Original Fiction: JACKED Book One The Origin Dime Chronicles, Episode 6
A round portal opened noisily in the ceiling.
Jack looked up in time to see a small, dwarf-like creature walk out of it. The little man jumped down beside him on the floor. He put his finger to his ear once and the diminutive man turned a bright, emerald green.
Jack’s mouth fell open.
“What’s he staring at? Hey, kid, haven't you ever seen a Leprechaun before?” The man snarled, grabbed Jack’s shirt front, and pulled him down until his beard poked Jack’s chin
“Actually, no, this is the first time.” He stuck out his hand, “I’m Jack.”
“Good for you, let’s get something straight. Just because I’m little, doesn’t make me harmless, and whatever you heard about capturing me to get my treasure, all I can say is, if you can find my treasure, let me know where it is, because as far as I know, I don’t have any. As for catching me, I dare you. You wouldn’t be the first. They don’t typically survive long enough to talk about it; Furthermore, I don’t grant wishes.”
Thing One cleared his throat and the latest arrival let go of Jack’s shirt.
“He’s new, Phineas, but show some respect. He is taking this much better than the last one. Jack, this is Phineas Blog, navigator extraordinaire.”
Thing Two looked up from under the Rabbit’s hood. He was checking something with a meter.
“And a heck of a short-order cook, hey Phin. How’re they treating you?”
“I thought that was you! Who are you calling short?” Phineas smiled and walked over to bump fists with Thing Two. “What are we pulling this thing out of moth balls for?”
He jutted his chin toward the rabbit, hooking his thumbs in a pair of rough leather suspenders. The suspenders ran up the Leprechaun’s chest and down his back. They bristled with unrecognizable gear in various pouches.
Thing Two shut the hood, apparently satisfied. “Wasn’t our idea, but after the last one..." he gave a knowing glance to Phineas, who shuddered, and then forced a smile.
Jack had a sinking feeling, “What happened to the last one?” he asked.
Phineas eyeballed him. “Let’s just say our last mission rubbed more than a little of my luck off. It was all I could do to get him back in one piece, the vehicle though, not so much.”
Thing One settled a helmet over Jack’s head. Thing Two fitted thick driving gloves over Jack’s hands. He opened the driver’s side door and held out a key fob. Jack took it, reluctantly, and slid behind the wheel, “It’s a stick? I can’t drive a stick.”
The noisy barrage from outside stopped.
Things One and Two and Phineas turned to the monitor. The pirates were swarming around the balloon tank. It stood at one end of the Mad Cow’s parking lot. They seemed to be loading some sort of cannon with what looked like cotton candy, but from the looks on the three men’s faces, obviously was not.
“Ectoplasm.” They all said as one.
Phineas shoved Jack into the car, slammed the door and vaulted over the roof. He slid into the passenger seat through the open window.
“Hit it kid. If they fire that cannon with us sitting here, it’s going to get messy, real fast!”
Jack knew just enough about driving a standard to get it started. He revved the engine, his foot pressing in on the clutch.
“Now what?”
Phineas shoved the gearshift into first and roared, “Go!” Jack did, popping the clutch, with the accelerator pressed to the floor. The Rabbit shot forward with surprising speed and zipped into the open tunnel.
The Things were right behind.
“Okay, so, you know the basics, right? Gas off, clutch in, gas gradually back on, clutch out slowly?” Phineas asked.
“Yeah.” Jack gripped the wheel so tight his fingers were hurting already. “I just suck at shifting!”
“Clutch!” Phineas yelled, Jack complied and the leprechaun slapped the gearshift into second. “Again.” They flew through a curve as Phineas expertly guided Jack up into fourth gear.
Jack looked at the dash to gauge his speed. No speedometer was visible among the dozens of instruments. He was not sure he wanted to know. The walls whizzed by in streaks. This must be what it would be like to hit warp speed.
