do not make a sound," said one of the black-clad intruders. Judging by the voice and bodies, these were women in the ominous outfits. "Which one of you is in charge here? Never mind, that flicker of your eyes gave you away. You are."

The older of the two researchers was a dark-skinned man with white hair and a beard but no mustache. His glasses had remarkably thick lenses. He shrank back from the judgement in the tone of the intruder's voice.

In the center of the lab, surrounded by scattered electronic parts and fed by two thick insulated cables, stood an unusual apparatus. It was a head-high metal stand from which a vertically-mounted wheel of six tuning forks radiated. A vague purple shimmer flickered around the tines of the forks.

"That's what is making me feel queasy," Haley said. "I'm going to smash it."

"WHAT?" yelled the older scientist. "That is the culmination of eleven years of work and theory hammered out by a board of our best minds. You are not going to damage it."

"That's not up to you to decide anymore," Megan told him. "You're the ones most responsible bringing the purple creatures here from some related universe, right?"

The old man almost choked with indignation. "I don't know what you could possibly mean. Sven, call security immediately."

Before the younger of the scientists could make it over to a phone on the wall, Haley was covering him with the dart gun. Even though they were a non-lethal weapon, the needle-barreled guns certainly looked intimidating to anyone who didn't know about them.

Megan walked over to the strange stand with its array of tuning forks. "This is impressive," she said as if reluctant to give credit. "Changing the para-quantum frequency of the local loop of space-time resonance."

"Easy for you to say," scoffed Haley, still keeping the two researchers covered.

On a counter next to the mechanism was an ordinary laptop connected to it with three heavy cords. On the screen was a horizontal data bar rapidly filling with red. Megan leaned way over the counter, resting her weight on her elbows and studied the display. "I believe this indicates the device is not quite at full capacity yet."

Bent over at the waist, concentrating on the computer screen, Megan Salenger suddenly felt two hands grab her hips and something started thumping at her buttocks from behind. She straightened up, twisting around to shake the Purple Molester off her, and immediately exploded a hooking right punch that caught him on the side of his jaw. That leering toothy grin vanished as his head snapped around until his neck almost broke. The creature staggered, dropping his long-fingered hands and leaving himself wide open. The Trom Girl turned sideways and slammed a high kick to the chest that threw the purple creature back off its feet entirely to skid on the tiles.

"I don't often use my Kumundu training...." she said evenly.

"But when you do, it's a beaut. Hey! More of those perverts are turning up."

Around the room, three more of the grotesque beings were shimmering into view. The one nearest to Haley was a female, starved and skeletal, grinning with both rows of fangs. She rubbed her withered crotch and gestured to Haley with a come-hither gesture.

"Now I am definitely going to have nightmares!" Windcatcher yelped. She wheeled around to face the tuning-fork stand and drew on the Air Gem. First, super-heated air from directly above an active volcano in Japan surrounded the mechanism. The entire room became sweltering and stank with sulpur fumes. Even the Purple Molesters drew back uncomfortably, choking and coughing.

The tuning-fork device turned a dull cherry-red from the heat. Some of the finer parts were beginning to sag. Then Haley gave it a blast of wind from deep within Antarctica, sixty degrees below zero. The sudden change cracked the mechanism into dozens of pieces that clattered and broke into smaller fragments on the lab floor. As the device was ruined, all of the purple creatures blinked out of existence at once.

The surfaces of the lab were frosted now, and the air remained below freezing. In their protective field suits, neither Megan nor Haley felt the effects and remained comfortable. The two researchers were shaking violently and turning blue, though. Windcatcher saw this and brought in air from outside the building to restore normal conditions.

"Oh, I feel so much better," she told Megan through the helmet coms. "It WAS that gizmo that was making us sick."

Turning toward the thoroughly demoralized and trembling men in the white smocks, Megan shouted, "Do not ever start that research again! Work in other fields. Do something beneficial like medical research."

"But why have you done this? Who- who are you?" stuttered the older scientist.

"You are better off not knowing," the Trom Girl warned him in a stern tone she seldom used. "Here's what you need to remember. We will know if you build another device like this one. Do not make us come back!"

With that, Megan simply turned and stomped out, still uncharacteristically infuriated after the assault on her person. In the doorway, Haley Lawson paused. She pointed her first two fingers at her own eyes and then jabbed them at the researchers in the gesture of 'we're watching you.'

VIII.

Out in the parking lot, getting back into the Jeep Cherokee, Megan asked Haley to drive again. "To be honest, I'm exhausted. I've only had four hours sleep in the past two days and I've been working my mind hard the whole time."

"Sure, not a problem," Haley said. She climbed in behind the wheel. "I loved the way you blew up when that freak started humping your butt. I didn't even know you could punch so hard."

"He offended me," Megan said simply.

"There's the understatement I've come to expect from our Trom Girl," Windcatcher laughed. "Hey, your Link is beeping."

As they backed up and eased out of the parking lot into traffic, Megan unclipped her Link and answered, "Yes, captain?" She listened, made a few brief answers and said they would be returning to the headquarters on 38th Street. "That was Sable, of course," she told Haley.

"Yeah? What happened to her team?"

"She said a stampede of Purple Molesters was running amok at the Grim Institute. Jocelyn let her Red Spectre loose to slaughter many of them but abruptly all the alien beings vanished and no trace has been found since." Megan allowed herself a weary satisfied sigh. "She said that when that happened, she knew we had accomplished our task."

Her head dropped forward as she stopped talking and in a few seconds, Megan fell asleep. Smiling, Haley was careful to drive without sudden stops and starts on the way home.

10/29/2016