Lost Boys and Golden Girls

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

6/01/96:

    Chapter 1

I pulled myself through the front door. More then a bit
tired from the past week back at home. I had spent most of
it cleaning up after my bio-drone, which had been in my
place sense my ship had showed up.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate the things, and this help
to prove it. The problem was that it was a bad replica of
me, it was too good. It had ended up doing more then I would
have done in it's place, and basically painted me into a
corner.

Slumping down on the couch, I threw my backpack aside.

"How did it go?" Oriana asked, walking down the stairs.

"Ok, I guess. Though I'm starting to adjust to Prid's 30
hour day."

She nodded, sitting down beside me. "So, everything go as
bad as you though it would?"

I shook my head. "Nope, no problems at all."

She grinned, "That's good." Then giving me a slightly
slanted smile, she reached into my hair and yanked a strand
out. Holding it in front of my eyes she said, "Gray hair?"

I gave her a quick shrug. "Ya. Found some the morning I went
back. Kinda strange considering I didn't have any before I
left."

Patting my on the knee, she started to say something, but
before she could start the was a knock on the door.

We glanced at each other, then Oria got up and headed for
the door. Opening it a bit, she stuck her head out. I could
here some talking, then she opened the door all the way.

"Fox, there's a council page here to see you." As she said
this, the teenage female skunk page who I had meet after my
last trip to the council, entered the main room.

"Hello," I said, suddenly just a bit worried. "Nice to see
you again."

She nodded her head quickly. "I can say the same for you Mr.
Cutter. The Council Head has sent me for you."

I closes by eyes, getting even more worried. I some how
doubted she want me for a social visit, more likely
something to do with are little conspiracy. "What does she
want?"

"She requests your services on verse 148278/b, Gratin."

I raised an eyebrow at this. "Doing what?"

"Helping her bring them into the Council sir."

I stood a bit, yawning. "Ok, sounds easy enough. Let me go
change." Then I ran upstairs and into my room.

Once there I dug through my clothing, making the mess in the
room a little worse. Then finding what I was looking for, I
pulled out a very well warn jacket.

The jacket it self was an old army jacket of my dad's. Thin,
and a little thread bare in places, it had become somewhat
of a trademark of mine, something I always wore whenever I
went out doctoring. With a couple small patches, and more
the one burn (especially around the left cuff) it would had
felt wrong do go into anything without it.

Slipping out of my room, I headed back down the steps.

"Ready?" The page asked.

I nodded. "Ya. Oria, you going to have to stay here."

She nodded herself. "I had guessed that, but before you go
you need to--"

I cut her off, "I'm sure you can take care of it yourself. I
gota run, I'll see you in a day or so."

She nodded, looking down a bit. "Be careful, ok?"

"I will." I said, then followed the page out the door,
through the teleport curtain, and into Marble Hall. I
followed the page around a few turns, and into a small
meeting room.

She closed the door, and locked it. Then turing to me, she
said. "Ok, we have a bit of a problem on Gratin."

I sat down on the table. "What?" Sounding as annoyed as I
really was.

"Well... Rachel is currently working on getting them full
accesses in the multi-verse. There is a small problem
though."

"Always is." I muttered.

The page gave me a dirty look, then continued. "The
representative of Gratin in this matter is a Sothia Jarlen.
A few days ago, her aid was murdered, and yesterday an
attempted on her life was made."

I nodded, "Ah... So you want me to find the killer for you?"

She shook her head. "It's not that easy. We have also found
signs that whoever the killer is, they are part of the
corruption. Most likely trying to get someone on there side
into her position, so they would be put on the council."

I groaned, "I see. Put me down so I stick out like a sore
thumb, and use me as bait to draw whoever it is out."

"No." She said, pulling a small chip from somewhere on her
person. "Do you know what this is?"

I took it from her, and carefully looked it over. "No I
don't."

She grinned. "It's a Matrix prototype."

I looked at her, my jaw basically on the floor. The Matrix
was, at the time of my exile, a plan for a disguise system
combing simple shielding technology, with holographic
projection and direct mental stimulation.

The idea was that the chip would create a matrix force field
around the bearer, upon which the imagery was projected on.
Each matrix cell was separated from each other, allowing the
ability to make may different shapes, and make it move
realistically. Also each cell incorporated a mental
stimulation system, thus when wearing it, you would know not
only the general feel, but when, where, and if you came in
contact with another object.

"Close your mouth," the page said, "it doesn't suit you."

"When did this get finished?"

She grinned, "Five days ago. It's voice activated, just talk
into it."

I nodded. Then pulling open the top of my watch I slid it
inside. Closing the cover, it gave a slight beep, and
locked.

"The form is already loaded into the system, and it will run
through your translator chip." She pulled out a small blue
disk. "Speaking of which, this is the language download.
Written and spoken."

Taking the disk, I held it up against the back of my skull,
and gave a mental command. Instantly there was a low buzzing
in my ears as the chip downloaded the information on the
disk. After a few seconds the buzzing stopped, signaling
that it was finished.

Handing the disk back to the page, I asked. "Are you going
with me?"

"No. I have other things to do."

I nodded a bit, that had a though. "I don't suppose you have
a sidearm of some kind?"

The caused her to blink a bit. "But your profile said you
hated guns."

I shrugged, "People change."

She shook her head. "No I don't, but you should be able to
find one on Gratin, if you truly feel you need one."