The tunnel widened out, and turned into a road, paved in some white substance. Purple glowing lines ran down the center of it. Jack instinctively moved right of the line. Phineas wrenched the wheel hard left in time to avoid a head-on collision.
“Left side!” He roared.
Jack looked up and found the rear view, then immediately wished he had not. Directly behind him were the Things, bent over their bikes and matching his speed. Behind them, just visible coming out of the tunnel the pirate balloon tank was moving up.
It gradually grew larger in the mirror. He pressed the pedal further to the floor but he seemed to have reached maximum speed.
Phineas was busily flipping switches when they flew through an intersection.
The Things peeled off in a different direction. The road ahead suddenly took on the appearance of blacktop. Phineas spun the wheel back over to bring the Rabbit right of center. Two oncoming cars zipped past, just inches on the other side of the driver’s window.
“Sorry about that, don’t normally shift dimensions that abruptly, but, it’s the easiest way to lose the ‘rats!” Phineas smiled, “Okay; we've done it. You can slow down.”
Jack was surprised to find the familiar streets of a nearby town passing by. There were no pirates or Things to be seen anywhere.
“Pull over, up here,” Phineas pointed to a convenience store. Jack pulled in.
The car ticked as the motor cooled and Phineas smiled over at Jack.
“Good job, kid.”
“So, why didn’t you just drive?” Jack asked, his chest thumping as his pulse slowly returned to normal.
“Well, for one thing, I needed to make that dime jump. Besides, allowing inter-dimensional bank robbers to drive is kind of frowned on by the higher ups. Not to mention, it’s hard to pop a clutch and stay on your side of the road when your head doesn’t reach above the dash.”
Jack laughed, “So, I just escaped pirates with a bank robber?”
“That’s about the extent of it,” Phineas walked to the rear of the car and opened the hatchback, rummaging around.
Jack watched in the mirror as he pulled out a worn road atlas. The leprechaun walked around to the front of the rabbit and spread the map over the hood.
Jack unfolded from the driver’s seat. He removed the helmet and gloves.
“Ah, there’s the little bugger,” Phineas stabbed a finger at the map. “He’s headed the wrong direction at the moment, unless he knows something we don’t.”
Jack looked over Phineas’ shoulder. He was disappointed to discover an ordinary map, “What are you pointing at?”
“Nosher, don’ you…oh, right, I always forget. I can see in sixteen different dimensions. It’s a Leprechaun thing. Do your BEANS thingy.” Phineas pointed to his ear.
Jack scrolled through a couple of dimensional filters. Finally, he landed on the right one and the atlas sprang to life. Brightly colored dots swarmed over the map. Where cities were indicated, tiny, 3d structures popped up out of its surface. “Cool. Okay, so where’s our Nosher?”
Phineas pointed to a spot on the map where a small green dot was blinking.
Then he flipped a couple of pages to a city map, which sprang to life in three dimensions. “We’re here. He’s over there.” Phineas stabbed two locations on the paper.
Jack reached out to touch the green dot and the building it was inside of enlarged. It stood before his eyes as a wire framed, transparent, three-dimensional model. The green dot resided on what looked like the seventh floor in an interior room.
Miss an episode? Find them all on my blog.
“Well, let’s go get him,” Jack said, folding his arms. This was going to be easier than he thought.
“Wait a second, hotshot.” Phineas squinted at the model, and then reached out. The model spun as he touched it and enlarged further. The single green dot split into multiple green globes at this level of magnification. “That’s not good.”
“So, there’s more than one Nosher? He didn’t look that tough,” Jack smirked.
Phineas’ eyebrows raised, his eyes never leaving the model. “It’s not that simple, what we’re seeing here should not be happening. Those green dots don’t just indicate Noshers; they indicate keys! There must be thirty of them. I'd better call this in.”
He took a cell phone from his pocket and dialed. “Hey! You and Thing Two finished with those priates yet?” He listened for a moment.
“Yeah, well, this whole thing just got a lot more interesting. You better get over here.”
Good One
^ upvoted
Thanks!