"I don't know if I do or don't."

She shook her head again, a slight smile on her face. "Get
going, Rachel is waiting. Also don't activate the Matrix
until you get there."

I tilted my head to her, and smiled a bit. Then unlocked the
door and ducked out. Heading around a bit, I worked my way
to a fold. Then reaching out to it, I gently pressed on it a
bit. Doing some quick mental calculations, I translated the
verse number into the feeling for the fold I wanted. Then
with a push I shoved that feeling into the fold.

As it opened, I keep some mental control over it. Keeping it
from fluxing and pulling someone inside unwilling, and also
keeping it 'cold' so it couldn't be traced for either side.

All this took the usual few seconds, after which I stepped
through the fold, and almost off a cliff on the other side.
Snapping the fold closed, I jumped back away from the edge.

It was a large cliff, about two hundred feet above the sea
below it, and stretched as far as I could see in each
direction. I also saw I was standing on the edge of a vast
grassland plain, which stretched on for miles, no sign of
civilization in sight.

I chuckled a bit, I was lost. Which is to be expected, as
the verse numbering never easily translated into the
feelings I used to distinguish folds.

Pulling out my portal controller, a made a note of where I
had landed (it was a nice place in general, I just had to
make sure to go the other way using the fold). Then punching
in the verse number I had been give, I reopened the fold.

Stepping though I found myself in a back alley someplace in
some town. Pocketing the controller I turned, and found
myself facing Rachel.

"Council head." I blurted out.

She grinned, "Your a bit late."

"Ah... Took a wrong turn.

She gave a slight chuckle and opened a door in of the
buildings making up the alley. "I have someone I want you
too me. Come with me." With that she headed inside.

I followed.

* * *

I gave a sigh as Fox left, whatever he was hiding from me,
this was definitely part of it. Sinking down on the couch, I
threw his backpack on the floor, and rubbed my temples.

It had been a long week, with problems showing up every few
minutes. First the generator for the ship vanished some
where during shipping, then there was problems trying to get
the new hull constructed. Even I was having problems getting
the computer I had found on the ship back up and running. It
wasn't that it was broken, but just didn't want to start up,
it was like some critical part of it was missing.

Getting up from the couch, I was planning to get a cup of
coffee, but stopped when I noticed a small painting had
falling to the floor.

Moving to where it had falling, I picked up the small
landscape portrait, when I noticed something. Behind where
it hung was a small patch in the wall. I only noticed
because it was cracked all the way around it.

What stuck me as strange was that I had one exactly like it
on the back wall of my bedroom. I ran my fingers over it,
feeling that it was raised up a bit higher then the rest of
the wall. I pressed against it a some, and it pushed back
into the wall.

"Bad patch job." I muttered, taking my paw away. The instant
I did so it snapped back out to where it had been before.

"What under Thyrn's eyes?" I muttered to myself, invoking
the name of my god. Once again I pushed on the patch,
sliding it back into the wall. I keep on pushing until it
stopped with a muffled click, about an inch into the wall.

A second after it had click, the wall next to me that
blocked off the last few feet of the underside of the
stairs, slowly started to slide down. Inside, illuminated by
the light in the room, I could see a set of stairs going
down some, then fading into the dark. The stairs where all
made of stone, and covered with a thin layer of dust.

Cut into the dust was a single set of shoe prints coming up
the stairs. The prints themselves where actually filled with
some dust as well, and looked at least a year old.

I rubbed my chin a bit, then ran up the stairs into my own
room. Quickly pulling my hair back, I dug out a flashlight,
then headed back down.

Stepping inside the dust covered area, I turned on my
flashlight and scanned the walls. On the outside wall was
another panel, also sunk into the wall. 'At least I can get
out.' I though to my self. Then slow I started down the
steps.

They went forward for about 12 feet, then made a turn to the
right, following the outline of the house. I keep going down
it as it went the length of the house, and then made a 180
degree turn. It continued down the length of the house
again, and turn left. I followed it for another 50 or so
feet, where once again it made a right turn.

The instant I turned I saw that there was much less dust on
the stairs. About the same amount the filled the shoe prints
along the rest of the stairs. Slowly I keep going down,
decided that I must have been at least 150 feat under the
basement of the house.

Suddenly, after only going a few feet, I came to the end of
the stairs. I found myself in small room carved into the
bedrock under the house. Two more stair wells came into the
room, both heading up.

Looking around all I saw was a few lose stones, and a large
rock in the corner. All of them where covered with a layer
of dust.

"I wonder where these other two going," I muttered to
myself, my voice echoing off the rock in strange ways.

Shrugging, I decided to find out. Making an arrow in the
dust on the stairway I came down on, I took the stairway on
my right.

This went up a few feet then to the right again. after a few
more feet it made a 180 degree turn, down the line it again
made a 180 degree turn. At the top of the second leg it did
yet another 180 degree turn, but this time push back farther
about 6 feet to be exact. I keep on following it up one more
short flight. At the top I found myself against a wall.

As I looked for the panel, I saw something very interesting.
The dust on this stairway wasn't as thick as the other one,
but was as thick as at the small room at the bottom.

"Strange I muttered." As I found the panel, and pushed it
in. There was a slight humming as the door slid into the
wall. Then blinking from the sudden brightness I stepped
out, and found myself standing in my own bedroom.